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Notes From Visitors

Here you will find stories that have been sent to me about our country's embroidery history.  It's the little things that count!

October 4, 2002

Judy   

My mother and I made a christening gown in 1968 when I was 20 years old.  We
made it for my godchild.  This gown is made of handkercheif cotton and has
yards and yards of cotton lace.  My mother did the sewing.  I did the
embroidery.  Since 1968, about 20 babies have worn this gown.  It is still
going strong and most of the babies names have been embroidered on the slip. 
I would like to improve on the embroidery, especially the French knots are
not that great.  Would you advise me to fuss with trying to fix it up, or
leave it alone?  They aren't very tight.  Also some of the names need some
help.  I am afraid to rip anything out because you know - accidents can
happen.

 The first two little girls who wore this gown will be 34 in November, and my
daughter is 33 today!  Their sons have also worn this gown.

 I keep thinking also what a great memory album this would make.  Everyone is
aware of how popular these are today.  How about then and now pictures and
bios of the kids!!

Sandy

Wow, congratulations, and what a wonderful treasure you have.
By all means, slowly and carefully fix and fuss to your heart's content.

You would want this to last forever, and repairs are the only way!!

Pictures, yes!  And a journal...entries on and about anything you've done
with and to the gown.
What a marvelous heirloom!!
Great ideas!
Thank you for sharing.
If I can help, let me know!!
Judy

May 22, 2002

When I was in elementary school, back in the forties, my grandparents would "baby-sit" with me after school. My grandmother did not want to be called anything starting with "grand", it would make her seem old, so we always referred to her as  
mom down home.  When I think of her, I  remember her piecing a quilt or crocheting squares for a tablecloth.  I remember laying on their iron framed bed searching her quilt for the pieces used from one of my, or my sister's dresses.  She did not quilt her tops.  Each year, she would pack them and send them to a friend who lived "down in the mountains", probably :in Forehead, Kentucky.   She did not pay the lady but instead bartered flour, sugar and coffee for her skills.  I have one of her quilts.  When I compare it to the quilts I see today, her pieces and the stitches are much, much smaller.

She also made parlor curtains that were completely covered in haranguer squares.  I was much too young to understand the time and skill required to make those drapes.

I saw a Big Lots ad for "hand stitched" quilts for $19.99 and it made me so angry.  If it is indeed hand stitched, someone somewhere has spent many long hours of labor, stitching and has received a pitiful amount for their skill.

This is a great web site.  Obviously, you have given much time and energy to it.  I saw the last up-date was over a year ago.  I know it is time consuming but please continue to share..

Thank YOU for sharing!!  I agree wholeheartedly about hand-stitchers being so shabbily treated.  I would be willing to say that they weren't from the US!

March 18, 2001

Dear Judy:

    I wanted to share a wonderful idea that my mother came up with when I had my first baby, the first grandchild. 
    Her own wedding dress had seen better days.  It had been laying in a wood cedar chest, which did it no good.  It had several stains, and could not be saved five years prior, when I wanted to wear it to get married in.  She saw no further use for her dress, since I am an only daughter.  So her suggestion to save what portions we could resulted in the most beautiful Italian silk Christening dress a baby could have.
 
    Her original dress was simple, Italian silk with a Queen Ann lace collar.  Luckily the lace was in great condition.  I saved pretty much most of the material, and gently washed it, because no cleaner would touch it.  It came out a beautiful slightly off white.
 
    I made a simple long dress pattern with a 8 inch ruffle on the bottom, and
several horizontal pleats above the ruffle.  For the collar, I inverted the lace collar, and cut it into two portions, creating the shape of the point of a heart in the front.  I even used the original buttons in the back.  The sleeves were simple set in sleeves so as not to take away from the lace of the collar and the simple beauty of the satin.
    Later this month my parents will be married 50 years, we plan on having the dress displayed at the party, along with original pictures of my parents, and my son in his heirloom.  Additionally, there were several sizable pieces of satin left over, enough to make the female grand daughters beautiful Christmas stockings in remembrance of the wonderful Christening dress they wore.
    Since I had no daughters, I plan on using my dress to make a jacket or fancy blanket for my first grandchild.
    Good luck with your business.
                                        Sincerely,
                                        Karen H
Dear Judy,   ... I read your  note on emailing you with history. I suppose you know about the resurgance of French Hand Sewing in the South especially. This is just the type of sewing that our grandmothers and greatgrands did and passed down to their kids. I,ve done this for years. My mom taught me to embroider when I was a little thing, and it evolved into my making a living at it 30 years later. I even design my own patterns and enter my christening gowns in the Southern Needle Arts Exhibition, in Mobile Ala. Yes, I won first place, both times. And also on my cutwork embroidery tablerunner. But I want to know, how I can publish a good many sketches that I have designed over the years in needlework. Easier said than done.  I appreciate the old world arts such as the hand work, of our women of the past and want to pass it on to those who will enjoy it in the future...   
                     Your Friend, Pam Etheredge  

 

Dear Judy:  One side of my family goes back more than 300 years in this country and I have lots of information about them.   My father's side came in the early 1900s.  Seeing your site triggered a thought I want to share with you.

