Sicilian Drawn Thread Work - new book!

Back in 2007 when I attended the Italia Invita Forum in Rimini, I took a two-hour class with the author of this book, Giovanna Gurrieri. It took intense concentration both to learn the technique and understand the Italian but I wanted to learn it so badly and to learn it from this maestra because she is so talented and makes such beautiful things. I was sure my little class which consisted of three other ladies (all Italians) thought I was very strange as I asked very detailed questions and stopped to write notes constantly because I did not want to get home and not remember anything.

Giovanna Gurrieri comes from Ragusa, a town in Sicily that is famous for its Sicilian Drawn Thread Work. This book is her commitment to passing on this wonderful technique and to aid in this, the text of the book is in three languages: Italian, French and English. To my knowledge this is the only book on Sicilian Drawn Thread Work in English.

After the preface, there is a page on the history of this technique and then a section on the materials required, two methods of transferring designs on to the fabric, the correct and incorrect ways to cut the fabric, information on the various styles (of which there are five: 400, 500, 700, Inverse and Chiaramonte), discussion on even weave and non-even weave fabric, how to work the embroidered netting, changing your thread, working the overcasting stitch for the 500 and Inverse styles which includes changing threads and working corners, working the darning stitch for the 700 style, the Chiaramonte stitch, washing, ironing and care instructions. Note: there are no instructions on the 400 style though there are a few tips and information about it. The book is 56 pages and 8.25 x 11.75 inches.

Breakdown of styles:

The 400 style:

400 style uses the darning stitch and the cloth stitch.

The 500 style:

500 style uses the overcast stitch around the perimeter of the designs.

The 700 style:

700 style uses the darning stitch.

The Inverse style:

Inverse style uses the overcast stitch around voided designs.

The Chiaramonte style:

Chiaramonte style uses this characteristic motif.

(Note, these photos are all my own work with the exception of the Chiaramonte which is a scan of a piece that was gifted to me and therefore are not examples from the above-mentioned book.)

I look forward to a time when I can sit down with this manual and finally start a work of the 500 style which is my favourite Sicilian Drawn Thread Work style.

You can purchase this book from Tombolo Disegni, send an email to order.

Sicilian Drawn Thread Work book

I have never seen a book entirely dedicated to teaching Sicilian Drawn Thread Work until this past spring. The Cooperative Ma.Gi.Co Ricami from Modica, Sicily put together a fine group of patterns and step-by-step instructions for the French publishing house Les éditions de saxe. The text therefore is in French and Italian.

In 2009 I attended one of their free 1 hour classes on Sicilian Drawn Thread Work at the Italia Invita Forum. They showed me how to execute a netted area which is the base for all types of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work. I wanted to learn so much more but there just wasn't the opportunity. At that time they did not have anything prepared in the way of instructions that I could take away with me but I did purchase a finished piece and an already-cut piece of fabric from them which I told you about in this post.

When a friend and I talked to the ladies at the Cooperative Ma.Gi.Co Ricami booth at the Italia Invita Forum in 2011 they said that the French publishing house had approached them with the idea of the book. It is 80 pages of colour photos and a pull-out section with patterns. There are traditional and non-tradition patterns including some fun whimsical ideas for kid's things... would you let your baby drool all over your Drawn Thread Work? I'm not sure I would but the bibs and things are awfully cute.

The main three different types of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work are explained and the different languages are in different colours and therefore easily followed when searching for the text you're using. There is a tutorial at Tuttoricamo's new blog on how to achieve these different effects.

You can get this book from Tombolo Disegni, click on "Libri", then "Libri Ricamo", then "Sfilati ed Assia", there you can also see some more pages of this book.

Chiaramonte Gulfi

Chiaramonte Gulfi was known as the balcony of Sicily in the previous century for it's panoramic position: it rests atop a hillside at nearly 700 metres above sea level and looks out over the Ippari Valley. On a clear day you can see the Mediterranean Sea in one direction and Mount Etna in the other in a breathtaking view you can take in from the Villa Comunale.

