The "Springer Stickgarn" Collection: Early 20th Century Needlework Patterns

If you’ve ever found an old sewing basket filled with embroidery thread, you may have been surprised by the variety of textures far beyond the expected basics such as floss and perle. The C. U. Springer company created beautiful fibers that rivaled those in modern suppliers’ inventories. This scrapbook from the yarn company contains 108 small charted designs in series of 6 themed patterns. They may have been an advertising premium offered with a thread purchase.The original charts measure a diminutive 1-3/4 by 2-1/2 inches, so I’ve enlarged them for easier counting. While Marlitt, a shiny rayon floss was the suggested thread, feel free to select your own threads and colors A Marlitt thread color card from the 1970s is shown on the last few pages to provide color references–please note that many of the ink colors used for printing in no way match the suggested thread colors! I hope you’ll enjoy these small pieces of history, and I’d love to see what you create! Read more