“So, want to make a coif and forehead cloth to go with the jacket?” Tricia asked me that a few weeks ago, during the time that she was wrestling with how to get all the jacket pieces out of one piece of linen and still be able to fit the pieces into the frames we had (or thought we could get). My first thought was that the stress of the impossible puzzle had finally sent her around the bend. In my mind the jacket alone was still looming as a gargantuan goal and a logistical nightmare. This coif & forehead cloth wasn’t exactly a new idea, though. Months before, when we were laying out this project in broad strokes, one of the goals I outlined was to increase the embroidery skills and knowledge base of the Colonial Wardrobe Dept staff. Expanding skills is a worthy object on its own, but ultimately I was intending to create a coif and forehead cloth to match the jacket, like the suite of entirely metal thread embroidered jacket, coif, and forehead cloth in the collection of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. So my second thought was “why not?” Why not indeed. So we’ll be working on a coif and forehead cloth too, over these next months. Why not.

Thanks to Libbet, who left a comment confirming my suspicion that an embroidered coif & forehead cloth in the Burrell Collection is displayed upside down and backwards. I was hesitant to say so definitely, only having seen it in a photograph, but it is put together upside down and the forehead cloth is sewn on with the point going the wrong way. This is an easy mistake to make, especially if one has never tried to wear a coif; yet another example of how doing can teach you things even long and careful looking won’t reveal.

A forehead cloth, or in some period records, a cross cloth, is a triangle with tape or ties on two points. It is like the kerchiefs that were popular a few years ago and in the 1970s. It was worn in the 17^th century over a coif, with the point facing forward, towards the forehead. They seem to have been part of informal wear, sometimes worn to bed.

Thanks also to the several ambitious embroiderers, some working solo, some in teams, who have left comments or sent notes to say that they are also working on embroidered jackets. If you send me some pictures (less than 3MB each) I’ll post some, so we can see what you’re doing and cheer you on.

Most of the daily work on this project right now is focused on getting ready for the first bee, which will start in less than a week (really? Next week already?). Much of what we’re doing, while necessary, is unglamorous and doesn’t seem particularly blog-worthy. For instance, today Kathy, Laura and I decided how many of each kind of table (small round and long rectangular) we’ll need, and in what arrangement. Not very exciting, but needed to be done. We’ve made lists of supplies we need – power strips, extension cords, nametags, coffee mugs. We’ve ordered a bunch of stuff and are crossing our fingers that it will all arrive in time, including daylight lamps, boxes to store supplies on the stitching tables, scissors for those boxes, and frame parts. I know Tricia is working on the master instruction book, which will have all the motifs and what colors & stitches they should be worked in.

I haven’t received any samples since Friday; I’ll keep noting here when I do so you’ll know yours arrived safely.

Hey, it’s JUNE. The month in which we’ll begin the real, actual embroidery. I’m excited.

Today we changed the room we’ll be stitching in for the June session. I have to say; never in my wildest dreams for this project did I imagine we’d have to deal with what to do with too many people. I had scary visions in which NO ONE wanted to work on the jacket. I had scary visions in which we couldn’t find appropriate materials. I had scary visions of the whole thing taking way too long. But never did I dream we’d have more embroiderers than we could fit.

So we decided to move from the medium-sized room in the Visitors’ Center that has pretty good light to a much bigger room in a building across the path. This building, called Accomack, has plenty of space with lots of windows, but the lighting in the center of the room is not great. We thought buying lamps would be easier than being crammed into a too-small room. This reminds me; if you’re accustomed to working with a magnifier, please bring it along. And the chairs are wooden, so if you think you’d like a cushion, please bring one.

Kathy is also sticking pins in me about the schedule for the session. I’m working on it, and so far can say for certain that we’ll be checking in Tuesday the 19^th beginning at 9:30 am in Plimoth Plantation’s Henry Hornblower II Visitors’ Center. We’ll begin stitching at 10:30 am in Accomack. We’ll end this session on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm so those with a long drive can get started early. I have promised Kathy that I’ll send a proper, detailed schedule to the June participants before Monday morning. I will of course also post it here.

So speaking of the scary visions of not finding appropriate materials, the lovely new linen is still languishing in customs, but we no longer care. Tricia pretty much cornered the market on any of this linen already in the US and came up with one piece large enough to make the entire jacket. We really wanted to avoid cutting from two separate pieces because of concerns about differences in dye lot. After a lot of fiddling and figuring and planning and plotting, Tricia was able to make the largest piece work.

Next step is tracing the pattern shapes onto the linen, and then tracing the embroidery pattern on. All of which she’s going to take pictures of so we can share. Meanwhile, I’ll be making canvas cases in which to store & transport the frames, once the linen is mounted on them.

One last thing, some folks have had trouble finding Kathy’s contact info, so here it is again:

Kathy Roncarati, 508-746-1622 X 8114 or kroncarati@plimoth.org

And here’s mine: Jill M. Hall, 508-746-1622 X 8119 or jhall@plimoth.org