Look what we got from Susan D in Australia! This is our very first sample received from Australia. I was so excited to see the return address on the package. Thanks, Susan, for sending it back. We’ll use your beautiful work in the exhibit (along with the other samples), so visitors can see the stitches up close, can see the backs, and can appreciate the extent of support and enthusiasm for the jacket project from stitchers all over the world. The returned samples really do contribute to the success of the project. Don’t feel that coming here to embroider is the only way to participate.

Susan sent a lovely note along with her sample. (And the notecard’s cover is a photo of a piece in the Royal School of Needlework’s collection, so that was a treat too!) She said she checks the blog regularly and enjoys the progress photos and the “show & tell” pieces from the embroiderers. She sent two photos of her work to share. With Penny’s help I managed to scan and resize them so I could post; they don’t zoom, though, unfortunately. The worm is Susan’s first attempt at Elizabethan Raised Embroidery. The drawnwork sampler is a work-in-progress “the closest I am ever likely to come to making lace” Susan wrote. I don’t know what you think, but to me this IS lace, not so much close to making lace but actual lace.

This is another work in progress, “Sharon Cohen’s 17th century sampler (with modifications).” Your work is just beautiful.

Thank you so much for sharing these, Susan, and for supporting the jacket work in general. I feel so encouraged. Does anybody remember the children’s book Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel? Mike and his steam shovel, Marianne, work harder and faster when people are watching and encouraging them. I feel like that; this is a long project (!) and sometimes a little encouragement goes a long way. That, and knowing someone will notice if you slack off. . .

Last Friday the embroiderers at our April session got an unexpected treat – Mark was working in the Crafts Center making spangles. Lots of Mark’s work isn’t suitable to the Crafts Center, requiring a big fire like it does, but this work is great for that space.

Wendy and Tricia took photos and also video, I believe. Wendy sent me these photos.

Two tubes of the silver thread for the lace making arrived in the mail from Tricia this morning. Carolyn sent a note that she and Wendy will be down week after next to wind bobbins. Carolyn will finish off the wing piece that Bryce did, and start the next piece so Jill H can work when she comes in May.

Joann G’s embroidery sample arrived a couple of days ago and Kathy sent a big pile of embroidery kits out. Those of you who were waiting for kits, they’re on their way. I think that’s all the news for today.

Since November, 2007, we have received:

Stockings from:

Deb W from MA

Veronica M (two pair)

Virginia S

Melanie Anne (two pair)

Linda F

Liz P

Deb W from Texas

Cindy S

Leslie H

Salley C

Gloves from:

Rosemary C (two pair)

Liz P

Julie S (two pair)

The interpreters have been coming in all week, picking up their period clothes and choosing new knitted stockings from this fantastic collection. So far everyone has found a pair they like and that fit. Thank you all so much; without your generosity we would not have had any knitted stockings to distribute.

Gloves are also going away; some people who had been wearing many-times-mended yet still hole-full gloves have brand-new warm ones now. Thank you.

It has been rather busy in the office this week; people coming and going, trying on things, trading, choosing, taking away….

I will get some photos of interpreters in the new knitted goods and share them with you. Thanks again.

So many people answered our call for volunteer knitters that we have used up our yarn budget for the year. If you’d like to knit, or you’d like to knit some more, let me know and I’ll put your name on our knitters list for next year. Next winter I’ll order more yarn and send out kits again.

Lace samples have arrived from Mary D, Norma B and Carolyn W. They are all just beautiful. I hope to have good news soon about scheduling lace making.

To order a kit for either the embroidery or the lace, send an email to Kathy at kroncarati@plimoth.org or call her at 508-746-1622 X 8114. Kits are $40 each plus $5 for shipping. Included in the $40 is a $20 tax-deductible donation which directly supports the project. For more information, you can email me at jhall@plimoth.org or leave a comment.

samples received: Lisa G (embroidery); Susan L (lace)

One thing that touches me every time is how grateful the stitchers are to be involved in the recreation of this jacket. It amazes me, because I feel so grateful to all of you – after all, if you didn’t show up, on the blog, in person, by buying kits, by contributing your knowledge and experience, by stitching, well, I don’t even like to think about it.

I need to thank the members of Team Lace for their hard work developing the lace kits that are winging their way all over creation these days. (So many in fact that Kathy asked Tricia to put together another dozen!)

