Broderie perse means "embroidering chintz". The motifs on chintz fabrics were bright and colorful and appealed to the well off ladies of the late 18th century. They cut out these motifs and appliqued them onto whole cloth quilts or quilt squares. The edges of the designs were often "couched" with fancy threads. These were obviously ladies who had plenty of time to devote to this art.
Motifs of this kind are more likely to be found in decorator fabrics today, although some cottons have been printed specially for this purpose. Flowers, flowering vines, birds and butterflies are usually found on broderie perse quilts. The designs are placed evenly on both left and right sides of the quilt with a larger motif in the center. The right side is a mirror image of the left. Designs chosen should be colorful and realistic.
Any type of applique can be done on these quilts, depending on the weight of the fabric. Chintz is quite heavy to needle turn so fusing would be easier, with close zig-zag to cover the raw edge. Depending on the detail of the motif, a 1/8 inch edge could be left on lighter weight fabric as the motif is cut out, and then turned under with a regular applique stitch.
If the design has trailing vines, or tendrils and are impossible to cut out, these can be added with embroidery stitches. Details of butterflies and birds can also be added with embroidery.
You may notice that it is not possible to lay the cutout motifs in exact mirror image as there may not be reversed flower images on your fabric. It is possible to cut leaves from one side of the flower and fuse them on the other side which will give a semblance of reverse image.
Modified broderie perse
To give you an example of broderie perse,(though modified) I chose a flowered fabric, then the background and the borders. Blue seemed right for the background and a darker blue for an inner border with the background color for the final border.
The flowered fabric with butterflies was in my stash so I'm sure it is no longer in stores. I cut out sections I thought I might be able to use and fused them onto "WonderUnder" before the final cutting. Since there were many details on the edges, I trimmed back to the edge of each motif.
After much arranging and re-arranging, I decided there was NO WAY I was going to get the two sides of the piece symmetrical, so I simply chose a setting that was pleasing to ME and fused everything in place. I did have a center design as true broderie perse should have. Using smoke monofilament in the top and white cotton in the bobbin of my machine, I zig-zagged over the edge of all the pieces.
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