Day Two

As predicted, I was cleaning the house up until the time I had to shower and cook dinner for my friend. (She's been to our house many times, but this time she said, "Your house looks like a magazine shoot." And I thought, "That's because it's clean!" I guess it's always a little cluttered when she comes over.) After she left, I walked the dog, and didn't even get to take out the stitches I did in error (the right side of Santa's sweater). There are five different shades of grey in this design, but for some reason, there were six in the kit! Seriously, people, I don't need any extra confusion when it comes to sorting kit floss!

Mill Hill Greenland Santa

I was so delighted by that article that I found about Christmas and New Year's in Germany and France, that I have yet another excerpt. (It was long, I haven't bumped up against Fair Use laws yet.) I kind of love how this analysis sucks the romance out of gift giving. (Does that make me Scrooge or the Grinch?)

As New Year's day approaches, every article, including bonbons, increases in price, if not in value; but would you suppose it, gentle reader, nearly all of them may, after that day, be had at half price--and some of those that were actually sold for a third of their cost--at some second hand shop, where they have been disposed of for cash. To think that you have made a present to a lady which she has changed for something more agreeable to her taste, or for ready money to be afterwards expended at the ball or the opera! The thought is absolutely shocking, entirely destitute of romance--and yet how perfectly simple and natural, after a man is accustomed to the uses of this world! Mark, I do not say that there is a single lady in Paris that would dispose of all her New Year's presents. I have no doubt, but that she will keep some of them; but what is she to do with the rubbish--the tokens of fealty and not of affection? I have always disliked this ridiculous custom of making indiscriminate presents to ladies. It's like paying attention to the whole sex, which is not flattering to any woman, who prides herself (and what woman does not?) on her particular attractions. Besides, it is a hard thing for a man who has many female acquaintances, to provide presents for them all, and, at the same time, to suit their different tastes, not to speak of the expense which this attempt to make one's self agreeable entails on every male inhabitant of France, who is not absolutely a bore. And what does he get for it? A few hundred kisses--not by one and the same lady, (that would indeed be quite a different thing,) but by as many ladies as he has made presents to, and kisses too, that are not voluntarily bestowed, but merely snatched from them, for the most part in presence of witnesses! Was there ever anything so shallow and insipid?
"Christmas and New Year in France and Germany," Francis J. Grund. Godeys' Magazine and Lady's Book. January 1848; 36 p 8

New Year's Day Flashback

Yesterday, I started--and finished!--my first project for Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, in memory of our friend Debbie. That makes two finishes yesterday! This is Bee Keeper, a freebie from Drawn Thread. Indeed it is very small, but they say you should "start as you mean to go on" and I do want to finish more things this year, so I thought it couldn't hurt to start small!

I started another new project, but I am going to keep working on it today since we have a friend coming over for dinner and I've been cleaning all day. (Must call cleaners!) I'll show you that new start tomorrow.

 I did promise also to share with you some interesting nineteenth century ideas about the new year. We were perhaps wondering where all the presents were on Christmas...but we find them instead on New Year's Day.

On New Year's Day not only the children, but ladies, young and old, receive presents, not only from their relatives and friends, but from all their acquaintances. And these presents are not merely fanciful trifles, but articles proportioned to the wealth, refinement and taste of the persons who receive them. They vary from Brussels' lace and Cashmere shawls to a simple but elegant bonbonniere--a beautiful paper box, filled with sugar plums. "That is a matter of a few cents," think some of my readers; but they are mistaken. They cannot buy a decent thing of the kind under a Napoleon--and some costs as high as a hundred francs... 

