Busy Bee

Yes I have been busy so, once again, my blog has been neglected. I started this post a while ago and it was just waiting for photographs. For those of you on Face Book you will know that I am part of a team of 5 ladies running a Textile Social History Project here in the North East of England. In 2011 I managed to get a small grant from AgeUK and with the help of the Embroiderers' Guild we had two meetings in public libraries, we payed for the hire of small meeting rooms and also some publicity for the upcoming exhibition that we put on in 2012.

A 1971 wedding dress also worn as Matron of Honour to the lady who made it.

This was a great success, we took lots of photographs, talked to lots of people, both in their homes and also in clubs and meetings that we attended.

Anyone remember wearing these dresses?

It was amazing what people had kept. Wedding dresses and christening gowns were common, embroidered and crocheted cloths were also easily loaned out to us for display purposes. However there were also some more unusual items such as a beautiful lace collar that was stitched to a plain jumper and unpicked every time it needed washing. Photographs of a millenium embroidery. A Pippa Dee nightdress and a dress from the 70's made of Crimplene. So many people remembered the wonder fabrics like nylon shirts and Crimplene that could be washed, hung up and worn again without ironing. In the NE Brentford Nylons sold bedsheets that gave off static electricity and in the summer were very uncomfortable on the skin.

A lace collar that would be sewn onto a plain jumper and removed for every wash

So earlier this year when a friend, who was part of a group of WI ladies setting up a Vintage Fair in Rothbury, asked me if I could get involved it was easy to say yes we could put part of the exhibition together again. This we did and lots of new people lent us their textile items including scraps of three laying out cloths, a child's Maltese lace bolero and a Polish embroidered waistcoat. All these items had a sentimental story attached to them.

So in August 2014 a collection was made, models borrowed and a beautiful exhibition set up both in Rothbury and then back in the new Whitley Bay Library the week following.

An embroidery done for Man's first walk on the Moon

Where do we go next? Who knows? But I have ideas, so watch this space I may just have more news soon.