It’s years since I did any needlework which wasn’t either needlepoint or cross stitch, but I’ve been thinking of doing some designs of my own, loosely based on some lovely Honiton Jacobean design pottery which I have. So when I saw this old cushion cover going really cheaply on that auction site I had to bid for it. Well nobody else did!
A wee bit of the top flower had already been embroidered but the rest of it is my work and it has been really quick and enjoyable to do. I just wanted to get some practice in before embarking on my own variation on the theme. I was never very great at satin stitch but I am improving with practice and I’m quite pleased with the effect so far. As you can see I still have about half of it to stitch but it shouldn’t take long to complete.
This sort of design became very popular in the 1930s and it was still being done in the 1950s. Design sort of stagnated during the war. I don’t think people could get the material for doing fripperies, it was all knitting socks and mufflers for the troops. The original Jacobean designs were not quite as outrageously coloured, but it’s the bright, crazy colour combinations which I love.
Elsewhere on the craft front I’ve finished off the pansies needlepoint. I managed to get to grips with my sewing machine which for some reason behaved perfectly, it must just have needed a rest. I even managed to do a button hole on trousers and I put a new pocket in a pair of my husband’s trousers. If only he wouldn’t carry so much junk around in them they wouldn’t wear into holes. It was a nightmare to do and the next time they are going in the bin if he can’t put up with not using the pocket. The trouble is his mother was a sewing teacher, in fact she was MY sewing teacher, and he tends to think that all women can do what she could do. I’ve told him that she went to college for three years to learn how to make clothes and learn about all aspects of sewing, but I don’t think he believes me!