We started out from our hotel in Comiso which is relatively nearby, taking the only bus which turned out to be the school bus that stopped at all the surrounding towns before taking the students to Chiaramonte Gulfi. What initially seemed a short journey was really a very long and winding road on a bus full of enthusiastic and boisterous students!

You live and you learn and since we were in an adventurous mood we took it in stride and climbed the steep road to Chiaramonte Gulfi from the bus stop at the foot of town happy to have arrived at last. In a bar where we had fantastic pastries we learned where to go to get tickets for the Sicilian Drawnthread Museum [Museo dello Sfilato], impressed that all the men we asked knew all about it.

At the Museo dei Cimeli Storico Militari [Museum of Historic Military Relics] in the main Piazza Duomo (which is where you need to buy your ticket to the museum) we met a lovely lady who offered to accompany us to the Drawnthread Museum.

The Museo dello Sfilato lies in Via Lauria 4 at the top of a steep stairway but there are signs pointing you in the right direction made of ceramic tiles:

Our guide pointed out many other things along the way and we admired many sets of embroidered curtains in the houses that we passed:

The museum itself seems small but is packed solid with needlework and definitely worth the trip.

Entrance Hall of the Museo dello Sfilato, Chiaramonte Gulfi.

We spent a lovely morning drooling over all the clothing, table linens, household furnishings and other exquisitely embroidered items in the museum and our guide told us as much as she could about the museum and the works within. She was a member of the Associazione dell'Arte del Ricamo e dello Sfilato a Chiaramonte Gulfi [Association of the Art of Embroidery and Drawnthread of Chiaramonte Gulfi] so her love of the embroidered pieces shone through when she was telling us about them.

A couple of weeks later at the Italia Invita Forum in Parma, we met other women from this association who had a booth at the Forum. A friend bought me a birthday gift of a piece of Drawnthread work from them which has the embroidery known as the Chiaramonte Stitch:

Close up of the Chiaramonte Stitch.

There is a great tutorial of this stitch on Tuttoricamo, click on the British flag for the English pages, then click on "How it's Done" and then "Chiaramonte Stitch".

We hired a driver from the travel agency in the Piazza Duomo to take us back to Comiso so we could be back in time for our lessons with Roberta Rizza in the afternoon.

Special thanks to Elisabetta for the use of her photos!

Round Knotted Netting

I told you about Enza Termine of Sicily and her Round Filet Netting in this post here last year but I didn't have any photos of my own to show you her exquisite work.

That has changed, look what came in the mail today!

Hand-made knotted netting made with gold thread by Enza Termine.

Hand-made rete a rosoni [circular netting] by Enza Termine.

Today I received two pieces hand-made by Enza herself and they are marvelous! I can't stop looking at them.

Enza has a tutorial (in Italian) on her website for the art of Round Knotted Netting, and you can find an English translation of an article she wrote on the subject at Tuttoricamo, click on the British Flag for the English pages, then click on "Techniques", then "Filet and Bosa Filet", then click on the word "circular" in the fifth paragraph. There are also some great tutorials in English at Rita Bartholomew's website here. There is a bit on circular netting here.

Thank you Enza!!

Sicilian Drawn Thread Work

In April I went to Sicily with a stitching friend to take a Sicilian Drawn Thread Work course from Roberta Rizza in Comiso.

Roberta has a lovely shop in Comiso called Passione Ricamo (at the corner of Via Salvatore Quasimodo and Via dei Roveri) where she and her mother Franca run workshops and have a large display area for all their wonderful embroideries.

Lots of beautiful things in the shop windows!

There is a special area for embroidery courses well away from the commercial area with lots of great lighting. The course lasted three days for a total of 12 hours. We started on a Wednesday morning and our fabric was presented to us already cut and ready to go.

We learned that Sicilian Drawn Thread Work is made up of three principal types: '400, '500 and '700 and a few variations. The '500 Inverso is a variation of the '500. Patterns from the different historical periods are traditionally used with each different type (eg. patterns from the 15th century are used with '400 and so on). You can, however, use any cross stitch or filet pattern you like for executing this kind of embroidery.

