Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet, worked with a hook, or tatting, worked with a shuttle.
Similar abilities often transfer well between different varieties of needlework, such as fine motor skill and knowledge of textile fibers. Some of the same tools may be used in several different varieties of needlework.
According to the Ladies' Needlework Penny Magazine:
There are many women who persuade themselves that the occupations particularly allotted to their sex are extremely frivolous; but it is one of the common errors of a depraved taste to confound simplicity with frivolity. The use of the needle is simple, but not frivolous.
