When I was there I saw lots of embroidery, especially in the upholstery and this is what grabbed me, so I took this on and did some research. In essence women in the regency period were revered for needlwork skills and used these tapestries to put their mark on their home in what was an incredibly male dominated world. This, to me, links with the make do and mend ethos of the late '50s. I got hold of a 1958 newspaper (stuffed inside the 1920s singer that I got, still threaded, for a tenner) and made some screen prints from it, got those on some plain, if not a bit old and battered, calico, cut the sections apart and stitched them together again (I found some info on cigar ribbon quilts where women would collect the scraps of material and sew them up into a larger textile). Then I dyed the whole thing with good old tea and coffe and embroidered into it.
I am about a third done after all of that.
Next I need to sand this effing chair back into a regency shape and varnish it. Then I'm going to do something to the cushion I've upholstered. Something because originally I though I would tapestry over the top and then wear holes in it so that you could see the textile underneath, but the more I think about that and draw designs the more it looks kind of crappy and seems unplausable to get it finished in time. So, err, I suppose I might just cut my losses and embroider the bejesus out of it, alternatively I've been thinking I could embroider some '50's kitchenalia images onto some dissolvable muslin and then drop water on it so that areas dissapear, but that could look super crappy so we shall see.
Anyhow, photos:
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