More 18th Century Jewelry Examples

My previous post on 18th Century Jewelry has been very popular, so I thought I would follow it up with a post filled with pictorial examples of what was worn at this time. All of these were pulled from Wikimedia Commons. In the pictures I was able to find below, I noticed that there are two types of neckwear. A simple ribbon or pearls.

Pearls
I was able to find three examples of women wearing pearls. In my last post about jewelry I stated that Mrs. Adams’ pearls actually were not real, so it's likely that these pictured below were not either.

1776
The woman below has a rather large neckpiece that goes from her neck down to the top of her dress. The necklace also has a cameo type thing, and two matching pearl bracelets with similar cameos. Also interesting to note in this painting is this woman's earrings. They seem to also be made of pearls and are rather large.


1780-1800
The woman below has a more simple set of pearls on. You can see that her necklace is tied in the back with a ribbon. Similar to the painting above, she also has a matching set of pearl bracelets. It's important to note as well that the pearls here and above are rather large and round. These are not delicate pearl necklaces.


1777
Here is one last example of pearls. This is a drawing, so it's a little harder to see them, but you can tell she has one strand around her neck. They do not seem to be as perfectly round as the two depicted above either.



Ribbon
These pictures below show a more simple neck ornament of ribbon. The pictures I have here show a simple black, thin ribbon, between 1/8 inch and 1/2 inch. I have also seen a few pictures where the ribbon was thicker, maybe almost an inch and a half to two inches, and it was also black.

1771-1772
The woman below is wearing a thin black ribbon in the style we would call a 'drop' necklace. The ribbon goes around her neck and then drops down to the top of her dress in a 'Y" shape. It's hard to tell how she achieved this, but by zooming in you can see that most likely she just doubled up the piece of ribbon and looped it through itself in the front and tucked the end in the top of the dress.


1773
Below is a fun portrait that has a lot of neat things going on, but as far as her neckwear is concerned, it looks like she is wearing a black silk ribbon that is a half inch thick. It is tied in the back and it also has a drop with a good size cross on the end of it. It looks to me like she made a small loop of ribbon, slid the cross on it, and then tied that to the front of the loop of ribbon going around her neck. Pretty simple to do.


1770
This little girl below has a similar necklace to the one shown in the first painting. This shows that this kind of neckwear wasn't only for adults. It's hard to tell if this ties in the back or not, but the double ribbon in the front tells me that most likely it's not and it put together in the same way as the first painting.


1790
This painting below is a little later than the others, but I really like it because it's not a 'portrait' so to speak. It depicts someone of the 'everyday' wearing a ribbon necklace. Unlike the others though, she has the ribbon tied in a knot in the front, close up it looks like maybe a thin silk that is a forest green (maybe black) color. Again this looks like it is a half-inch thick.



I hope these examples give you a better idea of the type of necklaces an 18th century woman would have worn. As you can see it wasn't anything too complicated and relatively simple to duplicate.

Flamestitched Wallet

Some time ago I stumbled across some information on how to make a flame stitched Wallet. I guess these were a pretty common way for people of the 18th century to carry money. This wallet consists of a needle worked panel on the outside that is stitched using the Irish Stitch design.



This panel is backed with linen and sewn up to form a wallet. Someone shared a link to some really great instructions for making a wallet from Interweave Press.

Wallet Instructions

They also have a chart you can print to achieve the Irish Stitch pattern the author used for her wallet.

Irish Stitch Chart

And here are some more detailed instructions on making the Irish Stitch (also called Bargello).

Irish Stitch How-To

This is a project that I would love to get around to doing, but of course finding time for all these things may require that I create a machine that can double the hours in a day. But if any of you are inclined to try this project before I do, please share with me how it turned out!

Crewel Stitches

In my last post about crewel I mentioned that I was going to do some crewel work on a bag I am going to make. I thought I would try to find some resources for you to show you how some of the crewel stitches can be done. In my last post it was mentioned that some of the most common stitches used at this time were long and short stitch, stem stitch, French knots, satin stitch, and couching. These are all relatively simple stitches, most of which I have done on other projects. Once you have these mastered, I should think that there would be no pattern too hard to master as long as you have the time and patience!

