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NEEDLEWORK

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 340 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NEEDLEWORK . This subject may be considered under the two headings of (1) See also:

Plain Needlework, used for purely utilitarian purposes, and (2) See also:Art Needlework for decorative purposes. Plain needlework requires no such further explanation as may be given in the See also:case of art needlework, under which See also:title are included (a) See also:embroidery, and (b) other methods of decorative needlework, such as applied or applique See also:work, ornamental quilting, patchwork and couching. In these last-mentioned methods the needlework is subservient to the decorative effect, which depends almost wholly upon the materials selected for the purpose; whereas in embroidery the needlework itself constitutes and is the visible decoration. The aim of this See also:article is to indicate briefly different stitches of plain needlework and then to show that these stitches are also used in the domain of art needlework. The more necessary stitches in plain needlework for making clothes are tacking, See also:running, hemming, See also:feather-stitching or See also:herring-boning (all of which are practically of the same type), and See also:button-holing in which the See also:thread is looped as each stitch is made. Button-holing is allied to another looped stitch, namely See also:chain-stitching, which though frequently used in embroidery is rarely if ever used in plain needlework. For See also:repairs of clothes and See also:household See also:linen, &c., the See also:principal stitch is darning; grafting, however, is a substitute for it, and varies with the See also:character of the stuff to be repaired, e.g. knitted stockings, See also:damask linen, See also:cloth, &c. Darning is allied to running, and grafting to patchwork. Patchwork as a See also:form of decorative See also:needle-work is exemplified in sumptuous canopies and seat covers made several centuries B.C. by Egyptians, and See also:rich hangings made by See also:Italian and See also:French workers in the 16th See also:century. See also:Long and See also:short stitches, kindred in principle to the running stitch in plain needlework, are perhaps the more frequent of any stitches used in embroidery, and are especially appropriate when the blending of tints with a See also:flat even See also:surface is the effect to be aimed at. Much See also:medieval work of this character, as well as that done with chain stitch and its allied split stitch, is regarded as typical of See also:opus anglicanum.

Chain stitch produces a comparatively broken surface in decided contrast with the smooth one of long and short stitch, split stitch and satin stitch embroidery. Satin stitch is well adapted to See also:

express, with even flat surface in designs for See also:colour effects, each See also:mass which is to be of one tint. In this respect, therefore, satin stitch serves a purpose in contrast to that of long and short stitch. A characteristic of satin-stitching is the sheeny effect produced, on both sides of the material embroidered, by parallel stitches taken closely together. Buttonhole stitch in relation to art needle-work prevails to a See also:great extent in cut linen and See also:drawn-thread work (often called See also:Greek See also:lace), and predominates in the making of needlepoint lace (see LACE). In much of the See also:Persian drawn-thread work, however, it is superseded by See also:whipping or tightly and closely twisting a thread See also:round the undrawn threads of thelinen. See also:Whip-ping has been put to another use in certain 16th-century art needlework for ecclesiastical purposes, where round the See also:gold threads employed as the ground of a See also:design coloured silks are dexterously whipped, closely and openly, producing gradations of tint suffused with a corresponding variation of See also:golden shimmer. Another important See also:branch of art needlework with gold and See also:silver threads is couching. When the metallic threads, arranged so as to See also:lie closely together, are simply stitched flatly to the See also:foundation material, the work is called flat couching or laying, a See also:kind of treatment more frequent in See also:Chinese and See also:Japanese than in See also:European art needlework. Flat couching is also carried out with floss silks. When a design for couching includes effects in See also:relief, stout strings or cords as required by the design are first fastened to the foundation materials, and over them the metallic threads or in some cases coloured gimps are laid, and so stitched as to have an See also:appearance in See also:miniature of varieties of See also:willow-twisting or See also:basket work. The principle of relief couching is carried much further in certain See also:English art needlework, having cumbersome and See also:grotesque peculiarities, which was done during the reigns of the Stuarts.

Crude compositions were wrought in partial relief with padded work, of costumed figures of See also:

kings and queens and scriptural persons with a medley of disproportionate animals, See also:insects and trees, &c., in which foliage, wings, &c., were of coloured See also:silk needlepoint lace—the whole being set as often as not in a background of See also:tent or See also:cross-stitch work on See also:canvas. But tent .and cross-stitch work (in French point compte) was also used by itself for See also:cushion covers and later for upholstery. In its earlier phases it seems to come under the medieval See also:classification of opus pulvinarum. The reticulations of the canvas or those apparent in finer material governed the stitching and imparted a stiff formal effect to the designs so carried out, a characteristic equally strong in the lacis work, or darning on square mesh See also:net (see LACE). Applique or applied work belongs as much as patchwork to the medieval See also:category of opus consutum, or stitching stuffs together according to a decorative design, the greater See also:part of which was cut out of material different in colour, and generally in texture, from that of the ground to which it was applied and stitched. Irish art needlework, called See also:Carrickmacross lace, is for the most part of See also:cambric applied or applique to net. Quilting is also a branch of art needlework rather than embroidery. See also:Indians and Persians using a short running stitch have excelled in it in past times. Some See also:good quilting was done in See also:England in the 18th century with chain-stitching which See also:lay on the inner See also:side of the stuff, the See also:outer displaying the design in short stitches. In the See also:account of his voyage to the See also:East Indies, published in 1655, See also:Edward See also:Terry (1590-1665) writes of the Indians " making excellent quilts of satin lined with taffeta betwixt which they put See also:cotton See also:wool and worked them together with silk." For less bulky quilting, cords have been used; and elaborate designs for quilted linen waistcoats were well done in the 18th century, with See also:fine short stitches that held the cords between the inner and outer materials. A large number of names have been given to the many modifications of the limited number of essentially different stitches used in plain and art needlework, and on the whole are fanciful rather than really valuable from a technical point of view. Much descriptive See also:information about them, with an abundance of See also:capital illustrations, is given in the See also:Dictionary of Needlework, by J.

F. Caulfield and See also:

Blanche Saward (See also:London, 1903).

End of Article: NEEDLEWORK

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