Stitch Journal Entries for May

 The first week of May Kathryn introduced us to a new book called The Pocket, A Hidden History of Women's Lives by Barbara Burman and Arianne Fennetaux. Women's dresses didn't have pockets in previous centuries - and don't often have them even now. To remedy that they made pockets that could be tied on, most often under their skirts. There were slits in the skirts that allowed access to the pocket but were hidden in the folds of the fabric.  Kathryn's reading inspired her to prompt us to make pockets of our own. A few ladies have made full size versions but most of us made little ones to fit into our journals.

There was some concern that women could spread revolutionary pamphlets without detection by secreting them in their pockets.

The following week Kathryn took inspiration from the Japanese practice of kintsugi. Cracks in pottery are repaired with lacquer dusted with gold or silver or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

On week three Kathryn gave us the opportunity to take a ride on her magic carpet to whatever secluded place would best rest our souls. Food and other comforts would be provided magically but we could only take 8 items with which to stitch and they had to fit into a theoretical pouch no bigger than about 6" x 6."

This was particularly fun for me. I even had fabric scraps  (and thread) leftover at the end of my stay.

The next week was meant to be a boro inspired entry in our journals, another Japanese technique. I couldn't bring myself to do the challenge as presented. Mine turned out to be a way to preserve some precious scraps of feed sack fabrics.

This week I felt a bit more brave and created another piece, much more in line with Kathryn's goals for week 21 of the stitch journal project. The idea was to sew small scraps together to create a new piece of cloth. This technique is used to preserve jackets and other textiles to give them longer usefulness.

Both sides of the worked piece can be presentable. I don't consider this work finished; there's room for more stitching.

 

And finally, for the last week of May we were to make "comfort cloth" inspired by the blankies little children often carry around. Kathryn was able to use a piece of one of her father's handkerchiefs and a bit from a pair of his pajamas over a piece of wool suiting. I used flannel and a piece of one of the hankies leftover from the bag I made last month. I did a bit of needle weaving and then freestyle blanket stitches. Blanket stitches for a replica of a blanket, get it? 

There have been other slow stitch projects that I've just realized I haven't yet shared here. I must do something about that...