It was actually rather difficult to find a good resource on the web that explained how these stitches are done. There are a lot of books out there that explain how to do crewelwork, so if you are interested in this, it should be relatively simple to find a book that will show you how to do the stitches. You may even want to pick up a sampler from Michael’s or AC Moore. The design you will make won’t be period correct by any means, but it will teach you how to do a lot of the basic stitches. You probably will learn more stitches that weren’t really used at this time though, so be careful about what you use when you actually do your 18th century project.

I was able to find one great website that had a whole host of stitches on it. The website is called InaMinuteAgo.com if you click on that link you will be brought to her pretty comprehensive listing of different types of stitching. Here are the explanations of each of the types of stitches we are interested in direct from the website. If you click on the name of the stitch, you will be brought to her page where you can also see a picture of the stitch in action:

Stem Stitch:
Stem stitch is also known as crewel stitch, stalk stitch and South Kensington stitch. Stem stitch is often worked to outline a shape.

Work from left to right taking small regular stitches with a forwards and backwards motion along the line of the design. The thread is kept to the right of the needle after picking up a small piece of material. This means that it always emerges from the left side of the previous stitch.

If the thread is worked to the left of the needle, the stitch produced is slightly different, and is known as outline stitch.

French Knot:
A French knot is a little tricky but with some practice it can be mastered. Some people find it better to work the knot with the fabric stretched in an embroidery hoop using a chenille or straw needle.

French Knot is also known as French dot, knotted stitch, twisted knot stitch and wound stitch.

The weight of the thread will determine the size of the finished stitch

Step 1
Bring the needle out through the fabric and holding the thread taut and flat to the fabric with your left thumb. With your right hand twist the needle round the thread twice.

Step 2
Still holding the thread firmly take the needle back into the fabric one thread away from where the stitching thread emerges from the fabric and insert the needle.

Step 3
The completed french knot

At this point it is sometimes helpful to brush the knot down the shaft of the needle with the nail of your left thumb so that it is sitting firmly on the fabric. Pull the thread through to the back of the fabric. You have completed the knot!

Satin Stitch:
Satin stitch is also known as damask stitch.

As one of the oldest embroidery stitches to be found satin stitch is worked on traditional embroideries in practically every country. The traditional embroiderers of China and Japan excelled in the use of this stitch. It is formed by working straight stitches close together.

To use satin stitch to advantage stitches should lie evenly and closely together and some practice is needed to gain this effect. Stretch the fabric in an embroidery hoop or frame to prevent puckering. This stitch is only suitable for small areas as long satin stitches can become loose and untidy. If you need to cover a larger area divide the shape into more workable areas. The other alternative is to use long and short stitch or encroaching satin stitch.

To work the stitch bring the thread up through the fabric and make a single straight stitch. Bring the needle out very close to the stitch just made and continue to fill the shape. Stitches related to single satin or straight stitch in this dictionary are Satin stitch and Padded satin stitch.

Couching:
Medieval embroiderers made full use of couching to be economical with expensive threads, such as gold thread, on the surface of the work. It is used, to this day, to attach threads which are too thick, or textured to pass through the foundation fabric. The term is from the French word 'coucher', which means to lay down.

Couching is extremely simple to work. Work with the fabric stretched in an embroidery hoop or frame.

To commence bring the heavy thread up from the back of the fabric with a large eyed needle. The surface thread is laid on the fabric, and then anchored by a second finer thread.

Small, straight stitches are taken over the thick thread and back through the fabric. Work along the thick thread until you have completed the line.

Take the heavy thread to the back of the fabric with a large needle and secure both ends of the heavy thread by using a few small stitches. Do not clip the heavy thread too close, otherwise it will pop up to the surface of the embroidery.

The second thread can be arranged in patterns - as in laid work. Other types of couching involve using embroidery stitches such as herringbone, fly stitch, arrowhead stitch, satin stitch, detached chain stitch, buttonhole and numerous other embroidery stitches over the thread to be couched. Metallic thread, ribbons, fine cord or groups of threads twisted together can all be couched.

And though the Chain stitch wasn’t mentioned before, it looks like it was definitely a widely used stitch at the time. Here is an example from VintageTextile.com that shows the chain stitch used on a 1790 skirt:



And here is an explanation of what the chain stitch is:
Chain stitch is also known as tambour stitch and point de chainette. Chain stitch is one of the oldest of the decorative stitches and is the basis of a large group of stitches.

