After trying out some patterns from books, I wanted to go further and make my own reticello designs.
You may have read my blog post on Italian embroidery, that I wrote a while ago, where I found out about different types of Italian embroidery. If not here's the link, if you'd like to read it: Italian Embroidery (claireharveyembroidery.com)
When I was researching Italian Embroidery, I fell in love with Reticello embroidery (also known as Reticella). I ordered some books online, although the only ones I could find were in Italian. I do know some basic Italian, so I didn’t let that stop me. I bought three books by Laura Marzorati, they are all fantastic, however I if you just want one to get started I would recommend ‘Guida al Ricamo Reticello Creativo’, it’s the one I refer back to the most. I managed to understand enough of the books to be able to get started with the stitching. I was assisted by some very clear photos in the instructions! To start with I began with a small piece out of the book, following the instructions very carefully.
After that, I was determined to practice and improve my technique, but of course, I wanted to have a go at designing my own reticello embroidery. My first reticello pattern was drawn by hand, and I think I made some improvements with my technique. But then of course I wanted to design and stitch some more. However this time I wanted to try using Adobe Illustrator to design my reticello piece. I'm quite new to the program, so I'm keen to discover all the different ways I can use it. I love sitting down with a paper and pencil in my hand, but using the computer gave me much more flexibility when deciding where to place my motifs. I would definitely do it again, especially for reticello embroidery. For this design, I chose blue daisies. I had done so much work with daisies in my C&G course, and it just felt right to add a piece of reticello embroidery to my collection of daisy embroideries.
Once I was happy with my design, I got out my threads and fabric and got ready to start stitching.
The first step is to mark out the reticello grid with some coloured embroidery thread. You need to be really careful here, as if you mark it out wrong, you are likely to go wrong when you start withdrawing threads. Once you have your threads in place, it’s time to start making the reticello grid. This is the stage where you need to start cutting the threads to form the grid. You really don’t want to go wrong here, so be extra careful. First of all, you take out some threads to mark the grid.
Once you have the initial threads removed, you can relax a little (but not too much!), and start to take away the rest of the threads to form the grid shape.
Now you have your basic reticello grid shape, you will want to go around the edge with four sided stitch. This not only looks pretty, but it holds the withdrawn threads in place and adds stability to the grid shape.
Then comes one of my favourite parts, wrapping the internal bars. I find it so relaxing, especially after the stress of making sure you don’t cut the wrong thread! Once the bars are wrapped, you will want to wrap the edge as well to neaten it. You then have a blank reticello grid ready to decorate with beautiful needlelace stitches.
The next thing I like to do is stitch all the stems and needlelace leaves over the reticello grid. Partly because I like to leave all the prettiest bits until the end, but also because you will want to cover the ends of the stems with your needlelace flowers.
Finally, you can add your needlelace flowers to the stems over the background. And there you have it, your finished piece!
Once this was finished I couldn’t wait to do another, so this time I chose poppies.
Have you read my previous post on reticello and Italian Embroidery? Catch up with it here: Italian Embroidery (claireharveyembroidery.com)
If you'd like to try Reticello for yourself, this pattern is available in my Etsy shop: