battenburg lace to white work

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ideas for converting Battenburg lace designs to White Work





Battenburg lace is also known as tape lace.
Tape lace evolved from white Renaissance cutwork like Reticella
so you can use still the Battenburg stitches as filling stitches

#1 Using a Battenburg lace pattern as a cutwork pattern.
In the areas where the battenburg tape was placed.
 Sew  the inside edges  with button hole or some stitch
similar to that used hardanger embroidery. the outside edge
can be a whipped running stitch or made the same as the inside edge.
Use traditional battenburg stitches as The filling stitches
see Herrschner catalog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23170389@N03/4330959472/in/set-72157622706091910/
and the 1898 Priscilla Needlework book
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23170389@N03/sets/72157622766007157/

#2 Converting a Battenburg lace pattern to regular surface embroidery with no cutwork
in the areas where the battenburg tape was placed a ribbon or braid can be used
or a couched stitched cord.
I think I would do the filling stitches first so that the edges would be neater
(this is similar to those cross stitch patterns where you do the cross stitch first then a back stitch outline of the pattern.)  then applique in my braid (ribbon) or couch stitch in  cord.

if using a braid (or ribbon) see embroideries stitched with braid
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cactus_pearl/4158006115/

If using a couch stitched cord or thick yarn

if my cord is thick enough to cover both edges I would draw a guide line down the center between the other two lines.
then i could either couch my cord directly along the center line or do a back stitch in the center then with a variation of the whipped back stitch couch my cord in place.

if i had a thinner cord I'd would couch it following the inside line then couch a second cord following the outside line this makes sure the traced lines would be hidden.
I could also just do a whipped back stitch or running stitch along the lines for a rope outline.


if you have a good stitch dictionary such as Mary's Thomas's Dictonary of Embrodery Stitches ( i like the new Jan Eaton revised edition)
you can find most of the Battenburg stitches under more common names or you can find other stitches to substitute.
when choosing stitch subtitutions decide if you want them grounded or detatched (grounded means needle goes through fabric with each stitch)

look for examples of detatched stitches, buttonhole stitches , filling stitches and grounding stitches

some grounded substitutions -combinations to think about
Point turque - cloud filling stitch worked over a horizontal bar
point de Brucelles - loose button hole pick up fabric where thread goes under previous thread.
Point de Filet - Knot stitch or coral stitch overlapping previous loop.
Point de Reprise - satin stitch or long and short or a Romanian Stitch


in a minute ago (aka pin tangle)  has a good stitch dictonary inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html
on some of her stitch examples she will put links to related stitches in the case of button hole stitches this is very useful.
btw somewhat off topic but another stitch book I like
Mary Elizibeth McNamra embroidery stitches (1912)
(not really useful for how to stitch but has some unique combinations)
http://www.archive.org/details/embroiderystitch00wilkiala

Breton style embroidery and beyond

I was skimming through  some pre 1900  New York Times newspaper articles  via googles Newspaper Archives  (my search keywords were "Embroidery design" )  and in one article was a mention of

Breton style embroidery.  I did not have a clue  what Breton style was   so  I began to google it

I think you can tell by now I'm addicted to googling.   My first stop was   Karen's Whimsy

 http://karenswhimsy.com/free-celtic-clip-art.shtm

where she had posted some Clip artshowing Breton Embroidery patterns.

So now I know Breton is a Celtic Embroidery style.

she mentioned the 1906 book
 "Styles of Ornament by Alexander Speltz"

as being  where she found the patterns   so then I googled the book title.  

and found some other  non embroidery designs from the book   at Flickr.com posted by origomi

at http://www.flickr.com/photos/origomi/sets/72057594090165249/

Origomi  noted  an online location where the book can be found and read.

The University of Wisconsin's

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture :Image and Text Collections

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?id=DLDecArts.StyOrnSpeltz 

searching in their collection I find they also have some of

Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Magazines

Gustav was the founding designer of the Arts & Crafts Style.   

this Conventional design from Heminway Silk company  is typical of the Arts & Crafts style  

my want to read list just became Ohhh so much longer.
on a later google search I found out about the
Breton Embroidery stitch at
http://quietermoments.wordpress.com/category/breton-stitch/

my friend Shari added this tidbit

A short word on Breton embroidery/lace as I know it they are monochromatic pieces and worked on top of netting. It is hard to find old examples of this because the netting deteriorates and generally was a weight bearing support for the needlework