Some of you who are into crafting and needlework have probably looked around at the crafting work around you and wondered about what you see. So, I have decided to start a series on the finer points of embroidery and needlework.

I have always enjoyed historic needlework and one of the most basic, but most beautiful is blackwork.

Blackwork Embroidery is a form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched on even-weave fabric. Any black thread can be used, but firmly twisted threads give a better look than embroidery floss. Traditionally blackwork is stitched in silk thread on white or off-white linen or cotton fabric. Sometimes metallic threads or colored threads are used for accents. However, most blackwork embroiderers just stitch in cotton threads. So it’s easy and inexpensive for the materials.

Scarletwork, sometimes called redwork, is like blackwork, except it is sewn with red thread.

Historically, blackwork was used on shirts and chemises or smocks in England from the time of Henry VIII. The common name “Spanish work” was based on the belief that Catherine of Aragon brought many blackwork garments with her from Spain, and portraits of the later 15th and early 16th centuries show black embroidery or other trim on Spanish chemises. Black embroidery was known in England before 1500. Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales describes the clothing of the miller’s wife, Alison: “Of white, too, was the dainty smock she wore, embroidered at the collar all about with coal-black silk, alike within and out.”

Blackwork in silk on linen was the most common domestic embroidery technique for clothing (shirts, smocks, sleeves, ruffs, and caps) and for household items such as cushion covers throughout the reign of Elizabeth I, but it lost its popularity by the 17th century. (See also 1550-1600 in fashion.)

The stitches used are double running or holbein stitch, backstitch, and sometimes stem stitch. Since blackwork is a counted thread embroidery technique, it works on a base of even weave fabric.

If you want to learn how to do blackwork, try these basic guides:

• PrettyImpressiveStuff: Blackwork
• AEGAtlanticaSCA: How to Blackwork

There are a lot of small ways (picture blackwork on a collar) to incorporate this technique into whatever you do. Enjoy!

Original Article by Frequently Wrong but Never in Doubt

Photo courtesy of Frequently Wrong but Never in Doubt