Its use has a long history and is widespread, throughout the world. It is believed to have originated in Persia and India, where it is worked with the aid of a fine hook known as an 'ari'. In the west this tool which looks like a crochet hook, is known as a 'tambour' hook. The needlework produced using this method is known as tambour embroidery. To distinguish between chain stitch sewn by hand from that worked with a hook you need to examine the back of the embroidery. Needlework that is done with a hook has a continuous thread without any joins where as, chain stitch done with a needle, will display separate stitches.

Chain stitch is simple to work. Bring the needle up through the fabric and hold the thread with the left thumb. Insert the needle back into where it first came out. Take the needle through the fabric bringing the point of the needle out a short space along the line to be stitched. With the thread wrapped under the needle point pull the needle through the fabric.

A large variety of threads can be used from the finest silk to ribbon, the size of the stitch will depend on the weight of the thread used. it is an ideal beginners stitch and suitable to teach children as it is easy to sew.

Hopefully I can check out a few good books on 18th Century crewel from the library and I will see what other stitches were used at this time. And of course I will post pictures of my project as I have them.

18th Century Crewel Work

So while I was at Hubbardton recently, I decided that I needed to make (or buy) a little bag to carry my camera around in. My new camera is quite heavy and really weighs down my pockets, so I figure if I make a nice looking bag, I can carry it with me still pretty easily. So I asked one of my friends who was a Sutler at Hubbardton if she had any bags for sale. She didn't, but she did have a simple one I could borrow. She also showed me her bag, which had a nice drawstring and some embroidery on it. I decided that I could make one. So she explained to me how to do the drawstring, and I started the planning process.

I knew I wanted to have embroidery on my bag like my friend’s had, but I wasn’t sure where to start. So recently on one of the lists I subscribe to, someone was talking about a wallet they were making their husband where they would be using something called a “flame stitch” to decorate it. Having never heard of it, I asked a few more questions, got a few more answers, and decided it wouldn’t work properly for my bag (but don’t worry I will have a post about the wallet project later).

So eventually on the thread I got the topic around to crewel. This is a type of embroidery that was done in the 18th century. I explained that I had some linen left from making a shirt for my husband, and wondered if they thought it would work for this project I am trying to do. Judith responded with this …

The lightweight linen would be fine for crewel work (then line for strength if your camera is hefty) … on the fine linen you could use real silk or wool crewel embroidery to make a beautiful pocket/bag,

Common crewel stitches used in period are long and short stitch, stem stitch, french knots, satin stitch, couching

There is a dover book of 18th century embroidery designs

Of course this sent me on an Internet search for more information on crewel. I did find a great book on Amazon, which unfortunately my local library doesn’t have. But now it’s on my list of “to get” books. It’s called English Crewel Designs and Norman Bradburn and Frances Bradbury put it together.

English Crewel Designs

It looks like this book provides some period correct patterns that would be easy to trace to fabric.

Some other members also suggested four more books that look very interesting, which of course, my library doesn't have either:

18th Century Embroidery Technique

A Practical Guide to Canvas Work

Plain & Fancy

The Bargello Book (Which, I guess, only has a few patterns that would work, but teaches the methods really well.)

I also stumbled on a great website that had some awesome information and pictures of crewel through the years.

http://www.caron-net.com/feb00files/feb00fea1.html

American women in the 18th century took crewel to their hearts producing their simplified but original style of bed hangings, pockets, pocketbooks, petticoat borders, chair seats etc. The amount of crewel remaining in collections today attests to the devotion and industry of American women. Design became regionalized with mounds and prancing animals remaining popular near the seacoast, while blue and white scattered patterns were favored in the Connecticut Valley region. The stitches also changed as they moved from England; long and short to the faster self couching stitch also called New England laid or Roumanian. By the third quarter of the 18th Century, crewel faded as women became overwhelmed with the American Revolution.

So even if crewel was out of fashion by the time I am portraying, it doesn’t sound like it was completely gone, and I may still have a purse from before it went out, so I don’t think it would be wrong for me to carry a little purse with some crewel. Here is a picture from the same site:



I really love this example, the color and design are exactly what I want to do, but I don’t know that I can find a pattern like this particular example. Plus I am sure it was done by someone with much more time, patience, and skill then I have right now, so I will probably need to stick to something more simple for now.

