Royal School of Needlework - Stitch Bank

Jenny W and Germaine (from the Friday group) attended a webinar held by the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) where they explained the development and use of the Stitch Bank.

The Stitch Bank has been developed by the RSN to collect, demonstrate and preserve stitches used throughout history.

The team which were both from the RSN - including the chair - Susan Kay-Williams, RSN tutor Helen McCook, curator Dr. Isabella Rosner, a Diploma student from overseas, a representative from the National Trust and a textile teacher from whom the RSN has received students, spoke to an audience from around world.

The stitch bank: https://rsnstitchbank.org

If you go to the RSN website, you will see round icons of the various stitches. The first collection shown is: Winter 2023- 25 Elizabethan Stitches.

There are currently 375 stitches on the website, 25 are being released every quarter- the next ones are due in March 2024.

They are shown on the main page, arranged alphabetically, but you can search by stitch use, structure and technique.

When you click onto a stitch you will be shown a photographic image and a short description. Under this description there are some categories and a small button where you can save the stitches for future use. You will need to create a free account to do this. Under these categories you will see further reading.

As you scroll down the page you will see a series of photographs and text (at the top you can flip the view for a left-handed demonstration).

Finally, at the bottom there are also “how-to” videos.

You will also find a narrative of the:-

• ·        Structure of the stitch
• ·        Common uses
• ·        Embroidery Technique
• ·        Related stitches and
• ·        Examples from an archived piece (where they have them).

This resource is completely free to use.

      Collection and Archive

Dr. Rosner spoke about the development of their digitisation project where they are starting to take extensive photographs, and develop written context for the pieces.  To do this, Dr. Rosner and her team are using the stitch bank to identify the way in which some of the pieces have been made.   Eventually, all of their collection will be photographed and analysed, the first 100 pieces should be documented and released by Easter.  They will also be shown on their Instagram page: RoyalNeedlworkCollection. 

To support the Stitch bank

The team did ask for financial support - for £25 you can sponsor a stitch for 12 months - your name will be put onto their website against that stitch.