Register here.

What We’ll Do

In this three-part seminar, learn to design and hand-stitch your very own family crest. This course includes three total sessions, each lasting for 1.5 hours on three Tuesdays, beginning April 5.

Course Description

Drawing inspiration from historical research and imagination, learn to stitch a family crest that threads you to the past. In this three-part course with southern textile artist Aaron Sanders Head, we’ll look at family crests and embroidered motifs through time and space, exploring the ways in which people across cultures and geographies have used needle and thread to identify themselves. We’ll conceptualize our own icons and identifiers, use them to create a cohesive crest design, and learn hand-stitches that will allow us to translate that design to textile. To give shape to our designs, we’ll move through basic embroidery for outlines and lettering, stitches to fill in shapes and texture, and more advanced techniques for decorative borders. By the end of our time together, you’ll not only have a finished hand-stitched crest, but also a deeper appreciation for the embroidered motif in the past and present.

This class is open to all levels; no prior embroidery experience is necessary.

Syllabus at a Glance

This course includes three total sessions, each lasting for 1.5 hours on four Tuesdays, beginning April 5.

Session 1 (Tuesday, 4/5, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| Identity in Thread: Exploring family crests through time and space and the basic stitches to begin outlines

Session 2 (Tuesday, 4/12, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| Giving Shape to Your Crest: Transferring your icons and identifiers to fabric 

Session 3 (Tuesday, 4/19, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| Borders and Framing: Final touches, ways to display your crest, and show-and-tell