Hi everyone,

ELIZABETH N PLEASE CALL KATHY. She got your request for 2 kits, but not your contact info. 508-746-1622 X 8114 or kroncarati@plimoth.org

Thank you for your very kind compliments on my little leaf.

Hi Suz, yes, there will be critters on our jacket, but the embroidery pattern we’re using isn’t from the Laton jacket. We’re using the garment pattern from the Laton jacket partly because it is drawn out on graphed paper in Janet Arnold’s book Patterns of Fashion: the Cut & Construction of Clothes for men and women c.1560-1620; partly because the shape of it puts it firmly in the time period we are interested in - early 1600s (the ones with scooped necks are probably of later date, there’s some discussion about this); partly because it belongs to the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, England) and we had a prior relationship with the curator, Susan North; partly also because it is a famous example, existing as it does along with a portrait of the owner wearing it.

But we’re using the embroidery pattern of a different jacket in the collection of the V&A - 1359-1900. You can find it by going to the V&A website, search collections, and put in 1359-1900. (I can’t link to the V&A website here due to licensing issues.) We chose this embroidery pattern because it has a good (better than Laton) variety of stitches and motifs, a pleasing color palette (in my opinion also better than Laton) and it is not on permanent display, which allows Ms North to photograph it when we have questions which is really pretty often. She’s been absolutely fantastic about this.

So the short answer is, yes. Our jacket will have at least two different kinds of worms, two kinds of butterflies (both with needlelace upper wings, so they’re 3-dimensional) and a truly spectacular bird with a spiral trellis head. Click on honeysuckle to see a portion of the design that includes the bird, both worms and one butterfly. The other butterfly has rounded wings.

Thanks for asking about this because I haven’t talked about it in a while.

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