Sample arrived today from Marilyn S.

I’d like to hold two small embroidery sessions, one in November, and one in December. By small I mean 5-6 stitchers, the number we can accommodate in the Wardrobe Department rather than in one of the function/meeting rooms. In November all the meeting rooms will be booked. Things get a little busy around Plymouth in November, for some reason … and December I’m thinking not many people will be available to come, what with the holidays.

So the new dates are:

Wednesday, November 14 to Saturday, November 17 and

Tuesday, December 11 to Friday, December 14

I used the feedback from the participants in the first embroidery bee when choosing these dates. Most felt that weekdays were better than weekends, and most felt that four days would be better than three, particularly because it takes a little while to hit stride with these stitches and if we stop too soon we don’t get the full benefit. My feeling is, Yikes! 2007 is almost over! This exhibit is opening in about 15 minutes! And then I get a grip and remember it’s only July….

If you’d like to come in November and/or December, please send me a note. The September and October sessions are nearly full, so if you’re thinking you’d like to come let me know soon. You can reach me at jhall@plimoth.org.

It’s been pretty hot and humid here in southeastern Massachusetts, and it feels like everything has sloooowed down accordingly. As a consequence, there isn’t a great deal to report.

The frames are slumbering quietly behind the office door, each one neatly encased in its canvas bag.

On the way from England is some special “sparkle” thread. This sort of silk was used extensively on the jackets and other embroidered items in the early 1600s, but has been unavailable for decades, if not centuries. Tricia, armed with her formidable powers of persuasion and the fact that, if developed, we’d be instantly buying enough to make it worthwhile to produce, convinced one of the Artisan Manufacturers she mentioned yesterday to bring it back into production. I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity. That’s all I’ll say here, except that if the customs agents are benevolent the thread will be debuting during the August stitching session. I know Tricia is planning a blog entry describing the research, development and testing process, along with some photos.

I mentioned the log sheets that Tricia created to enable us track the exact amount of time spent and thread used for each motif. The other day Tricia whipped them out and did a quick bit of math to figure out how many stitching hours our June session yielded, and what sort of pace that worked out to.

We’ve decided to add two small sessions, one in November and another in early December, intimate gatherings, 6 stitchers maximum. Are you interested? We can set the dates to be most convenient to those who are able to come. Email me with your availability.

AUGUST DATES: There’s been a little confusion about the dates of the August embroidery bee. We’ll be meeting and embroidering for three days, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, AND FRIDAY, AUGUST 10. On the questionnaire that went out with the sample kits there’s a typo which I will not reproduce here lest I cause more confusion. These are the right dates. See you in Plymouth.

Tricia describes the process of adapting the embroidery pattern for the cuffs, collar, and wings, (which are absent from the jacket whose embroidery pattern we’re using):

The jacket pattern that we are working with has a collar, cuffs, and the little wings that come from the shoulders. When it came time to transfer the pattern to these pieces, we had to do a little research. The jacket we are adapting does not have these details, so how do we choose? For the collar, we looked at several examples to see if the collar had a mirrored pattern or was cut out from the repeat. The second question to answer was if the design was right side up or upside down when viewed from the back. [Jill here. The collar is a small semi-circular piece of cloth, on the left in the first picture. It is sewn to the center back neckline. The collar hangs down the back, with the embroidered side up. The side that touches the back of the jacket is unworked.] On the ones we looked at, the collar is cut from the repeat such that the curve of a coil fit in the center rounded part of the collar. This means it is viewed upside down when installed in the jacket. The jackets we viewed also showed that the pattern on the collar matched almost exactly the pattern on the part of the back of the jacket which was covered by the collar. So we followed this guidance.

For the wings (the second picture), the examples showed that the design was just cut in the same orientation as the front of the jacket, and the pattern was right side up when viewed from the front. For the cuffs (the two shapes on the right in the first photo), we had a great picture of a cuff laid out before the MET jacket was mounted years ago. It showed that a modification had been made to the design to put a carnation at the center middle, pointing to the free end of the cuff. Then two coils emanated from the bottom of the carnation, each holding a different motif – but mirrored. We tried to follow this lead the first time we drafted the pattern, but the cuffs for the Laton jacket are not as deep as those on the MET jacket, therefore this scheme didn’t work out. Instead, we put a pink motif in the center and cut the design with the edge of the pattern.

(The third picture is two of the five gussets.)

For the gussets, we followed the V&A jacket and used the area of the design that has thistles on it for each of the five gussets.

Tricia

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.