Stunning Chenille de Soie - silk chenille from Au Ver a Soie

Colour: 3333 (Lavender)
Length: 5m

Envision a bolt of the finest velvet draped on a table. As your fingers stroke the shimmering surface, you notice how smooth, even and plush it is to the touch. Now this sensation is available in a thread for embroidery !

Soie Chenille a  Broder, (Silk Chenille for Embroidery) at first glance resembles a lustrous velvety cord. If you have stitched with a chenille thread made for knitting, which by comparison is neither silky to the touch nor smooth, you will not have experienced how much more luxurious silk chenille made for hand embroidery really is!

The word chenille in French literally translated means "caterpillar", which precisely describes the appearance of this thread. In other words, the little fibers of silk stand out at right angles, like the hairs of a caterpillar.

Silk Chenille for embroidery can be seen in much embroidery from the past. On raised embroidery panels for caskets and pictures from the seventeenth century, it was used as moss and foliage. Samplers in both England and America in the eighteenth century have silk chenille couched for trees for used as grass. It was also an especially popular thread with French embroiderers in the 18th century that used chenille lavishly for clothing embellishment and trim, especially with ribbon embroidery. Consulting period Victorian embroidery books you will find mention of chenille used on crazy quilts, couched as trim on clothing, evening bags and used on other embroidered articles as well.

Hand applications : Tassels, Buttons, Ganutell, Cartouchage, Cartisane, Tapestries and Embroideries (restoration and creation), Trimmings, Embroidery, Hardanger, Lace making, Blackwork, Ribbon embroidery, Stumpwork, Crazy quilting, Crewel and Miniature work to name but a few!