Notes on muslin

A Sunday morning spent filing - will have to move office shortly and am packing up. Come across a loose sheet of scribbled notes on muslin made during a visit last year to the V&A with Restart 50+, the group of Bangladeshi women we were working with in Wandsworth.  We looked at 18th century embroidery patterns and everyone was filled with excitement. Papers and embroidered muslin brought out from the archives by curator Mor Thunder prompted various thoughts from the women that I scribbled down at the time. Do not want to lose them now.

 - 80 yards of the finest muslin can fit in a matchbox

- if you leave fine muslin out on the grass overnight, the dew will make it invisible

- the musin industry was destroyed by the Raj.

The visit was inspired by a piece of muslin brought into a focus group we ran a few months earlier with the women.

Friday Late Stitched Up

Katrina reminds me that there is a Friday late night stitching evening on 30 April at the V&A, to coincide with the Quilts 1700-2010 exhibition. More on the V&A website.

Links and pictures - the V&A connection

Mor Thunder, the curator at the V&A who helped with the project last spring, has emailed to say that it is all right to reveal her identity - as the previously anonymous visitor who was so complimentary about the Stitch exhibition at York Gardens Libray, Battersea. Am delighted that Mor liked the show so much, as her input was invaluable when Restart 50+ and the Asian Women's Group visited the V&A and looked at printed patterns for muslin with her help..
And she has sent some images of embroidery in the V&A's collection, that she referred to in her comments. In case anyone is interested in going along to see. (I think I will, certainly.). All photos © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Waistcoat, 1710-1720. Silk damask, lined with fustian and silk and made in England. More on this link.

Dress fabric (above) made in Spitalfields, London in the 1730s. More on this link.

And silk damask brocaded in silks and silver-gilt thread woven in France in 1700. More on this link.

Thank you, Mor, for all this fantastic information.

Restart 50+ visit the V and A Museum

Restart 50+ visits the V&A. Pictured here amidst Rodin sculptures.
Then up to a Study Room for a talk on 17th century English printed embroidery patterns by curator Mor Thunder.














Mor (left) talked about printed patterns for muslin.














She also showed the pattern above, pricked with pins along the pencil lines so that blue chalk could be sifted through to trace the outline. Many of the women in the group had been taught this technique at school.
Packed lunch (shared) in the new Sackler Centre.