There was a good turn out for the Hands-on session about Finishing and Presenting work for exhibition – intended to help with items being made for display or sale at our Open Day next May.
Sue and Tracey had divided up the afternoon into 3 sessions – the first, run by Sue on small brooches that could be included in the ‘Miners Tommy Tins’ which were demonstrated and started earlier in the year.
The brooches were made in bright colours from wired ribbons, old lace and beads and Sue is shown below wearing on of her creations. She had a wide variety of very attractive pieces available for members to get ideas.
Tracey led the second session and she had done a lot of research into work done by the Canal Boat women and children, who used embroidery to decorate their own and family clothes. The work most associated with the canals is the ‘spidersweb’ belts worn for best by the boatmen.
These consisted of three or four rows of spidersweb wheels separated by lines of chain or feather stitching and had two buckles on one end with two straps at the other. They were worn with the straps at one side of the waist.
To make the work easier, the stitching was done on checked tea towels so that the grid already woven into the fabric could be used by following the lines. Usually 1 inch squares.
They used soft wool, silk floss or stranded embroidery thread for the stitching and colours were usually arranged to form diagonal stripes along the length of the belt.
When the stitching was finished the sides of the tea towel were neatly turned in and straps were sewn in at each end.
Below is a sample of the stitching worked by Tracey to make her very own belt – a beautiful piece of work following some very thorough research. About 5 or 6 members got started on this on Saturday so we hope to see lots more pieces – not just belts but purses, bags, needlecases etc.
Tracey told us that she had gone to Preston Market and confused the man who ran a stall selling watch straps who, when she purchased two, couldn’t understand why she didn’t want them fitted to her watches!!!!! They will never understand us embroiderers will they!
Next came Monica Selway with a wide variety of items showing many ways of edging and finishing pieces of work, from bags, boxes, books, containers, hangings and many more. Simple things like small decorative tassels on corners, beads or cords along an edge, folded ribbons etc. Plus simple methods of displaying even the smallest items to make then attractive – decorated card and fabric backgrounds, presentation boxes etc.
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