Ancient Light Gifts & Handicrafts Store, Seal Rock, Oregon

Embroidery Books and Resources

bookshelf Ashelford, Jane, Dress in the Age of Elizabeth, Holmes & Meier, New York, 1988, 0-8419-1190-8

This book is a Renaissance costumer's wet dream! There are GOOD pictures, (very clear, though small) of most of the portraits of the age.

Bassee, Nicolas, German Renaissance Patterns for Embroidery, Curious Works Press, New Modelbuch 1568, 0-9633331-4-3, (Facsimile of New Modelbuch von Allerhandt, Art Nehens und Stickens, Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill.)

This is a facsimile copy of the original book from 1568. A large part of it is Lacis patterns and blackwork, but it is mostly engraving type illustrations suitable for many forms of embroidery.

de Dillmont, Therese, Encyclopoedia of Needlework, Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, 1987, originally published as part of the DMC library in the 1890's. ISBN#0-517-63180-6

This revised edition of the original is about as complete as you can get. It covers all kinds of needlework, including such things as bobbin lace and macrame along with the expected embroideries. There are sections on hand-sewing, trims and miscellaneous directions (things such as tranferring patterns and turning corners), that has some tips even my grandmother didn’t know! The illustrations are rather splotched and not as clear as they might be, but they are still readable, and some of the color plates are not only beautiful, but inspiring.

Lots of filler patterns for modern blackwork, projects and a few pictures.

Geddes & McNeill, Elisabeth & Moyra, Blackwork Embroidery, Jarrold and Sons Ltd., Norwhich, G.B., 1965, LCC#66-10858

Bad history, GOOD needlework and modern patterns!

Gostelow, Mary, Blackwork, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 1976, 0-442-22792-2

Some history, lots of pictures.

John, Edith, Creative Stitches, Dover Publications, Inc. 1967. ISBN#0-486-22972-6

This is a rather odd book that I ran across in a library, and after I had played with some of the concepts a bit, went out and found my own copy. The attitude of this book was what intrigued me first, then I began to follow directions and I was hooked. It is a book for modern embroiderers who wish to experiment and play with their work. The stitch directions and sketches are not quite as clear a MaryThomas’s but they are clear enough and the concepts are wonderful.

Pesel, Louisa, English Embroidery I: Double-Running or Back-Stitch, dist. Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Ill., 1931

This book, although printed a long while back and usually only available in libraries, is worth the digging to find. There are pictures of a number of samplers from private collections and the Victorian and Albert museum embroideries that are not available elsewhere. The bulk of the book is graphed-out patterns (with little documentation, alas!) of patterns from these and other samplers. Apparently the author had access to the samplers that she graphed from, though she did take liberties with some patterns. This is a marvelous source, both primary and secondary for this style of embroidery.

Scoular, Marion E., Why Call it Blackwork?, Indelible Inc., 1993

The author of this book, although she has no interest in blackwork as an historical embroidery and therefore has no documentation in her book, has done a marvelous job on both the how-to’s of this style and clear patterns that are lots of fun to use. There are several projects at the back of the book that are worth trying.

Thomas, Mary, Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, Gramercy Publishing Co. New York, 1935

This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to learn lots of new stitches. Her definitions are clear, her directions easy to follow and the how-to sketches of stitches could not be plainer. I have found used copies of this book and the one following fairly often, and any library with a good embroidery section will include these or you can try for ILL.

Thomas, Mary, Mary Thomas's Embroidery Book, Gramercy Publishing Co. New York, 1936

The companion text to her embroidery book, this is a good layout of a number of styles of embroidery. It is limited in scope, but clear and complete within each style that it covers.

Games

Bartlett, Vernon, The Past of Pastimes, Archon Books R&R Clark Ltd., Edinburgh Scotland, 1969, ISBN#208-00936-1

Bell, R.C, The Boardgame Book, Exeter books Simon & Schuster, New York NY, 1983

Botermans, Burret, van Delft & van Splunteren, The World of Games, Plenary Publications, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1987, Facts on File, New York & Oxford, 1989

the Diagram Group, The Official World Encyclopedia of Sports & Games, Paddington Press, 1979, Grosset & Dunlap