Embroidery

Embroidery

Kay’s Practical Embroiderer (patent no. 466,488) is a British patent for a set of metal templates used for creating a novelty form of ‘pile’ embroidery. The patent was taken out on 23rd November 1935. The patent was accepted on 25th May 1937. The patent was taken out by two brothers, Samuel Kauffman and Harris Kay (formerly also known as Kauffman). Samuel Kauffman was described in the patent as being a Russian citizen.

A leather needle is a long needle (between 6-10 cm in length), with a long eye and a characteristic sharp triangular point. This shape enables it to pierce and pass through leather, suede and vinyl, without tearing the ground material.

A mellor is a blunt tool about 6-12 cm in length, which is paddle-shaped at one end and pointed at the other. It is a piece of equipment used for goldwork embroidery. The blunt end can be used as a laying tool, to help place the gold thread in position and, if necessary, to make the accompanying silk thread, used for sewing down the gold thread, lie flat.

Misuya needles are made by a Japanese needle shop called Misuya Chubei, in the Matusbara district of Kyoto, Japan, which has been operating since 1819. Kyoto is a city allegedly so obsessed with clothes that many people would live a life of frugality in order to make sure that they can purchase expensive clothes, produced with the best of materials and tools.

A needle threader is a small sewing tool designed to help pull a thread through the eye of a sewing needle. Both hand and machine forms exist, but the information given here refers to the hand sewing version.

A sewing pin (Late Old English: pinn) is a small piece of pointed bone, metal, thorn, wood, etc., used to fasten or hold together parts of a structure. By the medieval period, in Europe, it had become a slender piece of wire (usually brass or iron) with a sharp tapered point and a flattened round head.

A punch needle is a long needle with a hollow stem and a bevelled point with a large eye. The point of the needle is punched through the ground material, rather than the whole needle being passed through it. The embroidery thread goes down the stem of the needle and is passed through the eye. 

There are various forms of quilter’s thimbles, but the basic form is a ring, thimble or finger sheath, which is used to push the needle through the various levels of cloth being sewn together to make a quilt of some kind. The finger sheath version often includes a disc of metal to help push the needle and to protect the digit.

The early 1860's saw the development of the Schiffli embroidery machine, which produces the machine made equivalent of running stitch, satin stitch and zig-zag stitch. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it still remains one of the most significant forms of commercial embroidery machines.

A  (sewing) needle is a small, slender and usually rounded tool used to carry a thread of some kind through a piece of cloth or related material, while carrying out plain (structural) or decorative sewing. A needle normally has a hole (eye) at one end and is shaped to a sharp or blunt point at the other.

The sharp needle (or 'sharp') is a type of needle used for general hand sewing, including decorative needlework. The sharp needle has a sharp point, rounded eye and is of medium length (generally between 4 and 5 cm). It is sometimes also called an appliqué needle.

The Singer sewing machine is a brand of domestic sewing and embroidery machines developed in the mid-nineteenth century in the USA.

A spindle is used for spinning, but is also a hard wood implement used in gold thread embroidery.

A stitching awl, also known as a sewing awl, is a tool consisting of a thin, tapered metal shaft coming to a sharp point, either straight or slightly bent. The shaft is normally fastened to a wooden handle. It has an eye at the sharp pointed end, through which a thread is drawn.

A straw needle is traditionally used in hat and bonnet making. It is long and fine, with a sharp point and a round eye that is not wider than the needle shaft. This type of needle is also often used for appliqué and smocking, as well as straw embroidery. Also known as a milliners needle. 

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