Today we are very fortunate to have so many instant resources. If ever I needed to learn a new crafting technique my first search would always be done online. There is a huge wealth of resources that are so easily accessible on the internet. From Youtube tutorials to step by step instructions with photographs to guide you through.
Today we were asked to make a comparison between these online resources and the selection of older embroidery books that have been made available to us. What would we find easiest to use? What would we prefer? The most important factor was to use the books and the internet separately for two different techniques.
As I am relatively familiar with most basic stitches I opted to work from the 'Dorset Feather Stitchery' book by Olivia Pass, 1957. In Chapter 3, 'Embroidering the Theme' I noticed some lovely hand drawn illustrations of decorative stitches with surface overwhipping. I had never heard of this before so I was very keen to give it a try.
To begin my sampler I did a Blanket (buttonhole) stitch, however with only one illustrated image to go by I kept getting confused and was sorely tempted to search it on my phone!
However I persevered and managed to get it done. I then began to overwhip the blanket stitch. I couldn't understand why the instructions said to use the eye of the needle as if it were the point. After several attempts of stabbing at the fabric I realised that the name 'surface over whipping' should have been a good hint that I wasn't meant to be passing the needle through the fabric at all...!
I carried on with the next six samples and found that the book was fairly easy to use and that reading the instructions also helps!
I will definitely use these techniques in the future as I think they are really lovely decorative stitches.
I am now going to use an internet source to learn how to crochet as this is something I haven't done before.
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