Victorian Monograms Motifs and Borders

Book excerpt: Monograms have always been a fashionable way for embroiderers to personalize fashion and home decor. In contrast to the subtle white-on-white embroidery often found on bed linens and handkerchiefs, the exuberantly colorful designs that follow are more modern than you might expect from Victorian needlework.This collection is reproduced from German textile designer Friedrich Fischbach's work titled "Bunt-Stickerei-Vorlagen" (colorful embroidery patterns) published around 1870. These individual letters, entwined monograms, motifs and borders are a remarkable resource for modern needleworkers to use on their own projects. Designs charted on graph paper are a universal language which can be translated into needlepoint and counted cross stitch, with each square on the pattern representing a single stitch. Author's Note: Please be aware that older alphabets may not contain all letters. For example, "I" and "J" were often considered interchangeable, and many alphabets contain only one or the other, not both. The elaborate diagonal monogram series ("L" and "M" are shown on the front cover) does not include "J", "X" or "Y".