Sewing Room Messy, by sewyerown on Flickr.
Next week’s Victorian Parlorcraft Circle is on Saturday, October 6th, from 3-5pm, at the Jefferson Market Library (see our tumblr main page for more details and information).
This month’s “lecture” portion of the Circle is a De-Stash, Share, and Swap Event for sewing and crafting supplies and tools!
Winter is coming and it’s time to clean our stashes, de-clutter sewing rooms, and make plans for evenings of knitting, hand sewing, crafting, and other parlor work projects enjoyed by a winter fireplace!
Whether you are planning out new projects, mending your existing clothing, or finishing up projects from last year (*guilty cough*), take a moment to look through your sewing room and find a few really great raw materials, notions, trim, usable fabric pieces, or sewing/crafting tools that you’ve been hoarding forever and just don’t seem to have a use for. Let’s share our resources in the spirit of community, recycle by re-using, and give our underappreciated or unused items to a more appreciative home.
Rules:
- To participate in the Fall De-Stash, Share and Swap Meet, please bring no more than five good-condition, small-to-medium-sized useful trim, notions, uncut fabric, tools, and other usable sewing items to the Victorian Parlorcraft circle on October 6th, 2012.
- Please only bring items that you intend to freely give to others, or to trade for other items. No selling of any items is permitted.
- Sharing Procedure: If there is a larger-than-usual amount of people at this event, to keep things calm and civilized, we will bring index cards for each item, and some dice. If you would like to take an item, please write your name next to one of the numbered lines on the item’s index card. If there is more than one person wanting an item, we will roll dice to determine who gets it. An exception is for swaps and trades — if there are two or more people offering to trade for a single item, the item’s owner can of course choose the trade they prefer.
- This is an event in the spirit of community sharing, not a “free stuff” event. You must contribute at least one quality, useable item if you want to participate.
- Examples of things to bring: Nice things that you appreciate, but just aren’t getting around to actually using, like thread, sewing, knitting, or crafting tools in good used or new condition, usable lengths of fabric that you think someone else would want to use, yarn for knitting or crochet, good-condition, uncut sewing or knitting patterns, interesting notions or trim that you don’t have a specific use for.
- Things not to bring: anything dirty or in bad condition, things that you suspect no one else will want, things that should really just be thrown out or recycled, half-finished orphaned personal sewing or crafting projects, any type of finished clothing or garments — or anything other than actual raw materials or tools for sewing or crafting (note: an exception might be made for antique or Victorian clothing pieces for study or pattern example - please contact us if you have a Victorian piece to bring), tiny amounts of trim or fabric that aren’t big enough to make into a full project.
The swap portion of the Parlorcraft Circle will begin at 3:00pm and end no later than 3:45pm, so we can clear away the swapped items and start the actual sewing circle portion of our event.
For those not interested in participating in the swap, please still feel free to come to the Circle! Our main focus will still be on sewing and parlorcrafts in good company, and plenty of people will be sewing who are not interested in the swap.
Learn how to sew by hand, using antique techniques from the 19th century!
As a part of the NYC 19th Century Extravaganza festival in New York City, the Victorian Parlorcraft Circle presents a special class on the Art of Victorian Hand Sewing, a hands-on workshop showcasing antique hand-stitching techniques developed before the sewing machine was patented in 1854.
Many of these beautiful and practical techniques have been lost to popular knowledge. Members of the NYNCS Victorian Parlorcraft Circle will demonstrate each stitch, and walk you through techniques used to create beautiful handmade garments and textile art!
Victorian Handsewing Class
Saturday, April 28, 2012
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Greater Astoria Historical Society
Quinn Building, 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor
Long Island City, NY 11106
Buy your ticket here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/236654
Limited to 15 attendees, guests will receive supplies so that they can follow along and take home examples of the stitches. Attendees will also receive written instructions and a bibliography of first-person sources to do further research and learning on their own.
Although not strictly necessary, a beginner’s basic knowledge of sewing will be useful. If you can sew on a button, you have enough skill to follow along!
RSVP will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. This event requires a $7.20 payment to reserve your seat. All proceeds will go to defray the cost of the Extravaganza.
There is also a Facebook event here, if you’d like to share this information with others: https://www.facebook.com/events/258995024189805/
At December’s handwork circle, the featured pattern was knitted garters for socks and stockings!
Here is the pattern we used, with notes, on Google Docs. I hope this translation, and the notes help you if you’re interested in making it yourself!
Here’s a garter, in progress:
