Description

Embroidery is the handicraft ofdecoratingfabric or other materials with needle and thread oryarn.Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as,pearls,beads, quills, and sequins. Today, embroidery is most oftenseen oncaps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, stockings,andgolf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety ofthreador yarn color.

The basic techniques or stitches on surviving examples oftheearliest embroidery—chain stitch, buttonhole or blanketstitch,running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain thefundamentaltechniques of hand embroidery today.

The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce clothfosteredthe development of sewing techniques, and thedecorativepossibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery.Indeed, theremarkable stability of basic embroidery stitches hasbeennoted:

It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery...there are no changes of materials or techniques which can befeltor interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later,morerefined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early worksatechnical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanshiprarelyattained in later times.

The art of embroidery has been found world-wide and severalearlyexamples have been found. Works in China have been dated totheWarring States period (5th–3rd century BC). In a garmentfromMigration period Sweden, roughly 300–700 AD, the edges of bandsoftrimming are reinforced with running stitch, back stitch,stemstitch, tailor's buttonhole stitch, and whip-stitching, but itisuncertain whether this work simply reinforced the seams orshouldbe interpreted as decorative embroidery.

Depending on time, location and materials available,embroiderycould be the domain of a few experts or a wide-spread,populartechnique. This flexibility led to a variety of works, fromtheroyal to the mundane.

Elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, andhouseholditems often were seen as a mark of wealth and status, asin thecase of Opus Anglicanum, a technique used by professionalworkshopsand guilds in medieval England. In 18th century Englandand itscolonies, samplers employing fine silks were produced bythedaughters of wealthy families. Embroidery was a skill markingagirl's path into womanhood as well as conveying rank andsocialstanding.

Conversely, embroidery is also a folk art, using materials thatwereaccessible to nonprofessionals. Examples include HardangerfromNorway, Merezhka from Ukraine, Mountmellick embroidery fromIreland,Nakshi kantha from Bangladesh and West Bengal, andBrazilianembroidery. Many techniques had a practical use such asSashiko fromJapan, which was used as a way to reinforceclothing