Uncommon Stitches
Do you like designs with dragons?
Are you inspired by embroidered book covers of the late 16th and early 17th centuries? Do you collect unusual stitches — ones uncommon in modern embroidery? If you answered “Yes” to any one of those questions, then you may want to try this Group Correspondence Course.
This small panel has a central wyvern-filled oval surrounded by typical flora and bugs, and a general horror vacui (i.e., “fear of open space”). It employs a raised work technique often used historically. It is worked on a linen fabric with colorful silk or cotton thread, plus non-precious-metal passing threads in gold and silver colors. It glitters and sparkles as a dragon’s hoard should.
This Intermediate-level, 6-lesson course starts with a few common stitches, such as Chain, Couching, Double-Running, Running, Satin, and Stem stitches, then builds upon them to form some unusual stitches rarely seen today.
The uncommon stitches are Linked Chains, two versions of Corded Detached Buttonhole that combine silk and metal threads — one flat and one open-ended, Plaited Braid with a Twist, Corded Lark’s Head, Figure 8 Circle, Ladder Braid, Raised Knot, Looped Edge Threaded Back stitch.
More about Uncommon Stitches
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Class Details
Project: Framed picture or as the cover for a book-like box
Technique: Surface embroidery
Size: Embroidery is 4.25” wide by 6.75” tall on an 8” x 12” linen ground
Color: Students may use the colors listed or choose their own color palette
Supplies: A variety of metallic passing threads and silk or cotton threads on a higher count pale linen
Skill Level: Intermediate
Prerequisites: Basic surface stitching skills are recommended and the ability to read a stitch diagram. Interest in 16th c. embroidery or dragons or both might help.
Time: 6 lessons over 6 – 8 months
Text: $50 full-color, spiral-bound book. 50 pages
Approximate Cost of Supplies: $40 for cotton or $100 for silk. Students within a local group can share skeins of thread to bring the price down, since generally only 1-2 m. are needed of most colors.
DMC Floss Number for Tassel: DMC 725 (a golden yellow) -
About teacher Melinda Sherbring
Melinda was a software engineer in Southern California’s aerospace industry from 1975-2013. Through her historical re-enactment hobby, she researched and published booklets on Pictish art, heraldry, and manuscripts. She found EGA in 1992, expanding her horizons to historical embroidery and studying surviving works at museums worldwide. Her first EGA Group Correspondence Course, More Than a Rose, appeared in 2016. Melinda now teaches, writes, and publishes as Threads of History. She also teaches our Group Correspondence Courses Sweet Bag Sewed of Silver and Gold with Melinda Sherbring.Needle Arts Profile: Designer and Teacher Melinda Sherbring
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More about our Group Correspondence Courses and GCC Lightning Rounds
Visit our Group Correspondence Courses page for the registration form and for more information on how our GCCs work.
Our GCC Lightning Rounds are three or four of our Group Correspondence Courses that have been hand-picked by our Education Department and made available for individual EGA members to register without a group for a limited time. Visit our GCC Lightning Rounds page to see which courses are available this quarter!
There are no refunds for course or text fees so make your selection carefully.
