All of the scheduled sessions are full or nearly so. I have sent an email with the schedule to all the embroiderers I’m expecting in August. If you didn’t receive a personal email with the August schedule, it means I don’t know you want to come. Please get in touch right away. jhall@plimoth.org By the end of the week I’ll be sending out confirmations for the September & October sessions. If you’re signed up for any session and you can’t make it after all, please let me know as soon as possible; perhaps another embroiderer can take your place. And yes, we’ll shortly be scheduling sessions for 2008 (2008!).

Carol left this question in the comments:

So do you have any idea what they meant by mingled?
Was it one color in the warp and another in the weft?
Woven from threads that were space dyed?

I have one idea what may have been meant by mingled, but there certainly could be other explanations. Gervase Markham’s 1615 book The English Housewife outlined all the skills a woman needed to run a large manor house, including “cookery, banqueting-stuff, distillation, perfumes, wool, hemp, flax, dairies, brewing, baking, and all other things belonging to a household.” This volume is a wealth of information for modern historians.

In the textiles chapter, Markham explains how, after the wool is dyed but before it is spun, the housewife should mix her colors together. He says that “the best medley” is composed of two parts dark color wool and one part light color wool. He explains that all the wool should be thoroughly carded “till you see it perfectly and undistinctly mixed together, and that indeed it is become one entire colour of divers without spots.”

The blended wool is then spun and woven into cloth. Perhaps the resulting fabric was called mingled color, like in the inventory. Markham doesn’t say.

In the 17^th century a kind of silk cloth with one color warp and a different color weft was called “changeable taffeta”; it is still made in the 21^st century. It seems to change color as the cloth moves. It’s possible that mingled color meant this kind of cloth, though, or something entirely different.

Thanks for asking Carol, and please if you have any wonderings, leave questions in the comments or email me at jhall@plimoth.org. Sometimes I don’t know what would be interesting to write about and I welcome your suggestions.

Wow. The days are really flying by right now. I didn’t realize I missed four days posting. Thank you to the two readers who commented on the red petticoat post; red certainly was an extremely desirable and expensive color to dye, and it is very likely those facts contributed to the higher value assigned to the red petticoat. I have read A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield, and can second the recommendation; it’s a fascinating read.

The second embroidery session begins in just over a week. Here is our schedule, developed based on the experiences of the first session and with the feedback of those embroiderers (also known as ‘guinea pigs’).

Wednesday, August 8

9:00 meet at Plimoth Plantation in the Accomack meeting room

short point to perfection stitching instruction, then stitching until 1:00

1:00 – 2:00 lunch, with a presentation by Kathleen Curtin, author of Giving Thanks, a history and cookbook of Thanksgiving foods

2:00 – 6:00 stitching

6:00 supper, followed by a class with a special embroidery project from Tokens & Trifles

Thursday, August 9

9:00 – 1:00 stitching

1:00 – 2:00 lunch

2:00 – 5:00 stitching

5:00 – 6:00 show & tell – please bring some special projects or antique embroideries you’d like to share. Last session seeing each other’s treasures was a special treat I hadn’t foreseen

after dinner behind-the-scenes tour of the Colonial Wardrobe & Textiles department

Friday, August 10

9:00 – 1:00 stitching

1:00 – 2:00 lunch

2:00 – 5:00 stitching OR see the museum and shopping OR early departure to aid travel plans

Based on what we learned last time, this time we’re not going to have set breaks but instead we’ll have coffee & snacks available both morning and afternoon and individual stitchers will please take a break when it suits their rhythm and work. I’ve lengthened the stitching sessions based on feedback from the first bee, but I’m aware that everyone has their own threshold for stitching. If you hit the wall at 3:30, don’t keep going. Please take that opportunity to shop or see the museum exhibits, or other attractions in Plymouth. We’re going to try to keep the workroom for working during the stitching hours, though, so we’ll move the socializing out onto the deck during those times. Also based on feedback from last time we’ll be having music playing during the working sessions.

The next session is September 13-16. We still have a couple of spots left, so if you’re available, please let me know at jhall@plimoth.org.

Sample arrived today from Marilyn S.

I’d like to hold two small embroidery sessions, one in November, and one in December. By small I mean 5-6 stitchers, the number we can accommodate in the Wardrobe Department rather than in one of the function/meeting rooms. In November all the meeting rooms will be booked. Things get a little busy around Plymouth in November, for some reason … and December I’m thinking not many people will be available to come, what with the holidays.

So the new dates are:

Wednesday, November 14 to Saturday, November 17 and

Tuesday, December 11 to Friday, December 14

I used the feedback from the participants in the first embroidery bee when choosing these dates. Most felt that weekdays were better than weekends, and most felt that four days would be better than three, particularly because it takes a little while to hit stride with these stitches and if we stop too soon we don’t get the full benefit. My feeling is, Yikes! 2007 is almost over! This exhibit is opening in about 15 minutes! And then I get a grip and remember it’s only July….

