backstage textiles

At 1:00 this afternoon I am getting my albeit gloved hands on the vast
needlework textiles in the vault at the Dewitt Museum here at Colonial
Williamsburg. The curator is taking interesting people in. I could hardly
sleep last night! What fun !

Lucky girl ,, have a good look and tell all about it later ,,
mirjam
On 07 Apr 2004 10:46:16 GMT, (BDS2pds) wrote:

At 1:00 this afternoon I am getting my albeit gloved hands on the vast
needlework textiles in the vault at the Dewitt Museum here at Colonial
Williamsburg. The curator is taking interesting people in. I could hardly
sleep last night! What fun !

On 4/7/04 6:46 AM, in article ,
"BDS2pds" wrote:

At 1:00 this afternoon I am getting my albeit gloved hands on the vast
needlework textiles in the vault at the Dewitt Museum here at Colonial
Williamsburg. The curator is taking interesting people in. I could hardly
sleep last night! What fun !
Lucky girl!
Cheryl

"BDS2pds" wrote in message
...
At 1:00 this afternoon I am getting my albeit gloved hands on the vast
needlework textiles in the vault at the Dewitt Museum here at Colonial
Williamsburg. The curator is taking interesting people in. I could hardly
sleep last night! What fun !

Oooooh! Can't wait to hear all about them!

Felice

How wonderful Barbara......you're really fortunate to see such a fine
collection of stitched antique textiles up close! It's awesome to do
so.

I had a similar experience in several different places.....the most
memorable was getting to look up close and even touching several
embroidered and also Florentine stitched embroideries or better known as
bargello patterns.....these pieces were "pockets", similar to modern day
purse wallets to hold valuables, like documents and money.

Also, got to see embroidered petticoats, samplers and some other small
needleworked articles.....saw these at Stephen Huber's gallery, the
experts on American Schoolgirl needleworks.
---
Lula
http://www.woolydream.com
Needlework Adventures

BDS2pds wrote:

At 1:00 this afternoon I am getting my albeit gloved hands on the vast
needlework textiles in the vault at the Dewitt Museum here at Colonial
Williamsburg. The curator is taking interesting people in. I could hardly
sleep last night! What fun !

Nothing too much to tell. They opened very little. I did see pockets as you
described but nothing as great as the exhibit they had on . They
opened the safe drawers and we saw how they embroidered the initials on slips
so you get your own undies back from the laundress! that was interesting but of
course cross stitched and not fancy. They opened 4 other vault drawers to
exhibit samplers and bargello work. Most from the 1700 period. The work was
not as fine as what we do now in my opinion. But of course they had limited
light!!! These may be old but they were not done all that well. Surprisingly
one was from Germany and not early America so it likely came in a trunk with
someone. All in all, not as fine of work as what I am seeing Abby Aldrich
collected.

I hit the send too quickly! The good clothing exhibit was called:The Language
of Clothing opened at the DeWitt Wallace Museum.
It was indeed fabulous and the curator who developed it right on...

Barbara, your side exhibit sounds slightly disappointing in what you got
to see but at least the exhibit was worth the visit!

On my trip to the Huber's American School Girl Needleworks Gallery,
also remember saying to myself that the stitchery on some of the pieces
were not as neat as today's samples.

You're right about the bad lighting......it's amazing to think how hard
it must have been to stitch back then if they wanted to continue to do
so once daylight waned or on overcast days.
My eyes would have gone "cross eyed" pretty quickly if I had to stitch
under candlelight because light from candles also flickers unevenly,
unlike the steady bright light of today's electrical bulbs.

The other thing that amazes me is how one seamstress was able to "sew"
one of those voluminous gowns! It would take me forever to stitch
together such a dress, never mind embroidering any part of it!
I realize there were professional embroiderers and dressmakers with
staff but I'm writing of the women who might have made their own dresses
or the independent seamstress.....a poorer woman, perhaps a widow for
example who had to earn her living.
---
Lula
http://www.woolydream.com
Needlework Adventures

BDS2pds wrote:

Nothing too much to tell. They opened very little. I did see pockets as you
described but nothing as great as the exhibit they had on . They
opened the safe drawers and we saw how they embroidered the initials on slips
so you get your own undies back from the laundress! that was interesting but of
course cross stitched and not fancy. They opened 4 other vault drawers to
exhibit samplers and bargello work. Most from the 1700 period. The work was
not as fine as what we do now in my opinion. But of course they had limited
light!!! These may be old but they were not done all that well. Surprisingly
one was from Germany and not early America so it likely came in a trunk with
someone. All in all, not as fine of work as what I am seeing Abby Aldrich
collected.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 01:40:20 -0400, lula
wrote:
snip
The other thing that amazes me is how one seamstress was able to "sew"
one of those voluminous gowns! It would take me forever to stitch
together such a dress, never mind embroidering any part of it!
I realize there were professional embroiderers and dressmakers with
staff but I'm writing of the women who might have made their own dresses
or the independent seamstress.....a poorer woman, perhaps a widow for
example who had to earn her living.
---
Lula
http://www.woolydream.com
Needlework Adventures

Lula - I remember a wedding gown shown on Antiques Roadshow. The
expert showed how it closed down the front - great design to wear
later when nursing a baby. Also it had been let out to wear as the
bride gained a bit of weight. My point - yes it was a lot of work but
the dress was expected to last a long part of the wearer's life.

Alison

lula wrote:

The other thing that amazes me is how one seamstress was able to "sew"
one of those voluminous gowns! It would take me forever to stitch
together such a dress, never mind embroidering any part of it!

A surprising thing I learned at the show in Williamsburg was that the
gowns were sewn together with HUGE basting stitches, because they had to
be discombobulated for each laundering. So while we'd sew them in fine,
little stitches and send them out for dry-cleaning, colonial women had
them stitched with fewer than 6 stitches per inch - just a big running
stitch - so that they could be taken apart with one snip and the thread
yanked out. And also they'd have to go try on the gowns after each
laundering and re-stitching, so there were plenty of opportunities to
adjust the seams allowances or remake the style altogether.

Sue