The Prettiest textiles for Spring decorating & sewing projects

Nothing brings a fresh Spring or early Summer ambience into a room like palest pastel and ice-cream coloured antique and vintage textiles, particularly florals and toiles. Even the smallest scrap can be used for something; a lavender bag or shelf trim, a patchwork cushion or cottage-style window pelmet, or a delicately faded floral tablecloth or throw to brighten and freshen a room in an instant.

All the above lovely fabrics & textiles are for sale (or already sold) in my ebay shop & website this week, but please contact me via my website (web address top right) if you would like a patchwork/project pack custom made for your requirements, prices are usually around £22.00 for florals or tickings, £33.00 for vintage toiles or £44.00 (dependant on size of pack) for early antique toiles when available, mixed packs can always be made up for your too!

www.morgaine-le-fay.co.uk

Passementerie

A few years ago I was delighted to discover the French word for decorative textile trims & braids: Passementerie. Such a wonderful word for such beautiful creations, Wikipedia defines the word as: Passementerie or Passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, coloured silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings.

While I don't know very much about their history and construction techniques, I really like these trims, tassels and braids, and will be doing some research into them when I can find the time.

Here are a few antique French examples, I love the one made up of wooden drops covered in woven silk with a chenille tuft at the end, this has been made somewhere about 1900 in a Louis Phillipe style c1830. I like the orange silk fringe with the fancy gimp along the top, this is a Napoleon III trim dating to about 1860, as is the multi-coloured tassel trim made from wool. The woven silk bands are simple but lovely, the bottom one is made up like a ribbon, the one in the middle of the bottom picture is made up like a braid.

www.morgaine-le-fay.co.uk

A Simple Early 19th Century French Wedding

Tomorrow's Royal Wedding coincided with the purchase of this lovely early 19th century French printed toile de Rouen which arrive in the post today.

It depicts a lovely village wedding, starting with the introduction of the young man to his sweetheart's family. The couple exchange vows inside the church, before parading joyfully out of the church to the merry tune of the Fiddle. Next we see them and their family enjoying their delicious wedding banquet. Finally, we see into the future as the happy couple play with their little daughter.

It is a very charming panel despite being quite faded. The definition of the print isn't as good as it could be, this tended to happen when the engraved metal plates used for printing began to wear down after too much use, leaving a less distinct pattern. This sometimes allowed the dye to flood out a little too much, further increasing the lack of definition. However, I quite like the effect, it softens all the outlines, slightly blurring the detail, adding to the shabby chic charm of the design in this case.

www.morgaine-le-fay.co.uk

17th century bobbin laces

Here are 3 pieces of very early 17th century linen bobbin lace ; 2 pieces of Italian-style baroque lace, and a rather unusual piece of 'pinless' lace most likely from Flanders. This rather clunky looking lace puzzled me and I was unable to identify it at all, so I had it appraised by an American lace expert: 'The pinless laces are called that because they use pins only at the very edges of the lace, not at every intersection of the interior of the lace. They tend to be very early forms and are scattered across Flanders, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden and Russia. Very early Flanders has this type of squared solid clothwork, and a variety of grounds are used, such as the most common trademark ground, the 5 dice, Kat stitch ground AKA Turnhout ground/ Pt d Paris ground, and round ground as found in old Valenciennes.'

The other two floral laces are either Flemish of Milanese as far as I can tell, the wider, finer lace I think may be Milanese while the narrower less delicate lace is probably Flemish - I need to do a bit more research in to techniques before I can be more positive! I find early laces incredibly fascinating in hteir beauty, complexity and variety. I especially admire the hardiness of the linen upholstery laces of this period as they can still be found in wonderful condition due to the hard wearing nature of flax.

Please click and double click on the photos for supersized and enlarged pictures showing the incredible detail of these laces.

www.morgaine-le-fay.co.uk