Aaron in Poplar Cottage (c1630) wearing ‘fustian’ doublet, coarse canvas breeches & madder-dyed knitted woollen hat.
On 1 October Val returned for another session in Gonville Cottage on the Dryad loom. We have now reached the stage where two thirds of 800 heddles have been threaded. It has taken Val three full days to reach this stage and she reckons it will take at least one more to get the loom operational. We have also required the services of Ted from our ‘Tuesday Gang’ of handymen volunteers to make replacement heddle bars – the originals were badly warped. Whilst working on dressing the Dryad another volunteer was trained to use the Ashford loom where our initial piece of fabric is looking very useable. Visitors to the cottage during the day were suitable impressed by our labours.
The following day the Needlework Group met in Gonville for our monthly meeting. The most important task was to get more of the Tudor men’s clothing cut and underway. Linen shirts were cut for Bernard, Aaron, and Bill – and the latter came in for a fitting for his upper hose – a delicate procedure!
The final pieces of male clothing for Poplar Cottage (c1630) were completed. Judith added her hand-made buttons to the doublet and the frock – a forerunner of the later smock – was also finished. Meanwhile Tina had completed her ‘homework’ of the madder-dyed, handspun wool hand-knitted hat. As usual there were also a few repairs needed and one of our existing Victorian skirts was made to fit a new volunteer by the simple expedient of adding a couple more hooks on the waistband!
Meanwhile our quilters, Norma and Irene, had finished a new patchwork bedspread for one of the children’s beds in Whittaker’s Cottages and it was duly placed in position.
Norma & Irene holding up patchwork quilt.
Whittaker’s Cottages (c1860). In the late c19th & early c20th no. 1 Whittaker’s Cottages was home to Henry & Harriet Filkins & their 8 children.
Historic Clothing Project: Weald & Downland Open Air Museum 