Elmsley Rose: Historical Sampler

3 April 2008

Historical Sampler - Slips

I'm picking the eyes out of "Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving" by Grace Christie (aka Mrs Archibald Christie

"The drawings illustrating design and the practical application of stitches have been taken almost without exception from actual Embroidery or Tapestry; the exceptions, where it has been impossible to consult originals, from photographic representations obtained from various sources, among which the collection of M. Louis de Farcy should be mentioned."

and the embroideries and tapestries she was looking at are almost 14-17th Century.

It's at http://tinyurl.com/3bbgcm

Mary of NeedleNThread reviews the book at http://www.needlenthread.com/2008/01/great-online-embroidery-book.html

There are a couple of links to the Gutenburg project - I've found the one given above the best for on-line perusal.

Mrs Christie goes through a great variety of stitches and for many, she provides construction details and (black and white drawn) pictures of various flowers and leaves using that particular stitch, that she's taken from those old embroideries.

I intend to use some of these in my sampler project, so I'm gathering them together.

I just found a really good paragraph of information on Slips, in her Applique Work section.

" To return to the discussion of applied embroidery—let us suppose the embroidered piece to be just completed on its linen ground, still stretched in the frame in which it was worked.

In another frame, stretch the background material and trace upon it the exact outline of the piece to be applied.

Cut out the embroidered piece carefully round the edge, allowing about one-sixteenth of an inch margin outside the worked part, leaving, if necessary, little connect[Pg 178]ing ties of material here and there for temporary support.

With fine steel pins or needles fix the cut-out work exactly over the tracing already made on the ground material, then make it secure round the edge with rather close stitches of silk placed at right-angles to the outline; with fine materials the raw edge of the applied part can be neatly tucked under and fixed in place by this overcast stitch.

A cord is next sewn on to hide the fixing and give a finish to the edge.

The colour of this cord is important, since its colour may increase the expanse of either the applied part or the ground.

Sometimes a double cord is put round, and in this case the inner one is attached to the embroidery before it is cut out of the frame, and the second attached afterwards.

The inner one is often of a colour predominating in the embroidery, and the outer one of the colour of the ground.

Gold cord is very usual; if a coloured silk one is used it must be a perfect match.

The ordinary twisted cord looks best attached invisibly; to do this, slightly untwist it whilst stitching, and insert the needle in the opening thus formed.

Some kinds of flat braids look well with the[Pg 179] fixing stitches taken deliberately over them and forming part of the ornamentation (see fig. 91).

Bunches of silk are sometimes couched round with a buttonhole or other stitch, but whatever the outline may consist of, it should be a firm bold line.

Even more than simpler work applied embroidery needs the finish of some light work upon the ground. Gold threads and spangles, arranged in fashion similar to the sprays in fig. 112, are[Pg 180] very often used. Sometimes, instead of this, some small pattern in outline is run all over the ground in order to enrich it."

There is more to be read in the section, including the fact that the slips were sometimes slightly stuffed, to give them a rise.

I want to do a slip in my sampler, hence my interest. I haven't read this particular information about slips before.

My collection of slips links are :

Project : A Small Panel of Slips

http://livingpast.com/sca/item2.html

see http://livingpast.com/sca/canhand.pdf for notes on more information on Elizabethan canvaswork.

Also http://www.geocities.com/souriete/ElizaCanvasEmbr.html

Late 16^th / Early 17^th Century Embroidery “Slips”
Elizabethan and Stuart Embroidery

by Meg Andrews

http://www.victoriana.com/shops/andrews/slips.htm