Tricia writes tonight:

 

One of the things that infrequently shows up in books on embroidery are close-ups of the work and the complex materials that embroiderers of the past had at their disposal to work with. I have taken a few close-up pictures of Joanna’s piece to share with you the complexity of things we no longer have for ourselves.

The first one is hard to describe and is shown in the close up of the woman’s bodice. I have seen this metal ‘thread’ on other embroideries of the period but it hasn’t been well described in any literature I have seen. This ‘thread’ looks like a purl thread that has been pulled to expand the loops and then half the loop has been smooshed (a technical term) to flatten the loop. The main part of the wire remains round. I would love to have this thread again – wouldn’t you! It makes such a lovely border.

If you look carefully at several of the pictures, there is a silk thread that is wrapped with a metal strip. But the metal strip is not tightly wound so that silk shows in between the wraps. This type of thread construction was widely used in the 17th century and often doesn’t show up well in photographs of pieces in books. The metal strip (either silver or silver gilt) has usually corroded and gives the silk embroidery a ‘grayed’ cast. On the historic jacket we are adapting, this type of thread construction is used for the main portions of the flowers in each motif. More on that later…I know you are hearing rumors and I will ‘unveil the surprise’ in September. If you can imagine what this might have looked like when the metal was still gleaming, it would have seemed as if the embroidery had been sprinkled with glitter. And if you haven’t realized this yet - if they used this type of thread on the jacket - that meant that they did detached buttonhole with it. And you
would be right.

Jill here. I’m bisecting this post because Bloggie thinks there are too many pictures for this number of words. At this time of night, I don’t ask questions, I merely obey. Rather than struggle with bad pictures I’m going to shift some to tomorrow. Which is, after all, another day. See you then.

Tricia writes:

 

One of the nice things about recreating the jacket is how so many people are interested in the project and sometime we have special visitors with things to share. This sharing is really enriching everyone and also bringing on more and more collaborations between communities.

During this session, Joanna Hill (a well-known textile conservator in the Boston area), brought her own historic embroidered stumpwork picture to show the embroiderers. The picture, shown here, is 3rd quarter 17th century and has not yet been conserved. The piece is not framed and so we were able to examine it very closely. Everyone enjoyed speaking with Joanne about the techniques that were used on the piece. Many of our embroiderers hadn’t seen the complex threads that were on the piece. We saw silk covered purls used for the buildings and flora, wonderful small pearls applied, silk covered wire, and mica for windows.

A lively topic of discussion was the wonderful or’nue that was used on the skirt of the woman, which also lifted up to show more embroidery underneath. More on this embroidery and its fun threads tomorrow with lots of really close of pictures of the threads.

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York, Alfred A. Knopf: 2001. ISBN 0-679-44594-3

 

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has a gift for making history accessible, personal, even intimate. In this volume she tackles one of the most prevalent myths of American history, that all colonial housewives were completely self-sufficient in the textile department. Ulrich not only explains how that myth got started, she also tells the real story about colonial textile production.

 

This quote from the dust jacket sums it up better than I can tonight: Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal larger economic and social structures, and, in particular, how early Americans and their descendents made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert identities, shape relationships, and create history.

 

This book came up in conversation during Session Two’s behind-the-scenes tour of the Colonial Wardrobe & Textiles Department. It’s fascinating and reads like a novel. If you’re at all interested in history or textiles or textile history (and you probably wouldn’t be here if you weren’t) do yourself a favor and take a look.

 

Trivia time. Do you know who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”?

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, of course. That quote has become pretty common and is often not attributed. Now if you see it you’ll know who to credit.

 

Here are links to TRELLIS STITCH and SPIRAL TRELLIS STITCH instructions.

In the interest of making a lot of embroidery progress in a short amount of time, we’ve scheduled four sessions in January. We’re going to run two sessions back-to-back, twice. If you haven’t been able to make any of the sessions so far, now’s your chance – come to Plymouth in January (OK, doesn’t have the ring of April in Paris, but we’ve got embroidery). Let me know jhall@plimoth.org if January is a possibility for you and we’ll talk dates. Remember, the maximum we’ll be able to have is 12, and by then we’re likely to be down to 10 frames so the sessions will fill quickly.

 

 Thanks for the comment, Carol, I’m glad the picture is clearer. If you hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t have tried to get a better one. If anyone has other questions, please leave me a comment or send me a note.

 

Two pictures tonight. The top one is an array of Lauren’s work; all her designs and mostly her stitching. The second is another detail of the late 17^th-century stumpwork picture Joanna Hill brought to the embroidery session.

 

And I thought I’d link again to the stitch directions, for those who’ve only recently joined us. Here’s REVERSE CHAIN STITCH and DETACHED BUTTONHOLE STITCH.

First, Kathy has managed to secure us a larger room for the December session – December 11-14. (YAY, Kathy!) That means we can have the full complement of 12 embroiderers. So far I have 10, and a couple of those are tentative, so is there anyone else out there who would like to come to Plymouth in December? The living history sites will be closed to the public by then, but the gift shops in the Visitors’ Center will still be open. We’ll also have some of the special programs that the first two groups have enjoyed so much.

 

Aha, you sharp-eyed readers caught me there: a full complement is now only 12, not 13 as it was a few weeks ago. One of the frames has “gone out of service”, meaning that as much work as can be done on it has been done. It is waiting for more threads to be made; more colors of the sparkle thread and the gold thread for the curling vine. Likely that number will go down further as we finish what can be done on the other small frames – the gussets, the wings, the collar & cuffs. The collar & cuffs especially still have a bit to go before that happens.

 

Thanks to Wendy who reminded me to THANK TOM for rescuing us Friday night. At the end of each session the work room has to be broken down and everything moved back to the building where the Colonial Wardrobe office is. Wendy and Tricia offered the use of their big cars so we needed to make only one trip, but if Tom hadn’t shown up to help us load everything, we might still be there carrying. Thanks again, Tom.

 

So, one of the questions that invariably comes up when looking at the partly embroidered pieces is, “Who gets to wear it?” The jacket, of course, isn’t intended for even occasional wearings, it’s meant to be on a mannequin in the adornment exhibit. But a piece of clothing has to be worn at least once, I feel, or somehow it won’t be whole. We’re making the jacket to the dimensions of the original, not to fit anyone in particular. The pieces look little but in reality the finished jacket shouldn’t be impossibly small. In fact, one of the historical interpreters currently on staff ought to be able to fit into it. Paulette is of medium height and slender and her measurements match the measurements of the garment pieces. She may have even tried on the muslin of the jacket while it was being proved this winter. So Paulette will get to wear it, at least once, maybe more, who knows.

 

What other items of clothing will go with the jacket is a puzzle for another day.