Frog Purse

For a number of years I have been working on and sharing with you the bits and pieces of my Casket - better known and as the Cabinet of Curiosities. Not content to stitch just the class pieces I have been adding other fun pieces by my imaginary Scottish stitcher  - Katherin Boswell.
One of the fun things that were created during the 17th century were small purses in the shape of a three dimensional frog with a bag inside of the body. A number of them still exist in museum collections.  They are totally useless except to make you smile; they might hold a coin or two but not  much else.
A group of us are studying and sharing all kinds of embroidery techniques. We decided that we would make a frog purse. Mine is a common English frog with an interesting difference. A Scottish variety of the frog can be a peachy tan instead of the more common tan/green. It is made of needlelace with covered wire legs and a rust silk bag. I used a lucet to create the drawstring.
One member is doing a bright pink frog and another is doing brightly colored Caribbean tree frog.


Here is an example of one of the antique ones.

This is the front of mine...

And here is the back

Isobel Lyon 1621

As I have been working on (actually thinking about) the Cabinet of Curiosities Casket, I have stitched most of the pieces that Tricia designed for the class and have added some of my own.
I stitched Mistress L to roll up and place in the casket. I designed and stitched Kathrin Boswell as inspiration. Although Kathrin is a real person, she has a story that I wrote about her.  I added to it by designing and stitching a whitework sampler from the years before she was born and decided that it needed to be worked by her actual Grandmother, Isobel. So with a little poetic license I named her  Isobel Lyon since some of the family is descended from King William the Lyon king of Scotland.
It really stretched my skills to both design and stitch the Reticilla section of the sampler. I used a size 80 cordonnet thread for the weaving, wrapping  and buttonhole bars.  I don't have it framed yet but do have it mounted on the blue-green silk background. I still have a few more ideas for pieces for the Casket but am closer to my final design.

Life and Embroidery

Many of my ancestors are from Scotland. We can seem to be a rather stern, taciturn clan with the sound of bagpipes in our mind and the lilt of the language in our ears.
Much of what shapes our lives is inherited from our ancestors through genetics but more so by the family traditions and ways of looking at things that we absorb in our families. My Father was a most modest man who had great talent in many areas. He oil painted, carved birds, and created jewelry among other things. He and my Mother are the reason that I am open to trying new things and the attitude that I can create what I can imagine. The things of this world will one day turn to dust but what he gave me will be part of me forever. In December he left us, quietly and without much fuss just like he wanted but the hole in my life is giant. My parents are so much a part of me and I have been so lucky to have both of them so long that although I can no longer see him, he is not gone forever and I shall see him again. He painted this wonderful desert scene and among all of his painting it is the one that hangs where I see it as I stitch.

My Mother's father was from Scotland and she has always loved thistle. I stitched this piece for her to give to her at Christmas. It is stitched with wool thread with just a touch of metallic gold.

 From my Father's Scottish side of the family comes the name of a new piece that I am working on. It is a 17th century whitework band sampler named Isobel Lyon. Isobel is in my father's direct line from Burntisland, Fife. This band is a technique sometimes called Lacis. It is form of lace in which many of the threads are cut out and the remaining threads form the base for weaving and dove's eyes. Isobel is the Grandmother of Kathrin, so it fits in the narrative of the story of Katherin's kist, the embroidered casket.

 I have added a small but fun piece to my needlework tools. This rosewood thimble with its pewter bee is just for decoration but looks great on the shelf with the other more useful tools.

Katherin is finished

She is finished!!!! Katherin is dressed. I was able to finish sewing her dress yesterday and today I  put the lace on it and dressed her. All of her clothes are sewn and embroidered by hand. Her dress is pale gold taffeta and the lace is hand made bobbin lace. I was able to purchase some lace fragments several years ago so I could cut them up to use for her collar, sleeves and cuffs.
As much as possible as I made her clothes, I  used historical patterns and techniques. However when I was putting her dress together that would not work. Pins were used to pin parts of the bodice to the stomacher and also fasten the skirt in place. Since pins that tiny do not exist, I assembled her dress with needle and thread. I have enjoyed all of the study, embroidery and the sewing that it took to put her together.

