Embroidery: A Maker's Guide

by Victoria Albert Museum

A practical guide to embroidery, inspired by craft traditions from across the globe, and the second volume in the Maker’s Guides series from the Victoria and Albert Museum A Maker’s Guide contains fifteen beautiful step- by- step projects for crafters at all levels. Each one takes its cue from a different tradition, including English goldwork, Indian beetle- wing embellishment, Japanese Kogin, and Irish whitework, as well as contemporary machine embroidery. This modern maker’s guide to decorative stitching traditions around the world will expand readers’ crafting horizons and become an invaluable addition to every crafting shelf. 225+ illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Crafts, History

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2018

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating selection from their collections, good history, and all but two of the projects are something I'd like to try myself (which is saying a *lot* given how many kinds of embroidery I don't usually like doing...).

[Tracy Shephard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book have a comprehensive guide to embroidery stitches..

it includes the most beautiful photographs of some stunning pieces of work along with a history of the traditions and descriptions behind them.

Quite the most stunning of books about the art and craft of embroidery I have ever seen, the work involved is amazing.  The floral bunting is just remarkable for something so simple, and with drawn diagrams to showcase each piece, it is a good practice guide in order to improve your skills.

A tool guide, as well as a stitch guide will give you the necessary toolkit know how, and the projects, are decorative and simple in style.  

I am by no means up to the standard of the work in this book, but it is my dream to be, and this book inspires and ignites my passion for this wonderful art.

This book is a joy to look at, it would make a perfect gift, and even if your skill level is low it's a look back into the history of beautiful embroidery in all it's forms.

[Helyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit of a disappointment-mostly because the subtitle is quite misleading. I was hoping for a book of techniques and stitches with examples from the V&A collections. This book does have that, but it's really about different kinds of embroidery and their history/origin. I love history, that just wasn't what I was expecting from this book.
Also, I only do surface/freestyle embroidery so a lot of the lace work and canvas stuff was cool but irrelevant. However, the pictures are stunning and you do get to see some amazing textiles from the museum's collections.

[Branwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice designs but poorly laid out.