A netted ground is prepared for most types of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work by cutting the ground fabric warp and weft threads and then wrapping the bars with thread. The fabric used is usually a high count evenweave linen. For the Cloth Stitch which is used in the '400 type of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work the fabric is then "rewoven" back into the netted ground with thread to fill the squares of the design. The '400 is done before wrapping the netted ground. For '700 the design is woven onto the completed netted ground using the Darning Stitch. Here is an example of the two types together, the top left corner is the '700 and the petals are done in the '400:

In the '500 type of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work the design area is not cut out of the middle of the netted ground but instead the ground fabric is left and it is outlined with an overcasting stitch:

'500 Inverso is the design made up of the netting and an overcast stitch outlining the edge of the design:

Here is our course project, the first photo is what I've got done so far on mine and then a photo of the finished stitched sample in the shop:

On the last day of the course, we were taught how to cut the fabric. Of course I miscalculated and cut mine wrong! It is fantastic to have a teacher to explain everything to you, so much more enjoyable than learning from a book at home alone! I feel confident in cutting out a new design but I'll have to lock myself in a room alone with no distractions to do it!

Roberta is an excellent teacher and gave us lots of hints and tips for working our patterns. She likes to travel around Italy to teach and you can invite her to your place by giving her a call: +39 333 705 3976.

There is an excellent tutorial at Tuttoricamo, click on the British flag for the English pages, then click on "How it's done" and then on "Sicilian Drawn Thread Work". 

Thanks to Elisabetta for the photo of the works in the shop window!

Italian Holiday

Well, if you've been wondering what had happened to me, I've been in Italy for a month!

I just got back and haven't unpacked yet but I wanted to give you a little preview of things to come...

I visited Bologna (needlelace piece from the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte Museum in Bologna):

...Sicily (sign for the Drawn Thread Work Museum in Chiaramonte Gulfi):

...Sardinia (Byssus Museum in Sant'Antioco):

...Parma (Puncetto stand at the Italia Invita Textile Forum 2011):

...and Florence (Palazzo Davanzati Museum and the trapunto quilt reproduction stitched by Silvana Vannini):

It was a needlework-themed holiday and I saw and did so very many lovely things!

Special thanks to Elisabetta for the photos of Bologna and Sicily! 

Please be patient while I get myself organized and start to answer all your emails!!

Mezza Mandolina - Complex Netting

I received an intriguing email some weeks ago from Enza Termine of Sicily. You may remember her from a previous post on circular netting.

Enza had come across a web page by an SCA member who was investigating Mezza Mandolina, a more complex type of netting or Lacis evidenced in a portrait by Bronzino of Eleonora, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici and another portrait of Elizabeth I of England. Both portraits date to the mid-to-late sixteenth century.

This is a detail of the Bronzino portrait taken from Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace, 1913, the netting has been further embellished with embroidery:

Enza had also found this page with Mezza Mandolina tutorials by the same SCA member for different patterns that she had been able to figure out by experimentation.

Enza was curious about the name of the technique Mezza Mandolina. We found it mentioned by Elisa Ricci in her Old Italian Lace, 1913 (Antiche Trine Italiane. Trine ad ago - 1908):
"There is a variety of mesh-work very seldom found existing now, although several designs for its manufacture are to be seen in an old pattern-book, Isabella Parasole's Studio delle virtuose Donne published in 1597; the work was known as mezza mandolina, and is a net of irregular mesh, sometimes left plain, but more often embroidered with little leaves in matting-stitch which fill the square mesh and join it to the others so that the background can hardly be seen between the interwoven figures."