The day is nevertheless a great gala, and serves to rekindle many a feeling that lay dormant during the year, and would have died entirely but for their resurrection le jour de l'an. Friends and acquaintances remember each other, and shake hands; women are pleased to look with complaisance on those who make them presents and men are made aware, (if they forgot it during the year,) that women are dear creatures, who expect to be made happy at our hands...The French, like all southern people, are eminently a people of the senses; their impressions are vivid, and received directly from nature or the things that immediately surround them, without passing through the magnifying lens of the imagination. The northern people of Europe may keep Christmas eve, and feast the living and the dead; the French have "a happy New Year." They express their wishes to each other in direct language, shake hands, kiss, embrace, and make merry for the rest of the evening.  "Christmas and New Year in France and Germany," Francis J. Grund. Godeys' Magazine and Lady's Book. January 1848; 36 p 8

Happy Holidays the Flashback Edition

It will come as no surprise like many others this past little while I have been super busy--you may have figured it when I complained about needing a wife or when I disappeared for nine days. Well, one of the things that didn't get done this year was procuring and decorating the Christmas tree. So on Christmas morning, I piled the gifts where the tree would have gone and the dude and I told little Bible-style stories about the importance of intellectual pursuits like chess. (The vast majority of our gifts were received elsewhere, where they had managed to decorate.)

Many people can tell you that the tradition of the Christmas tree gained popularity in the nineteenth century, but when I stopped looking for Christmas stories in November and December's issues of Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, I started finding interesting items about Christmas.

---

One of the prettiest superstitions I know, is that of children in Germany, and the whole north of Europe on Christmas-day. They are then taught to believe that our Saviour, on the anniversary of his birth, travels all  over the world to visit children that love him and their parents, to bestow upon them some token of his affection. 'Blessed are the little ones,' he said; and there is not a little heart in Germany which does not, on that day, feel the truth of it in its own childish manners. From Whitsunday to Christmas the days are counted with great care, and as the nights grow longer, the approach of the holidays becomes the subject of children's conversation. At last snow begins to cover the ground, and it is now certain that the great day is near at hand. The eve preceding the festival every child is on its best behavior, in breathless expectation of the great event, and the favors that are to be shown it by Him who loved 'the little ones.' Towards dark the family are all united at the thanksgiving dinner--the tapers burn with more than usual lustre...After dinner the children, young and old--though the latter may be let into the secret, after having pledged themselves to keep it religiously--are conducted into a darkened room where they are left long enough to think and guess at the gifts which await them. At last the door opens, and father and mother announce 'that the little infant Jesus has paid them a visit, and left them tokens of His love.' They are then conducted into another room, where the Christmas tree is dressed for their reception. It is a large evergreen with many branches, fantastically lit up with tapers and lamps, with its branches gilt or silvered over, as in the fairy tales, and suspended from them are the beautiful presents, all inscribed with the names of the donees.
"Christmas and New Year in France and Germany," Francis J. Grund. Godeys' Magazine and Lady's Book. January 1848; 36 p 6-7.

Interesting that early on Jesus was the gift bringer. Santa Claus was known at this time, in America from as early as 1773, although he became more of the guy we know (sleigh, fat and jolly) in the nineteenth century. Although I wonder...I know some people don't believe in "lying" to their children about where gifts come from, how much worse for parents to put out presents on behalf of Jesus instead of Santa?

In a week or so, I'll have more interesting things about gift giving during the holiday period--and yes, I've chosen those words carefully.

The Season of Giving

Phoro: Jane M. Sawyer via Morgue File

Today, I turned to the January 1845 issue of Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book and found an article appropriate to the holiday season. "Gifts used to be pleasant things once; in the simpler days of this world's history, when men wore the faces and hearts God gave them and not faces and hearts of stone or ice" begins this treatise on how best to give and receive true gifts (those "spontaneous offerings from heart to heart," as opposed to gifts used as payment or procurement). This is truly a blog-worthy rant on gifts, but I can only share bits with you, so I have chosen:

Some people are much disappointed and quite indignant if "presents" do not buy affections, respect, deference, conformity, and other things that we all like. But this expectation is altogether unreasonable. Even children are seldom attached by gifts*. Their pleasure in the gift seldom refers to the giver. "Love for love" is the only barter, and we can all see when "presents" mean love. The very look--the tone of voice, may change the whole aspect of the thing. Indeed looks and tones are very important in these matters. The manner may be awkward--the eye averted--the voice constrained--the heart may shine through all and sanctify the offering. In either case, we care more for the spirit than for the action.   "Hints for an Essay on Presents" by the author of a "New Home." Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book Jan 1845; 30, 28.

So remember this season of holiday exchanges, you won't buy anyone's love when you go to the store, so make each gift a "spontaneous offering from heart to heart." We can dream, right?

