I have an abiding interest in early (to the end of the 18th C.) needlework pattern books and love to collect facsimile reproductions. I'm looking to extend my collection. Here's what I have or know about, can anyone add to the list? I'm looking for books that are reasonably easy to get ahold of -- ones that are in print, or recently out-of-print. Offers of photocopies of difficult-to-find volumes gratefully accepted. :-) Also pointers to books -about- old pattern books.
Related:
The Scarlet Letter advertised in their supplement #7 to Catalog #8 some 16th & 17th century pattern books available from Falconwood Press. These appear to all be pamphlets redrawn or recharted from original texts by Susan J. Evans. They are:
Looking through their latest mailing, I found that the ScarletLetter does indeed have an email listing:
In the messages several modelbuchs were mentioned. The 'Modelbuch' I was talking about is called "The New Carolingian Modelbook" by Kim Salazar aka Ianthe' d' Averoigne and is published by Outlaw Press. I have thoroughly enjoyed the "New Carolingian Modelbook" because each pattern is clearly graphed and referenced as to other sources. You can check out Kim's website at
http://ourwolrd.compuserve.com/homepages/Wymarc/master1.html
As far as I know, Kathryn's comment about these books not being facsimiles is correct; they are simply all I had found accessible. They are 'regraphed or recharted', have neither text nor translations and I can concur with her comment that the Shorleyker is indeed missing pages that you occasionaly see in other sources. I also tried repeatedly to order Newes Modelbuch by Johan Sibmacher from Dover and was repeatedly told it was out-of-print "at this time". I then tried some of the old/used/hard-to-find sources to secure my 'copy'. Tracking down period material is time consuming and I am always happy to locate sources with available 'copies'.
I believe she even has samples of some of the graphs from the book on this site.
You might also enjoy one of my favorite sites on the web;
Embroidery Home Page. Another site you might like to check out is the
Ukranian Archives at
I have thoroughly enjoyed your messages. I find your 'ramblings' to
be quite interesting and hope you continue to post. If I've helped you
enough to earn the Russian sewing pins, email me for my address. pkf (Paula
F.)
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From: "Linda Lassman"
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 10:35:12 -1000
> I was taught not to use knots on embroidery, needlepoint, etc. but to stitch
> over my beginning end and weave my other end in under preceding stitches.
> My vague recollection (this is 20+ years ago) was that my mother said knots
> weaken the stitching somehow, or pull through, or wear off... and of course
> since this was my mother I've been doing it her way ever since. Is it okay
> to use knots on embroidery and needlepoint? Sure would make life a lot
> easier.
>
I was watching a "how-to" video for counted crossstitch, and the
instructor recommended the above when sewing with a single thread
(and small areas, I would assume!), but when sewing with a double
thread, recommended the following:
Take a single thread of floss and thread both ends through the
eye of the needle.
When making your first half-stitch, put the needle through the loop formed at
the bottom of the thread, on the wrong side of the piece, and this will anchor the
thread without any chance of it
pulling through and without adding bulk.
I thought it was incredibly clever! It works amazingly well, looks perfect from the
front and the back and, as promised, will never pull out! Of course, it's not always
appropriate for small blocks of a colour just because it's so wasteful of thread
(or it takes a better eye than I have to estimate how much thread is needed to accomplish
the required stitches and then cut the thread accurately!)
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Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 16:39:37 -1000
From: Jennifer Riddle
Subject: Re: HNW - 12-13th Century Needlework?
At 12:29 PM 12/4/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Re: websites featuring medieval embroidery
>
>There are a number of them -- the fastest way for me to tell you where they
>are is to direct you to my bookmark list at
> http://www.kwantlen.bc.ca/~donna/bookrec.htm#scaembroidery
As long as we're all submitting our URL's, I'll add mine to the mix. It's at:
http://sac.uky.edu/~jmridd1/embroidery/emb_skel.htm
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Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 03:36:22 -1000
From: Cynthia Long
Subject: Re: HNW - Hello and question
http://users.aol.com/gerekr/costume.html
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From: [email protected] (Harris, Karen)
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 11:07:54 -1000
You'll find a few more at the Atlantian MOAS links site at
http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/links.htm#interest