COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG COSTUME DESIGN CENTER SEWING CLASS
A few years ago, I attended nine months of historic sewing classes offered by the Colonial Williamsburg Costume Design Center, which began at the very same time I was beginning my colonial historical sewing journey.
I learned a prodigious amount of information from these wonderful instructors, which has helped me enormously as I’ve attempted historical sewing for my kids and me.
One of the classes focused on workbags, which seems to be such a common name for a lovely creation.
However, these little silk wonders often contained hand work complete with a few sewing accoutrements that a fine lady took out when she had time to sit and showcase her lovely craft, such as embroidery or knotting (another class I took).
Our class was so wonderfully packed with information and numerous projects, about pockets and market wallets, as well as workbags, that none of my projects were completed.
However, the intent of the class was not to complete projects, but to give us all the background and historical and how-to information and practice needed to easily complete the project at home.
RESEARCHING EMBROIDERY
One of the aspects of the class was to show us extant images on-line and in books, to show us how to conduct our own research when we leave the class!
As a result, I’ve been researching hand embroidery, but my busy days with homeschooling and sewing historical clothing to wear, I never settled down to draft an appropriate design for my workbag.
FOR NOW, ROCOCO TRIM AND SATIN RIBBON FLOWERS
Now that I have a silk gown nearly finished, one quiet afternoon I finished my workbag with rococo trim, which is a tape made from strips of rectangles that are looped.
Replicating many extant workbags that we were shown in class, I hand sewed that into a circle pattern, which I finished off with silk ribbon flowers, which I bought, since I’m pouring hours into fitting and hand sewing my lavender stays and silk slate blue gown, both from Burnley and Trowbridge workshops last year.
Some of the extant workbags that we were shown have a flower at the end of the ties, so I decided to use two of my ribbon flowers for that, while the other four I sewed in a symmetrical fashion.
Although I’ve never seen ribbon flowers used on a workbag in this way, the 18th century prized symmetrical looks, so I used that type of patterning instead of a random, scattered look.
Completely hand stitched, the fashion fabric for my workbag is a greenish silk, from the CDC class.
Meanwhile the rococo trim is light pink flowers with light green leaves, and the silk ribbon flowers are of creamy satin with green satin leaves.
Lining the inside is a creamy satin fabric, also from my class.