I also enjoyed this article for the hint of first year writing student in the opening sentence: "Back in the day" we used to know how to give gifts. Nowadays we're so world-weary and cynical, gift-giving is a much more difficult form of exchange. Seriously, I used to get essays all the time: "since the beginning of time, man has had a love affair with the car (or other historical inaccuracy)" or "In the 1950s, women knew how to keep a clean house; nowadays children are dying from germs they pick up at home." Some days I can appreciate where I am now and where I came from. A true gift.

Flashback: Fashion

I have heard from some commenters that you enjoy these flashbacks, and I am glad because I love reading the magazines to find a delightful tidbit.

Today's article begins by stressing the importance of dress not only for a woman but also for how her dress (and, later in the article, toilet) reflect on her husband, and in fact the importance of dress for landing such a one. In fact they go so far as to compare it to phrenology of the body. I mention this mostly because I love the nineteenth century for believing in phrenology. A lost art (a psuedoscience), phrenologists tried to ascribe meaning to the lumps and bumps of the head with regards to what was going on inside the head. Head size and other measurements would indicate intelligence, personality, tendencies, and character. And apparently clothes did the same for women. The article considers different aspects of women's contemporary dress--gowns, skirts, flounces, hats, and the black scarf:

The plain black scarf is come of too graceful a parentage--namely, from the Spanish and Flemish mantilla--not to constitute one of the best features of the present costume. It serves to join the two parts of the figure together, enclosing the back and shoulders in a firm, defined outline of their own, and flowing down graceful in front, or on each side, to mix with that of the skirt. The man must be a monster who could be impertinent to a woman in any dress, but especially to a woman in a black scarf. It carries an air of self-respect with it which is in itself a protection. A woman thus attired glides on her way like a small close-reefed vessel--tight and trim--seeking no encounter but prepared for one. Much, however, depends upon the wearing--indeed, no article of dress is such a revealer of the wearer's character. Some women will drag it tight up their shoulders, and stick out their elbows (which ought not to be known to exist) in defiance at you--beneath. Such are of the  independent class we described with strong sectarian opinions. Others let it hang loose and listless, like an idle sail, losing all the beauty of the outline, both moral and physical. Such ladies have usually no opinions at all, but none the less a very obstinate will of their own. "Old and New Fashions: Art of Dress," Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book; Nov 1847; 35, p 245.

I worry that I have entirely missed the power of the plain black scarf! Oh, for this kind of empowerment. (Actually, for my dissertation defense I wore a pair of black patent leather slingbacks with a then-fashionable square heel. I called them my power shoes, and I am not kidding they did embue me with some kind of power. [I was in tears after the first question, looked at my shoes, thought, "they can't do this to me while I am wearing my power shoes," and a sudden fierceness came over me.] After that, a handful of women went out and bought special shoes for their defenses. Sometimes, you just have to have something to believe in.)

Although it is not addressed, I believe that a woman who wears the black scarf properly has both the right kind of opinions and knows when and how to express them. Of course!

All right, ladies, elbows in. I'll be back tomorrow.

Flashback Friday: More on Women's Suffrage

I was reading the November 1845 Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, (volume 31 page 223) looking for something to share with you when I came across a Miss Bremer:

Who among our readers does not know and love Frederika Bremer, Sweden's gifted daughter? An intellectual queen, from the cold regions of the north, she has stretched her sceptre, warm with human sympathies, over the civilized world. Talk of the empire of Victoria, of her power--what is it when compared with that of Miss Bremer?

Wow, more important and powerful than Queen Victoria, who ruled about a quarter of the world at that point. Despite my degree in gender studies, I'd never heard of her, and I wondered if we even remember her today.

As it turns out, Wikipedia does. Fredrika Bremer, was a Swedish writer and feminist activist who lived from 1801-1865.

