I'm fascinated by the use of interlacing stitch to sew two pieces of fabric together. Last February, we visited the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum. This museum has a small but lovely collection of medieval artefacts. I've seen the objects before, but only this time I noticed that one of the objects was embroidered using interlacing stitch. It's a religious artefact, it looks a bit like a pouch, and it is not clear what it was used for (for an image and a description, see p 162-163 of “Mittelalter in Köln: Eine Auswahl aus den Beständen des Kölnischen Stadtmuseums”).
The image above is a close-up of one of the seams: two pieces of linen are sewn together with what seems to be yellow silk. More examples of the use of this technique can be found here:
- the Birgitta cap
- German 14th century wallhangings. Kroos, R. (1970), Niedersachsische Bildstickereien des Mittelaters, Berlin: Deutscher Verlag fur Kunstwissenschaft, objects nr 268-269, 271-272-273
Interlacing stitch tutorials can be found here.