Parma Embroidery

I really like textured needlework and Parma Embroidery is a very textured technique. The principle stitch is a composition of three parallel rows of Chain Stitches with two rows of Buttonhole Stitches worked over the first and second and second and third Chain Stitch rows with the festoons resting against each other down the middle of the band.

Sound complicated? It's not.


As with any technique however, practice improves stitch tension and curves can be a bit tricky – you will need to compensate in your Chain Stitch rows.

Here are some photos of works from Emporium Magazine, 1926, Vol. LXIII No. 374. Both are cushions:



The Patronato dei Lavori Femminili Parmensi (the Society of Parmese Feminine Works) was formed in the early 1920s providing a means of support for the women of Parma through needlework. Under the direction of Bianca Bonfigli Bignotti, the women were set to work embroidering Romanesque designs from local cathedrals, baptisteries, ornate doorways and sculpted friezes.

They chose heavy, natural or undyed linen fabric and natural cotton floche thread and went about "sculpting with the needle". The stitches chosen to best imitate the relief effect of the motifs are attributed to the talents of Irma Lanza Balestrieri.

In 1925 the Society produced a book which was revised and reprinted in 1926 called: Motivi Ornamentali dei Nostri Monumenti Studiati per L'Applicazione al Ricamo (Ornamental Motifs of Our Monuments Studied for the Application of Embroidery).

Parma Embroidery earned a Silver Medallion in Florence in 1925 and a Gold Medallion at the Mostra dell'Artiginato e delle Piccole Industrie di Firenze (Artisan and Small Industries Exhibition of Florence) in 1926.

All traces of the Society are lost after the Second World War but Parma Embroidery is mentioned in needlework manuals produced in the second half of the 20th century. You can even see something in English in the Anchor Manual of Needlework reprinted by Interweave Press in 1990.

Thanks to the extensive research of Manuela Soldi, in 2009 the second edition of Motivi Ornamentali dei Nostri Monumenti Studiati per L'Applicazione al Ricamo was reprinted with a well-documented introduction, some pictorial images from other Italian publications of the epoch and even some technical instructions done by Liliana Babbi Cappelletti. You can get this publication from Elena at Italian Needlecrafts.

Yvette has posted a great picture on her blog of how your curves can look, once you have mastered this stitch!

Sicilian Drawn Thread Work - II

Today a lovely little surprise came in the mail, a little coaster of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work '700. It's done on super-fine linen with what appears to be Pearl Cotton thread. The netted ground is made by withdrawing both warp and weft threads and wrapping the bars. The designs are executed in a Darning Stitch. The piece measures 4.25 inches squared.


Sicilian Drawn Thread Work dates back to the late 14th century and today falls into three main categories: '400, '500 and '700.

'400: designs are executed in the Linen Stitch on a netted ground described above.

Here is an example of the Linen Stitch that I showed you in a previous post. Note: this is Filet work and NOT Sicilian Drawn Thread work - the netting shown here is knotted and inserted. Sicilian Drawn Thread Work '400 is executed on a netting ground made from the ground fabric and uses the Linen Stitch for the motifs.



'500: designs are executed by constructing the netted ground around motifs formed by cutting away the ground fabric and then outlining them in overcasting. This is a piece of '500 that I talked to you about in a previous post:


('500 can also be reversed by executing the overcasting around a voided design area.) Here is a little example I did at the Italia Invita Workshop by Giovanna Gurrieri in 2007:


'700: motifs are darned onto a netted ground, described above (my little coaster would be an example of '700).

There were also two other categories of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work, the '800 and '500 Vittoria but I'm told that these types have all but disappeared.

