What is Embroidery?

Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials with designs stitched in strands of yarn or thread using a needle. Embroidery can also incorporate materials such as beads, metal strips, pearls, quills and sequins. It is classified according to its underlying foundation fabric and whether the design is stitched on top of or through the foundation fabric.

In India there are 72 forms of embroidery in India . The most decorative and elaborate embroidery in India is called Zardosi. This particular embroidery uses fine strands of metal instead of thread; another type is called Ari which is where the fabric is stretched on a frame and stitches are created with a long needle. The needle carries anything from beads to sequins and any other forms of decorations.

In counted-thread embroidery, patterns are created by inserting stitches over a pre-determined number of threads in the foundation fabric. Cross-stitch and needlepoint are examples of counted-thread embroidery. In surface embroidery, patterns are made on top of the foundation fabric using laid threads and decorative stitches. In Canvas work, threads are stitched through a fabric mesh to create a dense pattern that covers the foundation fabric entirely.

Women have been working embroidery patterns for centuries and needlework has been seen all through history from one kind of form or another. Designs come form Portuguese, Dutch and England , eventually China and finally India have all imported designs of embroidery in one kind of form or another.

The world of embroidery today offers many opportunities for creativity, not just in the production of designs with walk stitches, regular fills, and columns, but also by utilizing special machines and techniques that companies, creative embroiderers and digitizers have developed over time.

Embroidery has also become a method of personalizing items such as towels, bathrobes, aprons, shirts, jackets and hats with the owner's initials or name. Licensed professional and college sports merchandise such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, and polo shirts often include embroidered team logos. Many companies have either a polo shirt or a baseball cap with their logo embroidered on it. Digitizing software has enabled machine embroiderers to design their own patterns and sew them, which has been the biggest boom in machine embroidery since the invention of the sewing machine.

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