Broderie Perse

Okay, so no trousers piccies today - I finished my dress form, and have been doing homestead things like making nondairy cheese, the laundry and the garden, and cutting out motifs from fabric for broderie perse handkerchiefs. It is very interesting to look at fabric in terms of motifs rather than as a whole, either for colour or drape as in quilting or dressmaking.

I decided to make handkerchiefs first rather than the barettes becasue it was faster, and I can sell them three to a batch.

Broderie Perse is an old quitling applique technique from the days when chintzes were even more expensive and rare than they are now, and so the individual motifs were cut out, glued on, and then stitched with a tiny whip stitch in a matching colour. Usually, these were centre medallions on whole cloth quilts, or later, centres on medallion quilts (not the same thing - confusion!) but since the craft has been revived, the technique has been used in other ways. Using it to make 'old-fashioned' flowery hankies is definitely a non traditional way! But it came to me one night several months ago as I was falling asleep. Nowadays, there are all kinds of fusible webs and adhesives apart from glue, and often motfis are not stitched, but 'I want to do it the old fashioned way.' And as I don't have a zig-zag on my antique sewing machine, they WILL be hand stitched. Fiddly? A bit. Unnecessary? Probably. But it keeps the old craft alive in its traditional method.

Arts and Crafts handbags and other news

The handbags are done and on etsy! (click on the title link.)

Making them up only took one day; it was the embroidery that took time.
But I am very pleased with them. Reproductions but with a sunny mordern flair.







The black trousers are also done, but it is too late to post photos of them. More tomorrow. Next on the docket - some ribbon flower and beaded barrettes, for all those Ren faire and Pre-Raphaelite maidens.

In the Family Way

The handbags are coming along for the etsy shop - I will post pictures when they are done - and when we went to get the lining fabric, my daughter Brigid said of the green one, half-finished, that she 'liked the green and pink' - the pink being the transfer pencil. So I told her I would make her one in green and pink. Corrupting the young!

Further to that end, my eldest, Percival, came by for some henna for tatoos for visiting Italian friends (girls) and said that he and his roomate, a bloke, have decided to buy a couple of acres up in Calaveras, where they were hiking this last weekend, and put up a couple of houses from 'ship cargo containers', grow their own food, and so on. He liked the idea because it was 'close enough to the city, but not too close.' This is the same young man who is studying to be a professor - Sac State or Davis would be well within reach. He is also the same young man who said, not entirely joking, 'I was raised by hippies - I hate white bread.' Um, that would be me. The houses are very eco friendly, easy and cheap to build, modular and easy to remodel. The whole garden idea just thrills me down to my toes. for I have a victory garden myself.

It made me so happy that the tenets with which he was insidiously instilled as a young child - with homemade baby food, cloth nappies and co-sleeping - took root and are sprouting in this way. Yes, he is a technogeek and has an iPhone, but he also has read ALL of Tolkien and speaks dead languages. When he and his sister and brother have a health or first aid problem, they always ring up Ma and ask first what natural remedies there are, without question. Ah, children, raised on homemade tinctures!

And I think to myself 'what a wonderful world'....

Brother Rabbit

After three years and some despair that I would ever be well enough or have funds enough again to have my little offerings of needlework and herb-craft, Brother Rabbit is now an e-shop again, now on etsy. This is a triumph to me, and signal of my health and overall well-being.

The name comes from a textile pattern of Morris’ –Brer Rabbit – which in turn comes from the folktale in the Uncle Remus stories Morris read to his daughters. Some have said that Brer Rabbit represents the joyousness in struggle, and the potential for the victory of the less apparently powerful over the dominant. Brother Rabbit signifies this, but also our oneness with each other, our necessary deep connection with nature, and the tradition of the mediaeval guilds in modern times.

‘Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.’

So said the master, William Morris; an imperfect human, but a vibrant avatar in so many arenas of life. I believe sincerely that our lives can be filled with beauty, joy, and deep satisfaction, and that we do not have to be endless, mindless consumers at the mercy of the multinational corporations to do so.

Beginning with the simple tenet above – that we deserve to be surrounded by genuine beauty and graceful utility – I take the notion that we are the master craftsmen of our own existence into every arena of life: learning and teaching old skills and new; sharing histories – personal and cultural – and lifeways, our own acquired wisdom and whimsy; making our own fun, with stories and music at evening gatherings; steeping ourselves in the bounty and wisdom of nature through direct experience and observation. We thus become once more a part of the human family, the great dance through time, connected to each other and to Source.

Brother Rabbit is not merely an enterprise, designed to make money; it is a resource, a network, a lifeway, a philosophy of beingness. It is a vehicle for connection and transformation. Brother Rabbit escaped the Tar Baby by hiding away in the briar patch, finding peace and freedom; may we also find our own great happiness in the network of the Briarpatch. My life as a craftswoman is a vehicle to a deeper happiness.

The first items on offer go up next week - a series of reproduction Arts and Crafts handbags.

Blessings!