Perfectly Pretty Storage Solutions!

I came across this wonderful quote on Twitter the other day; it sums up not only my aspirations but also my rather messy, cluttered reality:

'I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.' - Freddie Mercury

These beautiful vintage & antique French fabric-covered boxes make eye-catching storage solutions if you are like me and have far too much 'exquisite clutter'! They are yet another way to bring flowers, prettiness and textiles into the home. Some of these will be for sale in my website later today, and hopefully more to come as I go buying again now the Spring is almost upon us.

A rare example of an original Sussex Smock

I have a great interest in peasant garments, work-wear and the clothing of everyday folk. This is an original traditional English Sussex smock made from heavy, rustic linen in a beautiful shade of whiteish ‘putty’. I too come from Sussex, so the local cultural history of such garments fascinates me. It dates to about 1880-1900. Smocks were originally work-wear, most often worn for shepherding. They were commonly worn in Sussex up to the 1920s, but then were only worn for ‘Sunday best’, eg. church, funerals and formal meetings etc.

This smock has simple smocking detail at the neck front and back, on the shoulders and on the cuffs. It has heavy reinforcing patches at points of stress, eg under the arms, at the splits at the sides and pockets. It buttons at the neck front & back and would slip over the head. The buttons are covered in linen and the entire garment is made by hand with wonderful attention to detail.

I can't of course be sure, but my feeling is that this smock was made as a functional work garment rather than mostly for best, as it has been 'built to last' so to speak with all the reinforcement to stress points, and although the smocking is gorgeous, there are only small areas of simple work, unlike some of the more elaborate smocks that have a more 'ceremonial' air to them, if you know what I mean. The smock is currently for sale in my website.

The second photo shows an old Sussex scene taken from the book A Sussex Garland by Tony Wales: 'A nostalgic and lighthearted collection of rhymes, recollections and recipes of the Sussex year'.

The latest exquisite creation from The Old Pretenders

I am very lucky that David & Paul, The Old Pretenders, have allowed me a sneak-preview of their latest English Wooden Doll, who is dressed in early silk that I sourced for them. I have quoted from their previous blog post here, as David can describe the process far better than me:

'Hello everyone: I have been working on a new larger doll for quite a while and her dress for weeks that's just about drove me crazy but sometimes those are the best in the end. It has been quite a difficult doll and even more difficult of a dress, even though it's deceptively simple in design but none the less, extra difficult to make and fit to perfection. I insist on a bodice and stomacher to fit like a second skin on all my dolls. The dress is made out of a piece of the most wonderful 18th century reverse sateen true silk damask fabric I got from England last year or the year before from our good friend Lois. I love this piece of fabric and its one of my all time favourite colours which I had been looking for, for many years. Its that amazing 18th century citron yellow which is seen in a lot of 18th century dresses in museums but nearly impossible to find. Its SO soft and shifty and thin so its very difficult to work with and requires twice as many undergarments to support the dress. Of course the nature of the fabric makes the drape of the dress wonderful and the puddling effect of the fabric in the train I love as well.

Also, being a solid colour, every detail has to be perfect or mistakes would show. You can't hide anything like you can with a patterned fabric.

Everything had to be lined and backed to give some body but its really amazing now that its complete. The stomacher took me days to make but it is constructed like the antiques and I even carved and sanded super thin tapered bones out of bamboo for the stays / boning in the stomach which you can see through it.....'

They will shortly be posting more amazing photos, do visit their blog, The Old Pretenders, it is one of the most fascinating blogs around at the moment if you love textiles and/or dolls.

Please click on the photos for supersized enlargements to really appreciate the detail.

Superb examples of the Art of Fly Tying with metal embroidery threads

Eduard Kovalevskiy is an incredibly talented craftsman practising the age-old art of Fly Tying from his home in Ukraine. I am really pleased that he has chosen to use some of my vintage French gold & silver embroidery threads to embellish his amazing work! Here are a few examples of his glorious creations, miniature works of art with so much thought, skill and creativity going into every detail.

Eduard was 2010 U. S. Open Fly Tying Contest winner (Freestyle Fully Dressed and Reader's Choice categories) and second in 2010 World Tuscany Open Fly Tying Competition (Salmon Fly Fully Dressed category).

People like Eduard are keeping traditional skills alive while adding their own individual creative flair to the genre. I especially admire Eduard's dynamic use of colour and the way the tiny feathers are layered. Wonderful stuff!
Please click on each photo to see the detail in the supersized pictures.

19th century Elegance, new treasures listed on my new website today

These beautiful textiles speak for themselves, wonderful pieces from the 19th century, from France & England, please visit my website for more details, thank you!

2 different versions of Les Savoyardes, toile de Bordeaux c1790

I have come across at least two slightly different versions of this late 18thc toile, there were no hard & fast copyright laws at the time so popular designs were very commonly 'borrowed' by different manufacturers. Also, designers often worked for a few different factories at the same time. I am not sure which here is the earliest, one is very slightly cruder than the other - the paler design at the top of the comparison photos - but they are about the same size and more or less the same composition, so either a refinement by the same designer or an almost exact copy from a rival.

The last two photos refer to the book: Antique French Textiles for Designers by J K Laval for a reference to the toile, it looks like the slightly cruder design in the photo. I have had other toiles from Bordeaux that look as though they were designed by the same artist as the slightly darker, more sophisticated toile, the cruder one reminds me of an artistic style more common in toiles de Rouen, but who knows!