Tricia’s writing tonight:

When we were initially working on the jacket planning, we had to have a physical pattern for a jacket to apply the design and embroidery to. Since many of the jackets in collections are now mounted for their own conservation, taking the pattern (how is a mystery to me!) from the chosen jacket would be impossible. So we looked to the extraordinary research by Janet Arnold to guide us. She was fortunate enough to view
and work with two well known examples previous to their most recent conservation and mounting. In her book, Patterns of Fashion - The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c 1560-1620, she diagrams a jacket in the collection of the Museum of Costume at Bath, England and the Laton jacket at the V&A. Which to choose?Plimoth uses the Bath jacket as the base pattern for the costumes used by the interpreters. They have extensive experience modifying the pattern for individuals. The Bath jacket as it is now does not include lace. We decided to use the Laton pattern and to include on the final jacket the ‘extras’ that help to define it as an example of over-the-top fashion for this culture. That includes the lace and the ribbon ties.

With that choice made, Denise (formerly a tailor with the Colonial Wardrobe Department) drafted the pattern from Janet’s book onto dressmaker’s paper using the 1″ grid as a guide. She then made up a jacket in muslin. She found that she needed to make modifications to the arm areas to get the armholes correct. She unpicked, corrected, and then sewed again until the pattern was perfect. Then she unpicked the muslin one last time and used the fabric pieces to transfer a new pattern to dressmaker’s paper. That’s the pattern we’ve been using.

Tricia

Here I am again. Thanks, Tricia, for writing up this entry.

A few notes: Years ago, we drafted the Bath pattern to life-size and then drafted four sizes from it: women’s small, medium, and large, and one child size. These patterns were transferred to brown paper and then laminated. We use these patterns, making alterations on the fabric as we cut, to make jackets for the female colonial interpreters.

This photo shows the pieces of the child size pattern laid out for cutting. This fabric will be the lining of a jacket for one of the child volunteers in the 1627 English Village.

Samples! Two yesterday – Katherine B and Lyn J. Two today – Joanne D and Sharon G.

Session One participants will soon be receiving a survey, which Laura kindly drafted. (What would we do without her?) I just want some feedback about the various elements of the session that will help me draw up the schedule for Session Two, which I will be doing sooner than you’d think.

Speaking of feedback, check out what two of our participants had to say about their time in Plimoth – here and here.

In the comments mj asked if it was OK to post some of the blog photos on her (his?) site. I had to check with Rich, whom I refer to (with not a little awe) as The Web Guy. I am a true novice with this blog stuff, and would be nowhere without his constant support. Anyway, yes, please put photos on your sites, but please credit them appropriately and provide a link-back. Rich mentioned that when he has a minute he wants to construct a place where I can put links, so keep an eye out for that.

I spoke with Tricia briefly today; it was odd in a way that we hadn’t phoned each other in almost a week. For the past several weeks we’ve been in frequent contact. She sounded a little tired, and I expect I sounded the same; last week was awfully busy. But the session was a resounding success. Not only was an enormous amount accomplished, but the volunteer embroiderers enjoyed their time, and the filming went smoothly. Next session will be easier as we implement some of what we learned. By the time we’re done with this jacket we’ll have a well-oiled machine. In my spare, less tired moments I’m already thinking of what we’ll put that machine to work on next.

Looks like we already have 6 people signed up to embroider in August. Tricia and I are thinking that maybe if it remains a small group we’ll embroider in the Wardrobe office, like we did last Friday (is it only a week ago?). It’s a cozy space, and interesting for guests to see what goes on behind the scenes. Plus trying to help out at the bee and keep up with my day job when they’re in the same place is a little easier than when they are at opposite ends of the museum. I’ll let you know.

It looks like there would be a significant amount of interest in the manual if we are able to get permission to publish it. Keep you posted there too.

Several people mentioned they were working on embroidered jackets, or planning to. If you have pictures you’re willing to share, send them to me at jhall@plimoth.org and I’ll post, or send me a link. One of our goals with this project is to bring various groups of embroidery enthusiasts together and share information and experience.

Last night I was able to draft that knitting article. I sent it off to three friends/colleagues for comments today so I’m on track to deliver it on Monday (technically after the end of the month, but still OK). Off to edit.

Tricia made these amazing instruction manuals for each stitching station. They contain the stitch instructions that were posted on the blog; step-by-step photos of the stitches being worked; a ‘master repeat’ of the embroidery pattern with each motif element numbered; full-color pictures of the original jacket (1359-1900) for color placement reference; and blank log pages. The photos of the original jacket are beautiful; they were taken by Curator Susan North especially for our use in this project. These manuals are really amazing, and if there’s enough interest, we’ll look into obtaining permission from the V&A to publish a limited number for sale.

The log pages are brilliant in themselves. Each embroiderer fills out a page as he/she works. There are spaces for motif number, stitch, thread color & length, and time. At the end of the project we’ll have a permanent record of who stitched what, how much of what color thread was used and how long it took to do each bit. We’ll be able to compare thread use from one stitch to another, from one color to another, and compare time of working for the various stitches. I’m sure completing the log pages was one more thing to remember for the embroiderers, but their diligence in completing them is crucial to the information gathering.

One sample arrived today, from Martha D.

I’m going to skip tomorrow in order to (hopefully) write the knitting thing. Be back Thursday.

