Embroidery Through the Ages

Embroidery: A Textile Art

• Embroidery is a craft that uses a needle and thread or yarn to decorate fabric or other materials.
• The technique may incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins.
• Embroidery is often used to personalize clothing items such as hats, coats, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, and golf shirts.
• The basic techniques of the earliest embroidery include chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, and cross stitch.
• Embroidery has been found worldwide, with early examples dating back to the 5th-3rd century BC in China and the 300-700 AD Migration period in Sweden.
• Embroidery has been used historically to signify wealth and status, as well as a skill marking a girl's path into womanhood and conveying rank and social standing.
• Embroidery can be classified according to what degree the design takes into account the nature of the base material and by the relationship of stitch placement to the fabric.
• Traditional embroidery materials include wool, linen, silk, and cotton. Today, embroidery thread is also manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns.
• Machine embroidery and its mass production came about in stages during the Industrial Revolution, with the first embroidery machine invented in France in 1832 by Josué Heilmann.
• Since the late 2010s, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of hand embroidery, with contemporary embroidery artists combining stitches in unconventional ways to create various textures and designs.
• The City and Guilds qualification in embroidery allows embroiderers to become recognized for their skill and credibility to teach.
• Embroidery has been a means of biography, allowing women who were unable to access a formal education or writing implements to document their lives.