Anniversaries are always significant moments in someone's life, that's why the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) tried to find a special way to celebrate a very important historical landmark.
Founded in 1872, the RNS celebrates this year its 150th anniversary with a mission in mind – preserving the art of hand embroidery and taking it into the future.
To do so, the RSN launched a Stitch Bank in September last year: by visiting the Stitch Wall page, users will be able to discover and learn a variety of stitches.
Each stitch is accompanied by step-by-step photographs and illustrations, plus a video that will make things easier even for those amateurs who never tried their hand at doing any needlework but who would like to try this art.
There's a lot to discover here, from a basic Cross Stitch to a compact Brick Stitch or Byzantine Stitch to more complex ones like the Florentine or Rhodes Stitch, the T-Blocks Pattern, the Whipped Wheel or the Holbein Stitch.
Also known as double running stitch, the latter was used to stitch blackwork patterns and used to decorate specific sections of a garment such as the collars and cuffs as it would be visible from the front and the back (the name of this stitch comes from Hans Holbein the Younger, the 16th century portrait painter who showed blackwork cuffs on his subjects; on the Stitch Bank, you will be able to find the instructions to recreate a pattern from one of his painting).
The best thing about this initiative is the fact that it is an ongoing project and it will evolve throughout the time thanks to RSN partners all over the world that will contribute sending stitches from different traditions, cultures and times. The Stitch Bank started with 150 stitches, but another 50 stitches were just added.
Besides, the site also features suggestions on how to employ these stitches to create specific structures, motifs or embroideries.
The main idea behind this project is not just marking a historical landmark, but building a handy bank for users and, above all, preserving stitches for the future.
Quite often, certain traditions get lost throughout the decades for different reasons: many of us remember our grannies or aunts knitting, crocheting or doing some needlework, but, probably, never learnt these skills or forgot them. But, as the RSN highlights, stitches may get lost also in more aggressive ways, for example through wars or destruction.
The RSN hopes the bank will also be useful to museum curators and archivists: as some stitches fell out of fashion (and others were forgotten when manufacturing processes changed), it is not rare for curators to find an embroidered piece that they may not be able to identify because they can't recognize those stitches.
The Stitch Bank can be accessed for free, so we can all use it for a basic project that may help us relaxing or taking our minds off something, or employ it as the main educational tool to create a unique piece (try using some of these stitches to make a plastic canvas bag, it's a very satisfying project).
Favourite stitches can also be saved in a personal archive, a list of stitches (that can be shared also on WhatsApp) that may prove handy especially if you plan to use several stitches in a special project and want to keep them all in the same place.
Last but not least, if you want to get actively involved, you can adopt a stitch: it costs between £135 and £228 for each stitch entry to be prepared and you can pay for a whole stitch and get your name added to as a Stitch Sponsor or make a donation of any amount.
Learning a stitch a day may be a bit hard, especially for amateurs, but you can bet that trying one a day will take the blues away and help you train your brain to find back your concentration (try it if you have long Covid symptoms and need to find a way to refocus again). So what will you opt for? Closed Feather Stitch, Dutch Stitch, John Stitch, Pineapple Half Drop Stitch, Maltese Cross Stitch or Victorian Step Stitch?
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