Leksand Embroidery and What to Buy

This module reconstructs the American Swedish Institute’s three-day Leksand-style Needlework Workshop in Minneapolis with Kirsi Manni of Art&Craft Sweden in Siljansnäs, Dalarna. Students make a decorative pocket “suitable for adding to a folk costume or adapting as a purse, or a masma sewing kit pouch,” practicing “Laska-herringbone stitch, wool felt applique, and couching techniques,” and see historic pieces from ASI’s collection. The $45 materials fee is included; students bring needles, shears, thread scissors, a thimble, and magnification ¹. The workshop plan isn’t published; this follows the sources cited, and the pocket’s layout is this module’s design.

The Leksand costume

“‘Krusa’ in Dalmål means to decorate,” Manni writes; herringbone, appliqué, and blackwork are among the techniques of the Leksand folk costume, used on bodices, hanging pockets, scarves, mittens, breeches, and coats ². The men’s coat, the blåtröja, carries silk embroidery “i flätsöm, benämnt laskning på leksandsmål”: in herringbone, called laskning in the Leksand dialect ³. The women’s costume includes a neck cloth embroidered in black-stitch blackwork ³; one at Dalarnas museum, marked 1845, is a white triangle worked in black silk with tassels at the corners ⁴.

The pockets

A kjolsäck is a pocket worn on a band at the waist. Museum examples:

• Skansen SKAKLK.0019070, 215 × 205 mm: a U-shaped opening in a black wool broadcloth front; appliqué of red, green, and yellow broadcloth held down with blanket stitch; a central heart-flower with tendrils and small hearts; herringbone in shiny multicolored yarn; white cotton lining; red wool tape edging; a handwoven waistband ⁵.
• Skansen SKAKLK.0021468, 220 × 205 mm, 1979: appliqué held down with couching; heart-flower, tendrils, and triangles along the edges; herringbone and stem stitch; the date stitched in ⁶.
• Museum of International Folk Art, Västannor 1971, made with materials from Leksand Hemslöjd: 25.5 × 24 cm, wool appliqué “embroidered in couch, stem, double herringbone and whip stitches,” a date above a central heart, and a red-and-white woven ribbon typical of Leksand ⁷.

Materials

• Black felted wool: the closest US match to the fulled broadcloth of the old pockets is woven, felted wool, such as Benzie Design’s at $26.50 a half yard, which also comes in reds, golds, and greens ⁸.
• Embroidery wool: Appletons crewel wool, $3 a skein; two strands are about the thickness of size 5 perle cotton. Snuggly Monkey also sells Soie d’Alger silk for a shinier laskning, perle cotton, and chenille and crewel needles ⁹.

Try it

Before cutting the good wool, draw the pocket full size on paper, about 22 by 20.5 cm with a U-shaped opening, and lay colored paper hearts and triangles on it until the layout balances.