Detail of a traditional Kazakh rug embroidered with stylized floral and leaf patterns in chainstitching. The swirling vines and flowers are stitched in red, yellow, green, white, pink, and blue crewel wool on a black background.

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Decorating with Needlework

January 5, 2023March 9, 2023 by Laura Grey No Comments

Decorative needlework has been used to add beautiful details to clothing and upholstered furnishings for millennia. Embroidered table and bed linens were de rigueur for fancy folk. Needlepoint or petit point pillows or rugs have long been signifiers of taste, elegance, and wealth. Cross-stitch samplers showed girls’ needlework skills, which made them look refined and more marriageable. Although modern tastes usually run to simpler decorative styles, modern twists on needle arts like embroidery are widely popular. Here are a few major types of stitchery, tips for caring for each, and ideas for ways to decorate with needlework.

Embroidery

Embroidery is decorative stitching done using a sharp needle on fabric, either by hand or by machine. Embroidery can be done on tightly woven fabric, such as satin; coarser fabric, like muslin; or on most fabric types in between. It’s best done on fabric with an obvious weave with thread. This way, the threads of the fabric are forced apart by the embroidery floss or wool as it’s pulled between them. It can be done in the same or contrasting colors, or even in threads wrapped with hammered gold or silver metal, for extra sparkle. Sometimes it incorporates beadwork or ribbons.

Stumpwork is a form of three-dimensional embroidery. Decorating with needlework that included stumpwork details was especially popular during the Elizabethan period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Embroiderers use dozens stitch types to get different effects and textures. Chainstitches (shown in the photo below) are usually used to outline. Satin stitches to fill in solid areas. French knots are tiny balls, and bullion stitches create elongated knots. Stitches can go in any direction and be any length. Most modern embroidery is done with cotton embroidery floss, which is much like sewing thread. Stitches are usually made with between one and six threads of floss per stitch.

Crewel embroidery

A detail from an intricately embroidered Kashmiri shawl shows flowers and leaves embroidered in chainstitch crewel wool threads of pink, orange, and red on a bright turquoise blue background — *Chainstitched crewel wool embroidery decorates a woolen shawl from Kashmir | Kritzolina Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)*

Crewel work is another form of embroidery. Strands of crewel wool, similar to yarn but usually thinner, are used. Crewel work requires fabric with a wider weave to accommodate the thicker threads. Crewel embroiderers use the same stitches as standard embroidery worked in silk or cotton floss, but on a slightly larger scale. This form of embroidery was traditionally used on pillows, cushions, and upholstery. During the Tudor and Stuart periods, it was often used on chairs, bed linens, and wall hangings. In Britain, the US, and Canada, decorating with needlework was used to show off feminine skill and refinement, or to display family wealth.

Crewel embroidery is also a common element in Central and South Asian textiles. Traditional rugs, bed linens, and curtains often use extraordinarily intricate chainstitching for embellishment. This not only adds beauty but also heft to fabrics. It makes textiles more sturdy, as well as more valuable.

Jacobean needlework was extremely popular during the reign of King James I, the early 17th century British monarch. Decorating with needlework in the Jacobean style had a renaissance of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. Stitching Jacobean pillows made from crewel work kits while watching TV was a popular pastime.

Cleaning crewel embroidery

Crewel wool dye can bleed onto the surrounding fabric when wet. Wool also tends to shrink when washed in anything other than cool water, and will even shrink in cold water if the fibers are agitated too much. Wool fibers will grab onto each other if rubbed together (a bit like Velcro strips) even in cool water. Fibers pull tightly together (that is, they become felted) unless washed with great care. For greatest safety, I’d recommend having dirty crewel embroidery dry cleaned for greatest safety.

If you hand wash crewelwork in cold water, don’t wring it or pull the fibers too hard. Let it air dry. The fabric may pucker around the stitches as it dries. You can try ironing the back of the fabric with a medium iron to eliminate the puckering. Don’t use steam! Since it’s a form of water, it can make wool bleed or shrink.

Cross-stitch embroidery

A cross-stitched sampler featuring brightly colored florwers, leaves and birds in three horizontal bands with an unfinished border of acorns and leaves and faded words including the name and age of the girl who stitched it, and the year 1721 — *An unfinished embroidered sampler by 13-year-old Anne Chase, 1721 | Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)*

Counted cross-stitch is a subset of embroidery. It involves making same-sized stitches with cotton floss on a backing fabric that has a large and obvious weave. The embroiderer covers the entire surface of the piece with X-shaped stitches to create an even, gridded design. The finished effect is similar to needlepoint. However, it’s flatter and some of the backing fabric may show through the stitches. Decorating with needlework cross-stitch samplers was especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States and Britain.

