Early 17th Century Block printing on Linen for Embroidery

I looked around a bit more on the Victoria & Albert museum site and found some other linen pieces that the V&A states were block printed.   I've listed the Accession no's below for your reference.

The very early pieces (14th century) were from Germany and Italy, although in the notes it states that by the last quarter of the 15th century this process was also being used in England.  I don't believe these early pieces were intended for embroidery.  They appear to be just decorative fabrics and remind me a little of today's Toil de Jouy fabric.  This is a small sampling, and in my mind, doesn't rule out the possibility that embroidery patterns were also being block printed ( V&A's term) onto linen for embroidery.  I'd need to research it further to make a conclusion.

The early 17th century pieces in my list are for embroidery, and they are from England.  The V&A is terming it "block printing" on piece T.174B-1931, although if you read the descriptive plate photographed with the coif, there it states that it was printed from engraved plates.  Curiouser and curiouser...

Here's the list of pieces at the V& A:

Acc No.         Title                    Origin           Date

1745-1888     Printed Linen     Germany     1350-1400
7027-1860     Printed Linen     Italy            1350-1400
T.21-1946      Coif                   Britain        1600-1629
T.174B-1931 Linen              England         Early 17th c.

Tudor Rose & Ladybug Pinwheel

I am designing a piece for a class I will be teaching at Hand Dyed Fibers in Williamstown, PA next year. Vikki Clayton (proprietor) has asked that I teach a class on making a lady bug like the one on my Elizabethan purse, shown right.  She's stitched using Spiral Trellis stitch making her three dimensional.  So now, what to put her on....

Recently, I came across the blog about Quaker pinballs and pinwheels made in the mid/late-1700s and 1800s (Needleprint.blogspot.com) .  I love the shape of the pinwheels and have been thinking about making one.  They're round, not spherical like the pinballs, about 2 to 3" in diameter.  They do have depth, about 3/8" to 1/2" typically, I'd imagine.  You match the depth to the ribbon you finish the wheel off with.  Ok, so now I know what I'll put my Ladybug on....

When I envision a pinwheel, I see it with an Elizabethan twist, of course.   I see a Tudor Rose in black threads as the backdrop, to make my LadyBug pop in all her Red, 3D Glory.

From what I've read the pinwheels were knitted. But, I want to stitch one.  I bought Erica Uten's book.  The book states that if you want to embroider the designs, you can make them into rectangular pillows which will be charming in their own way.  Apparently she thinks you can't make a pinwheel from a stitched piece.  Hmmm....  I imagine the linen would give you a problem when you wrap it around a cardboard disk.  It would have a tendency to bunch or gather at the edges that a knitted fabric wouldn't.   Mine must be embroidered, since it's for an embroidery class.  And because I've already envisioned it and creating it is the only way to get it out of my head!

So I tried a mock up using a scrap piece of the cambric weight linen I use for my scarves, see photo right.  (I didn't stitch the strawberry blossom for the mock up, it was an old test embroidery that I didn't care for).  It works!  The weave of the linen is a bit wonky, but I think if I starch the linen before wrapping it that will be enough to correct the "wonki-ness".  Also, I'll be more careful whilst mounting the finished product.

 Ok, now I have the fabric, but this throws a bit of a wrench in my plans.  I had planned to stitch a Tudor Rose using a different blackwork fill pattern for each petal.  Like the roses seen on the sleeves of women's smocks in Elizabethan portraits.  Cambric linen is 60 count so my class will probably not want to count threads!  I would love to see a Tudor Rose done in Speckling Technique.  Those curving petals would be perfect for shading!  Has it ever been done?

In researching, I found a coif at the V&A that includes a Tudor Rose stitched in Speckling Technique.  So now I have historical authentication.  (The Accession # is 21-1946 if you'd like to look it up in V&A collections.)  By the way, under the details for this coif on the Victoria & Albert Museum site, it states that the pattern had been block printed right on the linen and then embroidered.  The coif was made in early 1600s.   That's the first I've read about patterns being printed onto the linen, as opposed to hand drawn, in the early 1600s.  I found this on another early 17th century embroidered piece in the V& A:


"By the early 17th century, simplified patterns and outlines for embroidery were being provided by print sellers. Many of these designs were inspired by the illustration of birds, animals, insects and plants found in illustrated natural history and botanical books, which were very popular at the time.

This was a commercial provision for the needs of the amateur embroiderer; the print sellers not only provided books and separate sheets of embroidery designs but also patterns printed directly on cloth as seen here. The use by amateur embroiderers of prepared designs was known from at least the 16th century. Mary Queen of Scots, while imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in 1568, petitioned for 'an imbroderer to drawe forthe such worke as she would be occupied about'."

 I should address why I need authentication for the embroidery when I'm about to put an Elizabethan design on an18th/19th century pinwheel.  I'm not a re-enactor, nor am I reproducing Elizabethan pieces.  I want to embroider as authentically as possible because I love Elizabethan embroidery techniques.  But, I don't live in Elizabethan times, so I like to give them a twist that updates them to my time and makes them mine.

So now I have the embroidery stitches, the colors, and the finished project in mind.  Off to the drawing board to work it out in detail.   More later.....

Pomegranates & Peas Purse - Speckling Stitch

***Please Note:  A kit to make this purse is available on my etsy shop, Baroque Embellishments.***

I designed this purse for a class I taught for a Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting of the Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA) few years ago.