Photo by Gabriel Ehrnst Grundin, Wikimedia 

"She had a large influence on social development in Sweden, especially in feminist issues...Her novel Hertha (1856) raised a debate in the parliament called "The Hertha debate," which contributed to the new law of legal majority for adult unmarried women in Sweden in 1858, and was somewhat of a starting point for the real feminist movement in Sweden. Hertha also raised the debate of higher formal education for women, and in 1861, the University for Women Teachers, was founded by the state after the suggested women's university in Hertha.... At the electoral reforms regarding the right to vote of 1862, she supported the idea to give women the right to vote...and the same year, women of legal majority were granted suffrage in municipal elections in Sweden. The first real women's rights movement in Sweden, the Fredrika Bremer Association founded in 1884, was named after her."

Godey's goes on to report an interview that Bremer had with The Countess of Hahn-Hahn ("one of the most distinguished literary ladies of Germany"). The article concludes:

There have been various reports--how originating no one could tell--that Miss Bremer was intending to visit our country. We feel quite sure, from what we know of her engagements and character, that she has never yet had such a visit even in contemplation. Let us hope that she may do this, but still we have very little reason to expect it. 

As it turns out, Bremer did travel in the US from 1849 to 1851. Although she expected to find a "promised land," she was disappointed, particularly in the institution of slavery.

Some days, I'm not entirely sure that she'd be any less disappointed in the status of women in the US--or indeed the world--today.

It is interesting how much more intellectual women's magazines seemed to be 150 years ago. Of course, these days women can pick up The Economist or The Washington Post or any myriad of political magazines (or indeed read them on the web) but with the exception of Marie Claire I can't think of any American women's magazine today that deals with controversial political issues.

I also wonder how many Swedish activists or politicians Americans are (being) acquainted with these days. We hardly get any international news. Can you imagine if any of the mainstream media focused on breadth--covering stories from around the world--rather than run the same story all the time for 72 hours straight (which seems to be the amount of time the channels will focus on one issue) until it is "resolved." We might actually know something. Okay, I've taken this absolutely delightful discovery and depressed myself. {Sigh.}

Flashback Friday: Buy American

A little patriotism in between Election Day and Veteran's Day. Ladies' Magazine and Literary Gazette seems a little more highbrow, and much more radical. (There are two articles about women in poverty.) Here, they wish for the development of American fashion not only to reject the class structure inherent in fashion but also to provide work for Americans.

---

In no country on earth is such influence so important as in our Republic, because, having no rank or caste to appropriate particular fashions, our whole population is swayed by the reigning mode. Should that happen to be extravagant, the mischievous effects are not confined to the rich who could afford the expense--the poor must be in the fashion. Should it be indelicate, it is not alone adopted by those bod ones who could unashamed bear the exposure, but the young, modest, amiable all must be victims to the false pride of following the fashions. None of these fashions are American. None are invented here to answer any exigence in our affairs or contribute any benefit to our country. In England and France, fashions are frequently adopted to encourage some particular manufactures among them, or to relieve the distresses of tradesmen, who could not otherwise sell their goods. Their ladies of rank and wealth may therefore deem it an act of charity and patriotism to dress extravagantly. And if they do allow double the number of yards necessary to form a becoming dress, it is only because they must purchase the goods or support the manufacturers as paupers. And then the Americans, kind complying souls--will not dare do otherwise than have the full measure of yards, be it twenty or thirty in a gown, that the English ladies prescribe as the standard of fashion! It is likewise a notorious fact that fashions are often invented by their court ladies (our republican creed--that all are born free and equal, will not permit us to talk of high born--and noble born) to conceal some deformity of person, or as the pander to vicious inclinations; and we follow implicitly all their expensive, absurd, and indecent modes. Thus we become corrupted by the follies of other countries, and have not even the poor privilege of being ingeniously extravagant, for surely none will call this slavish imitation an exercise of ingenuity or taste!

 Ladies' Magazine and Literary Gazette, Nov 1830, Vol 3 (11). "The Fashions"

Blog Hop and Haunting Flashback Friday

If you're here for Jo's Halloween Blog Hop, let me apologize for forgetting about you! I'm just coming off a couple of giant projects at work. In fact, I finished one yesterday and one on Wednesday.

You can probably guess from all that busy busi-ness (and my lack of SAL post on Wednesday) that I haven't been stitching much. So this flashback Friday from 2010 is my most favorite Halloween piece, Birds of a Feather's Scared Silly. I did manage to take it out of storage at the beginning of the month and hang it.

