Notes from yesteryear a window to the past

The past is always with us, ebbing and flowing into daily life without us noticing it to any great degree. Then, some item, a piece of flotsam from yesteryear, lands on the metaphoric beach of our days and draws away from the present.

So it was with the old-fashioned notebook with yellowed pages ruled in faded blue. On its front cover of mottled brown paper is written in pencil, barely visible, “Household Arts,” and below that, also in pencil, “Sewing.” Below that in black ink, slanting upward is: Margaret Dolliver.

I acquired the notebook from a local used-book store, thanks to the proprietor who suspected my fondness for such things. We speculated that the notebook is from the 1930s – possibly earlier – and that it may have been a project for a home economics class at a high school or the university. The store owner said he bought it from someone in Holden who was cleaning out the family attic.

Clearly, even if the book was a school project, it was intended to serve as a resource in its creator’s future life.

The first pages of the handwritten book are notes on basting stitches: “Basting is a temporary stitch used to hold two edges together until permanently sewed.” The writer goes on to explain even basting, uneven basting and long and short basting, including simple drawings of each, such as: – – – even basting, and – – – – uneven basting. She covers tacking, running stitch, back stitch, half-back stitch and overcasting, illustrating the latter with this drawing: ||||.

Then she writes about hems. This is where the fun begins. Each type of hem is accompanied by an example of the work and pasted into the book. The French, plain and rolled hems are done, all by hand, on a swatch of blue chambray 4 inches by 6 inches.

After those pages are descriptions of chain stitch, blanket stitch and how to make buttonholes. Those stitches are demonstrated in pale blue Perle cotton on cream-colored flannel.

After that, the writer discusses seams – plain, French, French fell and lapped, each one beautifully hand-stitched on fine white cotton.

And, finally, there are examples of plackets – hemmed, straight-faced and straight-faced in a seam. They, too, are done in white cotton, all by hand. The writer notes that the hemmed placket is used on petticoats or children’s dresses.

The stitches in these examples are fine and even, showing the skill and the patience it took to execute them.

Each of the sewing examples is glued to the page with white glue still visible beneath the fabric.

The pages after the plackets are blank until the very center of the notebook, which has pages bound with thread, instead of being glued together as such notebooks are today. On that page is written “Household Textiles” and what follows is five pages of textile history written in beautiful penmanship. We learn: “Traces of the weaving found in the graves of ancient Egypt show that the people were not ignorant of the art of weaving.” And: “The Roman conqueror brought to Rome silks, linens, woolens, cloth of gold and silver decorated with precious stones which is beyond imagination in luxury and richness.”

The techniques Dolliver shows off in the book, once used for sewing garments, are rarely, if ever, used today. Zippers have replaced foldover plackets held closed with a button or snaps. Cotton petticoats are not worn in the 21st century, and babies are not dressed in off-white flannel decorated with charmingly wrought embroidery stitches.

Margaret Dolliver lived in a time when proficiency with needle and thread was considered a necessary skill for conducting the business of running a household and for keeping one’s wardrobe in good repair. Her study of common sewing, and her book of careful notes and well-stitched examples are, however, threads of a stitching past that have served humanity well by keeping it decently dressed.

Snippets

Beadwork magazine is calling for entries in its fifth juried exhibition, an international competition with the theme “The Beaded Bag.” For information, visit www.interweave.com/bead/.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.