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(Updated December 23, 2003)
The tent stitch and the double-running stitch were popular during the Elizabethan era. Because both are easy to complete at any size, Elizabethans used them to produced very detailed embroidery pieces. The Elizabethans used silk thread on a linen material. Both stitches were used in canvaswork and in applique. The double-running stich is used to outline the pattern and the tent stitch is used to fill in the pattern. Canvaswork is the name given to a style of embroidery showing elaborate scences. They are similar to tapestries. When these stitches were used in applique, the embroidered slips were used in two different ways. In one method, they were stitched to velvet and gold cord was couched around the slip to produce a hanging. In the other method, the slips were applied to smocks and underskirts.
Brief Description of Common Characteristics:
Stitches: Tent Stich and Double-Running Stitch
Materials: Linen (single thread) and Silk Floss.
Important Note:It is not enough to simply by linen to have a period ground for your embroidery. If the weave was not used in period, that ground is not period. Both the weave and the material of the ground cloth needs to be period to make that qualification. Double-thread weaves, such as Aida cloth, is not a period ground.
Application: Cushions, Furniture Decoration, and Bed-Hangings, Underskirts and Overskirts, Smocks or Chemises
Common themes: Heraldic devies, Floral Designs, Biblical Scenes, Symbolic Figures, and Motifs from Emblem Books
Period Examples: Cavendish Hangings, Oxburgh Hangings, Bradford Table Carpet, Elizabeth Vernon Portrait, Blanche Perry Altar Cloth, and Smock at Whitworth Art Gallery circa 1585.
Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocked. Great Britain: W. S. Maney & Son Ltd., 1998.
Beck, Thomasina. The Embroiderer’s Flowers. Germany: David & Charles, 1997.
Beck, Thomasina. The Embroiderer’s Story: Needlework from the Renaissance to the Present Day. Italy: David and Charles, 1995.
Cuthbertson, Yvonne. “Elizabethan Needlecraft.” Fiberarts: September/October 1999.
Gostelow, Mary. A World of Embroidery. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975.
Gostelow, Mary. Mary Gostelow’s Embroidery Book. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.
Kendrick, A.F. English Needlework. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1933.
King, Donald and Santina Levey. The Victoria & Albert Museum’s Textile Collection: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750. New York: Canopy Books, 1993.
Levey, Santina M. Elizabethan Treasures: The Hardwick Hall Textiles. New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999.
Pickens, Mary Brooks and Doris White. Needlepoint for Everyone. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1970.
Staniland, Kay. Medieval Craftsmen: Embroiderers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
(Copyright 2001-2004, Katherine Estep Stephenson)