Embroidery

Embroidery allows you to add a little pizazz to your basic items, stitching them with a pattern to add some detail. You can turn "a white shirt" into a white shirt intricately embroidered with a dolphin pattern in blue thread. In addition, you are adding a LOOK descriptor to your basic item.

Anyone can practice the art of embroidery. The only pre-requisites are that you must be at least 4th Circle, and have at least 20 ranks in Scholarship so that you can study the patterns you will use. When you embroider, you work your Mechanical Lore skill. The process of studying patterns will give you a small bit of Scholarship skill, as well.

How to Embroider

Before you start embroidering, you'll need three things:

• Embroidery needle
• Bobbin of thread
• Something to stitch

You can pick up the needle and thread at any embroidery shop. When looking for something to embroider, look for very basic cloth items. Check your guild's donation shelves, or pick up an inexpensive piece of clothing or container from a local shop. Leather armor cannot be embroidered on, but some items that can be tanned can be. Anything that has a description when you "look" at it will probably not work.

You've got your materials, let's stitch!

1. PULL BOBBIN, whichever color you plan to use. In doing so, you'll get A HANK OF <COLOR> THREAD. Put the bobbin away.
2. GET NEEDLE
3. PUT THREAD ON NEEDLE. This action can fail, so make sure you get it threaded!
4. Get out the pattern you intend to use.
5. STUDY MY PATTERN and keep studying. Once you are told "You know enough about the pattern to use it", you're ready!
6. Put the pattern away, and pull out the item you wish to embroider.
7. Now, STITCH <ITEM> WITH NEEDLE until you are done.
8. As you stitch, you may occasionally "forget" the details of the pattern. When this happens, pull out the pattern to study it again, and then continue stitching.

Embroidery Quality

When it comes to embroidery, there is a quality "modifier" that people will see when they look at your item, such as "shabbily embroidered" or "intricately embroidered". Several things can affect this quality, including your Mechanical lore skill, your Reflex, wounds, and the quality of your pattern.

In addition, those in the Trader guild have a bonus to the embroidery skill, and you'll usually see the more impressive stitching from them. Some traders will stitch an item for you for a small fee.

• List of Embroidery Quality
  • Sloppily
  • Shabbily
  • Simply
  • Attractively
  • Beautifully
  • Elaborately
  • Intricately
  • Masterfully

Embroidery Shops

You'll find a wide range of patterns in the embroidery shops - animals, guild crests, and depictions of the Elanthian gods. You'll also find a myriad of thread colors to suit your needs.

Quellia's Thread Shop

Tidbits on Embroidery

• Embroidering an item changes its properties enough to have to Re-STOW items in it.
• All patterns are the same difficulty to study for scholarship gain. However, some patterns are harder than others to use for actual embroidery.
• Patterns wear out after approximately 100 uses. After 50 uses they show some wear. Worn patterns are more difficult to successfully embroider with.