First, a huge debt of gratitude to Carolyn H, who spearheaded the whole endeavor. Without her energy and commitment, the lace would be nowhere.

Holly van Sciver of Van Sciver Bobbin Lace for consulting for development of the lace sample kit, and especially making the final pricking for both the kit lace and the Laton lace (the one we’ll use on the jacket).

Shirley E — working on a final version of the pricking
Robbin D, Catherine K — beta testing the instructions and pricking
Tamara D, Devon T, Susan L — helping out with identifying period appropriate techniques, and especially with working diagrams.

The last two posts have sparked more thanks. This from Robbin:

A large part of the thanks (to the Mayflower Sampler Guild for the donation to support the sampler conservation) goes to the designers over the years who have given us designs for Christmas ornaments. These have been turned into limited edition kits that we’ve sold to raise the conservation funds. So thanks also go to the designers who have given us designs over the years — Martina Webber (Chatelaine), Ellen Chester (With My Needle), Rae Iverson (Moss Creek Designs), Lauren Sauer (Forget Me Not in Stitches) and Catherine Theron (Theron Traditions), along with Linda Connors, our outgoing program chair who arranged for so many wonderful donations.

And from Jen:

I have to agree that Wendy is awesome. She is humor, wit, mischievious devil and guardian angel all in one. One of the many blessings of working on the jacket project is meeting the other fabulous and generous folks pushing and pulling it into existence.

Well put.

Here are answers to Robbin and Linda’s questions from the comments. This new blog program has the capability for us to create and post pages that can be linked to, which will give Rich and me the ability to put up a page with, say, a standard write-up of the Textile Conservation Fund, plus a couple of Karin-approved pictures (I’ll ask her for those next week, Robbin). Then anyone could download that to share with guilds or local needlework shops or what have you. In the mean time, check out the blog entry for November 14, 2007 titled “Ta-Da!”

Which brings me to more gratitude. I was able to find that entry in about 30 seconds flat, thanks to Lyn from Ontario, Canada. Lyn has undertaken an extraordinary job in service to the cause – she’s indexed the entire blog. Last October she brought me a binder with the first 5 months of the blog printed out on numbered pages (sounds obvious, but isn’t) with an INDEX of topics. To see our work all put together like that, looking like an accomplishment, and with the gift of time Lyn had lavished on organizing my chatter, well, I was just overwhelmed. I nearly blogged about it several times, but it was such a special treat, I didn’t have the words.

Yesterday I found a box in my office with an updated index. Lyn’s note said “I thought 250 days was a good time for an update of the indexed blog text.” 250 days. I hadn’t thought of our odyssey in those terms. Anyway, when I wanted to know where the textile fund announcement was, I merely flipped to the index and then right to the page. This index is helping immeasurably as I manually recategorize the old entries and add tags. I still don’t really have the words, but being able to see the blog in a concrete, whole form like this is more than a gift of a time-saver. It’s sort of a gift of encouragement.

Here are two pictures of Lyn, one of her skilled hands working as she has done more than one session already (and planning at least another trip as soon as the SNOW is gone) and another of her looking over a project with Sharon. I didn’t get many pictures of Lyn because she was always at the frame.

So, thanks. Thanks to all of you, for giving me a reason to keep writing.

Samples arrived from Abigail W, Margi O, Lucinda T, and Heather R.

I went looking through the blog for the entry where I explained all about the sample kits, and I didn’t find one. I’ve written about the kits several times but never here. This bit is old news for some, but better to hear it twice than miss it completely so…

From the beginning of this project we have been planning ways to involve the whole community of needleworkers. This blog is one; we’re also placing articles in as many magazines and journals as possible and making presentations to groups. Also, and most importantly, we’re inviting embroiderers to travel to Plymouth, MA to work on it, not on samples but on the real jacket itself. We’ve already had one embroidery session and the second is coming right up August 8-10. It’s not too late to jump in, however.

We have a simple system to coordinate those who would like to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity and to ensure that the finished piece most closely resembles an original 17^th century jacket. Each prospective stitcher must complete a sample piece (available as a kit from Plimoth Plantation, see below) and send it to Plimoth Plantation. These samples will be used to assemble teams of stitchers whose individual thread tension and stitch length match each other. This way we will be able to create a jacket that represents a team of professional workers (as the originals were produced), and we will be able to accommodate as many embroiderers as possible.

