Ribbon work

Pastel of a young woman wearing a shawl decorated with blue ribbon work (18th century, Britain). Pastel of a young woman wearing a shawl decorated with blue ribbon work (18th century, Britain). Copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, acc. no. P.59-1962.

Various styles of decorative needlework from Europe and North America use a narrow ribbon rather than a thread to create the required stitches and/or pattern. Ribbon work may be worked in combination with embroidery thread, such as floss silk, perlé cotton and/or mercerised 6-stranded thread.

Traditionally, ribbon work is carried out using silk ribbons (called China ribbons) of various widths, hence the initials SRE – Silk Ribbon Embroidery, being used by some groups in North America to describe this form. However, many of the ribbons available by the end of the twentieth century were made out of synthetic yarns, rather than real silk.

See also: China ribbon embroidery

Sources:

  • LAMBERT, F. (1859). The Ladies' Complete Guide To Needle-work And Embroidery: Containing Clear And Practical Instructions Whereby Any One Can Easily Learn How To Do All Kins Of Plain And Fancy Needlework, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, p. 69.
  • NIEKERK, Di van (2006). A Perfect World in Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork, Cape Town (South Africa): private publication.
  • http://www.dicraft.co.za/blog/a-perfect-world-in-ribbon-embroidery-and-stumpwork-book/ (retrieved 8 May 2016).

V&A online catalogue (retrieved 6 July 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Wednesday, 25 January 2017 13:45
Published in Embroideries
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