This is the first book on how to create handwoven passementerie (ornamental fringe, tassels, braid, piping, and more) using widely available materials! Welcome to the glorious world of passementerie, one of the rarest of textile crafts. Passementerie is rich in design, color, texture, and flamboyance and lets you add special touches to your home, wardrobe, and fiber arts. In this hands-on introduction, artist and designer Ashdown combines her mastery of the centuries-old skills with a vibrant, contemporary aesthetic. Learn centuries-old methods and how to apply them to make ornamental trimmings.

This sweet book from Elizabeth Ashdown includes 11 guided projects for home and wardrobe, from Chanel-style jacket fringe to braided edging for a window blind. This book is for beginner and intermediate weavers; requiring only a simple rigid heddle loom. In this book you will understand how passementerie helps fashion and clothing focus crafters, textile artists, embroiderers, knitters, upholsterers, milliners, and all of us who have ever purchased these embellishments. You’ll make picot and scallop trim for a cushion, bouclé tweed fringe (Chanel style) for a jacket, braid for a roman blind hem, double-warp-braid napkin rings, a silk-and-mohair crête cuff bracelet, oversized trim for a scarf, opulent fringed crête braid for a footstool, and more.

Elizabeth Ashdown, one of only a few professional passementerie artists working in the UK today, has been credited with reinvigorating this endangered heritage craft. She combines the centuries-old skills with a contemporary aesthetic to create acclaimed artworks. Her master classes in passementerie have a long waiting list, and her work has been featured in publications such as Embroidery Magazine, Pom Pom Quarterly, Crafts Magazine, The Textile Eye, Selvedge, Living Etc, and Homes & Gardens. Her studio is in London, UK.