I Tygkammaren - En studie av tvistsömsbroderiet under 1900-talet

Abstract

The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis is to explore and investigate the development of the long legged cross stitch embroidery during the twentieth century and up until this day. The purpose is also to explore what has affected its popularity throughout the years. In the essay, an auto-ethnographic approach to the material is used and the essay is therefore a description of my own meeting with the technique. To get a balanced and broad picture of the technique´s development and tradition five different sources of information have been used; A textual analysis of the book Tvistsöm (1969), a study of the objects in a big long legged cross stitch embroidery collection that belongs to Karin Selander, a telephone interview with Karin Eldforsen who in 2013 conducted a survey project of the long legged cross stitch tradition from Scania, a visit to an embroidery cafe and a personal attempt to embroider. The study has shown that the technique has been very popular. It also showed that people almost always embroidered from a premade pattern and that these patterns was created and sold by either Hemslöjden or two companies: Nordiska and Marks och Kattens.