Tricia’s turn:

A few weeks ago we went over the process of creating the master embroidery design (Making the Pattern, June 2 and The Rest of the Story, June 3) and recently how the pattern pieces for the jacket were created (The Sewing Pattern, June 30). Now it was time to place the design on the jacket. The first task was to create a large design master for both the right and left. As the garment mirrors the embroidery pattern across the front and on the arms we took the master repeat and copied it many times. We also used the ‘mirror’ function that is now common on Xerox machines and made copies using this feature.

We created a master right and left paper by gluing the master repeat to the paper and tiling it, much as you would for a tiled floor. At the edges of each repeat, we had to flip some motifs or remove them altogether. This occurred with many of the butterflies. Once this master pattern was created to about 40" x 30", we could overlay the pattern pieces on top and align. We used the photography of the V&A jacket to guide our overlays. Remembering that the jacket pattern we are using is the Laton which has a higher neckline (than the jacket we took the embroidery pattern from), more of the repeats show than on the original jacket. We then had the long task of tracing onto the pattern pieces.

This was aided by a little tool we made up. To make sure that the coiling vine stayed the same size across the jacket, we took two pencils and shaved down the sides using a wood plane. We then taped them together and could draw a vine which was uniform all over the pattern.

Once we had traced the pattern everywhere on the pieces - it looked magnificent. I was really breathtaking to see the black and white pattern there - wouldn’t this jacket look just wonderful in blackwork!

The next blog will go over the exceptions to the master pattern we found!

Tricia

A couple of pictures of the snazzy new canvas bags Shaina is making to protect the embroideries-in-progress. They’re almost done. In the second picture I untucked the frames so you can see them; otherwise you can’t tell what they are.

 

In the background, you can see a reproduction 17^th-century style embroidery frame. That frame was made at least 20 years ago, and the embroidery on it is almost as old. It was going to be a blackwork coif and was started by a first-person interpreter in the English Village probably in the late 1980s. The pattern was transferred to the linen by pricking holes in a paper pattern and pouncing powder, charcoal powder I believe. A small amount of embroidery was done. I’m not sure why it never went any further. Again, we’ve learned a lot about history since then. I’m not sure we’d do the project the same way now. But no one’s ever dismantled the embroidery because it looks so interesting the way it is. I have started thinking about undoing the old one and mounting a new piece of linen with a new pattern, informed by what we’ve learned developing The Jacket. Still just thinking, though.

 

And here’s a link to a sampler-focused blog. MJ has been following the Jacket’s progress and made a link available to her readers. I’m really liking the opportunity to make connections between groups of people who have common interests but might never have met. It’s one of the best parts of this project.