Here’s another interlaced stitch for you to try – you might find it handy for Christmas decorations and cards.
The instructions look daunting, and the first few may seem very tricky to work. But once you’ve got the idea, you’ll find the stars quick to stitch. I suggest practising on Aida fabric with a fairly thin thread until you are confident, then you can try working on other evenweave fabric or just using a circle of 8 holes made in thin card. Continue reading
I was hoping to be getting on with my Dutch band sampler this weekend: it’s nearly finished at last. But I’ve got a stinking cold so I’m keeping the silk sampler safely out of harm’s way. Instead, here’s another stitch from the Mordvalaisten pukuja kuoseja book for you to experiment with. This one is a good line stitch, more solid than cross stitch. I’m calling it Barred Box Stitch as I don’t know its proper name. It’s a bit like that pencil and paper game of boxes.
It’s worked in two stages. The first stage is just a row of vertical lines. The second stage completes each box: top, diagonal and base line. It’s more-or less reversible, too. It can be worked on the diagonal, and in various sizes. It’s very straightforward as a line stitch, but working around corners does take a bit more planning and the occasional ‘fudge’ if you want to keep all the diagonal bars lying in the same direction.
The scrolling patterns on the sample are also taken from the same book. Here’s a chart for the pattern. 
(Click to see full size.)
Firstly, a big hello and welcome to the people who have visited thanks to Mary Corbet’s kind mention of my previous post on her blog, Needle’n’Thread. (If you’re reading this and you like embroidery and don’t already know about Needle’n’Thread – go and see what a treat you’ve been missing!) I hope you’ll find your visit to Tortoise Loft worth the journey. Don’t be shy to join in the comments if you have something to say, or want to ask a question. This post is a follow-on from the previous post, and assumes you’ve read that first.
Here’s a slight variation of Woven Diamond Stitch that does not seem to be shown in Mordvalaisten pukuja kuoseja, but it’s a very obvious development. I call this ‘Star Variation’. Just a slight change in the spacing, but how different from the original version: more open and much livelier. Continue reading
Here’s another one of those interesting interlaced stitches from this book on the Internet Archive, Mordvalaisten Pukuja kuoseja, a book of old Mordvin costumes, embroidery patterns and stitches. This one is very similar to the Woven Circle Stitch from my first post about the book. It’s worked in much the same way, but the 8 points are spaced in a diamond shape. (I don’t know what the proper name for the stitch is, so I’ve called it Woven Diamond Stitch – does anyone know the proper name?) Continue reading
If you read the comments under my previous post, you’ll see that Elizabeth gave us a link to a selection of patterns from an 1899 book about traditional Mordvin costumes, concentrating on the embroidery designs. (These are Eastern European costumes. I knew nothing about the Mordvin peoples before I saw this book, so I can do no better than point you at the Wikipedia entry for Mordvins.)
The whole book is on the Internet Archive, Mordvalaisten Pukuja kuoseja, and it’s fascinating. It has many, many pages full of embroidery designs, carefully charted on graph paper, and drawings of the embroidery in use on costume. A wonderful resource. The text is in Finnish and German, but the main part of the book is the plates.
I’ve just posted a new page here on the blog, showing how to make Victorian Fun-Fur. or “Imitation Fur Borderings for Muff, Collar and Coat Trimmings” to give it its original title. Children enjoy learning this one.
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