New projects are in the planning stage to do more things for my 17th century casket and accessories.

Aunt Helen, Katherin and collecting

In the past I have collected a number of things. I have a nice collection of sewing tools. This is a small wall cabinet that features some of them.

I started collecting years ago when they were very hard to find. My favorite material is mother of pearl but most of my things are bone and ivory.  I have a nice assortment of white on white embroidery, mostly for study and inspiration.
One thing that I had not collected was samplers. I love to look at them and stitch them but knew that the prices of the ones that I most admired were way out of my budget. On day a few months ago, this darling lady came into work and wanted to know what a couple of her red work samplers were worth. We looked them up on the internet (what did we ever do pre-google) and found that they were not that valuable. She was concerned because although precious to her, her family didn't care about them at all. I was able to purchase this one from her. Her Aunt Helen had stitched it in 1898. At first I thought it is not very old - like the samplers from the 1600 or 1700's, but then realized that it is over 100 years old.  I thought that it was so much fun that as I studied it, I decided to start charting it to reproduce. I then did an adaptation of it so stitchers can add their name and some period appropriate motifs to make it their own.  Kelmscott will be releasing it in May for retail sales.

Here is just part of the new part of the pattern.

 

 

Katherin's wardrobe has been growing slowly. I had finished the embroidery and made up the two pieces, the petticoat and the stomacher. Now I only needed to finish the dress. At this point I sort of came to a standstill because I had to think things through before I could go any further. Just how was I going to fasten the stomacher to the dress? If this were a real dress and all its parts, then they would be pinned together as the lady was getting dressed. Not having pins quite small enough to do the job, I had come to halt. As much as possible as I have been working on the clothes, I have used fabrics, patterns, techniques and designs that were period appropriate. Sewing all of the clothing by hand with silk and linen really added to the overall look that I wanted. At this point however, I decided to sew the stomacher to the sides of the dress and then sew the skirt onto the bodice.  Having made that decision, it was time to make a mock-up for fitting and to create a pattern. I started with the same dress pattern that I had used for the corset and altered as necessary to fit over all of the layers of clothes that she was already wearing. The bodice is lined with a very thin china silk and sewn with size 100 silk sewing thread. I gauged the sleeves so that the gathering looks like it should and sewed 26 very tiny eyelets down the back for  lacing the dress up along the back. It still needs the lace sewn along the edge of the sleeve and around the neck but the construction is finished. I was able to purchase some fragments of hand made lace to use on Katherin's dress. The scale of the lace makes it look like the heavy lace that was used at the time. The skirt is next, then the lace, ribbons and the finishing details.

 

 

 

 

Katherin's stomacher and petticoat

I have been stitching the designs on the fabric for a couple of the articles of clothing that my Katherin Isobell Boswell is going to wear. I finished the construction of the her stomacher and the outer-petticoat. I love the way that the blue-green goes with the shades of gold. I was able to find some silk ribbon that almost matched the silk fabric and was able to use it when I sewed the stomacher. All that is left to make is her dress - well first the muslin mock up and when I have the pattern created then I will hand sew the dress.

The plain edges of the stomacher will be covered by the dress. The ribbon tabs were used to pin the stomacher to her stays.

The petticoat is lined with pale gold china silk and fastens with a hook and eye. In my collection I have a number of hooks and eyes from the 1600's.

 Here are both of the new pieces together on the doll.

Katherin's clothes and an organized fabric stash

Those of you who know me know that I can't resist fabric of any kind. I love the feel of it and how it looks and drapes as I work with it. Among the other things that I like to do is quilt. Some of the fabric in my quilt stash is at least 60 years old. I have small pieces from the 30's, 40's and 50's but the larger of the older pieces are from the 70's.  It is always interesting to look at the way that fabrics change through the decades. I have had my fabrics tucked away in a set of deep drawers that although they held lots of stash, they also hid what I had from view and from memory. As I was getting ready to start another quilt, I would have to go digging deep in the drawers and hope to find the fabric that I wanted. This week we were finally able to finish the shelves for the quilt fabric stash. Now all of the cottons are folded and placed in color sorted bins so that I can finally see what I have at a glance. Now the pattern books, bolts and bins are together.

