
Applied
Powdering is a term used to describe the ornamentation of a piece of cloth or other material by scattering and then stitching individual bracteates, jewels, small embroidered motifs, etc. This meaning of the verb ‘to powder’ dates back to the late medieval period in England. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a meaning of "to sprinkle or to spangle (a surface) with ...."
A sequin is a smooth and round disc with a hole in the middle. It can be made of glass, plastic or some comparable material, but not of metal. In the 1920's, sequins were made from painted glass, later they were made from coloured glass.
The use of shells and beads made from bird's eggs, land snails, molluscs and sea shells is probably one of the oldest forms of decorative needlework and still used today. Sixty-five small mollusc shells (Nassarius Kraussianus), perforated with a bone tool, were found in 2004 in Blombos Cave (South Africa). They may have been strung together into necklaces or bracelets and are dated to c. 70,000 to 75,000 years ago.
Shisha work is a type of applied decorative needlework that is characterised by small pieces of reflective material that are sewn onto a cloth ground material. This technique is also known as mirror embroidery. It is popular in many parts of Asia. The term derives from (Persian) shisheh for 'glass'. In parts of India this type of work is also known as Abhala Bharat (Hindi).
A slip is a medieval, and later, English term for a small decorated piece of fabric, sometimes in the form of a single flower or animal. The slip is worked on a separate cloth and then cut out and sewn down onto a larger item, such as a hanging. It is related to a gardening term for a small twig, spring or shoot that is grafted onto another plant.
Soutache embroidery is a form of decorative needlework that technically falls in the category of applied decoration, especially as a form of passementerie, rather than embroidery. The nineteenth century English term derives from the French word soutache, which in its turn comes from the Hungarian word, sujtás. It was a popular technique in Hungary for decorating military uniforms.
A spangle (UK) is a small, thin disc of metal with a hole in the middle. Spangles, in the UK meaning, are made by cutting a small segment (single winding) off a spirally wound metallic wire. This part is used to form a small ring that is then flattened between rollers or under a hammer. A characteristic feature of a spangle is a small indentation on the outer edge.
A spangle (USA) is a flat, ornamental disc applied to cloth as a decoration. It can be made from metal, plastic, shell, etc., and is usually circular with a single hole.
A spreuer is a term sometimes used in straw embroidery for leaf shapes made by winding damp, milled straw splints between the teeth of a coarse comb of some kind.
Straw embroidery is a form of decorative needlework from the second half of the nineteenth century, which involved the sewing down of pre-cut straw forms onto garments. The shapes include butterflies, corn, flowers and leaves, and they were stamped out of straw. These were used to trim ball dresses and to decorate complete dresses, especially those made of black or yellow net.
A talisman (late Greek: τέλεσμα) is any object (with or without an inscription or images) that is alleged to bring luck or other benefits to its owner and/or wearer.
Tutintfukt (‘Eye of the sun’) buttons are made of mother-of-pearl. They are by tradition used to decorate the Siwa oasis bridal outfit, in the Western Desert of Egypt. In Siwa, mother-of-pearl is believed to be talismanic, because it reflects light and was thought to attract the sun’s energy, which is then transmitted to the wearer.
Twist (French: torsade) is a form of metal thread made up of two or more strands twisted together, and used as applied decoration. The twist is normally couched down with a thread of the same colour. The stitches are sewn at the same angle as that of the twist itself, so that the stitches are invisible.