Featured Vintage-style Hand Embroidery

Vintage-style Hand Embroidery
Friday 18 September 2020 10:00am - 4:00pm
St Margaret's House
Teacher: Jen Skedd
Suitable for: All levels. No experience required.
Price: £60
Location: Studio 6.03A St Margaret's House, 151 London Road

Make a vintage-style hand-embroidery hanging inspired by vintage textiles.

Vintage embroidery is a textile art workshop that will show you ways to use Granny’s embroidered table linen,  (or those lace doilies you picked up at the charity shop). You’ll create a lovely hanging to show off treasured family heirlooms or just to recreate fond memories of childhood.

We’ll create a collage, taking inspiration from the classic motifs found on tablecloths, tea trays,  and other hand-embroidered items.  You can also incorporate secondary inspirations such as birds, or botanicals from vintage books or other subjects that interest you, whether it’s dressmaking, recipes or family memories.

You will stitch these source materials together onto your chosen background and decorate it using simple hand embroidery stitches to create a highly-personal piece of work.

Who is this aimed at?

Anyone with an interest in the vintage genre. Or if you’d like to make a ‘memory cloth’ to remind you of a special person or event.

Course arrangements

You will need to bring some pieces of vintage fabrics or table linen which can be used as a background,  You’ll also need a collection of lace, haberdashery, (buttons, lace strips, cards of hooks & eyes, ribbon), magazine cuttings, book pages, old family photos or other personal mementoes to embellish your hanging. I’ll show you how to arrange and fix your components to the background, ready for embellishment with hand embroidery.

Think about telling a story:  you’ll need anything that enhances the story. e.g. ‘Baking day with Mum’.  You’d need a copy of an old, favourite recipe you used as a child.  If it’s got jam stains on, then so much the better. Perhaps vintage adverts for the flour, or a piece of Mum’s baking apron, and a small measuring spoon. You could use an old tea cloth as the background and hang it using a wooden spoon?

Here are a few more suggestions for nostalgic  topics for vintage-style hand embroidery:

a family holiday at the seaside – photos, travel tickets, maps, admission tickets for museums or funfairs, a postcard, pebbles or shells gathered from the beach

afternoon tea at Granny’s  – a piece of tablecloth or tea tray, her cherry cake recipe (handwritten in copperplate of course), a photo of Granny, a jam label. Embellishment may include embroidering the design from a china tea set.

Pinterest is a good resource to find copyright-free vintage images (but please make sure they are copyright-free)

I’ll send you a full note of requirements once you’ve booked, with further suggestions for ideas and resources.

Advance booking is essential at: vintage-embroidery

Enquiries to:  jen@artisanstitch.co.uk or 0773 939 7369

Artisan Stitch holds a Certificate of Excellence and is rated ‘Best sewing classes in Edinburgh’. Jen Skedd is a lifelong sewist, degree-trained textile designer/artist, and a member of the Embroiderers Guild, and Group Twelve textile artists.

Location details

St. Margaret’s House – Sixth Floor
St. Margaret’s House, 151 London Road
Edinburgh EH7 6AE

How to find St Margaret’s House

Directions

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