Schwalm designs

How to embroider knife points? As already mentioned in Schwalm Designs – Knife Points (1) the decoration can be worked in different ways.
First the design is transferred to the fabric – here using a DEKA iron transfer pencil.
Coral Knot stitches are worked along the circle line.
Messerspitzen are made with Satin stitches. This is the easiest way of working knife points.
The center axis of each point is marked as a guideline.
In a circle design this is easy: The line should run through both the center and the top of the point.
All stitches of each point should lie parallel to this guideline. The stitches are placed close together following the design outline exactly.
The longest stitch should be distinctly longer than the adjacent stitches. In this way a sharp point can be established.
The first and the last stitch of each point should be very short. You want the knife points to be placed exactly next to one another to establish an attractive knife point decoration.
Working knife points with Blanket stitches (geschnürte Messerspitzen) is very similar.
However, the loops in the Blanket stitches make it impossible to place the Blanket stitches as close together as Satin stitches.
A guideline is not necessary to work pointed half-eyelet scallops (Schnürlochspitze) because all Blanket stitches are worked around a center point.
For the first stitch, the needle comes up in the middle of the base of a knife point.
The first Blanket stitch is worked to the left, and the thread is thightened.
In addition, the center hole is widened a little bit with the help of a needle. This will enable all stitches for this knife point to be be placed orderly.
To get a sharp point, the longest stitch should be distinctly longer than the adjacentstitches.
The three center stitches should be placed as close together as possible; so it is sometimes necessary to push the center stitch a little bit aside to work the next stitch.
The pointed half-eyelet scallops establish a nice decoration when the embroidery is washed and the remaining blue colour has disappeared. You will see the result in future posts.

As already mentioned in Schwalm Designs – Knife Points (1) it is possible to decorate simple Schwalm motifs by outlining the shapes with knife points placed close together. But how can one get uniformly sized and evenly distributed knife points around the edges of a shape if a computer drawing program is not available? For an example, I will describe the process for adding knife points to a heart shape.

You will need a stencil for the motif, tracing paper, a sharp pencil – a mechanical pencil is best – a triangle, and an eraser.
Using the stencil, a heart shape is drawn on the paper. The knife points should measure 0.8 cm in the width and 1 cm in the height. To establish a guideline for the height of the points, dots are marked 1 cm outside the outline with a short distance between.
Later the dots will be connected to make a line.
Starting at the lower heart point of the inner line, a mark is made every 0.4 cm around the heart. At every second mark, a perpendicular line is drawn outwards from the inner line to the guideline.
To establish the knife points, the remaining marks on the basic line are connected to the intersection points of the just-drawn lines at the guideline.
Reaching the top of the heart, either the lines of knife points end before the center point – leaving a small distance free between the last knife points and the heart’s upper point (on the right of the above picture), or the last knife points (on both sides of the concave point) are slanted a little so to be able to fit down into the concave point (on the left of the above picture).

Another possibility is to make the knife point at bottom of the heart narrower
or to make the bottom point wider without changing the distance of the marking points on the basic line.
Although scallops are approximately twice as wide as they are high, the knife point decorations should be either as wide as they are high or a little bit higher than wide.

Knife points are easier to work if they are somewhat higher, and thus more pointed. On the other hand, I think the corner arrangement looks more pleasant when the knife point’s height and width measurements are equal.
It is more difficult to embellish circles with knife points. It is possible to calculate it using geometry, but this is too complicated for an embroiderer. It is similar to the scallop decoration and so you can use the instructions here.

The simple motifs in Schwalm whitework are often enhanced with embellishment. The customary form of decorating simple Schwalm motifs is to outline the shapes with scallops; they look nice and they are easy to embroider. But there is another decoration for simple Schwalm motifs called “knife points”. Knife points are less common than scallops because they are more difficult to work.

The base of the knife points are placed close together.
Circles are outlined with uniform knife points evenly distributed around the perimeter of the circle.

Circle outlined with Satin stitch knife points and hearts outlined with Blanket stitch knife points on a parade cushion from 1821

There are 3 different types of knife points: points made with Satin stitches (Messerspitzen), points made with Blanket stitches (geschnürte Messerspitzen), and points made with Blanket stitches as pointed half-eyelet scallops (Schnürlochspitzen). Pointed half-eyelet scallops are very rare; they have to be stitched absolutely exactly to not end up looking like a half-eyelet scallop.

Heart outlined, except for the bottom point and the top concave center, with uniform and evenly distributed points. The thread weight is correct, and the stitches have been worked with the appropriate density.

Also, hearts are outlined with such points. The point at the bottom of the heart should be drawn somewhat longer and sometimes a little bit narrower. It is best to start the line drawing here (at the bottom of the heart) and to work to the top in even steps on the right and on the left side of the heart. Meeting at top of the heart, either the spacing is adjusted or the points are slanted a little bit.

Heart outlined with uneven Blanket stitch points in different sizes. The thread weight is correct with appropriately dense stitches. The bottom part should have an extra point.

It does not look very elegant to have two knife points meet at the lower heart point.

Heart outlined with uneven Blanket stitch points. The thread weight is correct and the density of the stitches is good. However, the treatment of the points at the heart’s lower point is not attractive.

Also, the effect is not harmonious to have knife points becoming smaller at the heart’s lower point.

Heart outlined with uneven Blanket stitch points. The thread weight is correct and the density of the stitches is good. However, the treatment of the points at the heart’s lower point is not attractive. In this example, one can see that the embroiderer had difficulty distributing the points evenly.

It is not easy to stitch Blanket stitch points. It is easier to work them with Stain stitches.

Heart outlined with Satin stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

Heart and flowerpot outlined with precise Satin stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

Motif outlined with precise Satin stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

Heart outlined with uniform and evenly distributed Satin stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

Heart outlined with uniform and evenly distributed Satin stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

Different from the scallop embellishment, which sometimes decorated only parts of a motif, I have only found point embellishment outlining the entire shape.

Tri-leaf flower outlined with uniform and evenly distributed Blanket stitch points utilizing the correct thread weight. The density of the stitches is good.

The thread should not be too thin and the stitches should lie densely together.