In the Ricci text is the above portrait of Eleonora which is preceded by a photo of a pattern page for Mezza Mandolina from a different text by Isabetta C. Parasole called Gemma Pretiosa, 1615. There is then a photo of some plain (not embroidered) extant Mezza Mandolina kept in the Bargagli collection in Florence. (You can download Old Italian Lace from here)

In my researching I found that all texts cite Parasole in one text or another of hers. Unfortunately extant Parasole texts are extremely rare and while out of copyright, are part of private and museum collections and are not yet in the public domain. The German version of a 1616 text can be found here but there are no patterns for Mezza Mandolina. One librarian at the Smithsonian Museum told me that they plan to scan their rare texts and put them online in the future, this is exciting as they have four Parasole texts in their collections.

The tiny text Origine ed uso delle Trine a Refe has a rather complex pattern for embroidering Mezza Mandolina from Parasole's Pretiosa gemma delle virtuose donne, reprinted by Luchino Gargano in Venice, 1600 - you can see it here. I'm not sure how you would manage something so complex on netting but then, I don't have any experience in doing it!

Enza decided to see if she could reproduce the Mezza Mandolina pattern from the Bronzino portrait. She had some good results which she shared with me but asked me to wait until she could perfect her technique and she has just sent me this photo of her results:

She has written of her adventures on her website (click on Mezza Mandolina - text in Italian) and she also found this extant example of Mezza Mandolina from the late 19th century in the National Museum of Abruzzo.

Does anyone know anything else about Mezza Mandolina? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks to Enza for sharing her photo and adventures with us!

To read a follow-up post for this subject, click here.

Sicilian Drawn Thread Work - II

Today a lovely little surprise came in the mail, a little coaster of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work '700. It's done on super-fine linen with what appears to be Pearl Cotton thread. The netted ground is made by withdrawing both warp and weft threads and wrapping the bars. The designs are executed in a Darning Stitch. The piece measures 4.25 inches squared.


Sicilian Drawn Thread Work dates back to the late 14th century and today falls into three main categories: '400, '500 and '700.

'400: designs are executed in the Linen Stitch on a netted ground described above.

Here is an example of the Linen Stitch that I showed you in a previous post. Note: this is Filet work and NOT Sicilian Drawn Thread work - the netting shown here is knotted and inserted. Sicilian Drawn Thread Work '400 is executed on a netting ground made from the ground fabric and uses the Linen Stitch for the motifs.



'500: designs are executed by constructing the netted ground around motifs formed by cutting away the ground fabric and then outlining them in overcasting. This is a piece of '500 that I talked to you about in a previous post:


('500 can also be reversed by executing the overcasting around a voided design area.) Here is a little example I did at the Italia Invita Workshop by Giovanna Gurrieri in 2007:


'700: motifs are darned onto a netted ground, described above (my little coaster would be an example of '700).

There were also two other categories of Sicilian Drawn Thread Work, the '800 and '500 Vittoria but I'm told that these types have all but disappeared.

The Anchor Manual of Needlework has a little section on Sicilian Drawn Thread Work but there is not much in the way of books on the subject. If you're lucky enough on Ebay and can afford the crazy prices, you might look for Lo Sfilato Sardo e Siciliano by Amelia Brizzi Ramazzotti published in the early 1920s. An excellent didactic booklet for making the netting from the ground fabric is: La Rete A Sfilato Eseguita Su Tessuto by Liliana Babbi Cappelletti. I don't see the English version on Elena's website Italian Needlecrafts, but you may want to write to her, or if the English version is out of print, then the Italian Version can be found at Tombolo Disegni (click on Libri/Books, then Libri/Ricamo, then Ricamo Italiani and send an email request to order - it's no. 6 in a listing inside a box with no photos near the bottom of the page).

Annalisa has posted a great tutorial on her blog of how to get started by making your basic netting ground. She will continue with a later tutorial of how to do the stitching of the motifs. She has kindly posted my English translations under the Italian.

Circular Filet Lace from Sicily

Yesterday I received a delightful email from a Sicilian lady who wanted to compliment me on my blog. She told me that she had recently started her own website about a needlework technique that she fell in love with about six years ago and taught herself how to do: Circular Filet Lace.

