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   Drawn Thread Work

     © Lorelei Halley 2009

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Drawn Thread Work is a form of embroidery in which fabric threads are removed, either by being pulled out (warp threads or weft threads) or cut out.  Particular styles of this kind of work include hemstitching, Hardanger, needle woven drawn thread work borders, Myreschka, reticella (reticello), Ruskin work.  One of the early forms of Hedebo also falls into this class.  (Hedebo changed considerably in style and structure over time; some early forms were geometric cutwork and drawn work, and some later forms were curvilinear cutwork.)  See Compare for distinctions between pulled thread and drawn thread.

There are 2 structural classes of drawn thread embroidery: 

Threads withdrawn in one direction only (just the corners will have threads drawn in 2 directions):

By Jenny Bargh of Sydney -

 637       640

  642 This one is a sampler, a sort of test piece on scrap fabric, but it is interesting to see how she thinks about planning a design.

A link to her blog:  http://jennysaustralianneedleart.blogspot.com/ 

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By Margaret  Bartlett   The first row shows the order of working as she adds detail to the piece.

    drawn thread embroidery 650

   651                          652

Marg's blog addresses: 

http://maggies-textiles.blogspot.com

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  234 c/o MFB  This is hemstitching.  I can't quite tell what the diamond shaped part in lower center is: it may be a pulled thread work background.

   279 JL   drawn thread work     

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Threads withdrawn in 2 directions:

Jenny Bargh's pieces:

 635 drawn thread embroidery 636   638  639

      641   643  644 645

http://jennysaustralianneedleart.blogspot.com/

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Pieces by Grace Lister:  In these she is using Russian drawn ground as the background, which means removing vertical and horizontal threads across the whole fabric (except where the white motif is).  She has left the white original fabric as the motif.  In the 2nd piece she did not cut all across, but did some interesting things with diagonal rows.

    667       671

 Grace Lister's photo page:  http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=36ufhwlk95fcr 

Examples by Unknown Embroiderers


   
232 c/o MFB  This has a drawn thread background.  The yellow appears to be darning worked over the withdrawn area to fill in the motifs, a common practice.  The green griffons are fabric appliquéd on top of the drawn thread background. 362 JL work in process      

See also Cutwork for embroideries with irregular or curvilinear holes, decorated.

Other online sources for photos of drawn thread work:

Carolyn Foley's blog
http://www.carorose.typepad.com    Look for tags "my embroidery" and "stitch explorer 2009"
http://carorose.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/drawn-pulled.html        drawn and pulled corner
http://carorose.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54ed11f4b883301156e3c324e970c-pi        the actual piece
She has a wide variety of different styles of drawn thread and pulled thread work, all very well made.

D. Paula Banerji
http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=2b0755x0rg44q

Yvette Stanton.  Writes books on some ethnic drawn thread techniques.
    Blog: http://white-threads.blogspot.com
    Website: http://www.vettycreations.com.au

Pam
    http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/2105845:Photo:39550

Mary Corbett                  Specializes in goldwork, but also drawn thread and whitework
    Blog: http://www.needlenthread.com
    Website: http://www.needlenthread.com

stitchinfingers photos search on drawn thread            also do search on whitework, pulled
    http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/search?q=drawn+thread

Susan                           fantastic drawn thread
    http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=vuaykd11e8f6   

Elissa K.
    http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/drawn-thread-sampler-1?context=user

Jocelyn
    Blog: http://pinsneedles.wordpress.com/
    http://pinsneedles.wordpress.com/category/whitework/              about her whitework sampler
    http://pinsneedles.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/

 

    Needlelace         Pulled Thread Work       Hardanger      Cutwork   

 Abbreviations     Bobbin Lace Introduction    Filet Lacis Tenerife    Embroidered Net