Here Justin is making his new warp – I believe he said it is 20 yards. For most people this would be pretty ambitious, considering he is working in the Crafts Center only two days a week (at the most) and that there are only a few weeks left to Plimoth’s open season, and that those weeks will be filled with many, many visitors, all of whom want to see him work but also want him to explain what he’s doing, which means stopping working for a moment or longer.

Ambitious for most people, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he finishes it.

I got some good news late yesterday – Dennis came in with the computer’s brains under one arm. “You’re fine,” he said. “CD drive burned out and fried the power source.” Which I roughly translate as “the stars were misaligned for computer work.” or something. Anyway, I lost nothing and it’s all better now.

And, Carolyn, I don’t know what the Murphy’s oil soap is used for in the Crafts Center, but I’ll find out. We have some in the wardrobe office that we use to clean the sewing baskets. We fill the utility sink with warm water and a good squirt of Murphy’s, then immerse an empty basket. We use fingernail brushes to loosen a season’s worth of grime. They dry in a big heap on some rags spread out on the floor. “We” is usually two or three volunteers who work with us on Plimoth’s annual Spring Clean Day. This happens in March, the Saturday two weeks before the museum is set to open to the public. Most of the work is outdoors, where all the sites are ship-shaped by a couple of hundred volunteers and staff working together. Whole families come together and rake the paths, or pick up winter debris (sticks, leaves) or turn garden beds. Some who are unable to work outdoors or need a break from that kind of work spend some time with us, washing the baskets, saddle-soaping the belts and leather pouches, sorting and labeling the contents of the wool closet, or doing regular mending. It is a busy, tiring and fun day, and it is wonderful to see how much can get accomplished and how beautiful the sites look at the end of the day. If you’re in the area or will be in March, you and your family can come play in the dirt, too. Check the website for the date and/or email Denise Nichols, Plimoth’s volunteer and intern coordinator. She keeps a head count (so we have enough lunch) and coordinates teams and team leaders and work orders. She won’t get going with this till next February, though, so don’t worry, there’s plenty of time.

Justin has been weaving in the Crafts Center a day or two a week. Last week he was making the warp for a second weaving project; the first one is already off the loom. In the second photo you can see the giant-sized warping board he was using. I’ll get you some pictures of Justin making the warp over the next few days.

Today I have pictures of Justin and Marilyn, the Crafts Center Gift Shop Manager, holding up the first piece of yardage, a striped worsted. He made about 5 yards in what seemed like no time at all.

I’m sorry this is not a great picture of Justin; ironic since he is such an excellent photographer. However, he couldn’t be taking this one and in it at the same time.

I posted Tricia’s note about slate frames here in July, 2008.

Check out the comments to that post for several ideas on where to get one.

Colleen asked, if she buys the Patterns of Fashion 4 book through the Plimoth mail order shop, will the proceeds go to the jacket? The answer is, not exactly. If you buy a lace or embroidery kit, $20 goes directly (do not pass “GO” . . . ) to the jacket project; same if you send a donation marked “jacket project”. All profits from the Retail division at Plimoth go into the general operating fund, which directly supports ALL Plimoth’s projects, the electric bill and interpreters’ shoes as well as the jacket project and the vet bill for the rare breeds, and . . .

Sorry about that bad link – I’ve fixed it in the last post and here’s the link Tricia suggested, straight to the book in the mail order shop.

I had an exciting day Friday. I turned on the office computer and it, well, it didn’t exactly swear, but it definitely thumbed its circuits at me. Dennis the IT guy didn’t have good news. “Hmmm,” he said. “That means it can’t find the hard drive.” “Can’t or WON’T?” was my response, not that it helped any.

The bottom line is that my documents are on the server (since last year, when the previous computer was gathered to its reward) but my email may not be. I may very well have lost my emails, including the address updates of Sharon G, Ann B, and two others whom, sadly, my feeble brain cannot recall. As well as anything anyone has asked me to do from before last Wednesday. BUT WAIT, don’t re-send me anything yet. Dennis promised to let me know by the end of next week what he could save, and THEN you can send me updates. And I promise to figure out a better computer filing system. Grrrr.

