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.

This is a genuine goldmine for stitchers: letters and motifs in shapes, sizes, and styles that can be adapted to any piece. 

Until a few generations ago, French women spent winters monogramming or marking their household linens. Today's crafters can do the same or apply these alphabets, flowers, and borders in creative ways to other projects. 

• The hundreds of patterns are digitally transcribed to make them clear.

• All patterns are designed for cross-stitch embroidery, either over one or two warp or weft threads. 

• Features photos of projects featuring the patterns, to offer inspiration. For example: a dish towel with stitched message in a mix of letter styles; personalized napkin rings using borders, for each guest to keep as a memento; a little heart to hang at the front door to welcome visitors, embroidered on an old piece of bedsheet using three colorways.

• An index allows selection of designs by letter height, by border size, or by motifs ranging from flower baskets to hens.

• Includes the most outstanding designs from 1800s and 1900s "mark manuals" by cross-stitch design publishers including M. Rouyer, Sajou, L.V., and Alexandre.