About Weldon's Practical Needlework

From Interweave Press:

About 1885, Weldon’s began publishing a series of fourteen-page monthly newsletters, available by subscription, each title featuring patterns and instructions for projects using a single technique.

About 1888, the company began to publish Weldon’s Practical Needlework, each volume of which consisted of twelve issues (one year) of several newsletters bound together with a cloth cover.

Each volume contains hundreds of projects, illustrations, information on little-known techniques, glimpses of fashion as it was at the turn of the twentieth century, and brief histories of needlework. Other techniques treated include making objects from crinkled paper, tatting, netting, beading, patchwork, crewelwork, appliqué, cross-stitch, canvaswork, ivory embroidery, torchon lace, and much more.

From 1999 through 2005, Interweave published facsimiles of the first twelve volumes of Weldon’s Practical Needlework.

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Process


Just to give you an idea of how challenging it can be to translate written instructions into charted form, the above is my 5th revision of the lace border I'm currently working on.  You can believe there was a bit of cursing and project tossing right about this point.

I finally got the chart correct about Revision #7 and I'm nearly finished with the border.  It's a very elegant wide edging with both a "lozenge" lace pattern and a raised leaf pattern.  Should have a picture to show you soon.

I'm contemplating putting together a collection of about 10 of these Weldon's lace edgings, all charted (correctly!) and available as an e-book for a small fee.  Will keep you posted on that project.
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3 comments:

  1. SarahsheepSeptember 18, 2012 at 3:00 AM

    Put me down for a copy. I'm enjoying seeing what you are up to - good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Momma LynneSeptember 18, 2012 at 5:51 AM

    We are out here cheering you on. The lace book sounds like a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AliJuly 18, 2018 at 10:54 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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