This is the first email from Justin, the Village interpreter and weaver who is making the blue silk lining for the jacket in conjunction with Kate of Eaton Hill Textile Works.

Here are some pictures of the current progress on the silk lining. See yesterday’s entry for a picture of the sample. I knew it was fine, but Justin mentioned in this email that it is 80 epi (that’s ends, or threads, per inch). That’s some pretty sharp weaving, but as you’ll see from this entry, just as tricky is handling those fine threads through all the pre-weaving steps. The italics are quotes from Justin’s email.

This photo is a bundle of indigo dyed silk skeins and antique spools. I reeled the skeins from the cones on a long reel where we could wind several at a time. The skeins were tied, scoured, and then hand dyed in an indigo vat by Kate. After much fussing, the skeins were separated and dried.

Now they need to be spooled for warping. The next is a picture of the head of the great wheel on which I’ll be spooling. The wheel is from the 18th century and has been passed down in my mother’s family from Hatfield, MA. It seems quite early based on the turnings, iron rings on the posts, wooden axle, and drawknife-worked wheel post.

In this next picture, I’m using another spindle to run the silk over and onto the spool being wound, so as to prevent any cut fingers from the thread.

This last shot is of the swift and skein clamped to the woodbox and the wheel and spool beyond.

In addition to his interpreting and weaving skills, Justin’s a pretty nifty photographer. At least a couple of these, which he took at his home in Rhode Island, look like they were set up at a historic house museum for a magazine article.

I’m sorry I didn’t post last night. There was a lot of homework to do at my house, and by the time my number came up to use the computer, it was today.

Here as promised, though, is the beginning of a new story.

Eventually, the embroidery will be done, the oes sewn on, and it will be time to free the pieces from their frames and sew them together into a garment. (I can hear you asking, and the answer is – Probably me, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

The jacket will have to be lined, both for its longevity and to perpetuate the accuracy of the reproduction. Margaret Laton’s jacket is lined in a carnation-pink silk. V&A #1359-1900 is lined in a pale blue silk. What color, and what silk should we use?

Several months ago one of my colleagues got in touch with me, coincidentally just about the time I started thinking seriously about what we would use for a lining. Justin is a first-person interpreter in the 1627 Colonial Village, but last winter he was working with Kate Smith and Norman Kennedy at Eaton Hill Textile Works in Vermont.

So, said Justin, have you thought about using a hand-woven silk for the lining? Maybe naturally dyed? No, I hadn’t, but obviously it’s a great idea. I’ll do up a little sample? he said, And see what you think? Oh, yes, please. I thought blue, since the embroidery pattern, and thus the colors, are coming from #1359-1900, which is lined in blue. Besides, there’s something irresistible about indigo, don’t you think?

The sample came, much faster than I would have expected, a little snip of blue silk in plain weave, with impossibly fine warp and weft. The silk is fine, but with a crisp hand not unlike taffeta, but not so crunchy.

We put it up next to the blue silk and light blue GST – and look. What did we think? Fabulous. Late last week Justin sent me some photos and details of the silk production process so far. I’ll be sharing them with you over the next few days.

Or comments, really.

Thanks, Jane, for your note. Jane’s from the UK and was curious about our UK stitcher, all of whom were in the US for the Celebrations of Needlework in Nashua, NH, which I believe wraps up tomorrow. I don’t know offhand where Sarah and Susan are from, but I’ll look it up when I get back to the office. Susan has an online needlework shop, Hanging by a Thread, (the shop’s address is London, so there’s a clue) and has been so generous about spreading news of the project. Sarah is Susan’s sister, and they look enough alike that I was having trouble keeping their names straight, though in my defense they were at first introduced to me by the other’s name, so after that I had no chance at all. Anne is Robbin’s mother-in-law (Robbin of the laptop grant, the lacemaking, the thistle calyxes, the gorgeous antique lace wedding veil, and the great photos). I’m pretty sure the information on where the blog hits come from exists, but I would have to go looking for it. (Yah. Who am I kidding? By “looking for” I mean “ask Rich”.) I know coral-seas is in the UK. She returned our first overseas sample, and writes a delicious needlework blog here. Our other international stitcher is Lyn. She comes from Ontario, Canada, and has come down to Plymouth several times now. She’s doing the repro of the Bosworth sampler.

And, in the comments a few days ago (I eventually get there) coral-seas asked if the jacket embroidery pattern has a repeat. The answer is yes, the master repeat is four motifs high and four across. Tricia told the story of discovering the repeat early in the blog – June 2 and June 3, to be exact, (and I can be exact both quickly and easily thanks to Lyn’s awesome index – Thanks, Lyn!).

It’s a great story, like a historical detective yarn. Or floss. Just kidding. Anyway, there’s a panel in the collection of the Embroiderers’ Guild in the UK which is so extremely similar to the 1359-1900 jacket in the V&A (the embroidery design source for our jacket) that they must have come from the same workshop. Examining the photos of the jacket and the panel and fiddling with the motifs for our design, Tricia had a “eureka!” moment and saw the repeat.

The four-by-four repeat is most visible on the back. Tricia worked the original motifs on the back, the ones she stitched in order to illustrate the directions for the instruction manuals. So at that first session the back was the only one with embroidery on it.

I have another great story in my pocket, so to speak, actually, in the laptop. I accidentally left some pictures at the office over the weekend; I will get at them Monday and start the next “bite” then. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll have some different visual treat.

of yesterday’s stitchers and their work.

First, here’s Anne and her leaf, embroidered on the coif. Thanks to Robbin for this great picture.

Here are a couple of pictures of Tricia, Sarah and Susan. I love how Tricia curls up in a chair to work on these big frames. No matter how huge they are, she looks cozy and comfortable, not like she’s wrestling with a bulletin board (which is how I feel, and probably look.)

We had another Sarah in stitching yesterday. Sarah R is 11 years old and was in the office trying on period clothing – she’s going to portray a young colonist in the Village occasionally this summer. She was fascinated with the embroidery and Tricia explained just what was going on and why. Then Tricia got her a doodle cloth and some floss, and this is what she did! The bear face and the “S” are Sarah’s, and they were her first embroidery. The Project once again inspires a newbie to pick up a needle.

We’ve got a birthday and an anniversary coming up. May 15 is the blog’s birthday – one year since we started this online community. We’ve got an embroidery and lacing session May 16-19; I think we’ll be having some birthday celebrations!

The June 20 – 23 session is our anniversary – that weekend last year was the first time we gathered to work on the jacket. It seems so long ago, especially judging by the pieces. Back then, those first embroiderers really had to take their courage in hand to make the first stitches on the huge blank linen pieces. And then, after a whole day’s work, or a whole FOUR days’ work, there would be . . . two buds and a trefoil. Or a bud and two leaves. What a leap of faith on all our parts, believing that others would come after and keep filling in, that the Gilt Sylke Twist thread would get made, that the lacers would join us, that the spangles’ mysteries would be revealed. . . . I think there will be some festivities that weekend as well.

There’s still room in both sessions. Email me. jhall@plimoth.org