To me, making regular Filet netting looks difficult, but I understand that making Circular Filet netting is even more challenging! Of course I had to go and have a look at her website right away!

Il Filet in tondo [Circular Filet Lace] is full of excellent photos of lovely Circular Filet work and there is even a tutorial with step-by-step photos! As the site is in Italian, I'll tell you a little about the lady who runs it (I'm translating from her biography):

Enza Termine is a mother of three who lives near Palermo on the island of Sicily at the very southern part of Italy. She tells of being struck by the beauty of pieces of Circular Filet Lace resting on a fig tree outside of the Cathedral of Lipari, one of the largest islands to the north of Sicily. She approached the two elderly people selling the lace and asked who had made it. To her great surprise, she discovered that it was the husband, a retired fisherman, who had produced the pieces. She bought the piece that is pictured on her biography page from them.

After that she searched for information on what she discovered was an art form on the verge of dying out. With the help of a friend she learned how to make filet netting and after much searching and the aid of an old Mani di Fata booklet, she was able to achieve the Circular Filet netting called "Rete a Rosoni" [rose netting, rose intending the big rose windows in cathedrals].

Click on her gallery page to view all of her amazingly beautiful works and don't forget to click on the little flower next to "I lavori delle amiche e non solo" [the works of friends and more] to see work by her friends and at the top of that page don't miss "altri lavori" [other works] and "Natale" [Christmas] for some exquisite Christmas decorations. There are more photos under the "Eventi" [events] page and even more under "Novità" [news]. On the "Novità" page there are the works of a Sardinian lady in her 90s.

If you can't get enough of Enza's work, there are more pictures here.

Thank you Enza for telling me about your beautiful work!

Sicilian Drawn-Thread Work - I

I never get tired of looking at Sicilian Drawn-Thread Work, especially the style called '500 or Cinquecento. I am probably (once again) attracted by the texture of it as much as the motifs. Strange animals are the things I delight in the most and there are plenty of monsters in Sicilian Drawn-Thread Work - especially sea creatures.

Unfortunately I could not find anything with strange sea creatures that I could afford when I wanted to buy a piece of this technique but I was happy to settle for flowers...

This is a piece of '500 style on relatively high count ivory-coloured linen:


The work is done by cutting out the design, then building the surrounding netting and overcasting the edges. This must be done in an embroidery frame and the fabric must be on the straight of the grain and drum tight. I took a two-hour class and only got a small heart done but I have to tell you, I've never seen anyone stretch and pull fabric like I saw our teacher do to get it as taut as possible in the frame. I'll never handle my own stitching with care again... linen fabric is strong!

The fabric must be tight and not move because you actually cut the threads first and then overcast them so they can't be moving around at all. We basted our linen to a big piece of muslin first and then cut out a centre square window of the muslin so that the linen could be worked on. Tiny stitches overcast three ground threads using one or two padding threads. I kept forgetting to breathe while I was stitching! I was waiting for the ground threads to work their way out of the overcasting but they didn't. We didn't get to do any of the netting in class but I have made netting on fabric before so that was okay.

I bought a pre-cut piece to do at home...

I was afraid to start it as I didn't know if I'd be able to figure out what to do - then I remembered that the design is drawn on the back first and the work is executed on the front...

... okay, without the drawn design to distract me I feel better... maybe I can figure out what to do.

This lady does some amazing work, don't forget to click on "vai alla pag. 2" at the bottom of the page for more pictures!

I would love to have this tablecloth (middle picture - click on it for a closer look).

There are lots of things to look at here and even a video of a display of embroideries.

There is an article on Tuttoricamo with some instructions on how the different styles are executed.

The Anchor Manual of Needlework (Interweave Press) has a bit of information.

Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace has some great photos of antique works, you can download it at the Online Digital Archive.

One day I will get to the Museo del Ricamo e dello Sfilato Siciliano [Embroidery and Sicilian Drawn-Thread Work Museum] in Via Lauria, no. 4, Chiaramonte Gulfi, near Ragusa in Sicily...