 I have been working on this cross stitch sampler for a few weeks and have finally finished the stitching but now that it is stitched.... it is not quite finished. I think that the colors are a bit too bright and I want to tone them down. So.. I am going to coffee dye it to give it a more antique look and soften the tone of the pinks. It was created as a teaching piece with a very specific purpose in mind. All of the stitches in it are either types of cross stitch or backstitch. Sometime you just have to take that leap of faith and forget the hours of work and make that change. We shall have to see how it works out.






We over dyed the completed sampler today and I rather like how it turned out. The linen in a wonderful warm color and all of the threads took  on enough of the tint of the coffee so that they are a bit more mellow and blend better.













 Here is the panel of Katherin's skirt with the embroidery finished and half of the paillettes added. I started with just a few but just kept adding a few more until it looked like it should. Embroidery from the 17th century was packed rather tightly, not a lot of open space so that is the look that I tried for. This is the petticoat  that will be seen  because the dress is open in the front.

 This part is the stomacher.. such in interesting name but it is a separate panel that was pinned on the bodice to cover the stays or corset.  Now I just have to take courage in hand and cut them out and construct the parts of the dress. The dress will be a plain soft gold silk taffeta so the details of the embroidery will really be the focal point.

Katherin skirt and cross stitch class

Just when you think that you have life organized and can get to some of the wonderful projects that you want to work on.... well life in all its messy glory laughs at you and gets totally in the way.
However I still have found a bit of time to work on  a few things. Some are  works in progress and others are new.
I have been able to work on Katherin's skirt and have nearly all of the embroidery done. Just a bit more on one flower and then some finishing touches.

The second piece is for a class that I am in the process of writing. This is my version of the required sampler. Hopefully all of them will end up looking different.  The class includes a number of kinds of cross stitches and the students will have choices of colors, bands and just which order they want them in. Should be a fun class and hopefully they will learn a tons of things.

Katherin's Petticoat

 This skirt was embroidered between 1610 and 1620. It is exhibited in the Glasgow Museum. I used it as the inspiration of the underskirt or petticoat of Katherin's dress. The original is a riot of colors with silver accents. The silver has turned black over the years so it does not sparkle like it would have when new.

 Here is the overall design for the skirt. Much of it will not show when she is dressed but since I don't know just how much will, I decided to make the design larger than I thought that I needed.

When I am working on my floor stand, I usually only stitch an hour a day.  Any more than that and my back hurts so it takes quite a while to finish a project. Plus there are so many other things that I need to work at and stitch on.

 Instead of the polychrome of the original, I am using a wonderful woad blue silk for the background. I have decided to use gold silk Soie de Paris thread in three shades plus a fine English metallic gold.

The thread is a filament silk so it has great sheen.

This is progress from day one. I basted the design on the silk and started the gold.

 Day two - Hour two

I have added a bit more gold and started the leaves. I am going to get the tendrils and leaves stitched before I start any flowers. I added the spool so that you could get an idea of the size of the work.

 Day three - Hour three

A bit more gold and a few more leaves.

Day four - Hour four

I feel like it is growing nicely. The needle is a size 13 so it is tiny but very sharp. I am just removing the paper in the area where I am stitching that day. As I get more done, I will cover up the embroidered area so that the threads don't get rubbed.



Katherin and Faith, Hope and Charity

Usually during the month of December I take a break from designing retail patterns and the day to day teaching that I do. I take the time to stitch and work on some of the things that I want to do not the ones that I have to do.
Designing something new is not a thing that can be forced; although I have found that one thing does lead to another. Once I start with one new patterns others follow.

