Beeton's Book of Needlework
Public-domain ebook
Beeton's Book of Needlework
by Mrs. Beeton
Language: en1,567 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Technology·Crafts·How To ...
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #15147.
About this book
Beeton’s Book of Needlework is a comprehensive manual that opens with a series of detailed instructions for a wide range of hand‑crafts, tatting, embroidery, crochet, knitting, netting, Berlin wool work, point lace and guipure d’art. Each section is prefaced by a list of required materials, followed by step‑by‑step directions and illustrated patterns, from simple monograms to elaborate collars. The opening pages explain the evolution of tatting, describe the shuttle’s construction, and then launch straight into a full pattern for a pine‑motif collar, complete with precise stitch counts, cotton specifications, and finishing notes. The book’s structure reflects the Victorian aim of marrying practical household duties with refined decorative arts, presenting both the theory and the exact measurements needed to reproduce each design.
The tone is instructional and earnest, written in the formal, didactic style of the late‑nineteenth century. It assumes a reader who values meticulous guidance, enjoys the ritual of measuring yarn, and is comfortable with the period’s gendered language about women’s “practical duties.” Those with a penchant for historical craft techniques, collectors of vintage pattern books, or modern makers seeking authentic Victorian methods will find the volume both a useful reference and a window into the era’s domestic artistry.
The opening · free to read
INSTRUCTIONS in TATTING, in EMBROIDERY, in CROCHET, in KNITTING and NETTING, in BERLIN WOOL WORK, in POINT LACE, and GUIPURE D'ART are prefixed to the pages devoted to these separate branches of needlework. The whole work is interspersed with coloured and other Patterns in Point Lace, Guipure d'Art, Tatting, Embroidery, and Designs for Monograms and Initials for marking handkerchiefs and table-linen. The quantity of materials required for each class of work is also given with every pattern.
The idea of combining a series of minute and exact instructions in fancy needlework with useful patterns was conceived some years ago by one whose life was devoted to the inculcation of the practical duties of woman's life, and to assisting her sex in their daily work of HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT and REFINEMENT.
Her great wish was that her BOOK OF NEEDLEWORK should be as valuable in its way to her Countrywomen as her work upon Household Management was useful in showing the best mode of providing for the diurnal wants of families. Other hands have brought to a conclusion her original plans. The best attainable workers have contributed to this volume. Only those who knew the extent of the late Mrs. Beeton's design, will miss, in the pages now before them, "the touch of a vanished hand."
S.O.B.
Paternoster Row, 1870.
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