The Anchor Manual of Needlework has a little section on Sicilian Drawn Thread Work but there is not much in the way of books on the subject. If you're lucky enough on Ebay and can afford the crazy prices, you might look for Lo Sfilato Sardo e Siciliano by Amelia Brizzi Ramazzotti published in the early 1920s. An excellent didactic booklet for making the netting from the ground fabric is: La Rete A Sfilato Eseguita Su Tessuto by Liliana Babbi Cappelletti. I don't see the English version on Elena's website Italian Needlecrafts, but you may want to write to her, or if the English version is out of print, then the Italian Version can be found at Tombolo Disegni (click on Libri/Books, then Libri/Ricamo, then Ricamo Italiani and send an email request to order - it's no. 6 in a listing inside a box with no photos near the bottom of the page).

Annalisa has posted a great tutorial on her blog of how to get started by making your basic netting ground. She will continue with a later tutorial of how to do the stitching of the motifs. She has kindly posted my English translations under the Italian.

Exquisite Drawn-Thread Work Corners

I showed you some of Elisabetta Holzer Spinelli's Drawn-Thread Work back in May of this year. I meant to show you a few of her corner treatments a lot sooner.

Italian needlework has the most elaborate Drawn-Thread Work that I've ever seen. The possibilities and combinations are endless and mixing in a superb design sense gives breathtaking results.

My photos do not by any means do these exquisite corner treatments justice.


I apologize for the blurry images, but these were the best that I took. There are several more but you only get a sense of what they are, so I won't post them. Poor Elisabetta! This means that I will have to visit her again with a better camera and beg to spend the afternoon oohing and ahhing over her linen closet.


Don't you love the colour combination too? The subtle use of a different colour accents the work beautifully!


Elisabetta has so much patience and skill and is a joy to watch when she's stitching or explaining something. I'm afraid that if I ever got a chance to enroll in one of her classes, I'd just sit and drool!

Woven Souvenirs from the Milan World's Fair 1906

Today we stretch the relevancy of this post to Italian Needlework. Really I can say there is no needlework involved but we can squeeze under the umbrella of Italian textiles. It's my blog so I guess I can justify anything! The souvenir above features the portraits of the King and Queen of Italy. Click on the photos of a closer look.

I have been very kindly given photos and the permission to post them of souvenir cards from the 1906 Milan World's Fair which are woven silk pictures.




Here is what the back of the souvenir above looks like:


These souvenirs were woven on Jacquard looms, at the time a relatively recent invention which permitted intricately woven patterns. We took a look at some hand-operated Jacquard looms in Perugia in this post, however the looms which wove these souvenirs were almost certainly mechanized. I imagine that as the 1906 Milan World's Fair saw some 7,500,000 visitors the required number of souvenirs would have taxed even the most proficient hand-weavers!

These silk woven souvenirs are all made by L. Paroli & C. di Milano. I have been unsuccessful in finding out anything on this company.

I am told that even though there may have been a huge quantity of these souvenirs made, they are quite rare to find today, a mere century later. Silk woven souvenirs in good shape are even more difficult to find.

Enormous thanks to Ampelio of the NING group MI1906 for the photos and historical information!

Fine Italian Whitework III

I recently purchased an external hard drive for my Macintosh computer and have spent the last few days copying all my backup CDs onto it so that I can now have easier access to all my photos and files.

I like to look over the photos especially when I'm feeling dull due to the weather (constant rain these days). I wanted to share with you a beautiful Whitework handkerchief that I saw at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum last year in Milan.

I've made the photos black and white in order to show you more detail at a higher resolution, click on the photos for a closer look.

This fine handkerchief (possibly lawn?) was so thin and fragile but the work on it was jaw-dropping. A ship in one corner surrounded by ribbons, foliage and flowers. Open areas are filled in with needle lace stitches:


Here is the best detail shot that I have, the rest are quite blurry. Catch the detail on the ship:

Sorry I was too awestruck to get any historical data on this handkerchief – just means I'll have to go back for another look!

Thank you to Stefania for the photos!

Punto Perugino - New Book

I love when things are waiting in the mail for me when I get home!


