Today’s Heart filled post flashes back to my 2020 Community Cast Series with a video on how to make a favorite pin cushion from An American Girl’s Book.
Materials:
My hearts from the video:
The original directions:
Guide for your triangles:
In high school we learned to make heart shaped paper baskets by weaving two rounded rectangles together. They were a fun little craft that played with geometry. Some time later, I used the same principle with wool to make woven heart ornaments. The internet now tells me these woven paper heart baskets have Danish origins.
While reading The Girl’s Own Toy-Maker, 1860, I saw this illustration (top right) and couldn’t help but notice the similar construction. This book marker is made by weaving two folded rectangles together. The ends of these rectangles are cut with notches or angles rather than a curve. The pocket created slides over the corner of a page. If the book marker was rotated point down, I still see a heart.
Marna found this pen wiper (right) from eleven years later Peterson’s Magazines. The shape is very much that of the paper baskets from high school. This time the wove heart is made of red and black leather, then filled with leaves of double muslin.
You need 2 pieces of paper in different colors. Standard printer weight or scrapbook paper work well. Firmer paper is harder to weave. Lighter, delicate paper tears while weaving. Two 8.5×11 sheets of paper can make 4 hearts by dividing each sheet into 4 pieces 8.5″x2.75″.
Fold each piece in half length wise. Round the ends as such:
Take one of each piece folded.
Lay them together, on top or inside each other. Cut strips up from the fold about 2.75″. Cutting a smidgen too far works better than too short.
Starting with the inner most strips, weave them in and out of each other. Note, this is weaving them as loops not just as folded strips.
Continue weaving the loops until finished. Tuck in your book.
Look what a friend found! This exca ple has an 1867 date. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1284976805/antique-woven-paper-heart-friendship
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A little heart filled fun will fill these next two weeks of February. I will share a speckling of posts with a heart theme.
This heart frame is one of my sweetest finds of 2022. It was tucked in a bowl of the corner of a local antique shop changing hands. Luckily, I saw it out of the corner of my eye from many feet away. Time has worn away the silk on oneside, revealing the construction techniques beneath.
It is made of two layers of pasteboard. The back is covered in dark blue velvet. The front is covered in off-white silk taffeta that has disintegrated.
The heart is 3 1/8″ tall and about the same wide. The 1″×3/4″ opening for the tintype photo sits about an inch above the point of the heart.
The threads pulling the silk and velvet around the pasteboard can be seen through the photo opening as the photo has slipped.
The whole is bound with a bright golden yellow embroidery floss, likely silk, in a blanket stitch.
At the top of the heart is a red ribbon hanging loop and bow. The ribbon is a silk grosgrain with picot edge. At the bottom is a gold silk pom hanging from cord.
I recreated this heart frame from materials on hand using Fanciful Utility techniques. I think they came out quite darling.
You can create one for yourself using your favorite FanU techniques. Cut two hearts, approximately 3″ tall and wide. Of course, you can make yours a little larger or smaller. Cut a window a smidge smaller than the size of your photo in the center. Cover one heart with velvet. Cover the other heart with silk. Cut an X from corner to corner inside the photo window. Fold the triangles created to the inside and paste down. Secure the photo to the back heart. Sandwich the hearts together and whip stitch the edge. (I could see beadwork added to this edge looking pretty.)
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I was excited to come home to this particular box waiting for me.
Flipping through after the video, page 37 stopped me in my tracks, mouth wide open. I look forward to spending a lot of time with this book when work isn’t so busy.
Dawn Cook Ronningen’s Sewing Rolls, Needle Rolls and Huswifs: 150 Year’s of History and Tradition is available directly from the author in her Etsy shop.
If you are interested in making your own sewing case, I selfishly recommend my own Fanciful Utility: Victorian Sewing Cases and Needle-books available directly through the publisher, ESC Publishing.
Paralleling my Millinery Monday posts, I am going to try to share a regular series of Fancy Work Friday posts this year. I will confess I do not have as solid of a plan for this series of posts. But, I figure I should start in the beginning 🤔 sort of…..