As this happened on a Friday morning, I took it as a sign to jettison all efforts at correspondence and Just Sew. Sometimes that’s a nice thing. I’m working hard to finish up a few things for the interpreters before they’re done for the season.

Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to sewing-wise. The first picture up at the top is Penny and the Stays From Hades. These are hand-sewn, but the real problem was that they were cut out for someone other than Elise, the person she finished them for. She thought they were close enough, and it would be good to finish them and get them in use, but she had to alteration after alteration so that by the end, she could have made three pairs of stays. She says she’ll never do that again. The good news is that, after all that, Elise is happy with them. They look great on her.

I finished Beth L’s sandy-pink gown a while ago and here are the pictures to prove it. In the closer picture you can see just a little gap; Beth and I decided to see if it relaxes in the wearing. If not I can put a hook & eye closure there. I finished the gown in the morning and brought it to her on her lunch break. She went right away and changed into it and I took these, so it hadn’t been worn more than a couple of minutes.

I think she likes it.

Now I’m working on a pink waistcoat for Whitney. Arianna’s already made her a brown petticoat to go with. The weekend after Thanksgiving there’ll be a wedding in the Village – not a real wedding, a pretend 1627 wedding. Whitney’s going to be the bride and I’ve promised her this outfit for early next week. Arianna’s making a canvas suit for Austin. Penny just finished a gold wool waistcoat for Kelley, which I need to photograph. At this point in the season she probably won’t start something else new, but move on to a little housecleaning to get us ready for the Big Piles of Dirty Stuff which will arrive the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I owe you all a mess of pictures from the show & tell portions of the last several embroidery sessions. I’m thinking to save them for the last half of December. It seems appropriate viewing for the season of celebrating treasures.

I hadn’t been at Plimoth when the new Patterns of Fashion 4 preview was viewed and so was very excited today when my package came from Plimoth with my order (benefiting the jacket project – get yours now).

WOW. I am very grateful to Jenny Tiramani and Santina Levey for finishing this book for Janet and bringing this set of her research to our eyes. I have just finished my first totally absorbing poring over the contents. The pictures are stunning.

Janet Arnold was Joanna Hill’s advisor and Joanna has been conserving the EC sampler at Plimoth which the readers of the blog have generously made happen through their contributions. Joanna has told me numerous times how much she had wished that the publishers of Janet’s many volumes would have included color and large photographs of the objects. In her opinion “Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlocked” would have made the most stunning coffee table book and an elaborate use of color would have lived up to the tremendous research that the volume contains. I agree. And Macmillian/QSM must have heard some of those rumblings. There are far more color photos and close ups than I would ever have expected in this book almost 1/2 the volume is color photographs. Kudos to them!

The book has something for everyone and covers those mysterious details that many of us have wondered about for a long time. There are close pictures of embroidery, lace, finishing details, ruffs, armatures, clothing, portraits, etc. I now totally understand how all those funny lace collars you see in so many portraits happened. If you have any of Janet’s publications in your library, you have to add this one to the mix. Just buy it, support the Jacket project, wrap it and put it under the Christmas tree marked “From Santa”. You will be glad you did.

Tricia

Wow. That was faster delivery than I could have expected, even from our crack Retail Mail Order team. Thanks to everyone who has ordered, and enjoy!

Thanks to Debbie A who reminded me to post a note about how to make a donation to support Plimoth Plantation in general or the jacket project in particular. And thanks to Lois, who saw in a recent post that we were accepting donations and wrote to ask me how to go about it. Here’s the scoop:

Please make out your check to “Plimoth Plantation” and direct it to:

Kim Corben, Development Department

Plimoth Plantation

PO Box 1620

Plymouth, MA 02362

If you’d like to support a particular project or function, please be sure to write on your check (memo line) “embroidered jacket” (for this project – it will buy the last supplies we need and support the exhibit that will go with the jacket), “colonial wardrobe” (this would support all our work of dressing the first-person interpreters, like buying cloth and buttons and shoes), or “textile conservation fund” which is dedicated to preserving Plimoth’s three samplers (two 17th-century and one 19th-century) and any other historic textiles the museum may acquire.

Any undesignated contributions will go into the general operating fund, which is also good; that pays the electric bill, among other things.