I told you about Punto Perugino or Perugian Embroidery in a previous post. This new book has a variety of patterns for tablerunners, table centres, placemats, curtains, cushions as well as some ideas for smaller items like bookmarks and scissor fobs.

As well as covering the Satin Stitch designs, there are a few other Counted Thread work borders and patterns all with step-by-step photos and graphed patterns. How to treat a mitred corner is also covered. A wonderful Drawn Thread work pattern is explained and there are several ideas of how it may be applied to different projects. The text is in Italian.

There are photos of some of the author's other embroidery works including an exquisite Macramé fringe and delicious Aemilia Ars needle lace though these projects are not explained in the text.

All diagrams and patterns are very clear and easy to understand without a need for knowledge of the Italian language. Everything is in full colour.

Elena at Italian Needlecrafts has this book available for purchase and you can see some of the inside pages that she has scanned to show you.

Punto Avorio - Umbrian Embroidery Edging

We have talked about the different ways to use Punto Avorio which appears in several Italian needlework techniques like Puncetto needle lace.

It seems to be executed in many different ways in Umbrian Embroidery. We saw it used as a filling – packed tightly together (inside the circle motif) and used for a design line – widely spaced (for the curlycue motif) and now as an edging which can then be used to join pieces of fabric together.

Here we use Punto Avorio to secure the hem and to begin one of the motifs of Umbrian Embroidery called "Pignattina".

For those of you who are curious: the fabric I'm using is Ivory-coloured Sotema 20L 38ct linen, a tapestry no. 26 needle and Ecrù-coloured (926) Anchor Coton a Broder no. 25 thread.

While I was shooting the following photos this morning, the weather changed about 4 times, from dark, heavy clouds to pouring rain to sunshine to light clouds so I'm sorry if the lighting is so varied!

Here in photos 1 and 2, I did some Punto Avorio stitches along the hem going from left to right and then to do the Pignattina motif, I worked back toward the right slipping under only the threads in the spaces of the previous stitches. Click on the photos for a closer look.

Going back, I did 7 Punto Avorio stitches, then forward again 7, back 7 and so on until I had five rows of 7 Punto Avorio stitches sticking out over the hemline. They form a little rectangle. You can get a better idea of the height of my rectangle from photo 4.


At the end of my fifth row, I am on the left-hand side of my Pignattina motif. At this point I go down to my hemline and do another Punto Avorio stitch into the next open space to the left so that I get a little leg beside my motif (photo 3).

In photo 4 I go back up and do another Punto Avorio stitch in between the first two stitches of my row so that now I have two legs.

Back down beside what I did in photo 3, I make another Punto Avorio stitch to the left. Now I have three legs (photo 5).

I cover the three legs together with 8 Punto Avorio stitches, working my way back up to the top left-hand side of my rectangle (photo 6).


In photo 7 I start back across the top of my rectangle with another row of 7 Punto Avorio stitches.

When I reach the right-hand side, I go down to my hemline and do another Punto Avorio to match the others along the hem. I now have a leg to the right of my Pignattina motif (photo 8).

Back up to the top and another Punto Avorio stitch, like we did on the left-hand side, to make a second leg (photo 9). I will not, however make a third leg as I need to keep moving along my hemline to the right. Now I will cover my two legs with 8 Punto Avorio stitches (photo 10).


When I reach the hem again, I continue on with my Punto Avorio stitches along the hemline until I want to make another motif.

Note: I used a pin to tack the fabric down to my chair so I could take photos - it is not required for the stitching.


In between Pignattina motifs, you can do a number of other things like these needlewoven picots called Pifferini.


My tension needs work but it gets easier as you go on down the hemline. I basted my hem down and then after I was finished all the Punto Avorio stitches, I cut away my basting.

You can leave these like this, or use them to attach your piece of embroidery to another piece. The Pignattine fill the channel between the two attached pieces. If I understand correctly, you attach the two pieces together while executing the Pignattina motifs of the second piece.

I'm going to stitch up a second hemline and give this a try. I'll let you know how it goes.