(B)RAIDING THE TRIMS

Vintage passementerie  from France

       I am downsizing my stock of old French braids and trims which I have used to decorate curtains, pelmets and cushions for many years - once I was able to buy them in quantity from an extraordinary French dealer who kept me supplied with everything I loved.   She was most astute and bought up lots of little merceries, often small family-run businesses in French provincial towns where you could buy fabrics and sewing necessities including all the trimmings for dresses and house furnishings that you could want.  Many of the shops had been closed for years and the stock often went back to Victorian times.  I saw boa feathers, for hats and capes, pearl and linen buttons by the drawer-ful, strange notions like whalebone for dress hem stiffening, soutache a fine silky rouleau for braiding dresses and jackets, dozens of different coloured tapes for corsets, petticoat satin straps, modesty vests and a hundred other obsolete details all still in their original boxes with spidery writing on the labels.   I had  to climb up a step ladder to view it all and gingerly lift the lids to track the contents of mini skyscrapers of tottering cardboard boxes and each one was a surprise, so after my first visit which took several hours, my husband was offered a chair and he brought a book to while away the time.   This lady also scoured the waste fabric dealers (raccomodeurs) of cities nearby and found the most wonderful old silk curtains which she rescued and sold to one particular customer - so I could only admire and sigh when I caught a glimpse of them under their wraps!    I am still dealing with her and she has a genius for finding things that are my peculiarities and I can find nowhere else..

Trim Outline

I show examples of my present stock of trims from old French haberdashery counters. The choice, pre-war, was wonderful and very inspiring for the keen needlewoman. The little Breton children are printed on silk, the daisy ribbon is woven and the pretty border pattern in blue and pink is part of a short remnant (what I call 'boudoir' style circa 1900).

The red trims are first, a blue/red machine embroidered ribbon for petticoat frills (this can be dated by the design which includes little circles which were difficult to achieve mechanically till the mid 19c )I have had huge lengths like this all in slightly different stitches. It was used by one of my clients to decorate lamps and cushions in a big Swiss chalet build. Then, two versions of open weave red and white fringes in glossy cotton, which I myself have often used to trim little down pillows and bed cushions with white pique covers.  Regret now all SOLD but always worth looking out for at the brocantes, often attached to ragged remnants of cushions, curtains and clothes.