As far as the bag itself goes, I think I will line it with felt, although that’s not period by any means, it’s soft and will give just enough cushion for my camera. The hardest part I was having with making a bag was imagining how the drawstring would go, but now that I have that part thought out, I think this will be a relatively simple project to put together. I haven’t started yet, but I will post pictures and any more research I find on crewel when I do start!

Some Books Featured on This Page:

18th Century Jewelry

So I had previously posted about my request for crafts on the Historical Trekkers forum. Well I went back today and Mike had another suggestion for me:

On a different message board (the Nouvelle France section), Ike posted some pics of a Chaplet he made with simple beads and brass wire. A Chaplet is a short version of a Rosary. It only requres some proper beads for the correct time period, some brass wire, plus a round-nose pliers to do the twisting/bending, and a cutter to nip the wire to length, and a repro of an original cross for the end. The rest is carefull bending/twisting of the wire to form the wire links, and to add the loops to the bead to add it into your chaplet/rosary. This would have been a simple little "cottage industry" type craft, and could be demonstrated at many events. Just be careful in selecting the right type of beads, and the correct repro cross at the end.

I have done some beading as projects just for myself (not 18th century), so this sounds intriguing to me. I decided to take a stroll around the Internet and see what I could stir up on 18th century beads.

One of the interesting things I found was a pearl necklace that belonged to Abigail Adams, and is now in the Smithsonian. I found a website that is selling a reproduction of the necklace, although Abigail's necklace was fake pearls and the one this site is selling is real pearls. (They also have some other interesting necklaces.) On the site they have a link to a portrait of Abigail wearing this type of necklace. It looks like the reproduction necklace is all one strand with ribbon attached at the ends, so you can wear it long or wrap it around your neck a few times, I like that idea. This would be fairly simple to make, I think if I just made loops on the strand of pearls and sewed the ribbon on, I could do a pretty fair job of it. I think I will give this project a try, but with fake pearls, just like the original.

I found another interesting site along the way. It looks like they are selling beads that were actually made some time between the 11th and 18th century (If I am reading this right). They are seed beads from a company that just recently shut down, but had all these antique seed beads hanging around. I guess they were used on court dresses and the such. It sounds like a line to me, but I suppose it could be true. They are a bit expensive, but if it were true, it might be nice to have a few if for nothing else but to try and match them to current seed beads and pick a good replacement (at a cheaper price)! Here is the write-up from their site:

18th century French opalescent seed beads. On spools of wire around 14 beads to an inch. Sold by the foot of beads on wire. A pale opalescent cornflower blue. We feel so fortunate to have come acress these amazing beads. We have 8 antique spools in the colors above. The spools are of iron, wood or of a type of pressboard with the spool company "Chauny-Perigeueux" embossed on the spool. These beads came from a very old French glass house of Salvatore. Originally in located in Venice, famiglia Salvatore moved its glass house to France in the 11th century. Up through the end of the eighteen century these beads were produced and then stored in large canvas bags. In the 19th century they were strung on fine wire and wound on the spools we have today. The beads were made for costume and textile decoration for royalty and gentry. They were originally used to decorate court gowns and costumes for weddings, baptisms, balls, coronations. The company closed early in the 20th century and we have been told that the remaining spools are just being distributed for the first time.

Google really didn't come up with much as far as 18th century beads were concerned. I probably didn't try looking as hard as I could have, I will probably do some more looking later. But I could use those seed beads (or cheaper look-a-likes) to hand make crosses pretty easily I think. I also couldn't find much information about the style of cross that would be appropriate. Maybe google isn't my best research friend when it comes to the 18th century!! I may have to actually resort to looking in some books ... *gasp* ... what's a girl to do? Or maybe I will just send a message back to Mike and ask if he has more information on the appropriate stuff to use, now that's my kind of research!!

Also check on my other article on this subject, it includes paintings as well!