From here, you're heading to see Hazel. Good luck!

For those of you who said, hey, it's Friday, I wonder what was going on a hundred or so years ago in women's magazines. I have been looking for some news of Hallowe'ens of long ago, but as with all things this holiday has evolved. The search engines tell me there is nothing of Halloween in the nineteenth century magazines. It was of course, known since the late 1500s. Robert Burns wrote a poem about it in 1786 and in 1864 a book of days referenced "The evening of the 31st of October" as a "night set apart for a universal walking abroad of spirits." But "21 Quick and Easy Costumes to Wear to Work" and Sexy [fill in the blank] Costumes were years in the future.

I did finally find something I found tremendously frightening in Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, October 1846; 33, 187. Ironically it is from the Dead Letter Office; this letter was presented without comment. I do wonder how it was received back then.

I am a great admirer of beauty, therefore she must be pretty. Elegance of manner and good temper are of course indispensable. I would not for the world marry a learned lady, yet I would like her to know enough to follow any conversation I might wish to lead--that is, to know enough to appreciate and respect my acquirements. Science I absolutely prohibit, though I should blush if, like Tom Burns' smiling idiot of a wife, she were to ask in a company, "what became of all the old moons?"

You know I have been a great deal in the gay world, so much that I am sick of it. Public places are my aversion; I wish, then, to marry a young lady who must be so attached to me that she will wish never to pass an evening out. Our own fireside must be our Paradise, for I would give nothing for a wife whose happiness would be found away from her husband. I expect exclusive devotion, a brow ever serene, and a heart full of love always. Money, of course, is desirable, but I would be satisfied with a small portion from a woman very beautiful and very much in love with me.

The soul of romantic passion I require is seldom found but in fresh, unsophisticated hearts; it is a sine qua non, therefore, that she be under twenty. You may at first call this a disparity, but I assure you I shall not be fifty until my next birthday: then I am as young as ever in my feelings, and you have not seen me in my new wig, which really takes ten years from my appearance. If I can find an intelligent, amiable, beautiful, graceful young creature, who will give me her whole heart, and yield a sweet, unwavering compliance to all my moods, all my wishes, I think we will enjoy a domestic bliss to be envied by all the gay and fashionable.

I live in horror that he found such a one. Pleasant dreams and Happy Halloween!

  

 

 

Flashback Friday: Mantle Decor

I've seen on the blogs that a lot of people have been decorating for the season. Of course, the mantel is a focal point for such decorating.As, it was, back in the day:

The frame is of light bamboo here, but any other similar wood can be used. Feathery asparagus or any of one of the hundred and one running vines to be had for the asking in the country, or for a modest outlay in the city, lend themselves joyously to this device. Blossoming berry-vines are lovely in their season, but any ingenious woman can conceive of a score of things which can be used to follow this floral decorated mantel for party, wedding or ball. The only thing to be guarded against is stiffness; let everything look as if it grew on the mantel out of nature's own hand.

"A Prettily Decorated Mantel," The Ladies' Home Journal; Oct 1890; Vol VII., No. 11 page 6

From HGTV "Decorate Your Mantel Year Round"

I guess we haven't given up on this one. Except that fewer houses have mantels now than when they actually used fireplaces to heat the house.

Flashback Friday: Children's Parties

We are getting ready around these parts for a party (and a gala. Yes I'm doing the silent auction again. Yes, I know I said I wouldn't.) So it seems appropriate to turn our attentions to what our forebears thought about such things:

We turn from these to the mental and nerve injuries inflicted on the growing organism [child]. They are certainly not to be disregarded. A perfect storm of excitement rages in the little brain from the moment the invitation has been received, and the affair is talked about in the nursery until after the evening. Sleep is disturbed by dreams, or, in some cases, prevented, by thinking of the occasion, and afterwards the excitement does not subside until days have elapsed, perhaps not before another invitation is received. Not only in the winter, but at all seasons, we think the amusements of young children ought to be simple, unexciting, and as free as possible from the characteristics of the "pleasures" of late years. As a matter of fact, "children's parties" are in no way necessary to the happiness of child life. 

