Redwork Embroidery Pattern

An American embroidery style worked entirely in a single colorfast red thread, most often on white cotton muslin, using simple stitches such as stem stitch, satin stitch and French knots to render outline pictures, especially of children, animals, toys and household objects. Redwork depended on the nineteenth century development of Turkish red, a genuinely colorfast red dye, and rose to particular popularity in the United States from about 1855 to 1925, spread in part through inexpensive pre-stamped penny squares of muslin sold for a cent apiece and through patterns given away with magazine subscriptions.