EMBROIDERY — The Best craft of Styling For Women Clothing

PAKISTANI BRIDAL WEAR MARIA.B

               Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. Some of the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest embroidery are chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross-stitch. Those stitches remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today. The origin of embroidery can be dated back to Cro-Magnon days or 30,000 BC.

          Examples of hand embroidery have been found at various archaeological excavations dating back to at least the second millennium BC, although the art of embroidery probably goes back much further. One of the oldest surviving groups of embroideries comes from the tomb of the famous Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun (died c. 1323 BC). The art of hand embroidery is a painstaking and laborious process, but today garments are often decorated with machine embroidery instead.

The impulse to embellish fabric with decorative stitches dates back thousands of years, and at least one thing about embroidery hasn’t changed in all that time: No matter how complicated-looking the result, embroidery is remarkably easy. If you can use a needle and thread, you can embroider.

Just like any other form of technology, it has been a long road to get to the current state of machine embroidery. Nearly 20 years before the first sewing machine was patented by Isaac Singer in 1846, Frenchman Josue Heilmann invented a hand the embroidery machine. 

             The behemoth could do the work of up to four hand embroiderers. In the 1980s, Wilcom introduced the first computerized embroidery designs both home and small business embroiderers. Today, advances in computer technology make it possible for modern-day embroiderers to stitch everything from lace and cutwork to quilts and leather in a fraction of time it would take if done by hand.

Embroidery Glossary

Appliqué
French term meaning applying one piece of fabric to another. A cut piece of material stitched to another adding dimension, texture and reducing stitch count.

Bobbin
A bobbin is a small spool of threads inside of the rotary hook housing. The bobbin thread actually forms the stitches on the underside of the garment. The bobbin on an embroidery machine works in the same manner and for the same purpose as on a standard sewing machine.

Digitize
(Often mispronounced as “digitalize.”) The computerized technique of turning a design image into an embroidery program. Special software is used to create plotting commands for the embroidery machine. The commands are transferred to the machines logic head by a designated embroidery “language.”

Backer/Stabilizer
Materials, generally non-woven textiles, which are placed inside or under the item to be embroidered. The backing provides support and stability to the garment which will allow better results to the finished embroidered product. Backings come primarily in two types: cutaway and tear-away. With cutaway, the excess backing is cut with a pair of scissors. With tear-away, the excess is simply torn away after the item is embroidered. Additional types which are dissolved either by water or heat also exist. For all of these, the terms backing and stabilizer are often used interchangeably.

Fill Stitch
Fill stitches are a series of running stitches sewn closely together to form broad areas of embroidery with varying patterns and stitch directions.

Hoop
A clamping device used to hold the backer and fabric in place in the machine.

Running Stitch
A running stitch is one line of stitches which goes from point A to point B. A running stitch is often used for fine details, outlining, and underlay.

Satin Stitch
Also known as the zig-zag stitch by which a line, border or edge is produced by the thread being alternately stitched to either side of a baseline. Satin stitches are generally limited to a maximum of 1/2" in stitch length before some alternate technologies such as split stitching or fill stitching must be used.

Underlay
A stabilizing pattern of embroidery which, if used, precedes the main body of satin or fill stitching. It consists of one or a combination of running stitches for centering, edging, paralleling or zigzagging the design area.

Visit MEEM FASHIONS for your lovely Pakistani and Indian embroidery collection.