Tricia writes today. This is the second of four blogs she sent me before she left for Europe for two weeks. I tend not to read ahead when she sends me a few at once, but this time I’ve checked, and she answers most of your questions in the next three entries. I was going to skip tomorrow as it is a holiday in the States, but I can’t do that to you . . . look for Tricia’s #3 tomorrow and #4 Saturday. I’ll take a stab at the unanswered questions on Sunday. She sent no photo with this entry; I’ll repost the one from a couple of days ago. I believe all the different lines of stitching are the same stitch with different gold threads. Before you wonder where that nearly completed book is, blame the jacket - I think some of the time she had set aside to finish that book on gold stitches was actually spent on this project. Mea culpa.

Well, we have been asked a million questions about Plaited Braid over the last few months. And there has been a very lively set of exchanges between Jill, myself, other teachers, and readers of the blog who have been doing trials of their own. So I guess it is finally time to summarize this topic!

There are many people who have been on the trail of ‘Plaited Braid’ for years. I will try to recognize as many here as I can dig up in my memory! That said, there are two subjects to talk about. First, when we say ‘Plaited Braid Stitch’, what do we identify as that stitch? The second is how to do it.

On the first topic, I have been working on a book of gold stitches taken from 16th and 17th century English samplers and embroideries for years. Nearly complete, I have found almost 40 individual stitches worked in gold with different mechanics. Very few of them are identified in stitch anthologies. Even more frustrating is the
existence of several ‘braid’ stitches. Because they are difficult to decode, they have always ended up on the back burner. Now I have been going through my research photos trying to answer these questions.

What I have found is that there seems to be at minimum two stitches which can be called ‘plaited braid’. For awhile I thought that maybe we were looking at stitch density differences or maybe a bad stitcher here and there. But I have located one spot sampler where a queen stitch motif is filled in with both of the variants. Even more compelling is that one is worked in silver and the other gold. They repeat along the pattern in the same positions, implying that the stitcher identified them as distinctly different stitches. While I can’t share the photos from the museum here, one has a single V going down the middle and the other looks more woven like a herringbone.

So I believe that there was a family of ‘braid stitches’. In this family I also place stitches with related stitch mechanics such as the knot stitch (often called Braid Stitch). Now this creates difficulty because when you examine the published diagrams for “plaited braid”, the authors haven’t identified the objects they worked from or shown pictures. Therefore it is hard to say if any one set of directions is
“CORRECT” or “WRONG”.

Tomorrow I will talk about the directions I am familiar with and which ones we will be using.

Tricia

Tricia writes today:

If you remember, months ago we were trying out gold threads for the plaited braid stitch. Bill Barnes of Golden Threads had made a silk core wrapped with gilt strip for us. When it stitched, it was just too stiff to use, which was a surprise to me. When I gave him my comments, he responded that he had used three ends of Soie Ovale for the core and would I wait a few weeks for another sample using just two ends. He was sure it would work. Well - always trust the master!

We finally got the sample two weeks ago (another one of those international shipping dramas delayed it). Shown here is the sample alone and also stitched next to the previous samples that I had done. The thread is thinner but it still gives a nice and dense plaited braid. More importantly, it stitches easily. Well, as easily as a gold thread can! So I gave the green light to have miles of it made.

A big thanks goes out to Access Commodities who have been coordinating this for us. They are the distributor of Au Ver a Soie thread and supply the silks that Bill is using for the thread. Lamora’s expertise with international shipping is one of the prime reasons we can make this happen!

Tricia

Hi Mary, I’m glad it made you laugh. jmh

What are you doing Thursday September 17 - Sunday September 20, 2009?

I hope you answer, “Coming to Plymouth for The Embroiderers’ Story: Recreating a Stuart Jacket at Plimoth Plantation“! Yep, we’ve committed to throwing a major party to celebrate the creation of this remarkable garment.

I’ll give you the details I have now so you can mark your calendars and save the dates, but I don’t have the whole thing carved in stone yet. Susan North has promised to come, Susan North of the V&A, the benevolent godmother of the project, who has done so much to support this work. At first she thought she couldn’t manage it as there is a 17th-century dress conference in Switzerland the same weekend. This is one of those weird instances of problem-dissolving I’ve referred to before. After a few weeks of wondering if we could really have a jacket conference without her, I heard about that 17th-century conference in another context and realized - that one is 2008 and ours is 2009 and there’s no conflict at all. Whew.

