The making of George's Smock

This piece has been made in response to one of the great characters in Tyneham.  George Richards lived in a run-down cottage on the north side of the village, he was the last person in Tyneham to wear a smock, all his life he had been a farm labourer and is remembered as a very old man tending to the turnips in the fields.

You could tell a person’s trade by his smock.  If you were a shepherd you would have a crook embroidered but George’s smock was different; his had flowers and leaves and it often was a conversation piece as no one knew where it came from.

This smock has been a labour of love for me.  It has taken almost 100 hours from start to finish but despite having to teach myself how to follow a pattern and smock something I’ve never done before I’ve really enjoyed seeing it progress.  This craft is a dying trade and there aren’t many people making them now and I can see why.  When people only had each other for company it seems a lovely way to while away the hours.

I have hand stitched everything apart from the assembly of the garment which I did on my sewing machine.  The stitches, both the smocking and embroidery are traditional and used during the time George would’ve owned his smock.

Measuring the fabric - old bed sheets

Trying to follow the pattern

 Smocking Dots

 The long task of joining the dots

The first pull.......

 ........smocking is addictive

the top of the sleeves.....

 .....and the bottom

 The back of the smock

It looks like I measured right.

 Detail of the front and back

 The embroidered panels from left to right, collars, yokes and cuffs, showing leaves and flowers

Yoke detail in chain stitch

 Hours of work

 Assembling the smock........11 hours later........

 Almost finished........

A dress for Phyllis

This piece is one of three that will hang on an old washing line in the Laundry House which still has a copper boiler.  Phyllis is the name of the daughter of the couple who lived and worked in The Post Office, but the name also means green leaves, foliage….which I thought was quite fitting.

I’ve stitched dried ivy leaves and some keys that belonged to a luggage trunk from the 1940’s….the tags that came with these shows the inventory for winter and summer clothes.  I wonder what happened to the trunk and the contents.  I would like to add more to this piece perhaps embroidering keys and other items on to give it a more textural feel.

Dress detail

In addition to the dress I have made an aged handkerchief to hang next to the dress

Tear

tears - A profusion of this liquid spilling from the eyes and wetting the cheeks, especially as an expression of emotion.

v. tore, torn, tearing, tears.

v.tr.

To pull apart or into pieces by force; rend.

To make (an opening) by ripping

To separate forcefully; wrench

To divide or disrupt

The Gardener's Cottage

In amongst the ruins of the roofless properties nature has taken over.  Small plants grow up high making a home in the abandoned cottages.  I have created a number of different pieces mainly to go into the Gardeners Cottage including knitted leaves which will be placed among real plants and embroidered lichen which will be attached to branches.

This is another piece I am currently working on which is called ‘No Welcome Home’.  During my visits to Tyneham I have collected wood and branches that have fallen around the cottages.  I have used a band saw to cut these into small buttons which I will stitch onto cloth. This will then form a rug which I will put in front of one of the old fireplaces in the cottage.

The Old Needlecase

I have read many accounts of the villagers who lived in Tyneham and one lady who stands out is Helen Taylor, she worked for many years as a seamstress for the Manor House in Tyneham.  On the day the village had to be evacuated Helen pinned a note to the church door.

It read:

‘’Please treat the church and houses with care. We have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly’.

This needle case is from an old sewing box.  The needles have aged and rusted it, hand-made it once belonged to someone alongside other pieces in the box that I bought.  When things like this end up in a sale it is sad to think they are not worth anything anymore.

I have decided to use it as an embroidered piece for my exhibition, so that the owner can be thought of through the memory of Tyneham.  I have started to stitch the message that Helen left at the church.

Disperse dye, heatpressed onto torn polyester

Stitching Helen's message

Image of what the needlecase would like like on the windowsill of the Seamstresses Cottage

All the small things....

In the derelict cottages at Tyneham nature has moved in.  Leaves blow and swirl in the breeze, entering through open doors, settling in unused corners.  Dry and representing all the colours of Autumn, I want some of my work to reflect this change so I began to stitch nature.  I don't want obvious pieces in all of the properties, some I would like the viewer to notice only as they take a closer look.  A reminder perhaps of how delicate life is.

Lichen on a twig collected from the wood at Tyneham

I have used free embroidery to recreate the lichen on my sewing machine and finished off sewing by hand

Using different materials

 Dried fern and machine embroidered sample

Free embroidered ivy leaf stitched onto hand made paper

Stitched onto ivy

 with burnt silk

 Leaves with copper foiling stitched onto hand made paper

 Silk smocked

Trapped leaves and lace in plastic wallet and melted with an iron

A visit to the Antiques Emporium, Dorchester

Well what better way to spend a Sunday morning than having a look around the new Antiques Emporium in Dorchester......I found this lovely sewing box full of lovely bits and bobs that will keep me amused for hours.....

 No need to throw away holey tights

Finding these lovely bits has given me lots of inspiration for my Tyneham project, especially the Seamstresses House.....