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Sampler
Elizabeth's Sampler

In Bless This House, Elizabeth and her friends learn to sew by embroidering a variety of stitches on a piece of linen. Elizabeth isn't very good at sewing, and even leaves out the letter "J" from the alphabet she is stitching on the sampler. It is only when a friend helps Elizabeth with her embroidery that she learns just how beautiful a sampler can be.

Although a sampler you've embroidered yourself can be very beautiful, it's also a lot of work. It's a lot easier to draw your design on paper, using graph paper to keep your design straight and pencil crayons instead of coloured threads.

If you'd like to copy the design you see in the photos, click here to download a printable version.

Materials

  • Graph paper
  • Plain white paper
  • Black felt-tip pen
  • Pencil crayons
  • Masking tape
Instructions

NOTE: If you are using a print-out of the design we've provided, go directly to step 3.

    1. Before you start, think about what you want your design to look like. Do you want to include your name? Your house or your family? You might want to draw a sketch of your sampler before you start work on the graph paper. For inspiration, visit the website of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It has photographs of old samplers that girls your age embroidered many years ago.

    2. Set a piece of graph paper on a flat surface. Using the felt-tip pen, draw your design on the graph paper -- but instead of drawing it using regular lines, draw it by filling in the squares on the graph paper with small x's.

    3. When you are happy with your design, set a piece of plain paper on top. (If you are using the print-out, this is where you start.) Using small pieces of masking tape, tape the plain paper to the graph paper (this way you don't have to worry about it slipping).

    4. You should be able to see the x's you made on the graph paper quite clearly through the plain paper. Now you are going to trace the x's onto the plain paper using your pencil crayons. Think carefully about the colours you want to use. If you are using the print-out instead of your own design, don't feel you have to use the same colours as we did. You can experiment with your own colours.

    5. Trace each x onto your paper very carefully, trying to keep the x's straight and even. Mark each x separately. When you have traced each x on to the top sheet of paper, carefully remove the tape and set aside the graph paper. You should now have a design that looks like it has been cross-stitched -- only you did it with pencil crayons and paper!

    6. You can frame your sampler, slip it into the front pocket of your binder, or simply pin it to your bulletin board.







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