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Mary Corbet

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I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Jacobean Era Revisited – Pattern with Butterfly

 

Amazon Books

When I posted the last Jacobean pattern, I got some interesting and informative responses, and a couple inquiries on the book. The book that I took the different motifs from (I scanned them and edited them, moving parts here and there) is called Jacobean Embroidery: Its Forms and Fillings including Late Tudor (a rather burdensome title) by Ada Fitzwilliam and A.F. Morris Hands which I picked up on Abebooks. (A note on that: you’d be surprised what you can find on Abebooks – it’s a great place to pick up needlework books, especially “vintage” or antique!)

The book I have was published England in the early 1900’s. It’s in pretty good condition, and isn’t a bad looking book, though the pages are discolored (but it’s that super-smooth “hard” paper – I just love old books!) Come to find out, thanks to an e-mail, the same text (though I’m not certain if it’s the same publishing date) is also available on Project Gutenburg. You will find it here.

If you’re interested in Jacobean embroidery and want to read the text, I highly recommend it. Reading it online is not the same as browsing through an old book, but I think you’ll enjoy parts of the book, nonetheless, if you have an interest in Jacobean embroidery.

So, when I was on a Jacobean kick (actually, I was playing with new threads – trebizond and soie ovale, among others), I decided to scan up some of the plates in that book and play with them, putting them together to see if I could come up with some neat combinations to practice with. Here’s the second design of the only two I managed to do anything with.

Click on the image for a slightly larger version, then right click on that to save it to your computer. You can scale it up or down on a photocopier or in a photo editing program.

This type of design is for more advanced embroiderers, though I think a really focused beginner could play with it and manage some good results. You don’t have to use traditional Jacobean stitches and filling!

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(6) Comments

  1. I just received my first kit for a tree motif modern Jacobean embroidery. I started it last night and used for the first time metallic thread. The pattern is a trellis design. I thought it looked great last night. This morning, I had to use tweezers to undo the stitches as my squares did not line up! I love the challenge. Who knew this could be so exciting and frightening all at one time. I am a determined beginner and will complete this project if it takes me the rest of my life or months of my life. Thanks for all you do Mary and thanks for your encouragement to all.

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  2. Hello,I do Japanese embroidery called bunka and I am looking for embriodery templates to create my own designs.would you have anything that I could use that would actually be legal I’m not sure how to go about this or where to find templates t y. Margaret

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  3. Thank you, Mary, for this wonderful embroidery blog! I am VERY new to embroidery, although I watched my mom when I was young and I am intrigued by the beauty and art of painting with thread. I have been looking online for something I can start with, but I don’t want anything too simple. I LOVE a challenge. I can’t wait to practice along with your videos. Please keep on blogging. I enjoy every bit of it!

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