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Embroidery is a craft or hobby that uses needle and thread to decorate fabrics and textiles. The different embroidery techniques and styles vary widely and the most common method mainly focuses on a colorful and free way of embroidering. With this colorful embroidery method, different stitches are created independently of the weavethe fabric and makes it possible to embroider any motif, abstract or natural and design, on any fabric.
Coloured embroidery offers you fantastic flexibility in creating beautiful motifs with colorful sewing threads and special textile fibers.
The history of embroidery
Embroidery is a popular way to give clothing more personality and to beautify textiles. Basic materials such as leather or fabric are artistically decorated by sewing or pulling threads of yarn onto them. Embroidery can be found in all cultures and religions of the world. The motifs vary fromsimple small patterns and flowers to everyday scenes and elaborate images such as births, weddings or even death. Some embroideries are simple, others very imaginative and detailed.
The beginning of embroidery
The craft of embroidery has a long history. Finds show that embroidered clothing was produced as early as 5000 BC. existed in various regions such as Egypt, China and South America. It is not possible to indicate a region of origin for the embroidery. In the early days of embroidery, geometric figures were first embroidered. Only later were garments and objects decorated with figurative representations and entire images. Gold thread, ribbons and beads were also used for decoration. Decorating clothes quickly gained popularity. Noble embroideries were found on the robes and mantles of Roman consuls, tribunes andemperors. In the Middle Ages, embroidery was also used in monasteries to make liturgical vestments or to refine textiles used in church interiors. Embroidered fabrics have always been considered a sign of prosperity, because embroidery took a lot of time and money. Therefore, this craft was a privilege reserved for the wealthy or for religious purposes. Aristocratic women learned in childhood to make the most beautiful textile decorations possible.
Development of the first embroidery machines
Over time, embroidery became more and more important. Given the high demand, inventors gave it a trymake time-consuming hand embroidery easy by using machines. The Industrial Revolution in particular changed textile technology from the ground up. This not only affected sewing, but also embroidery. In the mid-19th century, Swiss Franz Rittmeyer and Anton Vogler developed the very first mechanical embroidery machine, which pulled the thread back and forth through a vertically stretched piece of fabric, imitating hand embroidery. The machine worked on the same basic principle as modern embroidery machines. As the fabric is moved, the needle always sticks at the same point. The movement of the fabric was controlled by a so-called pantograph.
Around the same time, the Swiss Isaak Groebli invented the first large embroidery machine, the so-called Schiffli machine. This combined the techniques of large looms with those of sewing machines and worked with an upper and bobbin thread. The advantage was that both threads were wound on bobbins, so that the laborious threading required with the hand embroidery machine was no longer necessary. Here too, the material movement was controlled by a pantograph. But these two inventions were just the beginning. Like sewing machines, embroidery machines were constantly evolving. The more advanced embroidery machines worked with many needles at the same time and greatly speeded up embroidery. Soona new branch of textile processing emerged: industrial embroidery.
Embroidery today
A milestone in the history of embroidery is the year 1913, when the Saurer company in Arbon succeeded in creating an embroidery machine that could produce 100 stitches per minute and produce high-quality embroidery. For those days this was an exceptional achievement. Today's embroidery machines are electronically controlled and can do much more. Up to 1400 stitches per minute are possible with powerful embroidery machines. In addition to computer-controlled embroidery machines, software is also often used. This allows for a great diversitymotifs are embroidered with great attention to detail. From simple logos to complex decorations, everything is possible. For example, companies have their clothing embroidered with their logo, but embroidery is also very popular in the private sector. Women in particular consider this needlework as a pleasant pastime in which they can relax and create small embroidery works of art at the same time.
