Broderie Anglaise

[Bawheed]

Have you ever heard of it/know what it is?

My mum said to me the other day, 'I don't know what I've done with the broderie anglaise, I can't find it anywhere'. When I asked her what she was talking about she looked at me like a I had 2 heads and can't believe I don't know what it is (I do now thanks to Google).

I'm 37 and have never heard of it in my life! Am I the only one?

I known what it is, I'm 38. I only know because my mum told me about it when I bought a dress for my baby that was broderie anglais.

@mudgetastic

It's a type of embroidered fabric I think ?

Cotton with little holes edged with embroidery to look like flowers

Yep, you are the first. It is this. Could be a tablecloth, possibly an old type Christening gown (probably with puffed sleeves and a little hat). As another pp said in the seventies it would have been a dress or top(quite likely with puff sleeves again or with long sleeves with elastic at the wrist and a little frill). Christ, I am old 🤣😂😭

I remember looking through a baby magazine and saying to my room mate in the maternity department (after 8 years of dressing a boy): “I can’t wait to dress my little girl up in broderie anglaise. It just looks so innocent and airy!”

Then I realized she had a suitcase full of gender neutral greens and golds.
Ooooops…

I also know what seersucker is. Another summery fabric.
But I don’t know how to say “plumétis” in English. It’s light cotton with small hairy dots.

Ffs. I also know what crimplene is (horrible crinkly material. My mother bought me a trousersuit made of it when I was young) so flipping thanks for that Tonya345 👅.
Zoe, if you are on here, give Jay back her blouse.

I own and wear 4 BA dresses. I bought the latest one in zara yesterday.

I think plumetis might be what we call “Swiss knot” or “Swiss dot”, @Sgtmajormummy

There is also something known as “dobby” but the definition of that seems to be wider.

Broderie Anglaise trimmed prairie dress from Laura Ashley around 1970

LOOOOVE clothes with it!!! LOOOOOVE!!!!!

Btw I'm in my mid 30s 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Nnique

I honestly thought everyone knows what Broderie Anglais is...

It’s a classic fabric and comes out like clockwork every year for S/S fashions!

It's not a fabric. It's a style of embroidery. It translates as "English embroidery".

Yes but it’s embroidery on fabric.

And I was referring specifically to the fabrics that come out every year, as you can see in my comment...

I have a very old Guide handbook and one of the requirements for the needlework badge was to "work" a 1 yard length of broderie anglaise - ie to stitch and cut out all those little holes. It did, very kindly, state that an embroidery transfer could be used to print the pattern onto the fabric.

One of the other options was to work a fagotted seam.

But tbf I should have said it’s a classic embroidery, as that would have encompassed all guises!

It is a type of punched out embroidery. I had a white dress with BA on the top. They used to use it for baby girls dresses in white lawn cotton with BA on top and sometimes hem of dress.

Isn’t English embroidery called open needle work ? is not the same as Bobbin lace which is much finer .

Thanks, @Thoosa
There was a lot of Broderie Anglaise used on Victorian pinafores. I used to sigh over the ones in The Railway Children.
Interestingly, it’s known as San Gallo in Italian, so it’s origins may not be so English after all…

I know what it is because I went with DM to buy some BA trim for my bedroom curtains in about 1979, when I was really quite small!

I used it to make a cover for the vintage Moses Basket I used for the children. It looked beautiful.

*its, sorry.

I was just in Zara and the place is heaving with broderie anglaise - white, pink blue, shirt, dress, you name it.

I'm sure it's been round for much longer but it definitely was a thing in the 70s. As a child I thought broderie anglaise would probably always play a big part in my life - it hasn't.

A little bit of history about Broderie Anglaise

Anyone remember the Barbapapa book where they are making bobbin lace...?

All my skirts were edged with broiderie anglaise when I was a girl in the 70s. It was a cheap way extend the life of a garment to lengthen it as I grew taller. Drew the line at having it sewn round me trews though. There was always BCR tartan for that