Medieval Linen Brassieres!

I read in the paper today that there has been a unique discovery of pieces of medieval garments used as wall filler in an old castle in the Tyrol.  Naturally I went online to see if I could find out more about it and find better pictures.  Unfortunately, the archaeologists aren't sharing the pictures--probably so they can write some papers about the garments, but this website gives a really good description and explanation of the finding of the garments.

You can see remnants of needle lace on the edges, and here is a link showing how that needle lace was made.

(I had to go back and repair links and missing pictures for this post in 2021.)

More Early Brassieres

I just ran across this wonderful vintage Pathe film with instructions on how to make a "camisole".  Isn't it cute how the model puts the finished bra on over her camisole?

That got me thinking that I haven't showed the rest of my early brassiere collection.
Here's a pretty homemade one.

It's light yellow silk, but may have been pink at one time.  The filet lace is handmade and cream colored.  The straps are grosgrain ribbon.

Here's the back closing.  The maker added some elastic as she gained a little weight.  That's hook and eye tape.

Check out how the maker folded and stitched the lace to make a tight fit.  She didn't cut the beautiful lace.

Drawn-Thread Hankies

A few weeks ago I bought a baggie of vintage hankies from an estate sale on 1/2 price day.  I now realize I should have bought all of them.  When I looked at the 12 hankies I had bought I was surprised by the quality and workmanship on these tiny treasures.  Here is a pic of the most amazing one that I am selling.  It is less than 10 inches square and made of tightly-woven cotton.  I took this at 600 dpi so I could look at it closer.  This is actual size.

The embroidery and drawn-thread work are so fine you cannot see the stitches with the naked eye.  Here are two screenshots I took when I blew up the above scan.

That's satin stitch, not outline stitch.  And check out the buttonhole stitch around the edge.

Here is one I'm keeping for myself and framing.  The drawn-thread work is amazing!  This is actual size.  Again, too small to see the detail.

 Here is the detail.

Can you imagine the size of the needle and the time it took to work this?

Check out the other hankies I have for sale in my Etsy store.  Today I found an unused lipstick hankie from the 1950's.  They were made in a dark red cotton so you could correct your lipstick and not mess up a nice white hankie.

I have a small collection of children's hankies packed away and will dig them out for subsequent posts.

Amazing Needlework!

Just look at this beauty!  It is new work and I scanned it full-size on my 8-1/2" x 11" scanner so you could see it close up.  I was browsing an antique mall and found a bookcase full of these.  The proprietor was close by so I asked what country they were from, thinking China or another low labor country.  She said they were made by two ladies in Romania.  There were doilies of several sizes and some large tablecloths, all with this wonderful needleweaving and crocheting.  I just Googled "Romanian crochet" and found this website.  It seems this is called Romanian Point Lace and is from Transylvania.  The "grapes" are formed of bullion stitch.  Here is an explanation of the origin and a slide show.  Be sure to look at the other slide shows at the Lacis site.

Embroider Your Way to Health

This is a timely article for Mother's Day.  I hadn't thought of that when I contemplated writing it, but it works!

Lydia Pinkham was a marketing genius.  She marketed directly to women at a time when most doctors were men and women were reluctant to discuss "feminine problems" with them.  You cannot pick up a magazine from the late 1800's or early 1900's without seeing her ads for her Vegetable Compound. 

This little booklet is a curious mix of embroidery stitches and letters from actual users of the compound touting their miraculous recoveries from one ailment or another.  A young girl getting her hands on this would be quite afraid to grow up after reading of all the horrible things her body might do to make her ill.  Reading the letters is quite illuminative of what women had to endure on a daily basis before birth control and gynecologists.  This compound can cure pimples, jaundice, menopause, "falling of the womb", whites, nervous prostration, congestion of the bladder, and, it seems, infertility.  It is still available today, although with modified contents.  The wikipedia article gives a lot more information.

Even though Lydia died in 1883 she has a website.  I'll bet you DIDN'T know there was a Museum of Menstruation.  Wonder if they're only open one week a month?  Back in October of 1978 I picked up a copy of MS magazine at Meijer's and stood there leafing through it.  On the back page was an essay written by Gloria Steinem that I thought was the best thing I had ever read.  I didn't buy the magazine but did remember the article.  The magazine has gone, but the article lives here.  To go along with that, here is a funny British ad.

Without further ado, here is the book.  The embroidery stitches are some common ones and ones not so common and there are many I want to try now.  Enjoy!

