From the UKRAINE to the UK

  A cartload of sacks has arrived here all the way from the Ukraine, near Russia, and I am absolutely delighted with both the quality of the weaving and, even more, with the soft natural shades of the stripes on them.  They are all in pale earthy shades which blend with any decor and look particularly good  in a relaxed, comfy room where there is not too much pattern - they go well with sea-grass carpeting and somehow seem very much at home with both antique and contemporary furnishings -  - like most hand-made materials they are classic and good quality and it shows! and will last a lifetime.!  They are mostly about 50 years old, unused, and cost around £45 for a large sized grain sack. - two will cover a small armchair.  I have covered and sold about ten pairs of such chairs during the last few years and the customers are delighted with them!

PUTTY AND PAINT

 I have been chasing the new top fashion shades of taupe, pewter, porage, fawn, putty, beige, nude or whatever you like to christen them and I have just acquired a lovely batch of unbleached linen sheets in a perfect shade which should please those who are able to follow the fashions of house decoration.  I found this lovely picture of a French (painted?) bed which is exactly the same shade, now in the newly decorated home, Ven House, deep in the South West, of Jasper Conran.   I love its simplicity (see W.O.I. current magazine)

  My sheets will probably go to L.A. where they may be used to cover bespoke easy chairs and sofas often bought by the Hollywood crowd who are always wanting the latest must-have.  Recently it was deep leather chairs for the 'den', before that it was white linen, a luxury fashion that took a lot of washing and dry-cleaning, now it is linen and hemp in unbleached shades and next I hope it will be my wonderful striped sackcloth in bumpy texture woven in the Ukraine, and now piled high in my wine vault stores.   Here in England, decorators have been using hemp and linen in natural colours for ages but it takes the U.S. a little longer to get used to these rough and rustic vintage stuffs and, quite honestly , they are now a bit late on the scene - Hemp is almost finished and linens are going the same way, and the new, sold by top fabric design firms, are so very expensive and really not quite in the same class, as they cannot be hand-woven any more.   The Ukrainian coloured stripes are all in soft earthy shades which blend with any colour scheme and are a good choice for hard wear and a sturdy country house look.  I am very happy in my newly covered upright armchair covered with two Ukrainian grain sacks, and I don't think I will wear it out.  I have had two extra arm-pieces made which are easily washable and take up the dirt from my grubby gardening hands and if I have visitors I can whip them off in a trice!

CORNELLI - TAMBOUR LACE ON MUSLIN

  Cornelli were one of the most delightful discoveries I made in France.  They seem to be unknown in this country so I will try and describe them - they can still be found very occasionally with quality linen dealers in France.   They are long, elegant curtains, usually 8 - 9ft long, made with fine cotton muslin.  The muslin is embroidered with a machine (a Cornelli) that follows the design drawn with blue lines; I do not know how these were drawn or were they stencils or iron-on transfers?   The stitch is always chain stitch and is similar to the bed covers made with net and a crochet type tool  stretched over a circular drum, called tambour lace;  the patterns vary from the most dainty and elaborate floral designs often loosely joined with scrolls and curls, to others (probably later in period), in elaborate geometric patterns, greek key, borders in straight lines with boxes, angles and corners and have an Edwardian classic Adam revival look.     


see tiny pin holes at top near the flower



    Almost all had shell scalloped borders in a vandyke or scrolling edging, along the leading edge and base. They were usually to be found in pairs, occasionally in larger groups, and I have never seen the same pattern again.  It seems they were made in many small workshops and factories from 1860 or so until the turn of the century.   They were considered essential for shielding the furnishings in the best rooms, from light and sun, and helped to filter the dirt that came in through the windows from the dusty unmade roads and driveways as the horse-drawn traffic rumbled by.   The most common (new) use for the cornelli is to decorate four poster beds in a light feminine style which is elegant and pretty to look at, without stiffling the sleepers within - it can make a welcome change from all those yards of expensive chintz which festooned the bedrooms of the 80s and 90s, lining the pockets of the fabric firms and the decorators and causing some husbands to wince at the cost!   If you buy them (they are no longer cheap as the decorators have dug them out) you need to check them very carefully for small pin holes and wear half way down where they have been gripped by hands or tied back with 'embrasses' (tie-backs) and suffer damage.  Very few are quite perfect and slight damage is to be expected if they were used over 100 years ago.  Pairs usually cost about £200 or more, in good condition.  Only hand wash (can be risky if they are fragile!) and a very light bath of starch can help them if they are a bit floppy.

THE CHERRIES ON THE CAKE

 NOW SOLD

Fine cotton with cherries

Dainty Indienne pattern

  



















  These little treasures,  short lengths of very fine cotton, were raked out of a mixed-up stall in France recently and are so typically French - cherries were grown there in huge quantities and the sight of a cherry orchard is  very delightful - they hang neatly in pairs and decorate so much of  French kitchen ware.  They are embroidered on the linen pelmets for windows, shelves and mantelpiece, appear on aprons, tea towels and even sheets (often worked into the initials of the owner) a'plenty on china and enamelware and the combination of green and red is a well known stimulator for your appetite -I hardly need it when enjoying my French meals!   The other little cotton piece is another type of design which I like very much, much more boudoir than kitchen, and the chain of medallions with little roses is an adaptation of the Indienne patterns so popular at the turn of the century (1900s).  This would have been used for discreet little shelves and cupboards, work baskets,  cushions and 'necessaires' known as cartonnage which the inventive sewing ladies were so good at.   They covered blotters, booklets, letter racks, glove and fan boxes with great skill and were just so neat!

