What I wonder, and what is under-depicted in the movies, is the kind of needlework they’re all plying away at constantly, with varying levels of competence and fatigue. I believe they sometimes made little footstool covers, which I imagine to be of this kind of work (I don’t really know how this cushion was created or when--it came from Scott's Mom.) I think there’s also some netting that happens, which I imagine to be a sort of tatting or lace creation. I would like to know. Do you?I don’t think quilting is ever referred to, though Jane and her sister Cassandra created this beauty, which would have been absolutely painful to complete by hand. Can’t imagine it. If you want to make your own, there are directions online, but few images of what the ladies would have been doing otherwise.
One Penelope Bryde seems to have published a pamphlet entitled “A Frivolous Distinction: Fashion and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen” which is long out of print, and which I’ll bet is more about fashion (Mrs. Norris’s green baize—weird choice, used for covering billiard tables!) than needlework.I have learned that the Regency lady would definitely have a small pair of gold embroidery scissors shaped like a stork—like mine! And also that pirates (and other sailors) often took up embroidery during long journeys. They had to be proficient with a needle to keep their clothes together, and with little else to do, needlework presented itself.
Any more information from my well-read friends? Or would anyone like to catalog all of the references to needlework in the big six? We could collaborate on a study…
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I don't have anything to add to the discussion but I do love JA.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed about all you know about Jane Austen! Such amazing trivia was not available when I researched her. Interesting. Jean
ReplyDeleteWe definitely live in an age of amazing trivia. It's inspiring and overloading all at once. MC Scott? Aren't there some words for this?
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's middle name is Jane. It can be argued that she's named after my mother. It can also be argued that Ms. Austen had something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteThey are always like "I am no very accomplished painter;" and "when I tell you I play poorly I can assure you it is not mere humility;" but those accomplishments are for girls better off than, say, the Bennetts, right? Because to learn that stuff well -- dancing, too -- you have to have a governess which the Bennetts don't even HAVE.
ReplyDeleteHowever, everyone did needle-work, right? The question is -- when everybody does something all the time, where's the bar for good v. bad? "She is a very accomplished seamstress" I think was a pretty big compliment. So I have little to contribute, information-wise, but I could maybe try to do some research on the train to Sacramento if they have wifi.
I believe that Jane was rather accomplished in needle work. Elizabeth was bored by it, and your right, the lack of governess meant they would have had to have gone out of their way to get really fancy at it. I DON'T think, however, that they were mending socks or what have you, though I bet Charlotte was. I think generally mending was for servants and even sort of middle class ladies stuck to decorative stitching. Jane and Elizabeth were tolerable dancers, I do believe, and tolerable musicians, though no one in the family painted.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the other families? Emma? I think her protege (what's her name?) was employed in the family to do needlework...