If needlework is a serious hobby or your occupation, you need this most authoritative guide to the art of needlecraft. It covers every single stitch and technique in detail. However, the Encyclopedia does not allow for much fun and easy reading. The text is dense and the black and white illustrations are at first glance not always that much clarifying - they need studying. The language used is a bit oldfashioned and may occasionally be hard to understand if English is not your native language. The instructions are very strict and creative variations are not promoted. Furthermore, the index does not always point to the right page. Still, De Dillmont offers us a trusted companion for sorting out the right stitches and thorough introductions to a wide variety of techniques. The Encyclopedia has also proved to be of use to historians and translators in the field of art and crafts.