Children's Parties in Winter, The Ladies Home Journal; Nov 1889; Vol VI; No 12, p 9

And you thought all those little girls stitching those samplers were having fun! Adults were really cruel back in the day.

Have a party this weekend! Enjoy it. Even if your kids get a little excited.

Flashback Friday: Crochet

"Crochet-round" by flora - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Quite often we see those who provide crafting instruction--whether knit, crochet, cross-stitch or other--bemoaning the fact that they still need to give beginner instruction in their book or magazine or blog because young women are not being adequately trained in the fine crafts at home.

I find today's flashback entry interesting because it suggests we've always been losing young crafters. Well, maybe not always, but for longer than I suspected.

The above instructions ought to have been given in advance of any of our crochet patterns; but we did not give it, supposing that most young ladies were acquainted with the art; but having been frequently asked for preliminary instructions, we now give them in full.   

"The Work Table: Crochet"
Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book; Jan 1848; Vol 36, pg 62

Check that date! 1848, It's longer than you expected too, isn't it?

In some ways, this reminds me of when I went to Poland to teach ESL (late 90s). One of my duties was to provide afternoon activities twice a week. I asked the director of the program that I'd be working with whether I'd have a classroom of beginners or if I should expect the students to have some needlework experience. "Every young girl in Poland has used a needle," she responded with great conviction. Maybe in the Poland in her imagination! I brought an intermediate project (with needleweaving!) and I had to teach people how to thread a needle. Still, every girl who made it past the first week got to the point where they had done some needleweaving and could finish the project on their own, and one finished the whole thing!

I wonder why we expect the body of knowledge young girls (and boys) learn to remain static?

Flashback Friday: Interior Decorating

May we exhort such of our readers as have no pictures hanging in their rooms, to put one up immediately? We mean in their principal sitting-room--in all their rooms, if possible, but at all events in that one. No matter how costly, or the reverse, provided they see something in it, and it gives them a profitable or pleasant thought. Some may allege that they have "no taste for pictures;" but they have a taste for objects to be found in pictures--for trees, for landscapes, for human beauty, for scenes of life; or if not for all these, yet surely for some one of them; and it is highly useful for the human mind to give itself helps [sic] towards taking an interest in things apart [sic] from its immediate cares or desires. They serve to refresh us for their better conquest or endurance; to render sorrow unselfish; to remind us that we ourselves, or our own personal wishes , are not the only objects in the world; to instruct and elevate us, and put us in a fairer way of realizing the the good opinions which we would all fain entertain of ourselves, and in some measure do; to make us compare notes with other individuals, and with nature at large, and correct our infirmities at their mirror by modesty and reflection--in short, even the admiration of a picture is a kind of religion or additional tie on our consciences, and rebinding of us (for such is the meaning of the word religion) to the greatness and goodness of nature.

"Put Up a Picture in Your Room," Leigh Hunt. Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book; Jan 1848; vol 36, p 54.

WOW! Who knew interior decoration was so important? I'm pretty sure I don't have to exhort you to put up pictures in your homes, although it did take me almost a year to put some up in my office.

This one:

Cape Neddick Light

Flashback Friday: Knitting Muffatees

Knitting has been called the friend of the blind, and is certainly the friend of the aged, as it affords the most easy and graceful employment in which they can be engaged. Then it is a really useful art both for the rich and poor. Knit garments are warmer and more durable than woven. Knitting can be done at times when no other work could be taken up, and during the long winter evenings what a host of useful things can be made by the industrious fingers!--caps, cuffs, comforters, shawls, spencers, stockings, tippets, gloves, mittens. And then what stores of ornamental articles does it afford! What beautiful purses, bags and beadwork will knitting produce! We are sure of the thanks of all ladies, young as well as old, for calling their attention to this useful and elegant branch of female art, and also for the assistance our illustrations will prove. No other periodical attends to these things.

Ladies Work Department--Knitting

Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book Feb 1847; 34, p110.

Photo used by permission of Adrienne Martini, Martini Made

The article goes on to explain the terms used in knitting and gives general tips before providing several patterns for baby's and children's stockings, two muffs and a pair of muffatees. We know the latter today as fingerless mitts. But I demand my friends who knit fingerless mittens start calling them muffatees. Save the muffatees!