My fascination with fancy work began with the release of my book Fanciful Utility: Victorian Sewing Cases & Needle Books in 2012. FanU, as I and a few others affectionately call it, is packed full of projects for making an assortment Victorian era sewing cases, work pockets, huswifes, and needle books using. The goal of FanU was to share the beauty of handmade, 19th-century sewing accessories while making the period techniques for recreating them accessible.
In opening the door that was FanU, I entered the realm of making small items that were both functional and fanciful, utilitarian and whimsical, the vast majority of which could be made from bits and pieces, odds and ends. I was captivated.
I draw from both extant surviving examples and written literature. The abundance of illustrations and directions for ladies’ fancy work, workpockets, pin cushions, pin keeps, needle-books, etc. in the pages of magazines and books are a veritable rabbit hole, labyrinth, and candy store combined. Once entered….. well….. here we are over a decade later, and I continue to find bits of fancy work I absolutely must make.
I find my focus shifts from year to year, venturing from sewing cases to pin cushions to pen wipes to book novelties to doll novelties to animalia…. Interests steered and derailed by stumbling across a mesmerizing original or the coolest “new” illustration shared by a friend.
There are two factors for finding a comfortable fit: Size and shape.
Size
The difference in wear or placement means we measure for a mid-nineteenth century had differently than we do for a twentieth or twenty-first century hat. The modern hat is measured just above the eyebrow. (This is also where many of us measure for bonnets. We want to keep you on your toes.) For mid-nineteenth century, we measure higher, at the hair line. In this illustration, we can see the difference between where the two measurements would be.
These higher, hairline measurements are often smaller than those taken at the eyebrow. A hat worn at this point can be slightly smaller to slightly larger for comfort. So, add and subtract an inch to your hairline measure.
For example: I am 22.5″ around at my eyebrows and 21.5″ at my hairline. The vast land of the internet tells me that the average woman’s head measures 22.5″ to 22 5/8″ around at the modern measuring point. So, I am about average. I comfortably wear a mid-nineteenth century hat that is 19.5″ to 21.5″
Here is my head with the tape showing where to measure. This is where I wear most CW era hats. This is the circumference of my head. My measurement is 21 1/2″. (Note: this is a full inch smaller than the modern measurement take lower.)
General guidelines I use:
Shape
It is helpful to know whether your head is more round or more oval.When looking from above, some people have rounder heads while other have more oval heads. I have an average oval head. Very round hats don’t work for me without adding to the lining.
Hat blocks can be more round or more oval with the same circumference. To illustrate: Both of these shapes to the right can have a circumference of 22.5″. Yet, the same hat would fit each head differently.
Easing into 2023, I have developed a few goals for the coming year. While each is a goal with 6 challenges, the true goal may be to find the right balance as the year progresses. This year, I want to:
As part of these goals, I plan to provide more consistent and balanced content on my blogs and Patreon. This will include posts on the topics readers have responded they want: millinery, fancy work, events & interpretation, and contextual writing. I am going to use theme days to help remind myself to post:
I scheduled much of the year’s foundation of Millinery Monday posts. I will be working up to more Fancy Work Friday posts. I am considering reserving new shop posts for the weekend.i haven’t decided yet.
I don’t have much of a project list developed yet for the year. What I have so far:
Not too many local events have been announced with dates yet. I am currently restricted by how far my aging car will go. I am hoping this year will include GCVM events of Opening Weekend, Mother’s Day, the Antique Show, Chocolate Weekend, Independence Day, and a few others, plus maybe some other small local events.
I would also like to add a couple workshops or discussions/presentations. Those responding to my survey showed a strong interest in virtual programs and in-person programs. I need to develop these on the logistical end.
As with this type of post, I may come back and add to it as new ideas develop. Thank you for your continued support.
I decided to do 22 photos to reflect on 2022. These highlight my favorites, projects I’m proud of, and moments of good.
This was a healing year for me, healing to my soul and heart as well as body. I still have rough moments or days, but those are fewer and further between.
Thank you all for your support over the past year. As difficult as the year was in many ways, I feel like I was able to accomplish several things , both artistically and scholarly.
Please help me plan for the year ahead by taking my quick survey:
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 