To order a sample stitching kit, please contact Kathy Roncarati at (508) 746-1622 ext. 8114, or kroncarati@plimoth.org.

Each kit includes the same materials which will be used for the jacket, 50 ct cream Kingston linen and Au Ver a Soie Perlee silk, in sufficient quantities to work both the sample (to be returned to Plimoth Plantation) and one complete motif (to be kept by the embroiderer).

The sample does not require a great deal of time to complete. A small area of detached buttonhole stitch and its outline, trellis stitch and its outline, detached buttonhole with free edge and its outline, spiral trellis and its outline, knot stitch, and ladder stitch in silk will enable us to create teams. The kit includes comprehensive directions for each stitch, a color copy of a worked piece for reference, and a label to identify your sample.

In addition, the kit includes instructions and materials for a souvenir butterfly adapted from the inspiration pieces for you to keep. The butterfly is stitched in red, pink, gold and black Au Ver a Soie Perlee silk on 50 ct. cream Kingston linen. It is surrounded by gold spangles and is appropriate for finishing into a scissors fob or ornament (finishing materials not included). A CD Rom of the embroidery in process will be included as well as complete directions.

Samples, and the enclosed questionnaire, should be returned to Plimoth Plantation as soon as possible. Samples will be retained by Plimoth for use in matching individuals for stitching and also as examples to show the public what the embroidery is like close up. The completed jacket will be mounted and displayed in a Plexiglas case. It, along with a Native Wampanoag turkey feather mantle, will form the centerpiece of a new exhibit on the history of personal adornment, planned to open in the summer of 2008.

The sample stitching kit is available for $40 plus $5 shipping and handling (international shipping costs may vary), and includes a $20 tax-deductible donation to the project which will be used to offset the materials costs.

Tonight Tricia continues the story of how we chose which jacket to recreate. What have I been doing while she’s blogging? Well, taking pictures of Laura, for one. Here’s Laura in her first completed reproduction garment – a man’s shirt, which was basically underwear in the period. She did a great job and is now more than halfway through a cassock (outer garment) to go with. Laura is this year’s summer intern with the Colonial Wardrobe & Textiles Department (which right now consists of just the two of us and some dedicated volunteers). Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! Besides making new clothes, she’s spending a fair amount of time helping Kathy process kit orders, and as of today, keeping track of returned samples! Drumroll….we now have TWO completed samples in hand! I won’t mention last names here, but Wendy & Robbin, your samples safely arrived and are just beautiful.

Here’s Tricia:
A great off-shoot of making all the calculations from the last blog entry was the realization that each stitch type has its own materials cost and labor cost. So if you were a professional workshop of the past, the stitches chosen for a motif can dramatically change the cost to produce the jacket. Therefore, knowing these numbers could give us a ‘yard stick’ to use to evaluate historic pieces for their possible relative expense to one another. As an example spiral trellis takes a lot more silk than detached buttonhole or trellis stitch to work.

This came home to me when we were evaluating which jacket we would adapt. We were visiting a piece at the MET and it was beautiful Jill was struck by the gold thread stitch used for the vine, something I will call here “ladder stitch with zigzag interlacing”. It was dramatic and she was convinced that we should abandon the dreaded plaited braid in favor of this beautiful stitch. Having just taught this stitch on a piece the week before – I was horrified. The stitch consumed an enormous amount of thread, was worked in two passes, and took forever to work an inch. It made plaited braid look like a cake walk. So I convinced her to abandon this idea. (Yes, I gave up the idea, but in my defense, is that not a GORGEOUS stitch? JMH)But then the light bulb went off, why did the professionals use this stitch for this particular jacket? It must have been very expensive to work as it used more thread and more time. So who was the jacket made for? Did everyone who looked at the jacket when worn realize that it was more expensive and so it became a status symbol? When we have the chance some day to show pictures of the jacket, we can discuss why we think the piece may have been made for a child or very young girl. If so, why go to the expense? Who was she?

Another factor to consider was that jackets of this type were made over a 30 year time frame. Was this jacket early or late compared to others? And what was inflation like at that time? The materials and labor costs could be quite different along that spectrum of time, making something less or more expensive to produce depending on when it was made.

