White Work: Techniques and 188 Designs (Dover Crafts: Embroidery & Needlepoint) Paperback – January 1, 1979

I love this book for the designs! If you are looking for White Work eye candy you will be disappointed it has no photographs of white work other than the front cover. This is a simple book and if you look at the price it reflects that as well. Still it is a wonderful book just for the designs alone, which can be used with any embroidery not just in white work. I enjoyed reading about the history and how stitches are used for white work. The only thing that really makes white work any different is that it is done in all white thread on white fabric and when you work in 1 color you need to use different stitches to create texture and make your embroidery interesting.The author suggests stitches for use with the patterns but they are only recommendations. I do wish there was a few examples to "see" what has been explained but that is not needed in order to use the patterns or to try creating your own white work.Overall for the price this book is worth it for the patterns and a little bit of white work history and ideas.

So many designs allowing you to create your own arrangements and motifs. Very helpful in planning new projects. This is not a book of instructions although there are the obligatory pictures of various embroidery stitches to help the novice.I bought this because I want to do a large candlewicking project and wasn't having any luck with designing it and I'm very well pleased with this book.

This book is very vintage but most of the technical information remains the same, there are better types of fabric and thread more easily available now, so some of the descriptions of materials are a little antiquated. However the stitch instructions and diagrams are mostly clear and easy to understand, and the patterns included are cute and versatile, so IMHO it's still plenty useful.

Very disappointed in the designs. All would need to to be enlarged. The stitch instructions are vague but useful, just not what I expected.

This book has surprisingly large number of patterns. I bought a Kindle edition. It allows the ability to enlarge on the screen. From here you can take an iPad picture then print it on your printer. From there you are able to transfer pattern to a grid using paint or your favorite paint program. Now you can easily complete your project using the weave of your fabric to match the grid. Nice!

The only difficulty this book would present would be transferring the patterns given by Carter Houck from one page of paper to tracing paper. I would have loved to see perforations along the spine of the book to ease the tearing out of the patterns I would trace. And I would have appreciated mention of such transferring materials as the widely available transfer pencils. Apart from those considerations, the patterns were lovely, and I can hardly wait to get to work on them.

This book, a great disappointment, is part of the Dover "reproduction" series (ca. 1978). It would be of interest to the needleworker who is interested in late Victorian designs, as they come from a collection published ca. 1900 ("The Chief Pattern Book of Embroidery Patterns for the Improvement of Artistic Embroidery on Linens and the Promotion of Good Handicrafts," Nuremberg, Germany: Johann Merkenthaler).As such, there is little instructional material for those who wish to learn these techniques (principally cutwork with satin stitch and "bridges" & line work with stem/backstitch). There are diagrams, perhaps from the first edition, but they have no numbers to indicate where component stitches begin and end, although with the basic nature of them, the needleworker with a little experience will be able to figure them out.Stitches include stem stitch, backstitch, straight stitch (i.e., satin stitch), lazy daisy, running, long & short (long & short satin), seed (short satin), padded satin (guess what?), buttonhole/overcast, feather, star (Smyrna cross with arms of different lengths), herringbone, couching, and a few others.Instruction pages include a brief history, how to transfer the patterns (air- and water-disappearing markers; tailor's chalk; embossing; BUT pouncing - the historical technique - is not mentioned!), and thread/fabric/hoops. Not a lot, folks, and certainly no step-by-step or how to incorporate the designs into modern work (such as table or bed linen). The "188 designs" are there but no "techniques".If you are looking for instruction in whitework/cutwork techniques, this book is useless.In place of this book, I recommend Thérèse deDillmont's "Encyclopedia of Needlework" (ca. 1884). It is now titled "The Complete DMC Encyclopedia of Needlework," Running Press, various years, incl. 1978). This historic book has many how-to and in-progress diagrams of the techniques, plus alphabets and other design elements. If you purchase Houck's book, consider it an adjunct to the deDillmont and containing patterns without instruction. (The deDillmont covers a multiplicity of different techniques, not just whitework.) mb

I thought I was getting a PDF document and have ordered so many things in the last couple of months I was pleasantly suprised when I received the book itself! I love it, love it, love it.