Redwork Stitching

Image courtesy of:  Gumbo-Lily Blogspot

Redwork is thankfully enjoying a revival! Redwork originated in the late 1870s at England's Royal School of Art Needlework in Kensington. Redwork took it's name from  an embroidery thread known as Turkey Red. The cotton thread that Redwork was worked with was popular among the common people because the cotton thread was colorfast, and it less costly than the silk threads commonly used at the time. The designs were easy to embroider, many students used a simple outline stitch for their designs which became known as the Kensington Stitch named after the school. Today that stitch is referred to as backstitiching or outline stitching. Redwork requires a knowledge of simple stitches like the stem stitch, French knots, and the back stitch.

Many girls practiced their embroidery stitches on "penny squares," a square of white cotton that had a design stamped on it and cost a penny, as did the red floss. As this fabric and floss was inexpensive it was given to girls to practice doing their stitch work. Red stitches most commonly covered quilts, coverlets, dish towels, bureau scarves, pillow covers, mantel covers and other household items. 

In the United States Redwork can be traced back to the late 1800s. Common designs were children, animals. Nursery rhymes, fruits, and vegetables. The stamped images had different meanings. Horse shoes were a sign of good luck and angels ensured the safekeeping of children, and each flower had a secret meaning. Girls in the United States would buy the penny squares in small muslin sheets sold in catalogs or at local dry good stores.

After WWI Redwork began to lose popularity. Most likely because women had access to colorfast embroidery threads that  were available in many other colors and machine sewn clothing and household linens were cheap enough to be purchased.


Books you can find in the Central Library's Art Collection. Click on the covers to see more information about each title.

                                                                                   

                                                                                   
        

                                                          

                                                                         

New Vintage and Cabbage Roses

Three new books we just received reflect today's interest in creating a a home that is happy and inviting through vintage and shabby chic decorating. The first one is New Vintage: The Homemade Home. This book is beautifully illustrated filled with projects and ideas to enable you to live in beautiful style.  The author, Tahn Scoon is more than a stylist, she is an interior decorator with a passion for creating rooms that reflect the old and the new. New Vintage shows you how to invigorate every room in your house. It contains easy-to-follow-how-to projects on restoring antique pieces, using wallpaper and paint to make a room a place to you want to live in, and decorating with flowers.  

The second book is Vintage Chic: Using Romantic Fabrics and Flea Market Finds 

Author Christina Strutt, founder of textiles firm Cabbages & Roses, shows you how to beautify a room with  exquisite textiles in faded colors and patterns to evoke English cottage style. A use of fresh colors, faded fabrics  flea market finds, and kitchens overflowing with mismatched glass will create a comforting and charming home.




The third book is Vintage Remix

Interior designer Kishani Perera knows that good design is everywhere and at every price point. Mixing modern with vintage, and retail with custom, her eclectic interiors incorporate pieces from designer showrooms and Etsy alike to create spectacularly layered, vibrant homes. InVintage Remix, Perera’s striking interiors serve as a guided tour through the stages of design, from deciding when to skimp or splurge to adding the finishing touches and unexpected elements of whimsy. Her mix-and-match philosophy will help readers discover and express their own tastes. Perera takes the intimidation out of blending styles, proving that pairing seemingly opposing pieces can strike a balance that is classically chic.

Homespun Style

This book is so happy, cheery, and colorful. It reflects a growing interest in crafting, stitching, and painting, for a look that is individual and not store bought. It begins with Elements of the Look, from the basics of modern craft today to making color and pattern work in harmony. Homey crafty looks are given a modern twist with cheerful patterns and decor. 


Interior designer Selina Lake, shows how to make your home comfortable or eccentric using themes like Granny Chic or English Cottage style. If your style is vintage, romantic, or flea market style she will she you the right elements you need to pull your home together.  Along with pattern and color, she also show imaginative ways to recycle and reuse, from transforming furniture with a lick of paint to finding inspired new uses for everyday items. 










You'll find this book at the Central Library in the Art Division. Click on the cover below to see where to find it.

Finding Vintage and Vintage Reproduction Fabric

The previous post talked about using vintage patterns to sew with, now you'll want to find vintage fabric or reproduction fabric. As previously mentioned finding enough yardage to sew a garment is difficult. If you do find enough chances are the fabric will be expensive. Try searching on Etsy for vintage fabric if that is what you want to use.