One pattern that I have been working on for years is Faith, Hope and Charity by James C Christensen. It is one over one on 32 count linen and I am hoping that I live long enough to finish it. I do want to but can't and don't want to work on it solidly until it is finished. So I stitch on it in fits and starts. If I had known when I started what I know now, I would have dyed the linen shades of spring green and just stitched the figures.

I have been working on the doll - Katherin. As much as I can, I am trying to dress her as she might have been dressed in 1670. I have been hand stitching all the clothing and using fabrics like linen and silk that are period appropriate. Creating a reproduction outfit of any size is always a balancing act. you can never totally get everything perfect.
This week, I stitched her petticoat and covered her shoes. Although I do know how to cobble a shoe, starting from scratch was more than I wanted to do in this scale. So I used some gold brocade and silk ribbon to make her shoes look more up to date for the 17th century.

Her petticoat is linen with a ribbon waist band. The ribbon worked well  because it would fold to the correct size with out adding too much bulk.

I do have more pieces planned and am excited to work on them but for now the retail designs are calling.  Once it get the designs finished and the stitching started, I can come back to Katherin.

Katherin

I have been working on several of the small pieces for my Cabinet of Curiosities. I have finished two pincushions and the glove. I have the scissors sheath stitched but have not yet finished it. As part of the "story" of the casket and it's maker, I am dressing a porcelain doll in the dress of the period. It is about 1670 for the girl that stitched the box and all of the things in it. The painting that I have will have to be of an older sister or cousin that is her mentor.
I have been doing research on the clothing of about 1670 and have discovered that many of the portraits are of women in very casual settings with their dresses looking like they didn't quite finish dressing.

I wanted a more formal look and so here is my inspiration.

 I took the corset pattern from Norah Waugh's book on period clothing.

 

 Here is the chemise. It is fine linen stitched with cotton threads and ribbons for ties.

 Here it is on the doll. One of the sleeves is tied but the other is left loose for the picture.

 Here is a close-up of the sleeve. Period fashion had the sleeves
 of the chemise showing with ribbons or pearls wrapped midway
up the sleeve to gather it.

The corset is 2 layers of linen with the top layer of pink silk. I stitched it with white linen thread and pale gold silk. I wanted to make it as authentic as possible but the stiffening reeds that were used would not be in scale. I thought of using pine needles because it would have looked right but I was afraid that it would break and be too thick.  So..it is stiffened with strips of plastic. I did make an ivory busk for the front of the corset.

Here is the back showing the channels for the boning. I thought that doing the eyelets for the laces might drive me nuts but it was worth it.

I think that the corset looks great on the doll. So Mistress Katherin has her first two layers. Next comes the petticoat and perhaps a bum-roll. Have to do some more studying.

Santa of the Forest and Katherin

I have been working on Santa of the Forest for quite a while. Actually more than quite a while, as I was looking through the bag that it was kept in I found a receipt from 1999. I have always like it; am glad that I am getting back to it and am getting close to the finish. Here is a photo with the white part of the beard stitched.

 

This is a photo of a painting that I was going to name after one of my ancestors. The original is actually from Italy in about 1660. When my father asked me for a picture that he could paint for me, I picked this one because it is really sweet and of a girl of about the right age for my Katherin but it is from 1660 and Katherin needs to be from 1670. So the painting will be her sister or cousin.

My father was born in 1923 and at 91 years old he still does fabulous things.

I have had fun deciding on her story and how she came to stitch a needlework casket. I am going to do some fun pieces to fit in my casket.

Mistress L Sampler

Sometime when there is too much going on in my life, it is hard to get my mind to think creatively enough to design anything. When that happens I usually just work on one of the projects from my stash. This one is the newest of the stash projects and it is finished. The sampler is called Mistress L and is by Lauren Sauer. She also gave us a pin cushion and scissors fob.
Lauren encouraged us to make some changes so that I what I did.
This is the first of the projects for the Cabinet of Curiosities so it is dedicated to Katherin Isobell Boswell.