Flashback Friday: Portieres

In October 1907, The Ladies Home Journal featured the article "Artistic Designs for Portieres: Which May be Made by the Clever Woman with Needle, Thread and Brush."

A more conventional and usual idea is shown on the left, but it is one capable of very beautiful development if artistically treated. Almost any upholstery fabric could be used for the background, but, of course, it should be plain, and not figured. The dragon-motif may be cut and mounted in applique style, and would be most effective if cut from gold satin. The color of the background fabric must in that case be a dull or quiet one, to give the most artistic effect. (Volume XXIC, Number 11, p49) 

The only copyright free
picture of a portiere I could find.
Wrong period. We'll live.

Of course the first question I had is what the hell is a portiere? A portiere is a fabric hanging used in a doorway in place of a door, or indeed in addition to a door depending on whether the goal was to stop drafts or to act as a door. They were first used in Asia and made their way to Europe where they were in use by the fourth century. They were quite common in the Victorian period, so the colonies were a little behind here.

And the next is brush? I've read the whole damn article twice, and they don't once mention using a brush. My wild guess is that it would be something used to raise the nap on the project, but I cannot find any reference to nap raising. I guess you have to be a much more clever woman than I.

Other titles in this magazine include "The Chronicles of a Queer Girl," "A Stranger in the Church: The Experience of a Young Woman in One Hundred and Fifty Churches," and "How Children are Made Drunkards." You might think the later is one of those damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't articles that are so popular today whose primary purpose seems to be making all mothers feel bad about themselves in one way or another. No, this is a straight-up warning against using "harmless" "over-the-counter" medicines for children that contained opium and other things that require a prescription these days*. The arbitor of taste turns her attention to hall racks this month. Her advice seems to be the same: plainer is better.

*Except in Oregon or Colorado.

Flashback Friday: Citrus Rinds

Franz Eugen Köhler,
Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen

Flashback Friday is another of the new features around these parts. Initially, I had hoped to share craft patterns from early women's magazines with you. Unfortunately, when I was doing my research, the pages were all labeled "reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission." And I thought, "the holy hell, someone took out new copyright on 100 year old magazines?" This may just be a standard thing the college or ProQuest puts on all the materials they bring to researchers, but rather than do further research on that front, I decided that I could work within fair use* and not have to worry about copyright. That means no patterns, but it does mean I will bring a bit of delightful text from women's magazines that relates to embroidery or current craft trends in some way.

"Don't Throw Away Your Orange and Lemon Rinds" from the column "A Liberal Table on Small Means" by Mrs. S. T. Rorer. This excerpt is from Ladies' Home Journal, November 1907, Vol XXIV, No 12, page 30.

Another economy is worth practicing and that is the saving of lemon and orange rinds. When you are using a lemon for lemonade it is better if the rind is taken off; you may take it off in strips or you may squeeze the juice and keep the rind in halves; clear out the inside and throw the rinds at once into cold water; bring to a boil, boil for five minutes and drain. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender. Then make a syrup from a pound of sugar and half a pint of water; bring to a boil and skim. Put in the lemon rinds and cook until transparent; then throw them on to a sieve to drain; stir the syrup until it begins to granulate and pour it over. let it harden and dry on the lemon rinds; these are better for fruitcake and mincemeat than the commercial candied lemon rind which you usually buy. 

Believe it or not, this is only a short excerpt from this article! You probably wondered how much there was to say about lemon rinds. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Rorer was paid by the word.

Photo: Johannes Pribyl 

Other articles in this issue include "Good Taste and Bad Taste in Clocks" (bad taste seems to run to over-ornamentation and small or partially obscured faces); "What Other Women Have Found Out" (your tip could earn you a crisp new dollar bill!); and "Three Things a Teacher Should Teach" (uprightness, thoroughness, and reverence).

*basically, part of the law says that you can use short excerpts of copyrighted material verbatim for purposes like criticism, reporting, teaching, and research without permission from or payment to the holder of the copyright. We are researching our collective past. One of you will write a book about it.