This month's blog is about old shirts. When one of husband's shirts starts to get raggy I start to eye it with envy, pegging it out on the line I assess the usefulness of all that material, then when it is past wearing it is squirrelled away in my cupboard. So over the Easter weekend I set about my stash of Old Shirts. I cut off all the buttons, cut off the collar and cuffs then deconstruct the rest of the garment to use all that lovely cotton in making patchwork quilts. You would be amazed at how much fabric there is in a shirt, especially those with a tuck or pleat in the back. Even the yoke has a useful amount of material in it and everything more than three inches square is saved. A long time ago when my children had friends round to play, a father came to pick up his daughter after a Saturday afternoon playtime. I was standing at the ironing board in the kitchen. He asked me what I was doing, I said that I was cutting material up into triangles. He then asked "Why?" and I replied, "To sew them together again". Quite logical to me, but beyond reason to anyone else. But this is an opportunity to be creative. No two pieces of patchwork are the same. I started making patchwork because I had always made my own and my children's clothes, and this was a way of using up bits left over and recycling old garments past their usefulness. I rarely bought material except for the backing. A few years ago some of my patchwork quilts were in Gunnerside Methodist Chapel as part of a craft display. I am no expert needlewoman, and anything I make is utilitarian, it has to be used, and is not an art work. I also learn by mistakes, and my very early quilts were not perfect, so they were strung up very high so people could look at them and not point at my mistakes. These are the first two quilts I ever made. After I deconstructed my pile of shirts I started to cut them into strips and squares and joined them together again. This was going to be a random quilt, not designed, but I do mess about on the floor putting pieces next to each other to see how they look. It helps to then stand on a chair and look at them through the wrong end of binoculars. The balance of colours has to be pleasing, but colours also have hue and tone which must also balance. Fortunately I have a very able assistant in the design procedure. I have now pieced together three patchwork quilt tops out of my bag of shirts - and - I have enough bits left to make ANOTHER quilt top. But that will have to wait as the next thing is to make a sandwich with the patchwork top, wadding and a plain cotton backing and hand quilt the three layers together. I enjoy this as much as piecing the patchwork, as it keep your knees warm, and you can quilt in straight lines or curved lines, and make a lovely pattern. I just like the idea of making something out of nothing, after all there is nothing quite pleases a Yorkshire man or woman as having summat for nowt. However, I have sometimes purchased material to make a quilt in particular colours. Here is my assistant again saying "This is one I made earlier". All of this was purchased material, which is actually faster and easier to cut up than deconstructing old garments. Using up old clothes has a long history. At home we used to spend the winters making clip mats, sometimes called rag rugs or proddy mats. These had a backing of a hessian sack stretched onto a wooden frame, and old garments were cut into strips one inch wide and then looped through the hessian to make very hard wearing mats for the cold stone floors of the farmhouse. Isn't this a lovely picture ? it is from the artuk website. This is by the artist George Henry Wimpenny [1857 - 1939] and is in Oldham Art Gallery. I hope I'm still making patchwork when I look like this ! And here is another one, this quilt is made up of hexagons. This is by the artist Lance Calkin [1859 - 1936] and is in the Nottingham Castle Museuam and Art Gallery In the past garments and household furnishings were passed on until they were completely worn out. It was quite normal to receive things second hand, and garments and furnishings were handed down in wills, bequests were made of bed clothes and quilts, along with the silver teaspoons or the candlesticks. This indicates that they were precious and valued. My favourite historical documents are wills, and beds with their bed hangings and bedding are recurrent themes in lists of bequests. Hannah Gill made her will at Barden in 1827, a tiny village in the parish of Hauxwell. She had lived in London, but was part of a Dales family. She left clothes and furnishings in her will, with lovely details of the materials they were made of. Here Hannah bequeaths her white cotton bed quilt, one pair of sheets and one pair of white stays and a Leghorn Bonnet, a stuff gown and a green silk shawl as well as many other lovely clothes. Anthonie Plewes of Bellerby made his will in 1619 and after he died an inventory was made of all his goods and chattels. Valued at 8 shillings and 4 pence were two coverings, one happinge, three blankettes, three feather beds and one paire of harden sheetes. The will of Christopher Ascough of Jervaulx in 1717 also had an inventory which listed linen, sheets, napkins and table cloths at £3 10 shillings and bed stocks, beds and bedding at £10. The will of George Theakston of Constable Burton in 1813 gave details of all his household furniture and furnishings and he made individual bequests of each item - a stuff quilt for bed cover, one sheet and a pair of pillow covers .... Interesting as these are, they are not unusual, and many wills bequeathed beds and bedding, often specifying which chamber they were in or what colour bed hangings they had. However, one bequest is really tantalizing. Joseph Grimaldi made a will in 1837 in which he bequeathed To Mrs Elizabeth Eye eldest daughter of Mr Richard Hughes of Finchley I leave all my plate & plated goods together with two Patchwork Quilts the largest made by my first wife, poor dear Maria the smaller one by her sister Julia now Mrs Bowen which I hope will be received out of respect to her dear memory Oh how I would have liked to have seen these patchwork quilts, they would have been made of sumptuous material in gorgeous colours because Joseph Grimaldi was an actor and made Pantomime a popular form of entertainment, best known for acting the role of Harlequin and Joey the Clown. Mr Grimaldi as a Clown. Joseph or Giuseppi was born in London in 1778 but his family had originated in Italy. His father was a dancer and first appeared on the London stage in 1758. His mother was also a dancer at Sadler's Wells. Joseph Grimaldi appeared as a child star at Sadler's Wells in1781 in a pantomime called Pandora's Box, where he emerged from the box. Here is Grimaldi again in the pantomime Harlequin and Asmodeus at Royal Covent Garden. I wonder if Mrs Grimaldi made his costumes ? Did she use the left over bits of material to make her patchwork quilts ? picture from the Lewis Walpole Collection Patchwork quilts are homely and useful, but if created with old material or left over bits from dressmaking, they also have stories to tell. Several of my quilts tell stories of garments that I wore at particular times or for particular occasions. And when husband was looking at my thrifty shirt creations he said he did not want them on one of our beds as some of the shirts had memories ! He was sad to see them cut up as he had enjoyed wearing them. They will be gifts . Alison Uttley wrote in her book "The Country Child" about her childhood in a Derbyshire farmhouse - She wished she could sleep once in the high oak bed, under the many coloured quilt with its hexagons of moss-like velvet and flower-petal silk. She fingered the patterns, bits of her mother's wedding dress, finery sent by an aunt, pieces collected for years before she was born ..... Lastly this is a gorgeously rich bed cover at Norton Conyers, a country house near Ripon, which looks as if it was made with lots of very rich braid. However, I will be working on my utilitarian thrifty quilts made out of raggy shirts and enjoying every moment of being creative.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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