This thesis work is an exercise in reclaiming and subverting the traditional woman’s craft of embroidery. I utilize research into the history of both embroidery and the ideal feminine to communicate my concept through embroidered text on a belt. The research included in this paper is part of my practice as it informed the text to be used in my artwork. The underlying theme of my paper and my work is that the dual face of embroidery through the centuries has provided both a weapon of resistance for woman and functioned as a source of constraint. It has promoted the submission to the norms of feminine obedience and offered both a physiological and practical means to independence, a means to not only survive, but thrive.