And finally, Ranger in a chair.

Happy Mother's Day!

BFF Gertrude

Girls at the turn of the century didn't get allowances and most did not work, so when birthdays and Christmas rolled around it took ingenuity and skill to come up with presents for their friends.  Most turned to the needlework and fashion magazines that were prevalent at the time for their gifts.  Here is an example:

Who wouldn't like Gertrude for a friend?

To put this gift in context you must know that coat hangers were not common and the typical closet had hooks around the walls for hanging up the clothes that were not stored in bureaus and chests and trunks.

Here is a clip from the wikipedia article on clothes hangers:  "In 1906 Meyer May, a men's clothier of Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first retailer to display his wares on his wishbone-inspired hangers. Some of these original hangers can be seen at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Meyer May House in Grand Rapids."

As I live in Grand Rapids, I have visited this house many times.

Here is another item I have which could fall into the same category.

This is full-size.  It is crocheted out of silk or rayon thin ribbon and is meant to be pinned to the blouse front either as a corsage or at the neck.  It's just beautiful.

The Workbasket

The Workbasket was a publication that started in 1935 and ended in 1996 and was full of crochet, embroidery, knitting, and other crafty things that one could make for onesself or for sale.  I recently found a year's worth starting in March 1946 and ending in February 1947 at an estate sale and it looks like the subscriber never even used these and let her whole dollar subscription run out.

If you've ever been alarmed by depictions of dancing tableware on tea towels or aprons the source was probably Workbasket.  Each issue had a large folded sheet of transfer patterns totally unrelated to what was in the current issue.  A short description of what they were for was printed on the transfer.  Here you would find frightening things like this clothespin dancing on a bar of soap. (For a clothespin bag.)

Or this little cutie from a series of seven for towels.

Embroidery instructions:

and the latest in crocheted accessories.

In browsing the net I have run across a Yahoo group dedicated to The Workbasket and this database of patterns and transfers that appeared in the publication.

I was going to add all of these to my Etsy store for sale, but now have to pick and choose.  Those kittens are just too cute to sell!

Lilly May's Threader

Lilly May Widmark patented this fabric loop turner 29 June 1937 in Minneaoplis, MN.  The patent document is here.  I didn't find any other patents by Lilly May, so this will be her claim to fame.

A search of the 1930 census turns Lilly up with husband Carl Axel, 47, a contract bricklayer from Sweden, and daughter Muriel, age 17.  Lilly was a housewife of 41, born in Minnesota to a father from Sweden and a mother from Norway.  She had no other occupation.

I looked for her in Google and didn't find anything so I tried the Minnesota Death Index.  Nada.  I broadened my search at Ancestry.com and found husband, Carl, dying in Kern County, California in 1957.  Lilly May died there in 1971 at age 82.

I'd like to think that sales of that little loop turner, sent to their home in Minneapolis allowed them to buy a nice retirement house in California.

Making Tailored Buttonholes and Other Things

I was curious as to who this Marjorie Eastman, who was clothing specialist for the Michigan State College Cooperative Extension Service, was.  I found a listing of all her published works here.  It seems she started publishing pamphlets and books on sewing in 1929.  Here is a newspaper article from 1951. 

According to the Minutes of the Meeting of the (Michigan) State Board of Agriculture, May 18, 1944, there was an annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association in Chicago, June 19-24.  The college sent 10 people from the Department of Foods and Nutrition with an allowance of $10.00 each and eight women, including Marjorie Eastman, department not specified, also with a generous allowance of $10.00 to be paid from Extension funds.  It should be noted that in this document there were many men going to other meetings and conferences with their way paid in full or mostly in full.  Another interesting tidbit is that two Physics Instructors were earning $224 and $225 per month.

Not finding a biography of her online I finally found mention of her as a surviving relative of Dr Lois Gannett in 1955.  She was still being called "Miss" Marjorie Eastman, and the way the obit was worded led me to believe she was a niece of the deceased.  I looked up Lois on the 1870 census and saw she had a brother named Seymour.  I looked up Seymour in 1900 and BINGO!  There he was with his wife Editha and children William, Margery, Rodger, and Helen.  Margery was 4.  So next I went to the Social Security Death Index and found this:

MARJORIE EASTMAN 13 Dec 1895 Apr 1991 (not specified) (none specified) 371-46-3588 Michigan

Then I went back to the 1930 census and found her vacationing with several other teachers in a hotel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

See, now?  You've learned how to make buttonholes and also how to find someone using online resources.