Embroidery Old and New

As part of the ongoing process of sorting my late Mum's house and re-configuring mine, I've been having fun rescuing my collection of old magazines from the damp cellar. This is a slow process, involving the de-humidifier and a certain amount of mould removal (I'll spare you the details) but I'm making progress. As ever, I've got help from my trusty companion Tolly, seen here doing his best rectangle impersonation. 

These are the magazines I'm most excited about finding again ...

Does anyone else remember these? 'Needlecraft' magazine was published from the early 1990s for more than ten years and featured a wide range of needlecraft techniques. There was lots of cross stitch but also needlepoint, bobbin lace, stumpwork, embroidery ... and more. They had very good articles on the history of various forms of needlework too. The earliest issue I've got is number 4 which came out in October 1991and the latest one is Issue 63 from April 2004. I've been trying to find out when it ceased publication but with no luck so far. If anyone can help me with this, I'd be very grateful. It would be nice to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, while waiting for the latest batch to dry out, I fished out some of my old needlework magazines from the 1930s onwards to browse through.

Those yellow 'Good Needlework and Knitting' magazines from the 1930s are particularly nice. They were a somewhat eclectic mixture of embroidery, knitting and crochet with handy household hints and recipes thrown in for good measure. They also featured long, serial stories. Unlike craft magazines of today, patterns for the embroidery designs weren't included, instead you were given tips on working from selected transfers which you could then order.

I was looking at an issue from November 1937 the other day when my eye was caught by this picture on the front cover.

Unusually, this was a free gift in the form of a pre-printed handkerchief sachet, all ready to embroider with your own threads. Free transfers were often included with magazines of this date but I hadn't come across an actual item like this before. I'm rather fond of old handkerchief sachets, probably because I'm one of the few remaining people (according to my children) who still uses proper hankies. These are hard to find new nowadays but you can pick up lots of pretty ones from antique stalls quite cheaply; this is where most of mine have come from.

Somehow, this picture was ringing a faint bell and, after a quick look along a shelf on the middle landing, I realised why.

Knowing my love for old embroideries, my daughter bought me this one years ago and there it was, one of the original sachets, embroidered by a reader of the magazine more than eighty years ago. Here are the instructions from the magazine ...

As well as this sachet, readers got a free transfer for a companion piece called 'The Lily-Pool' so that the two designs could be stitched as complementary pictures.

You can see this second picture better here ...

Now, amongst the many craft-related things that I collect, are old embroidery transfers. So I thought it would be worth fishing them out to have a look through.

And look what I found - not one, but two copies of the original transfer given away with 'Good Needlework'.

Something tells me I shall have to embroider this one some day to stand alongside my other one. 

Anyway, back to the more modern magazines. There I was, browsing through the latest batch a few days later, when guess what I spotted in a magazine from 2003?

Does that embroidered picture on the right of the cover look familiar? That's right, it's the original design from the free gift in 1937.

The editor of 'Needledcraft' at the time, Debora Bradley, found an original picture like mine in the attic of her parents' house. It had been embroidered by her brother's Godmother, Beatrice Walker.  Here you can see her work.

'Needlecraft' commissioned a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework, Zoe Patching, to re-create the original design. Her pattern is very faithful to the original but uses paler shades and some beads to give added texture. Of course, the original stitchers would have used their own threads; exact shades were not specified as they would be now, just general guidelines for colours.

That's my embroidery on the left and Beatrice's on the right.

All this made me think it would be interesting to compare the two magazines, published 86 years apart.

Although both magazines have colourful front covers, the modern one is obviously much more colourful inside as you would expect. The other thing that first struck me was the adverts. There are lots of these in 'Good Needlework', reflecting the different pastimes of the day - everything from piano music ...

... to dance lessons.

There are also, of course, lots of needlework related adverts like the one on this page for linen to embroider. 