If you are looking for feed sack or bark cloth for 50s style dresses you’ll find many many choices on reproduction fabric sites. If you are sewing a 30s day dress you may want to use a cotton solid or a feed sack. There was been such a revival in vintage dressing and sewing find reproduction feed sack is easy. Aunt Grace, Marcus Brothers, Darlene Zimmerman, Moda, and P&B are just a few lines of feed sack. There are so many pretty feed sack lines, be prepared to love almost all of them. Finding bark cloth isn’t as easy but it can be found. I’ve found bark cloth here and

at this site, it tends to run about $10.00 to $20.00 a yard of apparel bark cloth. Make sure you are buying apparel bark cloth and not upholstery bark cloth because it comes in both kinds. A good article on bark cloth can be found here at Retro Renovation. A good place for apparel bark cloth is Tonic Living.

Depending on what you are sewing you may want to use organdy, organza, chiffon, and velvet ribbon. All of those things can be found on Etsy.

1930s-1940s Hot Iron Transfers from Vogart, Aunt Martha, and Work Basket

What's a hot iron transfer and who is Aunt Martha, Vogart, and Work Basket? A hot iron transfer was a simple pretty design that had raised ink and was transferred to fabric by a hot iron. The names above were the big three that manufactured these transfers. Transfers were part on children’s cloths, kitchen towels, and linens.

Vogart transfers are highly sought after and were produced from the 1940s and 1950s. There were so many Vogart designs produced that a database was created for them. They were carried in five and dime stores and are a source for the pretty days of the week series and children’s designs.  

Aunt Martha was another hot iron transfer design company. Aunt Martha tranfers have been produced since the 1930s. Many of the designs were florals and days of the week for tea towels. They are still being produced by the Colonial Patterns Co.

Workbasket transfers came out of Kansas City in 1935. They were supplements the magazine published by Modern Handcrafts of Kansas City. Subscribers could receive free sheets and others could be ordered by mail. Many times Aunt Martha's transfers look like Workbasket transfers and they two are often confused. Keep in mind that an Aunt Martha's transfer will be about 4-1/2" by 6 inches when folded and the number will be in the 100, 3000 or 9000 series. If the number is 2-9xx, it's a Workbasket transfer.

You can find a great deal of information about Workbasket transfers as there is a Yahoo group devoted to them. A company history can be found here, and a searchable database of needlework instructions .

A great deal of information can be found about the big 3 and other hot iron transfers at the Sewing Palette site.

Sewing with Vintage Patterns from the 30s, 40s, and 50s

Do you want to sew vintage look dresses from the 30s, 40s, and 50s using vintage patterns? You can because those patterns are very easy to find now on Ebay, Etsy, and many vintage sellers.

Sewing with vintage patterns will allow you to sew those fine frocks, skirts, tops and any other garment you may want but using them is not east for a beginning seamstress. Most of these patterns are not printed with instructions like modern day patterns are. These older patters tend to be cut from very fine tissue paper and details like darts, button holes, and zippers are not marked. Details are usually in the form of small punched holes as are the pattern numbers. Most come with limited instructions.

These patterns are a part of sewing history and one of the interesting things about them is women usually mail ordered them from advertisements in magazines, newspapers, and directly from the company. When you received one of those vintage patterns many times they will come in the envelope that was used as a mailer to the women who ordered it. You’ll see the women’s name and address usually handwritten on the envelope.

Butterick and Simplicity were around then but many of the vintage patterns were from companies no longer around. These companies were Advance, Anne Adams, DuBarry (DuBarry patterns were manufactured by Simplicity from 1931–1940 exclusively for F. W. Woolworth Company), Marian Martin, Hollywood Patterns(Hollywood Pattern Company was started by Condé Nast in 1932. They were known for printing photos of Hollywood stars on some of their patterns, quickly making them very popular. They continued production through the end of World War II.), and New York Patterns (The New York Pattern Company started in 1932 and continued until the early 1950s. They were unique in that the pattern sleeves had drawn characters rather than photos and the paper used was non-glossy). (from wikipedia).

Once you get some of these vintage patterns take your time with them. Read all the instructions and look at the pattern pieces carefully. When I first began using vintage patterns I sewed the first few dresses out of muslin sew I didn't ruin my good fabric. I'm not an experienced seamstress but I've sewn some super cute dresses with these patterns by reading everything and taking my time. 

Depending on what you are sewing you may want to sew these items using vintage fabric which is hard to find with enough yardage. If the dress requires cotton fabric or a feed sack pattern there are so many wonderful prints and solids that can be found from many sites that sell reproduction prints and fabric. Wool and other fabric is also easily found online.