The embroidery is well and truly underway. The first session went very well, even better than we expected. A good deal of embroidery was done; the volunteer embroiderers had an enjoyable time, some even reported that their skills improved over the course of the week. My Day Job is even going all right; everyone who needs clothes has them and I don’t see the new guy till tomorrow. I do have to produce a 1200-word article on early 17^th-century knitting and Plimoth Plantation’s knitting program by the end of the month (Yes, completely insane. Nope, don’t know what I was thinking.). But I’m not losing sleep over that.

So what IS keeping me up nights?

This:

That’s a pile of embroidery frames, each with a piece of acid-free tissue pinned to the right side, carefully stacked so no frame’s corner pins are poking the linen of its neighbors. Outside the picture to the right the largest frames are leaning up against the worktable.

Friday we had a lengthy conversation about where best to store them. Tricia took the back home to keep working on it. We may have a local embroiderer or two come in over the next weeks but mostly the frames are waiting for Session Two, scheduled for August 8-10. Where should they be kept? The attic was rejected; I want to be able to see them often so I know they’re undisturbed. The laundry room has storage space but also boxes of danger, like dyestuffs and laundry detergent, so that’s out, too. We finally decided to make a canvas bag for each frame (I bought the canvas today) and store them out of the way but in a frequently used room. It’ll entail some rearranging, but they’ll be fine. I’m sure I’ll still think about them in the dead of night now and then.

Speaking of August, if you’d like to come for that session, please let me know as soon as possible. So far we only have three people who are interested, no one is confirmed. I think we’d need a minimum of 8 to hold a session. Email me at jhall@plimoth.org if you’re planning to come.

Kathy is on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions. She’ll be in occasionally and Miss Laura is on sample kit patrol, so nothing will come to a screeching halt, but I’ll be glad to help if I can.

Last week Aimee and Carrie hand delivered samples. One more came in the mail on Friday – from Susan R. And another batch of kits went out Friday, so if you were waiting, watch your mail towards the end of this week.

Jennifer posted some pictures of last week here; thanks, Jennifer, for the link. You got some excellent pictures. I’m so glad you had a good time.

This is a picture of five nested floor frames, waiting for embroiderers to come back and wake them up. Seven weeks and counting.

…opened with a flurry of getting settled, again. Thursday night we brought everything up to the Wardrobe Department work room, but didn’t set up. Friday morning everyone found a table, chair and frame stand to suit and we ran extension cords and power strips again. A few stitchers found the overhead daylight fluorescent lights so bright they didn’t need a task lamp.

We weren’t able to accommodate every stitcher in the department’s big workroom, so we spilled over into the adjacent large office. That was where we’d planned to set up the snacks and lunch, so the food had to be pushed back to a small alcove. We also set up the invisible barrier which prevents food & coffee-carrying people from crossing through the doorway into the work rooms.

Late morning, everyone walked over to the collections storage area, where Karin Goldstein graciously gave the group a show & tell talk about the sewing-related artifacts in Plimoth Plantation’s originals collection, and displayed the two 17^th-century samplers we have.

Another guest, Joanna, a textiles conservator, had brought a special treat for everyone to see: a 17^th-century stumpwork picture. Some pictures posted here (click on the image for more views).

So where to have lunch? It was a gorgeous clear sunny day, so Laura swept the courtyard and put tablecloths on two picnic tables. I was going to take a picture, but decided to eat first. Just as I sat down (one of the last), a dark cloud blew in. “Hey, it’s getting pretty dark” someone remarked. “Is that rain?” The words were hardly out when a clap of thunder opened the floodgates. We finished lunch standing around in the hallways, squished as far away from the frames as possible. By the time the stitchers were settling down to work again, the sun was breaking through. No picture of happy embroiderers lunching al fresco.

After lunch the stitchers began finishing their work for this session. Tricia’s organized mind has established an amazing record-keeping system. We’ll be able to track and analyze all sorts of data based on the notes the embroiderers are keeping as they work.

One element of the system makes it possible to record exactly which elements are worked by whom. For this, Laura photocopied the master embroidery pattern. Each embroiderer then signs the individual motifs she has worked. The first picture is Pat, carefully matching the worked motif to the pattern (it’s easy to get turned around, with all the swirls). The second picture is Ann (in the background) and Carol sorting out what they stitched on the sleeves. Another part of the plan has two embroiderers with similar hands working on the mirrored pieces, like sleeves and fronts, and switching frames partway through the session to further meld the styles. Ann and Carol were both working on sleeve pieces this week.

We had little thank-you gifts for the embroiderers who participated this time. Everyone received a copy of Plimoth Life, Plimoth Plantation’s magazine. This issue contains an article about the jacket, as well as others on the 50^th anniversary of Mayflower II’sarrival in the US, and Plimoth Plantation’s mission to become a bicultural institution. Thanks to the skilled Kristen, one of the Crafts Center’s potters, we also gave everyone a hand thrown cup. My daughter’s hand is in the picture for scale.

The hard part of this day was the farewells. In only a few days we’d formed a team, a community. Some renewed old friendships, others made new ones. We all enjoyed the company and conversation of others who are passionate about embroidery.

When considering this project and beginning the planning, I knew it would be a huge undertaking, that it would be at times exhausting, that there would be unforeseen difficulties and comparable triumphs. But I never imagined how personally rewarding it would be to meet so many talented people who are so generous with their time and skill. It was a pleasure getting to know the ladies who participated in session one. I’m looking forward to meeting many more of you in the coming months.

See you here tomorrow.