Although there where quite a lot of adverts in the early issues of 'Needlecraft', the advent of the internet and more subtle forms of advertising had drastically reduced their number by the new century. This 2003 issue had very few obvious adverts, most were hidden in short pieces about new kits and products. Advertising is much more subtle nowadays. There were, however, a few pages of small ads. These were quite wide ranging, including some for Patchwork fabrics as the popularity of American style Patchwork was already growing.

Interestingly though, there were still a few ads for linens which wouldn't have been out of place in a magazine from the thirties.

Sadly, it was something of a last hurrah though as Copeland Linens had closed earlier that year. I'm guessing that they were selling off their stock here. 

The two main publishers of embroidery transfers in the thirties were Deightons and William Briggs, both of whom had been in existence since Victorian times. Deightons is still going but now supplies painted needlepoint canvases painted to order. Briggs has ceased trading but you can pick up original transfers from both companies fairly cheaply online. You can also download the 1880 book of designs in which Briggs sought to patent the transfer technique in 1880. You can save the book as a pdf which enables you to print off pages and trace them with a Transfer Pencil, should you want to work any of the lovely designs. Dover Books are one of several publishers who produce books of embroidery transfers nowadays and many of their out of print titles are available secondhand. Try searching for iron on transfers or designs and you'll find lots of inspiration, both vintage and modern. One book that looks like a nice combination of the two is Lorna Bateman's 'Embroidered Country Gardens'.

Where was I? Oh yes, comparing the magazines. As the title shows, 'Good Needlework and Knitting' also featured knitting patterns, many of which are stylish and technically quite complicated. They assumed a high level of knitting knowledge in their readers.

I'm constantly amazed by how small the sizes are in old knitting patterns ... unless, of course, you were classified as a 'matron'.

She doesn't look best pleased, does she?

There are virtually no knitting patterns in my 'Needlework' patterns; indeed, several early issues contain complaints that there are no UK knitting magazines and wishes for a knitting revival. It's easy to forget that, not so many years ago, knitting was still considered a dying art.

Both 'Good Needlework' and 'Needlecraft' feature different types of needlework, although the older magazine has mostly embroidery and the newer one cross stitch. 

There's a cutwork table set in 'Good Needlework' ...

and some embroidered napkins and a tray cloth.

'Needlework' had a range of embroidery and cross stitch designs but also this pattern for a stumpwork sunflower ...

... and a patchwork teddy bear.

Interestingly, they had another design that harked back to the past with this picture in Berlin Woolwork which was very popular in Victorian times.

I think they had a bit of a historical theme with this issue as there was also an article on historical samplers.

Earlier issues of 'Needlecraft' had pages of technical tips and answers to letters, although I don't remember anyone ever worrying about their lingerie seams as one correspondent did in 'Good Needlework'.

'Good Needlework' also featured fashion pages which were normally in colour and pointed reader towards fashionable dressmaking patterns, including lots of lingerie designs.

There were also suggestions for children's clothes. I'm guessing that these frocks would have gone out of fashion very quickly with the advent of war against Germany.

To our modern eyes, the inclusion of a long serial story, taking up many pages seems a little out of place but many 1930s women would have relied on printed stories in magazines for a bit of escapism - very few would have had television and radio drama in the UK was rather high brow until after the war.

I have quite a lot of old embroideries around the house, some that I've bought and some worked by my Mum; I even have a firescreen embroidered by my Great Grandmother somewhere. Here's one they bought I few years ago from an antique shop in Honiton.

It was the last day of our holiday and, with four adults in a small car, I'd decreed that nobody was to buy anything else ... and then I saw this. Needless to say, it travelled home with us, squashed into the back with my passengers.

And here is the newest piece of needlework in my house - my finished Summer Sampler. Which, now I come to think of it, is a nice combination of new and old as samplers are such a traditional form of embroidery.

All that remains is to frame all four samplers and I shall be able to admire them in turn throughout the coming year. I've enjoyed working all of them but I think perhaps this one was my favourite. The colours are beautiful and there was such a lot of variety to keep it interesting.