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Wool and Yarn > General Craft > Embroidery > The History Of Embroidery

The History Of Embroidery

the history of embroidery

The history of embroidery dates back since man began to wear clothes. The use of embroidery to decorate clothes, came about as an art form and has origins that can be traced back as far as the Iron Age. It is known that primitive man discovered he could use thread to join pieces of fur together to make clothing and as a natural progression, he discovered he could make decorative patterns on the clothes as well. Iron Age man also used colourful beads, stones and bones to add decorations.

There are still several excellent examples of embroidery work surviving in museums all over the world. Samples that have come from China, Persia, India and England are commonplace, but also ancient Egyptians used embroidery as a formal declaration. Each country has its own distinctive style of embroidery, which usually incorporates imagery from that country's traditions and cultural images from their history.

Embroidery was considered to be a symbol of wealth and clothing was used to portray this. Many scenes from history are found on embroidered fabric, such as the Bayeux tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hasttings in 1066.

With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution machines were made which helped embroidery become more commonplace. The discovery of the shuttle revolutionised the embroidery industry in the 1880s. This began a chain of events which led to the development of the sewing machine in the 1860s and then onto the invention of hand powered embroidery looms in the 1870s.

Embroidery today sees machine embroidery growing in leaps and bounds. Computers are also used to help the sewing technique become more readily available and help the process of mass production of embroidered designs.

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