Embroidery Textile 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. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or yarn colour.
Some of the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest embroidery are chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch.[1] Those stitches remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.
The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth later fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery. Elaborate freehand stitched thread embroidery began to dwindle with the machine age of the 1800's when Art needlework and Berlin wool-work appeared on the scene. Berlin wool-work, canvas thread embroidery, was popular through the 1870's only to be replaced in popularity by counted cross-stitch of the 1880's, using square meshed canvas with stitch-by-stitch thread designs. With the introduction of printed patterns in color, the need for counting each stitch was pass in many instances. Although elaborate freehand thread embroidery was waning in popularity, bead embroidery was beginning its heyday along with the new needlework stitches of the 1800's.
The fabrics and yarns used in traditional embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen, and silk have been in use for thousands of years for both fabric and yarn. Today, embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns as well as in traditional wool, linen, and silk. Ribbon embroidery uses narrow ribbon in silk or silk/organza blend ribbon, most commonly to create floral motifs.
Surface embroidery techniques such as chain stitch and couching or laid-work are the most economical of expensive yarns; couching is generally used for gold work. Canvas work techniques, in which large amounts of yarn are buried on the back of the work, use more materials but provide a sturdier and more substantial finished textile.
Much contemporary embroidery work is stitched with a computerized embroidery machine using patterns "digitized" with embroidery software. In machine embroidery, different types of "fills" add texture and design to the finished work. Machine embroidery is used to add logos and monograms to business shirts or jackets, gifts, and team apparel as well as to decorate household linens, draperies, and decorator fabrics that mimic the elaborate hand embroidery of the past. Many people are choosing embroidered logos placed on shirts and jackets to promote their company. Yes, embroidery has come a long way, both in style, technique and use. It also appears to maintain its intrigue as its popularity continues to grow with it.