We’ll have a pre-conference full-day class with Tricia Wilson Nguyen (who else? and I hope she wrote it down because she agreed in front of witnesses and if she didn’t write it down, well, I bet she will when she reads this) on Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be lectures/presentations in the morning and tours/classes in the afternoons. Some of the presenters will place these jackets in historical context, who wore them, how they were made, that kind of thing. Some will address how we made this particular jacket. We’re planning a tour to the RI School of Design Museum in Providence, RI. They have a portrait of a woman wearing an embroidered jacket. We’ll also see some of their fantastic textiles collection in a behind-the-scenes tour. We’ll have a farewell brunch on Sunday with a speaker, but it won’t be a full day. One evening we’ll have a benefit reception, another we’ll have a 17th-century dinner. I will of course let you know more details as they are finalized.

Please spread the word about this event. It will definitely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are not prepared to take pre-registrations quite this early, but you know I’ll let you know the minute we can. Just don’t promise to be somewhere else that weekend.

(’K. I’m just about ready to hit ‘publish’ and am feeling an attack of nerves. You’d think I’d be immune by now, having jumped feet first into so much deep water where this jacket is concerned, but no. Still nervous.)

Courtesy of Betty (who took them) and Penny (who scanned them) I’ve got some pictures of the party Penny organized for Shaina last week.

Here’s Shaina being surprised. She was looking here and there, so this one’s a little blurry, but you can still see how pleased she is.

The next one is Penny and Shaina with their party hats on. In addition to taking the pictures, Betty, who is Penny’s mom, also put up all the decorations and generally set up the party.

Next we have a group photo - from left that’s Kate, who wears two hats, one as an interpreter in the English Village and one as the interim intern coordinator for Plimoth. Our new intern and volunteer coordinator, Denise, just started a week or two ago so Kate is passing the reins and getting ready to begin graduate school in the Winterthur museum studies program later this summer. Next to her is Kelley, who has been working in the Colonial Wardrobe department since January. From January to March she was working full time with us, mending and hand finishing garments. Starting in March she went back to work as an interpreter in the English Village and aboard Mayflower II but continues working with us one day a week helping to get the clothes ready for our child volunteer program, which we’re expanding this summer (sorry, you have to be the child of a Plimoth employee). Next are Ruth and Meredith, long time volunteers with the Colonial Wardrobe department. They’re all admiring photos of Shaina’s wedding dress, a Victorian tour-de-force she is making herself (it’s almost done). No, can’t show you till after the wedding. You never know, Shaina’s fiance might check in.

One last picture. These two are having just too much fun.

Penny and her mom, Betty, organized a send-off for Shaina which happened Thursday afternoon. Wendy came, and Tricia, and several people from the office. There were white paper wedding bells on the door and iced tea in a big punch bowl. Wendy sent me this note on Thursday night, but due to trouble with my home email I didn’t find it until today:

One of the most wonderful aspects about the the “Jacket Project” are all the individual staff members that those of us who come to stitch or lace have the opportunity to meet and work with. Shaina is one of them and sadly for us is leaving to marry and move on to the next part of her life…. You know the drill - spouse , mortgage bills etc…..

We had the delightful opportunity to send her off today, we greeted her wearing hats and smiles (her wedding invitations suggested that guests wear hats and gloves since it is a Victorian Wedding Celebration) and amid coconut cupcakes, cinnamon scones, lemon curd, decadent chocolate brownies and iced tea we all chatted about weddings and the way life changes.

I marveled again at the things that make us unique, the things that change us, the things that strengthen us and the things that we all have in common…….. The threads that connect us……….. Always have…….. always will!

Wendy

Here’s a picture for today. This kitten was a foundling on the Plantation grounds a couple of months ago. After a thorough search for anyone who might be missing her, we determined she was looking for a family. Shaina decided she’d make the perfect kitten for her new home and named her Izzy.

Izzy’s lounging amid the remains of the party Wendy describes above. (The silver dragees are all that were left of the awesomely delicious vegan coconut cupcakes Penny made.) We’ll miss Izzy around the office, although we won’t so much miss her Jekyll & Hyde mood swings.