At some point fairly early in its history, the many small pieces of fabric included in this booklet were seamed together and loosely bound, to create a kind of glossary of colored and monochrome openwork patterns. Scraps of silk, glove leather and writing paper with Portuguese text were employed to stabilize the pages. The recycling of materials and the compact nature of the booklet all suggest that this was a purely practical reference work for a professional seamstress, and was not meant for display. Some of the patterns are worked in double running stitch, also referred to as "Spanish stitch," reflecting its possible origin on the Iberian peninsula in the sixteenth century.