Embroidery Glossary, Ancient Light Pagan, Wiccan store, Oregon Coast

Glossary of Needlework Terms

Many definitions adapted from Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches

Stitches are identified in blue
Techniques & styles in green
Terms & Materials in red
A word in bold in the text means that it exists in the alphabetical list.

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Jacobean work - This is another name for Crewel work. This embroidery became popular in England during the reign of James I & II, (early 17th cent.) because as the economy degraded, the embroidery silks and fine linens that folk had been using became too expensive to import, so they turned to the coarser linens and fine wools that were homegrown. Many of the filling patterns once used in the popular Holbein work of the previous century were incorporated into this work.

Journeys - There are several variations of this term often used in Holbein work or Reversible Blackwork. The Journey Out refers to the first trip, which produces a dotted line. The Journey Home or Trip Back is just what it sounds like, that is, the part of the stitching that fills in the blanks.

Knotted Outline stitch - This is just what it sounds like, a variation of Outline stitch in which the needle is looped through the thread on each stitch. This stitch often happens by mistake, and usually must be cut out rather than un-picked.

Linen - A fabric that may have been the earliest woven textile (the other possibility being wool). It is produced from the long fibers of the leaves of the flax plant. When the plants are grown the leaves are harvested, soaked for many days in water, dried, and then beaten to free the fibers. After this the fibers must be carded, spun and then woven. The legendary test of a good linen was that a yard of it could be pulled through a lady’s ring. Modern garment linens are slubby and our ancestors would have been ashamed to wear such coarse stuff! The best of the modern linen fabrics for embroidery are produced in Ireland and the Czech Republic. This term is often used for Linen weave fabrics that are actually cotton fiber, but are used in place of linen.

Linen weave - (aka Cloth Weave) The standard over 1, under 1 pattern that every craftsperson learns.

Long-armed cross stitch - (aka Long-legged cross stitch and Plaited Slav stitch) This is a counted thread stitch that is found in many old embroideries. In fact, cross stitch the way we work it was not used very much until the 18th century. This older form, Italian two-sided cross stitch, and Montenegrin cross stitch were the usual forms.

Long and Short stitch - (aka embroidery stitch, feather stitch, painting stitch, plumage stitch and shading stitch) This is a freehand embroidery stitch often found in Crewel work and Jacobean embroideries and other Wool work. The outer edge of the stitched area is very regular and even, while the inner edge is first long and then short (hence the name) making shading very easy and without a definite line.

Metal Thread Embroidery - Just as the name says, any embroidery that employs metal threads or wire. Most of these, before the advent of modern blending filaments, metallic floss and metallic sewing threads were done only on the surface of the work, usually couched. One of the most beautiful of these works is Opus Anglicanum.

Mary Thomas – author of Mary Thomas' Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches and several other books on embroidery. I have found her "dictionary" to be the most helpful book out there for learning stitches, as her explanations and diagrams are clear and the silly little drawings that accompany many of the stitch names are awfully cute.

Montenegrin stitch - (aka Montenegrin cross stitch or two-sided Montenegrin) A slightly more complicated version of Long-Armed Cross stitch that produces an attractive pattern on the reverse of the work, too. This is a counted thread stitch that is found in many old embroideries. In fact, cross stitch the way we work it was not used very much until the 18th century. This older form, Italian two-sided cross stitch, and Long-armed cross stitch were the usual forms.

Montenegrin cross stitch - (see above)

Needle lace - A technique of working lace with a needle by knotting and stitching in the air, rather than on fabric. This was often used for lace on handkerchiefs and collars and employed in Drawn thread or Pulled thread embroideries to fancy up the open spaces. In Italian and in older books this is known as Punto in Aria, "point in the air".

Needlepoint - (aka Canvas work) Any Counted work done on Canvas. Needlepoint, Petit Point and Gros Point, Berlin Woolwork and Bargello usually fall under this heading, along with Florentine work and German Counted Thread work, but some groups count any Counted thread work under this heading.

Needlepoint canvas - the stiffened fabric used in the various forms of needlepoint. (see also canvas) It comes in mono-canvas and penelope canvas, which simply means that mono is a cloth-weave and penelope has two threads together on the warp instead of one. Interlock is a form of penelope canvas, where the pairs of warp threads twist around the woof thread to "lock" them in place. It is the most common canvas found on the market, now.

Opus Anglicanum - (English work) A gold work technique done in England during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Mostly an ecclesiastical embroidery, but employed on some royal garments and tapestries. This technique used gold wire that is couched so tightly that the wire pulls down into the fabric, creating many tiny "hinges" that allow the work to be heavy, but flexible, and as gold is not particularly subject to metal fatigue, a long lasting fabric as well. Usually the threads of the couching were colored, unlike in most gold work, and stitched in regular patterns that created texture in the pictorial nature of the work.

Out & Back - A term used in Holbein work for the method used to complete a line.

Outline stitch - This is the same stitch as Stem stitch. Mary Thomas asserts that the Outline stitch holds the working thread to the left of the needle and Stem stitch to the right, but I have also seen this defined as the lighter-weight of the two stitches.

Over 4, over 2, etc. - This refers to the size of a stitch unit. It is short for "over 4 THREADS of the ground fabric".

Petit Point - (little embroidery) A Counted work done on Canvas (aka Needlepoint) Petit Point and Gros Point are supposedly opposites. Petit Point, as a term, is most often used to refer to the detail work on painted canvases where the background is done in Gros Point.

Picking out stitches - This is the name for what you do when, to correct an awful mistake, you are forced to cut the stitching and pick out the bits. Tweezers are helpful in making a nasty chore possible. There are also incredibly handy (but expensive) scissors available with a tiny dull blade that lifts the stitches, to make them easier to cut.

Plaited Algerian - A needlepoint stitch that resembles Herringbone stitch, but is worked more like Braid stitch.

Plaited Slav stitch - (aka Long-Armed Cross-stitch and Long-legged cross-stitch) This is a counted thread stitch that is found in many old embroideries. In fact, cross-stitch the way we work it was not used very much until the 18th century. This older form, Italian two-sided cross stitch, and Montenegrin cross-stitch were the usual forms.

Plaited Stitch - This stitch closely resembles Herringbone stitch or Plaited Algerian, but is worked differently. It is used for stems and border bands in free-hand embroidery.

Polyester - A modern fiber that is a petroleum product. Often mixed with cotton.

Pulled Thread work - A counted thread embroidery in which the threads of the ground fabric are pulled out and the edges worked with embroidery to create non-fraying holes with no threads being cut. This is sometimes confused with Drawn Thread work. The holes created are often filled in with needle lace techniques.

Punto in Aria - Italian for "embroidery (point) in the air". A technique of working lace with a needle by knotting and stitching in the air, rather than on fabric. This was often used for lace on handkerchiefs and collars and employed in Drawn thread or Pulled thread embroideries to fancy up the open spaces. In modern usage it is known as Needle Lace.

Punto Scritto - (writing embroidery) Another name for Holbein work. It acquired the name when, in the 15th century, Islamic textiles with sacred sayings on them were traded all over Europe.

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