Morris & Co. embroidery kits were sold with the design painted onto soft cotton cloth, known as ‘Manchester cloth’.This has a suitably open weave, allowing embroiderers to define the design with stem stitch and cover areas of ground quickly with darning stitch using the silk threads or ‘twist’ supplied by Morris & Co from their Merton Abbey workshops. Sufficient thread to complete the design was supplied wrapped in tissue paper bundles. According to a Morris & Co. catalogue 'Embroidery Work', of about 1912, when bought separately, thick twist and floss silk cost 6d per skein, thin twist 4d. Thread was also sold by the ounce (20 skeins) or by pound weight. Occasionally, filoselle, a type of stranded silk, was also used.