A practical guide to embroidery, inspired by craft traditions from across the globe, and the second volume in the Maker’s Guides series from the Victoria and Albert Museum Embroidery: A Maker’s Guide contains fifteen beautiful step- by- step projects for crafters at all levels. Each one takes its cue from a different tradition, including English goldwork, Indian beetle- wing embellishment, Japanese Kogin, and Irish whitework, as well as contemporary machine embroidery. This modern maker’s guide to decorative stitching traditions around the world will expand readers’ crafting horizons and become an invaluable addition to every crafting shelf.
An introduction to the design, production and use of luxury embroideries in medieval England (c. 1200-1530) In medieval Europe, embroidered textiles were indispensable symbols of wealth and power. Owing to their quality, complexity and magnificence, English embroideries enjoyed international demand and can be traced in Continental sources as opus anglicanum (English work). Essays by leading experts explore the embroideries' artistic and social context, while catalogue entries examine individual masterpieces. Medieval embroiderers lived in a tightly knit community in London, and many were women who can be identified by name. Comparisons between their work and contemporary painting challenge modern assumptions about the hierarchy of artistic media. Contributors consider an outstanding range of examples, highlighting their craftsmanship and exploring the world in which they were created.
This practical step-by-step guide to haute couture embroidery covers everything from machine and hand stitching, to tambour beading, goldwork and monogramming. Whether you are interested in adding monogrammed initials to your favourite bathrobe, stitching a flower on your favourite jacket, adding sparkling beads to a new dress or creating a goldwork embellishment, Fashion Embroidery teaches you how to add a unique touch to your clothes. In this beautifully illustrated book, Jessica Pile, the Production Director at Hand & Lock embroidery, explores the intricate techniques used in fashion embroidery. With hand-drawn designs, catwalk photographs and step-by-step guides, this book is perfect for beginners looking to personalise their own clothes, as well as more experienced embroiderers who want to apply new techniques to different fabrics. Beginning with an inspirational overview of the fashion industry, Jessica looks at examples of embroideries and embellishments by a variety of couturiers, including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hardy Amies and Burberry. The book then demonstrates the basics of three main techniques – goldwork, tambour beading and embroidery stitches including silk shading, satin and stem stitch. In do-it-yourself projects, Jessica first helpfully explains the basics of materials; she teaches you how to pick the right fabric, what tools to use, where to source materials, what types of wire or beads to use and terminology. Taking influences from existing couture designs, she then shows you how to execute these learned techniques onto your own clothes. This book is perfect for fashion students, textile artists, and those who want a more unique look to their clothes.
This museum has the world's greatest collection of 20th century British fabrics. Advanced design was the basis upon which the fabrics were selected and they were acquired at, or just after, the date of manufacture.
This book is a celebration of the extensive collection of Ottoman embroidery at the V and A which ranges from the middle of the 16th century to 1900. In addition to illustrating over 100 major pieces, an introductory text puts the collection in context, explaining who the Ottomans were and their impact on Europe. The embroideries themselves include pieces such as sashes, kerchiefs and scarves which were made to satisfy the requirements of the Ottoman household and are strongly redolent of an exotic way of life. The embroideries can be divided into pre- and post-1720, when the Ottomans made peace with Central and Western Europe, and incorporated many aspects of Western art into their textile traditions. It was not until the 19th century however, that Ottoman embroidery in the form of towels and napkins began to appear in public and private collections in Britain. The book is illustrated with 145 embroideries which are split into the four most characteristic Ottoman techniques- surface darning, laid and couched, double running and double darning. Above all it is the unique double-sided embroideries that are fascinating to Western observers where the same basic stitch has been used over five centuries. This type of embroidery continues to be carried out today by a few skilled practitioners. All techniques are clearly explained through specially commissioned diagrams, which
"Published to accompany the exhibition The Fabric of India at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 3 October 2015 to 10 January 2016"--Title page verso.
Illustrations show the richness and variety of Indian textile traditions and reveal patterns and colours that have both influenced and been influenced by Western design, from the 16th century when the earliest surviving pieces here were sent to Europe, right up to the late 1990s.
Embroidered samplers from the Victoria and Albert Museum's fine collection are used in this illustrated volume to provide a historical survey of this popular needlework arts and a practical guide to the different types of stitches.
This latest title in the highly successful Ancient Textiles series is the first substantial monograph-length historiography of early medieval embroideries and their context within the British Isles. The book brings together and analyses for the first time all 43 embroideries believed to have been made in the British Isles and Ireland in the early medieval period. New research carried out on those embroideries that are accessible today, involving the collection of technical data, stitch analysis, observations of condition and wear-marks and microscopic photography supplements a survey of existing published and archival sources. The research has been used to write, for the first time, the ‘story’ of embroidery, including what we can learn of its producers, their techniques, and the material functions and metaphorical meanings of embroidery within early medieval Anglo-Saxon society. The author presents embroideries as evidence for the evolution of embroidery production in Anglo-Saxon society, from a community-based activity based on the extended family, to organized workshops in urban settings employing standardized skill levels and as evidence of changing material use: from small amounts of fibers produced locally for specific projects to large batches brought in from a distance and stored until needed. She demonstrate that embroideries were not simply used decoratively but to incorporate and enact different meanings within different parts of society: for example, the newly arrived Germanic settlers of the fifth century used embroidery to maintain links with their homelands and to create tribal ties and obligations. As such, the results inform discussion of embroidery contexts, use and deposition, and the significance of this form of material culture within society as well as an evaluation of the status of embroiderers within early medieval society. The results contribute significantly to our understanding of production systems in Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland.
