Boxes....

 Think Outside the Box....

Pomme & I made a video to give you some box tips if you are looking to mount your embroidery. You may need look no further than your refrigerator!  I have already got asked who the dollies were in the end, that I was too far away for yaĺl so peek at them, so here they are. My daughter wanted to make dollies last fall so she came over and I made these two. Watch the video to see what I used for their boxes!

This is Agnes with her Ravens

And Full Moon Party.. she is named after my favorite tea!

2021 Annual Ornament Kit

 All Flemish Coffer Pre-orders Have Been Shipped

If you have ordered this yearś ornament kit, it is on its merry way to you! I shipped the last of the preorders this morning. Etsy has been sporadic about sending out shipping notices, so if you have not got yours, check your order on ETSY. I have uploaded all tracking numbers so you will have accurate info on when your kit will arrive. 

I have cut, packaged, measured, primped and counted, and checked, and rechecked each and every morsel of happiness in each and every one of these kits myself. There is a Kit Contents page nestled in between the 60-page instruction packed and pattern packet. 

I know you will be so excited to open the box and inspect the contents, just like I do when I get a new kit! I have strategically placed all the contents into their box carefully, so do take care when putting everything back into the box. Be sure things are in their proper place so as to not squish the packet containing all the metal threads! It is shown in the upper right-hand corner in the picture above~

I hope you all have as much fun making your Coffers as I did. If you are interested in purchasing one, they are available in my ETSY store~the link is in the right hand sidebar. Currently, I have just 8 left in stock. Once these sell out, I cannot give a definite answer as to when they will be in stock again, as it has been a chore to get some of the materials!

Happy Stitching!

Mid 18th C

Single Leather Clog

I just found this wonderful little gem and am excited to share it with ya'll. It is, as stated above, a clog. Not to be confused with a wood and iron patten (you can search for those here on the blog in the upper left search tab). How is a clog different from a patten you ask? Both are worn as overshoes to protect the rather fragile shoes of the period when walking in mud and on city streets. Pattens have alder wood soles with an attached forged iron ring or shape that raises the foot up off the ground. They tie on over the shoe usually with leather tabs. They are robust. Made for out and about in the weather. But clogs....these things have always fascinated me. If there were pattens, what would the need be for clogs? 

Clogs are usually made from the same fabric as the shoe, such as in the above pair from the Joseph Box collection at the Powerhouse Museum. They are obviously just as delicate as the shoes they are meant to protect and thus, the general thought is that they were worn indoors to help protect the shoes. My practical thinking obviously asks well why on earth would you wear these indoors? A lady wearing such a shoe would not be slopping around in the kitchen or have dirty floors enough to need a protective overshoe. Were these worn from the house out to the carriage? I honestly have no idea...I got a lot of questions whenever time travel becomes the new rage....

One cannot say it was the shape of the heel seat either...as this pair of pattens from the Met have the same deep heal seat. They have the typical plain leather latchet tie straps usually associated with the more robust wood and iron pattens. I have never seen a patten with a cloth strap.

This single clog, one of a pair at one time of course, I would say was more of a working-class middling sort's possession. Maybe they were owned and worn by a merchant....someone who wanted to protect their shoes indoors but needed something a bit more robust than a cloth upper. AND...speaking of uppers...we get to the reason I had to add this amazing creature to the collection in the first place.  The upper is closed! Look back up at the Powerhouse Museum examples, and the Met...all of them I have ever seen are open-toed with just a strap to tie up over the vamp of the shoe. I have never, ever seen a fully closed upper on a clog, so this just thrills me to no end. Above here you can appreciate the deep heal seat to accommodate the timber heels of the period.

The leather is very worn, but the expert hand stitching is still nice and tight and can be fully appreciated. The single eyelet holes for ties are stamped from the leather and left unfinished. 

Construction of the heel is the same on these as is typically seen on the cloth examples. One may be so inclined to wonder if the timber heels were so very fragile they needed support from underneath in order to get the most wear out of them???

From the view of the sole one can see these did get much wear. There is but a tiny single layer stack on the heal, other than that they are flat on the bottom. The wear shows they were tied on quite tight, as there are no signs from the wear on the sole that these were shuffled along as a person walked in them. The heels did not drag off from flopping down off of the shoe when the foot was picked up. 

Have you ever seen a solid or closed upper clog? If so, send me the link, please!

Working Hard

 Flemish Coffer Ornament Kit Update

I have been working so hard these past few weeks kitting this ornament. It's ready to go save for the gilt broad plate coming from Australia. It has been so challenging getting everything during this covid nightmare. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to Access Commodities for really hooking me up and helping me find nearly nonexistent materials~ we have scoured the globe for this kit, literally, and I am so proud of it. The instructions made arrival from the printer today~ 60...yes, SIXTY glorious full-colour pages of instructions, along with 8 pages of diagrams and keys, all printed for your stitching pleasure at your leisure.

If you would like to learn more about it, it is available in my ETSY shop, link to the right in the sidebar.

Happy Stitching!

How to Separate Soie Ovale

 

Here is a short video on how to separate Soie Ovale down into smaller strands~I really prefer the Trame weight silk for long & short stitch and needle painting on the scale I am used to working. To further expand my colour palette of available threads, I use Soie Ovale and just piece it down to match my other Trame weight silks.

New Little Helpers....

