PatchworkPatchwork has been around for a long time. It can be one of the most beautiful artistic endeavors a needleworker can do. The need for precise positioning as well as accurate cutting and agreeable color combinations is as important today as it was for Victorian ladies who loved this type of needlecraft.Below is information that was authored by S.F.A. Caulfeild and Blanche C. Saward in 1887. I have inserted subheadings, etc. to make this easier to read and web friendly. If you have done any of this type of work, I think you will see that some things don’t seem to change at all whereas others (thank goodness) do. If you have not done any, you will still find it interesting how Victorian ladies were able to complete such wonderful patchwork items. What is Patchwork?Its manipulation requires both patience and neatness, and also calls into play both the reasoning and artistic faculties, as the designs chiefly depend for their beauty upon the taste displayed in the arrangement and selection of the shades of colour used to produce them. Patchwork originally only aimed at joining together any kinds of materials in the shapes they happened to have retained, so that, when arranged, a flat surface was produced; but, at the present time, much more is required from the worker, and the pieces used are selected from the same make of materials, though of varied colours, and are cut into one or several set shapes and sizes, and put together so as to make a design by fitting into each other, both as to shape and shades, and this design is reproduced over the whole area of the work. The designs so worked out are necessarily geometrical, as it is essential that they should reply to fixed and accurate measurements, and the figures selected are the angles formed by squares, diamonds, and hexagons, in preference to the curved lines formed by circles and ovals, as the joining together of ovals and rounds in perfectly correct patterns is much more difficult to accomplish than when points are fitted into angles, as is done with the first-named figures. Uses of PatchworkPatchwork is used for cushions, hand-screens, fire-screens, glove and handkerchief cases, and pincushions; cloth Patchwork for carriage rugs, couvrepieds, and poor people’s quilts; cretonne, twill, and chintz for couvrepieds, curtains, quilts, and blinds. These larger articles require a greater amount of material than can be collected from private sources, but large silk mercers and linen drapers sell bundles of pieces by the pound. The working out of the design, and the manner of making up the patches, are the same, whatever the material or size of the article, the difference being made in the size of the patches used, they being increased or decreased for the occasion. The great essential is that every piece should be cut with perfect uniformity, and the use of a thin plate of tin, cut to the size required, is therefore recommended; the other requisites are old envelopes and letters, or other stiff pieces of writing paper, the patches, and sewing silk or cotton matching the patches in colour, with which to sew them together. Manner of WorkingPatchwork PatternsReturn to top of Patchwork page. Return to Home page. |
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