If lightweight gingham is used, backing the embroidery area with a layer of muslin with the same fiber content is recommended. All-cotton gingham is preferred over blends, the heavier the better to support the weight of the stitches and to make stitching easier. Gingham is the only fabric used for Depression Lace even though similar effects can be created by working the same stitches on any fabric with an evenly spaced pattern of dots, gridlines, or checks. The essentials are cross-stitch, half cross, Smyrna (also known as double cross), and straight or running stitches, although other stitches such as French knot, rice, spider web (sometimes called polka-dot stitch), and other techniques such as drawn thread may be incorporated. The basic stitches, few in number and easy enough for a child to master, make Depression Lace a perfect introduction to embroidery.

Because gingham, with its grid of squares in white and two shades of a second color, naturally invites cross-stitch embellishment, it is likely that Depression Lace embroidery began with a stitched “X” covering one gingham square. Like many other types of needlework, Depression Lace probably evolved from simple origins. Not until the mid-eighteenth century, when gingham was being produced in the mills of Manchester, England, were both the warp and weft striped to produce the checked fabric we know today. Gingham, a yarn-dyed plain-weave fabric that traces its name to ginggang or genggang (Malay for “striped”) was originally woven as a striped pattern.

The technique is probably less than 260 years old. Traditionally, white thread is used for stitching on the solid-colored squares of the gingham and vice versa so that the design stands out against the background. Its gingham ground fabric and a wrapping technique borrowed from needle weaving that creates a lacy appearance give it a definitive cachet. Dresden Lace (see “The Great Pretender: Dresden Lace Embroidery,” PieceWork, May/June 2010) is one such innovation Depression Lace is another.ĭepression Lace is cross-stitch embroidery taken to a higher level. The less fortunate, however, can be credited with using cheaper materials and basic needlework skills to mimic fine lace. Only the noble and wealthy classes could afford fine handmade laces. In earlier centuries, the finest needlework, lace in particular, was also an undisputed, envied mark of wealth, rank, and prestige.

Needlework always has played a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of life and one’s environment, adorning clothing and enriching home furnishings. Sometimes incorrectly called Teneriffe, it does borrow needle-weaving elements such as multispoke petals and spider-web stitches from that style of needle lace. Among its many other names are Gingham Lace, Chinese Pinwheel, Tic Tac Toe and Amish embroidery, Mountain Lace, Gingham Tracks, Snowflake Lace, Snowflaking or Chicken Scratch for its resemblance to a chicken’s footprint in the dirt. The embroidery technique that cheered them was known at the time as Depression Lace, Hoover Lace, or Hoover Star embroidery (the last two after President Herbert Hoover (1874–1964). For many women, humble gingham fabric, inexpensive thread, and simple embroidery stitches combined to nourish and comfort tattered spirits. The Great Depression (1929–1933) bankrupted countless people not only financially but emotionally as well.

Embroidery on gingham free patterns