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel

Crafts for a Camp Follower

So I have begun to do some research on some other things I can do in camp while the men are out to battle. Since we don’t live this way everyday, just 2 days a month roughly, I unfortunately don’t have nearly as much free time as the women of the time would have had. Although I would love to live like this more often, that’s a whole other topic for another post. But doing a large craft is probably not a good option because I don’t want to be working on the same thing for the entire summer. Most likely I won’t work on it outside of events, because I have a lot of other projects to work on. It’s not easy finding good information about what would have been done at the time except darning socks or needlework, the first of which I am not interested in at all and the second of which I might do, but I wanted something more exciting. I had done a little research on finger weaving, but I had a feeling that a white, female, camp follower of this time wouldn’t do this. So I was looking for other places to start looking.

So in my quest for other information some time ago I stumbled across a great forum for “historical trekkers.” They have some great information being shared by reenactors from all over the country (and other countries too). I have been reading the forums for 6 months or so now, but I never joined in the conversations. I was just trying to absorb all the information I could. Some of it applied to me, some didn’t, but it was all very interesting. A few days ago, I finally signed up and posted a question about crafts for 18th century camp followers. I got some great answers! I haven’t had the chance to research anything as of yet, but I wanted to share the information that was provided with me.

The first suggestion I got was to read a book by Beth Gilgun. It is titled Tidings. I may be the only person left in the hobby who hasn’t heard of this book, but it looks like an awesome resource, not only for crafts, but all kinds of things related to the 18th century. Amazon has the following description of the book:

Beth Gilgun brings the mid to late 1700s to life with her entertaining and informative "letters" to a friend on the frontier. Great for reenactors, teachers, historic interpreters, and theatrical costumers. As an accomplished seamstress and goodwife, Gilgun shares with her "friend" information on clothing for men, women and children, as well as other topics of daily life in Colonial America. Included are clear, concise instructions for constructing reproduction 18th century garments, from choosing fabric to finishing. Her chatty letters include news about current events and the latest goods available on the East Coast.

I am going to check if my library has this book in stock and give it a good look over. I will share more information once I have it, but this looks like an awesome place to start.

The next suggestion I got was from Susan. She suggested the sewing, mending, embroidery, crewel, and weaving on a tape loom. I have never heard of a tape loom before. It sounds interesting and I am definitely going to do some more research on that one. Mike from Missouri also suggested looking into a paddle loom. He said it works like a tape loom, but is smaller and easier to handle. I have no idea if that’s true or not since I don’t even know how big a tape loom is, but he gave me a link to look into this more, so I will certainly do that!! I think I will devote a whole post to this once I do a little more research.

I got a bunch of really good suggestions from Mike who is from Iowa. Here is the list he provided for me:

- a Lucet
- it is for making cords for clothing from thread (kind of like the drawstring on a hooded sweatshirt).
- a Tape Loom
- a very small loom for making tape/ribbon
- Bobbin Lace
- a form of weaving to create patterned lace to add to clothing
- Soap making
- Candle making
- making candy/bake goods (but there might be some Health/Safety rules)
- offering mending/repair of clothing
- laundry services
- writing letters for those who cannot read/write (a common occurrence in some military camps)
- making/teaching small toys and games for the kids
- sew up traditional socks from wool/cotton/linen clothe cut out to a period pattern - including wool Nippes or Chausons
- sew up Nightcaps and Workman's caps (almost nobody makes those nightcaps)

You could also take up some of the sailor's knot/rope work. Some of it is pretty simple. And a little Needle Hitching really perks up the look of a knife handle or looks great done around a glass bottle. A simple single cord loop-thru-loop segment of "rope" makes a quick braclet for kids - especially when they watch you make it or you talk them through making their own. Leather "shoelaces" or some heavy cord works well. Ditto some of the braiding with 3 or 4 or more strands. Simple journals/notebooks/diaries can easily be made by cutting/folding some paper together and stitching them to hold it all together.

I really like some of his ideas. I think the journal would be a great one, my husband wants a journal to keep with him, and so I might make that. I will have to do some research on the type of paper to use. I wonder how hard it would be to make my own paper. Though more likely I will just buy some paper, I think I already have enough projects to do without adding paper making to the list!! I also like the idea of making toys; I think that might be fun to do. I will have to do some more research on that as well.

Well since this post is long enough for now, I will do some more posts with more specific information when I do some more research on each of these things, but I am very glad to have some good ideas of places to look for some different ideas of things to try!!

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel