"Sharing the result of her years combing dusty attics, archives, brocantes, and antique shops for vintage handstitched items and rare needlework manuals, embroidery expert Véronique Maillard here offers the patterns used by French women in the 1800s and early 1900s to prepare their dowry chests or to customize their household linens. Until a few generations ago, French women spent winters monogramming or marking their household linens. Today's stitchers can do the same or apply these alphabets, flowers, and borders in creative ways to other projects. This is a genuine gold mine for stitchers: letters and motifs in all shapes, sizes, and styles that can be adapted to any piece. They are all part of our common heritage. Discovering their variety, and continuing to embroider them, is a wonderful way to preserve the handcrafts of yesteryear."--Back cover