How to display embroidery

Embroidered home design details pop up in surprising places. It adds interest and texture to items like table runners and napkins, rugs, lampshades, curtains, and holiday decorations. Adding dressmaker details like embroidery to household items gives a delicate touch.

Embroidered threads pull or break if repeatedly rubbed. They show wear on cushions or foot stools used often. Rugs that get a lot of traffic look worn before long, even if you only walk on in bare feet.

When decorating with needlework, avoid moist rooms like bathrooms and kitchens. Moisture attracts dust, can cause mildew, and makes some dyed threads bleed. Keep embroideries out of direct sunlight so they don’t fade.

Embroidered samplers or other framed embroidered works are best safest when stretched flat in frames. Hang them out of direct sunlight, and keep them under glass to avoid dust and abrasion.

An embroidery hoop surrounded by lace, dried flowers, spools of thread, embroidery scissors, and a postcard portrait of Frida Kahlo sits on a table. The portrait of Frida is a bust showing her face and neck; she wears pink and red roses in her hair, and an elaborate gold necklace. — *A delicate portrait of painter Frida Kahlo embroidered in tiny counted cross-stitch is displayed in the hoop used to stretch it during stitching | Olga Kalinina for Pexels*

Traditionally, embroiderers used a hoop or stretcher bars to keep fabric taut and square while stitching. They then removed the fabric from hoops or stretchers before framing the finished work. They might turn it into a pillow or a hanging, or incorporate embroidered fabric in upholstery or clothing. Nowadays, it’s popular to decorate with needlework displayed right in the embroidery hoops used during the creation of the piece. However you display it, embroidery that’s not behind glass or made into clothing should have dust removed occasionally. You can blow it with cold air from a hair dryer. You can also use pressurized air from a compressed air can or rechargeable air blower.

Avoid faded or bleeding colors

Embroidery flosses in silk or cotton, or the wool used in crewel embroidery, are colored with dyes that can fade with exposure to sunlight. Modern dyes are more colorfast than older ones, but still change over time. Keep them out of direct sun for best results.

Some older embroidery flosses bleed dye if exposed to water. Red threads are the most troublesome. If you need to remove stains from an embroidered item that’s over 20 years old, consider dry cleaning. This limits the likelihood that threads will bleed color onto surrounding fabric.

Needlepoint & Tapestry

Needlepoint, embroidery, tapestry—which is which?

Technically a form of embroidery, needlepoint is usually created with wool strands stitched diagonally on a gridded canvas. It differs from standard freeform embroidery in that all stitches are usually the same length. Unlike cross-stitch embroidery, needlepoint stitches usually all go in the same direction. A smaller version of needlepoint, called petit point, is often done in silk instead of wool. Sometimes smaller sections of a larger needlepoint piece will be worked in petit point to show greater detail.

An image of two birds, each with a strawberry in its mouth, facing away fro each other and surrounded by stylized strawberries and leaves, based on a design by William Morris — A Strawberry Thief 2 needlepoint cushion design by Beth Russell, based on a 19th century pattern by William Morris | Beth Russell Needlepoint

Today, needlepoint is most commonly seen on pillows and cushions. In the past, it was common for people of means to upholster chairs and footstools in needlepointed canvas. Wealthy people sometimes had entire needlepoint rugs. In the 18th century, there were rules about which designs were appropriate to use on upholstered furniture. Decorating with needlework could incorporate wild animals, including birds, on back and seat cushions. However, human figures were reserved for the back of chair. It was considered unseemly to place one’s derriere on an image of a person’s face.

Telling tapestry from needlepoint

A woman in a red cloak with ermine trim (denoting royalty) wears a heavy gold necklace. She faces a younger woman in a blue dress and a red hat who looks pensively off to the left. Ladies of the court watch. — Detail of a 16th century woven tapestry at Hampton Court—note the vertical and horizontal weave that makes clear it’s tapestry and not needlepoint, which usually has diagonal stitches | Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)

What people in the US call needlepoint is known as tapestry in the UK. However, needlepoint should not be confused with woven tapestries. These were grander, often large, and made for the wealthy. They were popular from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. Decorating with needlework was an attractive and effective way to display wealth. What’s more, it insulated stone mansions or castles from drafts during chilly winters.

The famous Bayeux Tapestry further confuses the definition of the term. This 230-foot long cloth (made in England in the 1070s) depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings. But it’s neither a woven tapestry nor made of needlepoint. It’s actually a piece of embroidery stitched in wool on linen.

