Does your favorite jumper have a gap in it? Appears a disgrace to eliminate a stunning piece of clothes due to slightly tear, proper? How about mending it! Senior Curator of Historic Textiles Helen Wyld talks us by a few of the historic repairs in our textiles assortment. You by no means know, it’d encourage you to choose up a needle and thread!
Mending and
re-using garments is seeing a revival, pushed by a need for a extra sustainable
tradition, an curiosity in craft and the handmade, and, maybe, the time lots of
us spent at residence throughout the pandemic. Mending
is gaining new floor at present, with seen repairs showing on every little thing from ripped
denims to worn out jumpers. However our textile
collections present that mending was a means
of life in previous centuries. And never only for the poor. Traditionally, clothes and
textiles have been extremely valued possessions, too pricey to throw away when
they turned worn out.
Gunnister Man
Among the many most
poignant objects of clothes in our assortment are these discovered on a physique found in a
peat lavatory close to Gunnister in Shetland. The
particular person was subsequently christened “Gunnister Man”.
He most likely died in round 1700. Whereas we now have many examples of elite clothes
from the Seventeenth century, this can be very uncommon to seek out the costume of an individual of
extra average means.
Gunnister Man
was most likely a dealer and was discovered with a bone spoon and three cash in his
pocket: one Swedish and two Dutch. They have been saved in a knitted purse. His woollen
garments have been closely mended. His jacket is patched and lined with
totally different items of fabric. Two buttons are changed with twine. A gap in his
glove is patched with a rough material. And a tear in his shirt is inexpertly
mended with a big tuck. His tough stockings have been strengthened on the soles
with massive patches, partly to cowl current holes and partly, we would guess,
so as to add heat.
The messy and
advert hoc nature of those repairs means that they have been made by the wearer
himself, of necessity. This man couldn’t afford new garments and was not a
expert mender however saved his garments intact as greatest he may.
A pocket made by Miss Rolland of Burnside, Fife
Much more
professional mending is obvious on a lady’s pocket made within the early 18th century by a sure Miss Rolland of Burnside in Fife. On this interval, ladies’s garments didn’t have built-in pockets (a
drawback we nonetheless encounter at present!). Ladies wore separate pockets connected to a band of fabric
and tied across the waist, below their skirts. Ladies of all courses wore
pockets, they usually saved something from cash to stitching tools inside them.
Miss Burnside’s pocket is manufactured from homespun white linen, embroidered in wool
with pink and blue flowers. On nearer examination we are able to see that the pocket has
been effectively used. Numerous splits across the opening have been mended with
fastidiously utilized patches on the reverse, connected with tiny, common stitches.
In all probability by Miss Burnside herself. She will need to have continued to make use of the pocket
over plenty of years.
This type of
ability was anticipated of ladies throughout a variety of social courses. Miss Burnside might
have realized to stitch from her mom or one other girl in her household, or from a
native schoolmistress. The pocket appears to have been treasured even after Miss
Burnside’s loss of life: it entered our museum with a word connected to it telling us
that she made it within the 12 months 1733.
A group of plain stitching samplers
A exceptional
guide,
with the handwritten title “Hannah
Grindley 1st Class Examination 1838”, reveals us a few of the mending strategies being taught
to women by this date. The guide accommodates a sequence of lovely stitching samplers,
and an entire miniature shirt, demonstrating a variety of abilities, together with hems, tucks, frills and buttonholes.
Equally
important are the mending strategies. Hannah’s guide features a sampler with needle darning
in 4 colors, and thoroughly edged patches. These are executed with colored
threads to show the neat stitching, however when utilized in the actual world, they
would have been made utilizing threads matching the unique material. Whereas seen
repairs are prized at present, traditionally menders wished their work to go
unnoticed.
Hannah’s guide
most likely follows one of many printed instruction manuals that began appearing
from the 1830s onwards, however darning samplers had been widespread earlier than this. Our
assortment contains samplers of needle darning imitating a variety of various
textile weaves. These advanced strategies would have allowed ladies to make
invisible repairs to objects similar to linen tableware, tweed and checked material. A
later assortment of faculty samples contains knitted mending strategies. These
have been important for socks and jumpers worn out on the heel or toe.
A pair of knitted lengthy johns from Fala Dam
Mending
and making garments continued to be a lifestyle for a lot of in Scotland throughout
the 20 th century. A group acquired by our museum within the Sixties, the
contents of a farmhouse at Fala Dam in East Lothian, gives a exceptional
perception into the on a regular basis mending and making of 1 household.
The gathering features a vary of stitching tools: needles, thread, elastic, buttons, in addition to knitting needles, crochet hooks and kids’s needlework samplers. Most of the clothes from this assortment appear to be hand-crafted, whereas others present indicators of repeated mending. Most notably a pair of machine-knitted lengthy johns! They’ve quite a few areas of neat needle darning and will need to have been worn over plenty of years to maintain the wearer cosy on chilly winters’ mornings on the farm. Total, the Fala Dam assortment contains the work of not less than three generations of helpful knitters and stitchers.
As we are able to see from our collections, the abilities being revived at present are removed from new. With the mass manufacturing and growing affordability of clothes from the Sixties onwards, abilities like stitching, knitting and darning turned much less widespread. However at present’s concern for sustainability means we are able to discover new worth in historic practices that have been as soon as commonplace.
Additional studying
Barbara
Burman and Ariane Fennetaux, The Pocket: a Hidden Historical past of Ladies’s Lives,
1660-1900, New Haven 2019
Audrey Henshall and Stuart Maxwell, ‘Clothes and different articles from a late Seventeenth-century grave at Gunnister, Shetland’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1951-2, pp. 30-42
Naomi
Tarrant, “Keep in mind Now Thy Creator” : Scottish Women’ Samplers,
1700-1872, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2014
