I recently held a special piece in my hands. Dated 1843, it appears to be a wedding bedsheet, as indicated by the letter combinations on the left side of the crown—C C H L—and on the right side—A C H L. C and A are the initials of the first names, and C H L is an abbreviation of the surname.
Although I have the cloth from Schwalm, the font and crown are not typical of Schwalm. A few special embroideries prompt me to present the details here.
The visible part of the sheet, which hung over the front edge of the bed and was decorated with a crown, initials, and the year, was made from the finest 21-cm-thread-count linen.
The lower edge is decorated with a two-centimeter-wide needle-weaving hem with a block pattern.
On the side panels you will find a one and a half centimeter wide cube needle-weaving hem.
Since the panels of handwoven linen were usually less than a meter wide, several panels had to be placed side by side.
For the part not visible to the viewer, a much coarser, 15/16-cm-thread-count linen was chosen.
A special feature that I hadn’t seen before were the connecting stitches in the style of a needle-weaving hem.
The distance between the two fabric panels is approximately 8 mm. Three threads were laid close together from one fabric panel to the opposite one, then weaved halfway. Then—and this is the special feature—the thread was moved to the nearest completed needle-weaving bridge and there wrapped around the center of the first laid thread. On the way back to the started needle-weaving bridge, the working thread was wrapped. Then the needle-weaving bridge was finished. It has a width of approximately 3 mm. The next bridge was started at a distance of approximately 4 mm.
Also unusual are the horizontal connections between the multi-unit needle-weaving bridges of the hem with block pattern on the lower edge.
See also:
Combining Lengths of Linen to Make Larger Pieces (1)
Combining Lengths of Linen to Make Larger Pieces (2)
Plaited Insertion stitch (Interlaced Insertion stitch) – how to work
