Ricamo d'Assia

When I first started researching Italian needlework I had a long list of names that I had taken off of an Italian stitching website which was in Italian (of course). I had no idea if these names were "Italian" techniques or just the Italian names for techniques from other countries.

Ricamo d'Assia was one that I liked very much, lots of Openwork and Whitework. When I was looking for instructions in English for the Gigliuccio hemstitch, I found Renate Fernau's book on Schwalm Whitework Embroidery. Long after I was done learning how to do the hemstitch that I had been so single-mindedly looking for, I noticed the rest of the book. The embroidery looked a lot like... Ricamo d'Assia. (Ricamo is 'embroidery' in Italian)

This was one of those times when the technique I was researching was not in fact an "Italian" technique per se... Ricamo d'Assia is the Italian term for Schwalm Whitework. What I did discover however, was that it is immensely popular in Italy and there are lots of embroiderers there who do it. I got a little sidetracked by seeing so many lovely examples of this embroidery done by Italian ladies that of course I even had to try a bit myself.

Last year when I was in Italy I couldn't help myself and just had to get a book on Ricamo d'Assia as it was written by an Italian embroidery teacher. Guida al ricamo d'Assia is packed full of colour instructional photos explaining over 30 stitches. There are projects with varying levels of difficulty and even a bit about the stitches that surround the traditional motifs. The text is in Italian but the photos and diagrams are so good that you'll be able to figure out what to do without the written instructions. You can get it direct from the author Stefania Bressan. There is a book review at Tuttoricamo under "Books" and then "Pulled Thread and Schwalm Embroidery".

I mention this technique here because it did have me researching it for awhile before I figured out what it was, so if anyone else out there happened to wonder, now you know. If you're anything like me though, you are easily distracted by beautiful embroidery and this is well worth a look from the Italian point of view.

This delightful little pincushion is a gift that I received from Italy:

Il Gigliuccio - Peahole Hemstitch

As can happen with many different stitches and embroidery techniques, there are different ways to execute a stitch. This can depend on the country where it is being done, or in the case of Italy: the region or even the town. Some associate the Gigliuccio's origins with Tuscany where it is the traditional edging of Punto Antico which some also associate with Tuscany, but in truth it is done all over Italy.

Some call the Gigliuccio the Fleur des lys stitch and associate it with Florence and the lily. Some associate it with the Gigliucci family of Fermo, Italy where it is said there is evidence of the stitch as far back as the end of the 1600s. We might be safe to say it is definitely an Italian stitch from the region that became Italy in the late 1800s – because technically Italy was not officially "Italy" before the Unification. I say 'might' because when I did finally find something that looked like the Gigliuccio I'd seen in RAKAM, it was in a Schwalm book by Renate Fernau and it was called the Peahole Hemstitch.

If you don't care too much about where it came from, then we can move on to what it is, because here, more or less most people are in agreement. More or less. ;-)

Basically it is a Drawn-Thread technique consisting of groups of knotted bundles in an open channel between two rows of Four-Sided Stitch, also known as Italian Hemstitch. There is a tutorial for executing it on the right side of the fabric here, and a two-part tutorial for using it to secure a hem, executing it on the back side of the work starting here and ending here.

There are many different ways to execute the Gigliuccio hemstitch, you will need to try a couple different ones (I'm sure there are other methods that I haven't yet discovered) to see which one you like best, regardless of the technique used to make it, the result is a beautiful openwork channel which plays with the effects of chiaroscuro and is very pleasing to the eye.

It can be done in tone-on-tone, in light-coloured thread on dark fabric or dark-coloured thread on light fabric: each gives a different effect. Done in multiple rows at a hemline, or in a single row to connect the motifs of a tablecloth, or however else you can imagine it, it is always attractive. Do a Google image search for some inspirational photos!