By Embroidery is the term given to stitching thread onto fabric to create patterns, and if you are thinking that embroidery is relatively new to clothing, think again, as garments that date back 30,000 years have been found to contain a basic form of hand-sewn patterns. In Siberia, they discovered complex embroidery that was stitched onto animal hide and these items are dated to 5-6,000BC, which shows how man was thinking of making clothing more attractive at such an early stage.
The Orient & Middle East
These are the regions where it is believed embroidery first occurred, with fine examples of lace embroidery found in China, where silk thread was often used to adorn a clothing item. Sewing in general was always popular, as this allowed a person to join animal hides, and before long, additional stitching was used for decoration. Persian craftsmen were also highly skilled at embroidery, as were the Egyptians, and there are findings throughout these regions to confirm this.
Middle Ages
In Europe, from the 11th century onwards, more and more hand-stitched embroidery found its way into clothing, especially for kings, queens and the aristocracy. As clothing become more elaborate, various forms of stitching were introduced, with gems and precious stones being included and designs ranged from very basic to extremely complex, as with fine gowns and robes.
Global Use of Embroidery
If you look at many different cultures in the world, you will see evidence of embroidery stitching, with Vietnam, Mexico and the Middle East all making good use of decorative stitching. If, for example, you are looking for Thailand embroidery machines, there is a Bangkok based company that supplies computerised embroidery machines, and they have machines to suit every type of fine embroidery.
Machine Embroidery
Fast forward to the present day and you have state of the art computerised embroidery machines that are easy to configure and will accurately replicate the original pattern as many times as you wish. These machines really do take the hard work out of embroidery and they are to be found in almost all sewing factories, due to the consistent high quality sewing they produce.
Embroidery will always have a place in the garment industry and with the development of technology, computers allow us to program the stitching, with many powerful features. With a range of silk and cotton threads, one can now decorate garments with embroidery in a very short space of time.
