Free Colbert Tutorial
Written and Designed by
Janet M. Davies
Colbert embroidery comes from France. It was formulated around the late 17th
century. The style is named after Jean-Baptiste Colbert who was the finance minister of
Louis XIV from 1661. He wanted to help his citizens have a home based income, so he
developed this embroidery as a type of imitation lace. Lace was most popular at the time,
but it was all imported from Italy and Flanders. The Colbert lace like filling patterns
were inspired along the lines of Baroque needle made laces. Colbert was stitched into
table cloths and mats.
Colbert is a mixture of freehand and counted
thread needlework. The outlines of the designs are freehand stitched with stitches such as
Stem stitch, Chain stitch or Whipped Chain stitch. Deigns have their centres left void of
the filling patterns and the outer areas of the design are filled with patterns. The
filling patterns are counted and repetitive. Some of the filling patterns are pulled while
stitching, but the majority are not.
An even weave fabric must be used because of
the counted thread filling patterns. Today #32 linen fabric or #25 cotton/viscose fabric
can
be used successfully. If you are using Pulled filling stitches, then the linen fabric
would be more suitable. Suitable threads for today would be Cotton-a-Broader #16 or 3
strands of 6 Stranded cotton threads on the mentioned fabrics.
A combination of colours can be used in one
style of filling pattern. The design outlines can be multi-coloured also for different
shapes in the design. The design outline is best kept bold in colour compared with other
colours used, so the design outline stands out the most. Even though a combination of
colours can be used to stitch the fillings, I have found that a variegated thread is ok,
but not as suitable as a multiple number of colours or single colours.
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