Pocahontas jacket and Ebay treasures

Hello strangers!  I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.  I know my family certainly is.  There are parties and gatherings every time you turn around, it seems.  But I wanted to take a few minutes to share with you about an exciting new project going on at Jamestown Settlement next year.

About a week ago, a friend shared a link to a blog post about plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe.  As part of the celebration, Preservation Virginia's Historic Jamestowne will create an embroidered waistcoat inspired by an article in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  The waistcoat will be worn as part of Pocahontas's wedding attire during the commemoration on April 5, 2014.

The project is reminiscent of the Plimoth Jacket project from a few years ago, only it is much closer to home (for me), so there's a much greater chance that I will be able to more actively participate.  Yippee!  In case anyone else reading this hasn't already heard about the project and is interested in participating, you shoul contact

Julie Zellers-Frederick
Volunteer Coordinator
julie@preservationvirginia.org
757-856-1259

She will send you a small sample to complete, demonstrating the stitch types present in the original garment.  All skill levels are welcome.  The project is done in collaboration with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and their Costume Design Center.

I received my package in the middle of last week and sat down with it yesterday morning. It didn't take more than a few hours to stitch, and here's what my sample looks like:

The stitches required, chain and seed, are not stitches that I use very often, but hopefully they will find my efforts acceptable and I will make my way to Williamsburg for some intensive stitching time early next year.  Even if I don't make, I'm excited about the very idea of this hand-embroidered jacket and I hope they are able to pull it off.

In other news, I somehow found myself browsing through the samplers offered up on ebay the other day.  One thing led to another, and two tattered little treasures have made their way home to me.  If all goes well with my design release in February, you will be seeing reproductions of these two before too long.  One of them is an Adam and Eve sampler with lots of crazy colors in it:

The second one is very faded, and I the picture I took of it is a fairly sorry one.  But I think this sampler is going to be gorgeous once it's restitched:

Finally, I leave you a taste of one of the two reproductions I'll be releasing in February.  As you can see, it's an Adam and Eve sampler, and I am in love with the big blue and gold flower you can see here:

Til next time, stay safe, stay warm, and stay crafty!