This was exciting. I plan to work a sample with rectangle samples and lengths of stitches of the period to measure the relative times and materials costs in the near future to give a more accurate set of data to use for these types of material culture investigations. Part of the purpose of the project has been to examine the past through the eyes of those that ‘did’. I think we are uncovering a lot of insights as we do so!

Tricia

We have just four weeks left until our first embroidery session. An awful lot needs to happen in those four weeks, not least of which is the release of our linen from customs. Despite all last week’s assurances, the cream linen is still tied up in customs. Since time grows short, for the kits we have decided to use white linen, inexplicably released from customs while its sister – the cream we chose for the jacket – still languishes. We will soon post diagrams and instructions for the project stitches here so anyone may practice them without waiting for their kit.

About the kits, we want to encourage you to stitch a sample, or a partial sample, if you are at all interested in working on the jacket. Please don’t count yourself out, or assume your stitching isn’t ‘good enough’. We want to make this experience available to as many people as possible, not just because we need help but because a project this good begs to be shared. We need a sample of your stitching so we can make sure the embroidery on the different motifs matches in terms of thread tension and stitch density.

Don’t feel that you have to be a master of every stitch in the sample, either. If there’s one you hate, skip it. The important thing is to get involved. We’re looking forward to meeting you!

We’ve begun planning the schedule for our first embroidery bee, June 19-22. We’ll have good food, good conversation, plenty of time to stitch, and special presentations by some of Plimoth Plantation’s resident experts. Check back for details.

I have treats for you today! Two beautiful photos, one of the stitch sampler from the kit (see? not too much sewing time); and one of the souvenir motif. The butterfly is inspired by one on the original jacket. Look carefully, and see how the wing is detached? Some of the original jackets have these free-edge detached buttonhole stitch details, either on a wing like this, or a leaf, or most sweet of all, the top layer of a pea pod which folds back to reveal peas underneath. This photo shows the butterfly finished as a scissors fob. Please note that the kit includes the finishing instructions but not the finishing materials.

The sample kit was designed by Tricia Wilson Nguyen, who has been consulting with Plimoth Plantation on this project. Many of you know Tricia from her busy teaching schedule, others from her beautiful embroidery designs and her needlework company, Thistle Threads. We’re very fortunate Tricia was available and willing to work with us on this project.

Everybody think liberating thoughts about a certain piece of cream linen, and hopefully I’ll have good news to report tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who has left such positive and encouraging comments on this blog. Thanks also to those who have told a friend about the project, or in any way have helped to spread the word. We’re really excited by the enthusiastic responses; and, OK, I’ll be honest – also a little relieved. There was this tiny little scrap of doubt about whether anyone else would be as excited about recreating this jacket as we are. What if we committed to this massive undertaking and nobody noticed? Fortunately, that is so not the case.

Update on the kits – for the last several weeks the beautiful linen has been held up in customs. We’ve been assured that the problem has been sorted out and it would be released today (cross your fingers). As soon as we get it we’ll assemble the kits and send them out. BUT we are getting very short of time to prepare for the PBS filming on June 21 & 22. When you order your kit, let Kathy know if you can come in June; those kits will go out first to give the embroiderers and us as much time as possible to stitch and organize the first teams. Don’t worry, though, the rest of the kits will be following as quickly as possible.

And if you can’t come to Plymouth for June, check your calendar for these dates:

Wednesday, August 8 – Friday, August 11

Thursday, September 13 – Sunday, September 16

Friday, October 19 – Sunday October 21

We’re open to suggestions for other dates as well. And, for local embroiderers, there is the opportunity to come more often for shorter amounts of time.

Here’s a picture for today. I don’t have the photography skills to really do it justice. This linen handkerchief was embroidered by Kate Moore, one of the many talented people at Plimoth Plantation. The double-running, or Holbein, stitch was done in red silk. Kate also made and applied the gold thread bobbin lace. How lovely is this? It is being used in a courtship and betrothal story in the 1627 English Village. The suitor, Experience Mitchell, presents it to his beloved, Jane Cooke, one of several little presents they exchange. She receives this hanky rather frequently, since for each day’s visitors the story and the hanky are new. This courtship will culminate in a betrothal (or engagement) ceremony – coincidently on June 20^th – so if you come to embroider you can see it in person.