Here’s a picture for today. Embroidery volunteer Carli brought this to show & tell last session, which started on Halloween. It is her own design. She was strongly encouraged to write up the directions, both because everyone wanted to make one and because it uses GST – click on the image to enlarge, and look for the sparkle!

Have you heard that the new Janet Arnold book, Patterns of Fashion 4: The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c.1540-1660 is finally really being released?

If you haven’t heard, take a deep breath.

Janet Arnold died unexpectedly in 1998, and since then the historic clothing world has periodically buzzed with rumors that her linen book would be out “soon”.

This time it isn’t a rumor. A review copy sits on the desk before me as I write, thanks to Susanna, our book buyer, and Karin, Plimoth’s library custodian, both of whom let me have first peek. Let me assure you, it has been worth the wait. Unlike the first 3 books in the Patterns of Fashion series, this one has color pictures. Black & white ones, too, but lots of color. This is excellent because many of the shirts, smocks, coifs, drawers, etc, have embroidery on them. In many cases the photos are clear enough to see the motifs; in others Janet has illustrated parts of repeating motifs or entire isolated ones. There is a wealth of detail about seam treatments and other construction details, and of course the patterns on graphed pages with Janet’s own invaluable notes. The interesting thing to me about this volume is that since she never finished it there are places where her guesses or questions to herself have been left in by Jenny Tiramani and Santina Levey, who organized the material and at last brought the book to publication.

Amazon is taking advance orders, but I have a BETTER deal for you — a chance to buy yourself a book you know you want AND support a very good cause all at the same time.

Right now Plimoth Plantation’s mail order department is taking orders for this book for $49.95 plus $8.95 shipping. The proceeds of these sales, as all retail sales at Plimoth, will directly support Plimoth’s programs. (So every time you buy some of those yummy chocolate covered cranberries, you’re helping put shoes on an interpreter, for instance.)

You can feel good knowing A) this awesome book is on it’s way to you and B) your money is going to a cause you support. We still need a few supplies to finish up the jacket, namely thread, sequins (oes), needles, plus we’re planning, and beginning to pay for, the exhibit that will go with the finished jacket – the mannequin upon which it will be mounted, the petticoat, the explanatory panels, the case to put it in, all those things that will make it possible for the public to see and experience this marvelous piece first hand – and will let us travel her to other museums and institutions so YOU can see her first hand.

To order, you can access the mail order gift shop through the website at www.plimoth.org You can also contact the retail department directly at 1-800-262-9356 X 8204 or X 8332 Nicole Hallahan is in charge of retail mail order and you can reach her at nhallahan@plimoth.org

I’d like to ask our regular readers from the SCA to please share this information with your fellows – I think many of them will want this book and might be glad to have their money to this excellent project rather than to a faceless megacorp.

The review copy was hijacked by us arrived in the office during the last embroidery session; in the photo from left that’s Carli, Debbie, me and Lyn admiring. It took a supreme effort to prevent myself from hogging the book in an unseemly fashion.

As always, thanks.

Mary asked a couple of days ago if she saw the beginning of a bird in the middle of the back piece.

Tricia started that bird ages ago, but before she got any further she realized we needed better pictures before she could really decipher what was happening there. We moved on to other things, and then when she had better pictures she was already planning her UK trip and thought to wait until she could see the motifs herself, in person.

Well, that has happened too, and last I heard she was almost ready to start work on the instructions for the birds. The original stitching in black may have to come out, I don’t know. As soon as we have something to show I’ll take pictures and share them.

One of the other items on Tricia’s plate right now is preparing to teach on December 12th in NYC. This class is one of the programs associated with the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibit of embroidery at the Bard Graduate Center for the Arts. The full description isn’t posted on the Bard College website yet, but you know it’ll be fabulous. Tricia’s going to do a gallery tour and then a hands-on class. You can get more information from wilson@bgc.bard.edu This exhibit is only scheduled to be up from December 11, 2008 to April 12, 2009, so plan your trip to New York now.

And while you’re planning, I’ve got three intrepid embroiderers signed up for another gold-blitz weekend 11/21 – 24; if you can get to Plymouth for even part of that weekend send me a note: jhall@plimoth.org