Empowering Girls through
Embroidery
Jocelyn Russell
Middle and Upper School Art Teacher
Mary McDowell Friends School
[email protected] Egyptian
Sampler Fragment, Mamluk period 1300-1420
Plain weave linen embroidered with silk
17 ½ x 5 7/8 inches
Bayeux Tapestry c 1066
Embroidery on linen
1.6 by 224.3 feet
Hannah Gilpin
Acworth School
sampler 1800
Betsy Wardwell (1785-1817)
Mary Balch School, Providence, Rhode
Island, 1797
Plain weave on linen embroidered in silk
17 ½ x 14 ½ inches
Millsent Connor (born 1789)
Embroidered Sampler, 1799
Silk on linen
21 1/8 x 16 1/4 in.
Suffage Banner
c.1911
Paint, embroidery and
applique on canvas
Kate Walker
Wife is a Four Letter Word
1978
Embroidery on muslin
Beryl Weaver
Spare Rib
1978
Embroidered Runner
Elaine Reichek
Funeral for the Grid.
1978
Fabric and wood
construction
10 x 16 in.
Elaine Reichek
Sampler (Blade
Runner).
2001
Hand embroidery on linen
30 x 46 3/4 in.
Judy Chicago (Embroidery by Pat-Rudy
Baese, Jane Gaddie Thompson and Joyce
Gilber)
Resolutions: A Stitch in Time Sampler
1994 - 2000
Counter Cross Stich and Embroidery on Linen
Judy Chicago (Embroidery by
Jane Gaddie Thompson)
Birth Tear, 1982
Embroidery on silk
Tracey Emin
Everyone I Have Ever Slept With
1963-1995
Appliquéd tent, mattress and light
48 x 96 1/2 x 84 1/2 in
Jenny Hart
Girl with Japanese Clouds,. 2006
hand embroidery on denim
12" x 12"
Jenny Hart
Dirty Face, Crowning Glory, 2003
hand embroidery on cotton panel
17" x 18"
Jenny Hart
This Work Never Ends, 2002
hand embroidery on vintage muslin
10" x 8"
Jenny Hart with Dame Darcy
Blue Lass, 2004
hand embroidery on cotton panel
18" x 24"
My work features thematic illustrations of love and
personal history via hand-embroidered drawings and
text. The imperfection and vulnerability of the
embroidered line resembles the fragility of human
emotion, while the medium harks back to a seemingly
distant past. Threading a sense of humor throughout,
drawings and text are stitched onto handkerchiefs, tea
towels, and tablecloths that are often adorned with
preexisting machine-embroidered imagery.
My aesthetic derives from a long-standing personal
experience with the medium. My mother taught me
embroidery as a child and my grandmother was a
skilled lace-maker. This body of work started when I
began crudely embroidering personal narratives and
music lyrics onto cotton handkerchiefs inherited from
my grandmother. While the work is not directly
diaristic, the pieces are highly personal in their
concept and execution. I draw from song lyrics, family
Big Poppa, 2008
photos, and figures from popular culture stitching
Hand-dyed embroidered
imaginary lines to meaningful events in my life.
Allison
Manch
handkerchief
Allison Manch
My grandfather was a photographer, my
grandmother was a lacemaker
2008
Embroidered handkerchief
Allison Manch
Dorothy Manch's Golden Football, 2008
Embroidered handkerchief
Allison Manch
The Producers (Rza)
2008
Embroidered handkerchief
Allison Manch
Contact
2007
Embroidered handkerchief
Joette Maue
be strong , 2009
hand embroiderd
re-appropriated
linen, 15 x 58.5 in.
Tilleke Schwarz
Play with me, 2006
71 x 65 cm
Megan Whitmarsh
King Kong & Love, 2005,
3" x 5", hand embroidery
on fabric
Maggie Rozycki Hiltner
The Truth About Rabbits,
2007
hand-stitched cotton and
found textiles
10.5 x 24”
Non Iron On Transfer Methods Carbon Paper
Transfer Pen (or transfer
pencil) Method
Running stitch
Pass the needle in and out of the fabric,
making the surface stitches of equal
length. The stitches on the underside
should also be of equal length, but half
the size or less than the upper stitches.
BACK STITCH
Bring the thread through on the stitch
line and then take a small backward
stitch through the fabric. Bring the
needle through again a little in front of
the first stitch, then take another stitch,
inserting the needle at the point where it
first came through.
Split stitch
Bring the needle through at A and,
following the line to be covered, take a
small back stitch so that the needle
comes up through the working thread.
Satin stitch
Work straight stitches closely together
across the shape, as shown. Take care to
keep the edge even, and if you are
following an outline marked on the
fabric, take your stitches to the outside of
the line so that the marked line does not
show.