Woven tapestries were usually made of silk or wool, or a combination. Sometimes they incorporated silk threads wrapped with thinly hammered metal, such as gold. Tapestries were woven on large looms, not created using needles. You can see the vertical and horizontal threads of woven tapestries on inspection, as in the detail shown above. The act of weaving keeps the threads together; a tapestry requires no backing fabric.

A detail of needlepoint upholstery on a settee (small sofa) upholstery. It features round cream-colored flowers with green leaves at right; at left are a blue flower at top and a pink flower at bottom. All are outlined in tan on a brown background. — *Detail of needlepoint upholstery from a British or Irish settee, circa 1710 | Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)*

Needlepoint involves pulling a needle threaded with fibers (usually wool, though sometimes silk or cotton) through holes in a gridded canvas. The canvas keeps the fibers together. Needlepoint stitches are usually diagonal, though some needlepoint is stitched using vertical lines of different lengths, such as in flame stitch or bargello stitch.

Not just for grannies

Needlepoint is a centuries-old textile art, it needn’t look grandmotherly. Its stiffness and gridded designs can make needlepoint look more formal than regular embroidery or printed fabrics. However, a bold or lighthearted design can counter that. Companies like Ehrman Tapestry take decorating with needlework in surprisingly modern directions. In addition to their exquisite traditional needlepoint designs, they also offer original designs with a more modern twist. Ambitious needlepoint artists create magnificent home furnishings, from needlepoint rugs, to designer extraordinaire Kaffe Fassett’s needlepoint chairs and his coveted pillow designs.

Vibrant, modern patterns & colors

Are you a fan of midcentury modern, preppy, or 1960s mod design? Designer Jonathan Adler‘s bold, bright, pop-art-inspired needlepoint pillows have a swinging sixties vibe. His line of home textiles sometimes includes needlepoint pillows that use patterned bargello stitching techniques. These add vibrance and style. Bargello patterns have been around for centuries, and were popular during the 1960s and 1970s. They use vertical stitches of various lengths, instead of single-size diagonal stitches, as needlepoint and petit point do.

Prepare your needlepoint for display

Needlepoint stitches are pulled diagonally. As a result, the shape of the canvas is usually distorted by the time the last stitch is made. Pulling the canvas back into shape so that all rows of stitches line up properly is called blocking. It’s worth taking a completed needlepoint to a reputable independent fabric or textile arts shop. They can block it before you frame a needlepoint or turn it into a pillow. Blocking is a good idea even if you stitch on a stretcher, which helps keep the canvas square. If you don’t block the needlepoint before you display it, it may revert to the distorted shape even after it’s stuffed or hung.

Caring for needlepoint

Needlepoint is traditionally worked with wool fibers. These are fairly sturdy and water-resistant. Both wool and acrylic fibers hold dyes well. Because the stitches are pulled taut and worked close together, needlepoint can be surprisingly wear-resistant. Many needlepoint cushions and chair seats worked in the 18th and 19th centuries are still in good condition. This is especially true if they were used mostly as decoration, and not regularly sat on.

Dust and dirt are needlepoint’s natural enemies. They work their way between fibers and break them down. Gentle cleaning with a vacuum cleaner with an upholstery attachment is a good idea. I also like to take my pillows outside a few times a year and bash them a few times. This releases some of the dust that works its way into the wool.

Deep-cleaning needlepoint

If you want to clean needlepoint, know that wool dye can bleed onto the surrounding fabric when wet. Wool also tends to shrink when washed in anything other than cool water. It will even shrink in cold water if the fibers are agitated too much. To be safe, if cleaning is truly necessary, I recommend dry cleaning.

If you decide to hand wash a piece of needlepoint work in cold water, it’s important that you not wring out the canvas. Lay the damp needlepoint on a clean white towel. Pull it gently into shape, and let it air dry. As it dries, the needlepoint may lose its blocking. The canvas may warp so that the stitches don’t line up correctly. It is possible to block needlepoint at home, but it can be difficult to do well. You may find that it reverts to its stretched shape even after blocking and drying. I recommend leaving cleaning and blocking to professionals. If you’re in doubt, consult a specialist at a retailer that specializes in needlepoint. Independent sewing shops can point you in the right direction.

Needlework Adds that Personal Touch

Adding handcrafted needlework accents brings something special to a room. Needle arts like embroidery and needlepoint add glorious color, pattern, or texture, Stitchery can elevate mundane things like lampshades, runners, and curtains. Accent your home with a bit of stitchery for a more personal and individual touch.

More About Caring for & Decorating with Textiles

To learn more about caring for textiles or decorating with them, see my other articles on textile arts:

At top:

Chainstitch embroidery on a traditional Kazakh rug | Mark Heard via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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