My paternal grandmother came to this country as a young girl (young woman) from what was then Austria - and is now Slovenia.  She married another immigrant, had 4 children, and then died when the children were all under 10 years of age and she was only 34 years old.  No one really knew her or remembered her by the time I was old enough to ask about her - my grandfather died when I was 4 and all her children were too young to remember much about her.  My father had no memory of her at all.  It is as though she is a lost person - only about 2 photographs exist of her.  Anyway, there is one sampler she did when she was 12 years old back in 1902, while still in Europe.  Somehow I inherited it and it hangs in my sewing room.  I treasure it.  It is really all I have from her.  It inspires me to emborider and leave a sort of legacy that will outlive me.   Her name was Agnes Tement, and her married name was Agnes Reich.   I just wanted to share that little story with you.

--Jan Marie   January 3, 2000

Jan is leaving a wonderful legacy with her beautiful woolwork embroidery!

 
Dear Judy:  Enjoyed your site, but would like to tell you a neat tale. My parents,
both born in Europe, were married in 1912, at ages 18 and 20. Mom was
sewing shirtwaists in a factory with all the others who spoke no English,
and Dad, who came here as an infant, spoke good English, and had a real
job as an assistant in a Library. One of their wedding gifts from a
wealthy relative, was a beautiful hand made linen cutwork tablecloth and
12 huge napkins. (They say "Made in China" and are still stitched
together) In my parents' VERY modest household, I think the cloth was
used (then washed and pressed) only once or twice, maybe at my eldest
sister's wedding table. My parents have been gone since 1968, but last
October that cloth came out of its blue paper and stitched cover and
became the marriage canopy (chuppah) for my daughter's very long
anticipated wedding.I had loaned it to other members of the family
twice, for the same purpose, but this time was special.
I do have many pieces of my mother's needlwork, but they were usually
carefully made on the very cheap (like 15c) stamped embroidery pieces you
could buy in the 5 and 10 in the 20's and 30's. Oh yes, I forgot. There
were about a half dozen hexagonal pieces, scraps from the clothes she
made for us, sewed to paper patterns cut from newspaper. I've been able
to make just one or 2 "flower garden" circles from them. Where they will
end up, I don't know. Maybe in a frame. Thanks for listening.

Tossi Aaron...June 23, 1999

Dear Judy:  Hi there,

I was puttering around in the internet and stopped awhile at your site.
You sort of asked for other suggestions regarding documenting
embroidery.

I've taken to writing on the back of my framing. I'll either write on
the paper cover on the back or I'll write a "letter", put it in an
envelope or plastic sheet and tape it on the back. Sometimes, the piece just won't allow you to "sign" your name on the fabric. (and I always use my whole name, not initials or first and last but use my maiden name too i.e. Marcie Eyer Weiler) If you actually write on the paper or tape a document to it, the information is there and most folks will keep it with the piece even if they have it reframed.

Sometimes I'll tell why I did the piece or  what was happening while I did the piece. I did a "Shepherd's Bush" sampler in 1997, I'd started it on the day the Princess of Wales was killed but only took a few stitches. In the following months as I worked on it, John Denver died and Red Skelton. John Denver's music was influential in my young adulthood and my father was Red Skelton's platoon leader in boot camp.
The verse on the sampler ended with "hearts that never grieve". Somehow, doing that helped ease some of the passing of my youth.

I've also had some heirloom pieces framed. On the back of each frame is a letter telling who made it, when they lived, my best guess when they made it and how they're related to me. I usually try to make a "scene". My grandmother made a tape lace doily that was irreversibly damaged. I had it quartered and framed with some antique buttons and reproduction thread winders and tatting shuttles. On the back is all the info I had regarding all the items framed. I kept the nicest one (with my tatting) and gave each of my brother the others.

Hope this give others some ideas

Marcie Eyer Weiler
Denver, Colorado