If you’d like to come in November and/or December, please send me a note. The September and October sessions are nearly full, so if you’re thinking you’d like to come let me know soon. You can reach me at jhall@plimoth.org.

Writing up the information about 17^th-century linen cloth got me thinking about Mary Ring’s probate inventory. Probate inventories of a deceased’s goods were taken for tax and inheritance purposes. In the early 17^th century it was rare for a woman’s goods to be inventoried. It was rarer still for clothes to be itemized, man’s or woman’s; usually they were lumped together under ‘wearing apparel’, sometimes along with whatever cash was on hand. What we have here, in the inventory dated 1633, is a precious gem – a list of a woman’s possessions, including individual entries for items of clothes.

Here are a few notes from the inventory, which runs several pages. Particularly tonight I’m interested in the garments for which a color is listed. A few days ago I wrote about why we’re calling The Jacket a jacket but the interpreters describe the same item as a waistcoat. This inventory is one of the primary source documents I mentioned that leads us to say “waistcoat” in the 1627 English Village.

1 black Say kertle 12s

1 Red petticote 16s

1 violet coloured petticoate 5s

1 Wastcoat mingled coloured 3s

1 violet coloured wastcoate 1s 6p

1 pr blew stockins (no value listed)

1 mingled coloured petticoate 5s

Historical documents often raise more questions than they answer. This one makes me wonder if the violet colored petticoat and waistcoat were worn together as a suit. How about the mingled colored ones? Were they a suit? And why was the red petticoat assigned a higher value than the other petticoats?

One thing is certain, Mary Ring wasn’t wearing just black, white and grey like the stereotypical pilgrims of our school days.

Samples arrived from Abigail W, Margi O, Lucinda T, and Heather R.

I went looking through the blog for the entry where I explained all about the sample kits, and I didn’t find one. I’ve written about the kits several times but never here. This bit is old news for some, but better to hear it twice than miss it completely so…

From the beginning of this project we have been planning ways to involve the whole community of needleworkers. This blog is one; we’re also placing articles in as many magazines and journals as possible and making presentations to groups. Also, and most importantly, we’re inviting embroiderers to travel to Plymouth, MA to work on it, not on samples but on the real jacket itself. We’ve already had one embroidery session and the second is coming right up August 8-10. It’s not too late to jump in, however.

We have a simple system to coordinate those who would like to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity and to ensure that the finished piece most closely resembles an original 17^th century jacket. Each prospective stitcher must complete a sample piece (available as a kit from Plimoth Plantation, see below) and send it to Plimoth Plantation. These samples will be used to assemble teams of stitchers whose individual thread tension and stitch length match each other. This way we will be able to create a jacket that represents a team of professional workers (as the originals were produced), and we will be able to accommodate as many embroiderers as possible.

To order a sample stitching kit, please contact Kathy Roncarati at (508) 746-1622 ext. 8114, or kroncarati@plimoth.org.

Each kit includes the same materials which will be used for the jacket, 50 ct cream Kingston linen and Au Ver a Soie Perlee silk, in sufficient quantities to work both the sample (to be returned to Plimoth Plantation) and one complete motif (to be kept by the embroiderer).

The sample does not require a great deal of time to complete. A small area of detached buttonhole stitch and its outline, trellis stitch and its outline, detached buttonhole with free edge and its outline, spiral trellis and its outline, knot stitch, and ladder stitch in silk will enable us to create teams. The kit includes comprehensive directions for each stitch, a color copy of a worked piece for reference, and a label to identify your sample.

In addition, the kit includes instructions and materials for a souvenir butterfly adapted from the inspiration pieces for you to keep. The butterfly is stitched in red, pink, gold and black Au Ver a Soie Perlee silk on 50 ct. cream Kingston linen. It is surrounded by gold spangles and is appropriate for finishing into a scissors fob or ornament (finishing materials not included). A CD Rom of the embroidery in process will be included as well as complete directions.

Samples, and the enclosed questionnaire, should be returned to Plimoth Plantation as soon as possible. Samples will be retained by Plimoth for use in matching individuals for stitching and also as examples to show the public what the embroidery is like close up. The completed jacket will be mounted and displayed in a Plexiglas case. It, along with a Native Wampanoag turkey feather mantle, will form the centerpiece of a new exhibit on the history of personal adornment, planned to open in the summer of 2008.

The sample stitching kit is available for $40 plus $5 shipping and handling (international shipping costs may vary), and includes a $20 tax-deductible donation to the project which will be used to offset the materials costs.