Embroidery

📖 In short

Embroidery is the art of making pretty designs on cloth with a needle and colored thread. People embroider flowers, birds and geometric shapes on clothes, cushions and tablecloths. It's a very old art known to every people in the world.

🤩 Did you know?

The Bayeux Tapestry is about 70 meters long and 50 centimeters wide.
The Bayeux Tapestry tells of events in 1066.
Today computer-controlled embroidery machines are made.
Cross-stitch embroidery is one of the easiest kinds for beginners.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Stitches

Every place where the thread goes in and out of the cloth is called a stitch. There are many kinds of stitches: satin stitch, cross stitch that looks like the letter X, chain stitch and the little French knot.

🔍 Arab embroidery

Embroidery holds a special place in Arab countries: the Palestinian dress is embroidered with many colorful stitches, and every region has its own patterns and colors. In Morocco kaftans are embroidered with gold thread.

💡 What do you need to start?

You need a piece of cloth, a needle, colored threads and a round hoop to hold the cloth tight. Then draw the shape with a light pencil and start stitching over it. Ask a grown-up to help you at first.

🎯 An embroidered story

In France there's an old embroidered cloth 70 meters long that tells in pictures the story of a battle about a thousand years ago, like a picture book made of fabric!

📸 More pictures

🧩 Test yourself

1 What tools do we need for embroidery?

2 What do we call each place where the thread goes in and out?

3 In France there's an old embroidered cloth ?? meters long that tells in pictures the story of a battle about a thousand years ago, like a picture book made of fabric!

4 Which picture shows “Embroidery”?