Here’s a good idea, thanks Carol and Kimberly. This is the left upper sleeve as of today, April 9th. Each sleeve is composed of two parts, the upper and the under. The top of the upper sleeve has a convex curve to go over the top of the shoulder; the under has a concave curve to go under the underarm. Otherwise they’re the same shape. To me it looks about half done; about as many spaces as colored-in bits. But then when you consider all the gold work that has to be done, plus the sequins to be sewn on in every blank space, plus the detached bits to stitch and then sew on (the top layer of the pea pods and the butterfly wings), well, there’s plenty left to do.

Here is a cluster of motifs from the back of the jacket. At about seven o’clock is one of the dreaded trefoils; about ten there’s a sweet pea flower and pea pod; at twelve a honeysuckle with the pink & red buds; one o’clock a spiky-winged butterfly; at two most of a thistle; at about four o’clock is part of a foxglove. You can see an unstitched rose on the left, various buds, rose hips and leaves here & there; and the blank (for now) vine twining around all. Notice the little curlicues that spring from the vine; I was mentioning those yesterday. In the extreme lower right corner you can see part of another trefoil, with the vein of the leaf marked. All the trefoils and most of the other leaves have those veins. They’ll later be stitched in gold.

I’ll intersperse these posts with others, but I’ll get pictures up of all the pieces so you can see where we are. And after this coming weekend, when we have a work session, I’ll post another picture of this sleeve so you can see what was done on it. Overall, I think this piece is more done than some (the jacket fronts, for instance, are less densely covered than this) and less done than others (the jacket back, perhaps, the wings, the gussets for sure). So, pretty representative. The reason I picked it, though, is less well-thought-out than it might seem – this frame was at the front of the cupboard.

I have spring and summer session dates for you. All are Friday to Monday weekends.

March 28 – March 31

April 11 – April 14

May 16 – May 19

May 30 – June 2

June 20 – June 23
We will be making lace at some of these sessions, but I’m not sure yet if we’ll be ready to do that March 28. We will have two pillows available at a time. If any lacers would like to reserve a pillow for a day or a weekend, please email me at jhall@plimoth.org I’m scheduling the lacers carefully so we won’t overbook the pillows. Coming for part of a session is an option; let me know what you’re thinking.

For all of these sessions we will be in the Colonial Wardrobe office. The physical space will limit the number of embroiderers we can comfortably host. Sign up for all or part of a session by emailing me at jhall@plimoth.org I don’t know how many more sessions I’ll be scheduling after these, so if you’ve been thinking about joining us “sometime” – now is the time. I look forward to hearing from you. Also, a reminder, if you’ve participated in a session before, you don’t need to wait for a scheduled session to come back. You can come any day or days that work for you; it is always nice to have the embroidery going on along with the other work of the department.

Here’s a picture of a cornflower for today. Here are some pictures of real cornflowers.