  Hand Painted Needle Minders

For those who like to keep track of their needles or pins on their embroidery without having to stab them through the ground fabric, I have a cute selection of needle minders in the ETSY shop today!

They are each handmade and painted by me. 

I wouldn't say these are doodles, as I put a lot of time into them, but I had so much fun! I didn't follow any pattern~just cut out what I felt like and painted what came off my fingers at the time.

In case you are not familiar with a needle minder, it has a magnet on the back and comes with a second. You place the minder on the front of the fabric, and the second magnet behind it on the back of the fabric and this holds the minder in place. The magnets are very strong and hold any pins or needles you put on the front of it in place.

Each one is unique, painted in several layers of transparent watercolours so the beautiful wood grain of the sycamore shines through

They are roughly around an inch and half in diameter...some a little larger, some a little smaller

All are signed and dated on the backs

If you are in need of one, they are available today in my ETSY store, link is to the right in the sidebar.

Happy Stitching!

A Few Thoughts on Washing...

 First Quarter 19th c Child's Gown & Cap

 I often get questions on how to wash items, and what I use to wash them with. I cant offer a blanket statement that I use product X to wash with because honestly, every article of early clothing is its own unique situation. Every stain is unique...is it organic? Is it grass? Is it clay? Is it blood? Then one must take into consideration the fibers of the material~ are they natural or synthetic? Cotton? Linen? Silk? You get the idea. But I can offer my recommendation on how to remove overall dinginess from cotton or linen. 

 First I must determine if the textile is strong enough to withstand a wet wash. Textile fibers are very fragile when wet. Just the weight of the water in the fiber can be enough to tear sheer textiles like cotton mull. Does the garment or textile have any metal bits like fasteners or buttons? I never wet wash any item with metal parts. Another thing to consider is trims...for example, early sequins around the turn of the 20th century were made from celluloid and literally dissolve in water.  Does the textile have any colour to it? Be it printed or woven, not all colours are colour fast, so one must check in an inconspicuous place to see if the colours bleed. If I am preparing for a spot check, then I first ask myself what is the purpose of the washing? I usually choose not to wash 95% of the time. Stains are part of the history of a piece. They help to tell the story of how a piece of clothing was worn. Stains can talk! Occasionally I have a piece that could benefit greatly from a freshening up, such as this set here of early Empire period gown and corded cap.  The above picture is before washing. The gown is overall just quite dingy, with a real yellow~brown cast. Only on close inspection could one realize it was made of a woven pink and brown stripe cotton. 

 Because fibers are so fragile when wet, I check for any rips or tears in the piece. If they are able to be stabilized before washing, I will do so.  The rouleaux trim at the base of the crown on the cap was partially detached, as shown above. 

The trim was carefully stitched back in place through the original stitch holes before being washed.

My soap of choice for washing is Orvus Paste. It is a fantastic ionic neutral ph cleaner that is very gentle on textiles. (Its also good for washing cattle and horses...so you may get lucky and find it at your feed store.) It is the best most gentle cleaner on the market~ absolutely conservation grade and can be found on Amazon.

Whenever you wash an early textile, it needs to remain flat so to remain fully supported and to keep it from tangling into knots(which will happen if you put things into a BUCKET).  Don't get me started on the horrors of washing things in a bucket....just ...don't...do..it.

I prefer to dip my clean hand in my Orvus and hold the paste in the stream of water as I fill the basin. For this gown, its so small, I only filled the basin with about 2" of water. Really swish your hand around until all of the Orvus is dispersed in the water.

It is only then that the textiles are carefully placed FLAT into the bath. I gently press down with a flat hand to coax out any air bubbles. There is NO AGGITATION. I put the lid on and let this set for at least 24 hours. 

The picture above is after the first 24-hour soak. The water is now a very dingy yellow...hmmmm the same dingy colour of the gown. To remove, I carefully coax the gown up into a little ball and lift it out of the water, fully supporting the weight of it. Did the same for the little bonnet.  I ran a second Orvus bath and let the two pieces soak again for another 24 hours. 

The Orvus baths are continued until there is no more dirt releasing from the fibers. Then the same thing is repeated but with no soap, just clean water to rinse. This is the third clean water soak. When the water remains clear one can be sure all of the detergents have been rinsed away.

The gown and cap are then carefully taken out of the water, again, by scooping up into a little ball and removing from the water all at once. They are then laid out flat on a towel to air dry. The last thing you want to do is hang up a wet garment to dry if it is fragile! 

This is a photo of the gown and cap after fully dried. It actually has a bit of a pink cast to it. Gone is the dingy yellow overcast. You will see that the stains are still there. If I wanted to remove they could be treated with enzyme detergents, but my goal is not to have a new-looking garment. 

 The goal of washing for me, is to remove the distraction that overall grubbiness presents when mounting. I want people to be able to see the garment for what it was. I want the stains to be there to tell their story.

But to not be so garrish that they attract attention over the construction of the piece, or the fabric, or the overall design. Most of these stains were probably from storage, being laid directly on wood or acidic paper linings in a chest or trunk. 

The few tiny stitches made to reattach the trim are microscopically noticeable, but more importantly, the integrity of the trim on the cap has been restored.

I did add a new drawstring to the center casing. The original cord drawstrings are present at neck and sleeves. She's pretty cute for 200 years old don't you think?