We have launched RSN Stitch Bank today by revealing the first 150 stitches and to kick off celebrations for our 150th anniversary.  RSN Stitch Bank aims to digitally conserve and preserve every stitch around the globe to become world’s largest repository of stitches.

RSN Stitch Bank is accessed online via the website rsnstitchbank.org.  It features videos, written instructions, illustrations and photographs for each stitch. It will also include history of its use and images of the stitch on items from the RSN Textile Collection. Stitches range from the well-known, Back Stitch and French Knots, to the more technical, Queen Stitch and Turkey Rug. Rarely used stitches will also be featured, such as Underside Couching and Battlement Couching Trellis.

Every year, stitches are lost as they fall out of use or through general wear and the age of the object. Textiles also continue to be threatened by changes in manufacturing processes and more aggressive issues of war, neglect and destruction.

Dr Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework said:

“RSN Stitch Bank goes to the heart of the Royal School of Needlework’s core purpose. We will be celebrating our 150th anniversary in 2022 and were founded to keep the techniques of hand embroidery alive and, implicitly, all their stitches. We believe it is our responsibility to conserve every stitch digitally so they are recorded for future generations.”

RSN Stitch Bank is a resource for all stitchers, teachers, curators, historians, researchers and students. Stitchers can find a new stitch to use in a project and learn how to work it. Researchers, curators, historians and students can use the site to learn about the use, structure and history of each stitch, in a range of embroidery techniques, and to identify individual stitches on a textile.

RSN Stitch Bank will launch initially with 150 core stitches to mark the Royal School of Needlework’s 150th anniversary, but this will be just the start! The list will continue to be rapidly expanded to preserve a world directory of stitch for the future.

RSN Stitch Bank has been made possible thanks to a number of charitable trusts and also to many individual donors who have ‘Adopted a Stitch’ for themselves, for a friend or for a parent or grandparent who first taught them to stitch. The Royal School of Needlework is a registered charity.

Support the project and Adopt a Stitch.