Church Needlework. A Manual of Practical Instruction, was written by Hinda M. Hands and published in 1907 by G.J. Palmer and Sons, London. The book can be downloaded here.
The Art of Modern Lace-Making, by the Butterick Publishing Co. in 1891, has been made available by the Gutenberg Project, and can be downloaded here.
Isabelle Beeton (1836-1865) wrote Beeton's Book of Needlework (1870), which the Gutenberg Project has made directly available. Dowload it here. WV
Laura Powell defended her dissertation in 2011 at the University of Nevada. The title of her work is: Sew speak! Needlework as the Voice of Ideology Critique in The Scarlet Letter, "A New England nun," and The Age of Innocence.
Emile Zola's novel Le Rêve ('The Dream') concerns an orphaned girl who is adopted by professional embroiderers and who becomes an expert in or nué embroidery. Le Rêve is the sixteenth novel in the so-called Rougon-Macquart series. The book was published in 1888 (Paris, Charpentier). The first English translation came out in 1893.
"No one would believe that a tragedy to rival Romeo and Juliet could be hidden beneath the embroidery of a rare gown. If the writer is found out, she could be killed."