The inspiration came partly from a jacket at the V&A museum in London, Accession # T.4-1935,  (click here to go to jacket at v&a)  which features the pomegranate (I've seen the same pomegranate on another Elizabethan piece, I think a coif) and partly from the engravings published by Peter Stent in the 17th century.  I loved the pea pods in his engravings, which looked a bit Tim Burton-ish to me.  The book is out of print, but available used from Amazon.  The title:  A Book of Flowers, Fruits, Beasts, Birds, and Flies: Seventeenth-Century Patterns for Embroiderers Printed and Sold by Peter Stent  

Here's a picture of the Peter Stent engraving that inspired me.  Check out the wicked looking strawberries.


By the way - the Met museum has a copy of this book that you may look thru in their prints and rare books room.

 I used Kingston 50 ct cream linen, and black silk threads in various thicknesses, from Mulberry Silks in England.  Motifs outlined in Outline stitch, and shading done in speckling technique.  Paillettes (the gold sequins) are from Access Commodities and are real gold.

The vine is Plaited Braid Stitch done in #7 Tambour thread (a non-tarnish metal wire that's very pliable).  I typically use #4 Gold Passing thread (real gold), but the Guild requested that I use imitation gold to keep the cost down.  Here's a close up of the vine.











I outlined the entire purse in Heavy Broad stitch, which is nice for hiding the seams on the purse construction, as you can see here.

Blue & White Rose Scarf in Elizabethan Speckling Technique

"The summer's flower is to the summer sweet"  Shakespeare Sonnet 94

 From plate to scarf - the story.
(Project begun 5/25/11, completed 7/9/11.  Approx. 60 hours)

In the 16th century, Speckling stitch technique evolved because embroiderers wanted to imitate the new engravings that were being published (much more detailed than the woodcut illustrations embroiderers had been using for design).  I've been in love with speckling stitching for several years.  But, I'd always worked it in dark colors, and have only ever seen it worked by others in dark threads.  

 I collect English transferware china, which also has pictures of engravings on it.  It occurred to me that I could embroider one of the roses from my favorite china using one of my favorite embroidery techniques!  The question was, would I get the depth necessary to pull off this technique working in a lighter thread?

Here is typical blue & white transferware china, which is where I took my rose motif from.  The rose was an element in an overall design.  So, I pulled the rose from the design and added leaves to get the overall shape I wanted for my design.

 For the Speckling technique, the motif is outlined in Stem stitch and the "shading" is done by making tiny, tiny Seed stitches and "hash" marks.

 I used  DMC #25 Coton a broder thread to outline my motif and DMC 6 stranded floss for the shading (1 strand).  DMC color 799, with a very few touches of shading in deeper blue 798.

I'm very pleased with the effect and can now answer- Yes, you can use lighter thread!

  Another way I like to wear these scarves is very casually with washed out jeans and a white sweater.  Ready for a morning walk on the beach!

Here's a photo of the back of my embroidery.  A curious thing happened while I was working on this piece.  I set my embroidery frame on my stitching chair and the next day when I looked at it, I thought  "Jeez! How did I overdo the shading so much without realizing it? " I was looking at the back.  Never look at your embroidery until you've put your reading glasses on!

Anyone collect flow blue china?  I think that's what the back looks like!









The remainder of this post is for anyone interested in how I hem my scarves:

Hemming the scarf....

 I'm hemming the edges - using an antique hem stitch from Therese deDilmont's book on Needlework.  It's a rolled hem.  I used a regular white sewing thread, dual duty, fine. 

 I thought I'd describe first how I prepare the linen to hem my scarves (works well for table linens, too).

I usually leave 3/8" between the cut edge of my linen to where I pull threads to make the somewhat open look of the hem.  Here you see the scarf, after it's been removed from my slate frame (an embroidery frame similar to a scroll frame).  I'm trimming the 1/2" of excess linen off the edge.  That was the area I used to lace my material onto the frame.

You can see here that 3/8" in from the edge of the linen, I've pulled 2 threads.  This is 60 ct linen.  If it were 36 ct or courser, I would only have pulled one thread. 

Starting at one long edge, knot your thread and weave the thread thru an inch or so of the linen so that the knot will be hidden within the rolled edge of the linen as you hem. Roll your linen as shown at left (click on photos to enlarge).  Bring the needle up thru the linen as shown and then pick up a group of threads in the pulled thread area as shown.  Pull your needle thru (see right photo)

Now, bring the needle up thru the linen again and repeat the above process. 

Here you can see I turned a corner and am working along one short edge of the scarf.  Notice I'm not at the very bottom of my scarf and that I'm not creating a "rolled hem" here.  That's because this is the short edge of the scarf and I want to add a fringe.   I left 3" below the bottom hem to fray it out to make my scarf fringe.





...the end of scarf with horizontal threads removed, ready to make my twisted fringe.

The next four photos show the process of making a twisted fringe.


Select 2 groups of fringe.





Twist each one clockwise (keeping hold of the first group as you separately twist the 2nd group).  You won't need to use scotch tape - I used it here to hold the twist while I photographed it.







Now hold them together and twist counter-clockwise.  They will want to twist together, which is what you want.








Knot off the end and trim it so it has a nice even edge.

I signed my name on the end of the scarf that doesn't have the flower on it.  It falls behind the flower when I wear the scarf and can't be seen, but it's there for posterity.

Done!