Alphabet Design Embroidery
How Pretty!

Alphabet design embroidery is not technically a "type" of embroidery but rather a term many people currently use to describe adding letters to a piece of cloth. Victorian ladies called in "marking" linens as it made it easy for them to tell what piece of clothing or article belonged to which family member. It was also indispensable when sending items out to be cleaned to ensure their return.

The beauty of the stitching, whether white on white or using colors, was so evident, it became common place for young ladies to embroider initials on handkerchiefs and other items to be used as gifts.

Victorian ladies would have to use graph paper and/or their artistic skills to enlarge an image and then use carbon paper to copy the image onto their fabrics.

Today, luckily for us, the computer is great (and fast) for this. Even the simplest of graphics programs can enlarge pictures with ease. Transferring the design can now be done using carbon paper as many Victorian ladies did or by using one of the many transfer methods available on the market today.

The instructions for the following alphabet design embroidery is as described in A Treatise on Embroidery-Crochet and Knitting with Illustrations, by M. Hemingway & Sons Silk Company, dated 1899:

Initials for Marking Household Linens

Ladies who are able to copy, will have no difficulty in following the simple characters - in drawing and enlarging them on the material to be embroidered.

By using carbon paper they can easily be transferred.

In embroidering letters make a foundation with Persian Floss, and cover the design with Spanish Floss, taking the stitches in opposite direction to those made in the filling, after the style of working Pepper berries.

The statement above "after the style of working Pepper berries" refers to the raised affect that is achieved when laying down a layer of stitches and then covering those with satin stitch in the opposite direction.