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS

   I was wondering the other day just how some clothing firms are able to justify extremely high prices for some fashion garments that you can buy on the High Street for so much less.  So the other day |I bought a shirt-blouse with the Tommy Hilfiger label in it at my local Dorothy House charity shop.- I knew the label came from a much loved and expensive US couturier.  I like having a striped red shirt in my wardrobe for winter wear with tweed and plaid trousers and have several red pullovers with v necks to put over.   I had just said a final goodbye to a very favourite red striped poplin shirt that I bought 50 years ago which I wore quite regularly every winter, and I'm wearing it in my Profile Blog portrait from the 70's seen above. The poplin was the very best fine cotton shirting and it had attractive pie-crust frilling at the neck and cuffs - you may remember Princess Di had a very similar one later on.  I had endless compliments on how fresh and jolly it looked and when the frilling edges finally frayed it was a sad day. It cost about £5  which was plenty in the 50's!  and it was from Rowland's classic and country wear shop in Bath.  Here in Bradford on Avon we have their bargain factory outlet shop just by the Station, which is a mecca for many well dressed ladies!

  My new second-hand model from Tommy H. was in a similar quality fine cotton, with slight stretch in it and the detail was very interesting - extra neat button holes,  a fine red piping line round the inner edge of the collar visible at the open neck and a V shaped tab with all the labels stitched on it, an extra embroidered Hilfiger logo elsewhere, short sleeves with proper button-up cuffs, bias-frilled with picot edges, and a rather low-cut neck line with no buttons, ready to show off some great bit of bling!  It only cost £4.50 so it was quite a bargain and I'm wearing it as I write just now.  Plus ca change........

CLEAN SWEEP

   I thought it would be good for many of us handling old and worn textiles to learn of simple remedies for removing stains -  I have suggested Rubigine from France for removing iron mould (rust) stains, it's just magic! Vanish for ordinary ones and Napisan for restoring bright whiteness - others have said sunshine, I say moonshine, and , lying on the grass - the sheet, not you - and soaking may be the most important part of the process - just two or three days in plain cold water can work wonders.  Any more suggestions?   I do not find Stain Devils very useful so far!  but I daresay Health and S. forbid greater strength of chemicals.  The French seem able to poison their families much more easily.  Please send your suggestions and I will print - we are all in this together and it is so good to rescue spoilt and damaged articles for further use.  DID YOU KNOW STARCH, AFTER A LONG DISAPPEARANCE, IS BACK ON THE MARKET?  Personally I only use it occasionally and a little goes a very long way (see my future Blog on Cornelli muslin curtains from France) and I was surprised to hear that powdered starch will be back at our wonderful local ironmonger's  next week - will it still have a robin on it?  I never liked the 'plastic' starch which was also jolly expensive, just as I hate furniture 'cream' made with silicon which wrecks old woods with its plastic seal., and as an ex-bee-keeper, know that there is nothing better than old fashioned beeswax, turps, etc.

Birds in the bush

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  These birds date from the late 19c. and are beautifully printed on fine cotton and known in France as Indiennes.  Many different versions of birds, flowers and plants were designed at the height of their fashion and the new chemical dyes give some a very brilliant colour.  It was the Empress Josephine who loved 'la Nature' in every form, who encouraged the French print manufacturers to design them and they copied the new patterns which came into France on the Eastern and Indian trade routes - they were a novelty and in a very different style to some of the older classical styles of the Napoleonic period and the more romantic Eastern visions of the jungle with exotic flowers, bamboo and tropical birds with brilliant plumage were extremely popular.   Many different colours were used, all sizes of birds from little tree creepers to massive parrots and raptors were copied and in general, the smaller the birds, the earlier the design.  The later ones showing fierce claws and beaks are not to everyone's taste and might cause nightmares!  I have examples of birds of the first kind in brilliant blue in my kitchen, and very sweet multi-coloured ones in a bathroom and they are very light and pretty at the windows.  They are liable to rot and fade as the cotton is so fine but I now have a splendid example in crimson just in from France, which is a door curtain, already gathered and with matching braid in what appears to be unused condition and quite unfaded.  It would split to make two narrow dress curtains or cover a small  chair, or possibly make a very dashing item of dress.

Stains on the characters

I have had a query about those wood stains that mark and spoil some of the old folded sheets from France (chestut wood shelves are to blame). It has been suggested that good old Marseille soap is the best treatment and it may well work if the stains are light and fairly new. If this soap, which has some olive oil in it, I understand, does not work after a good long two -day soak in cold plain water, a light brushing with the soap is the best, try nail brush, then I have two remedies which often work - one is the oxygen powder Vanish which you can apply as a paste for a short while and then rinse, or a soak in Napisan which is used to whiten babies clothes and nappies, and does not scorch the material - bleach is the very last resort, applied with cotton buds directly along the lines and rinsed as soon as they move, the trouble with bleach is that it leaves 'cloudy' stains behind and spoils the creamy look of old linen. Constant washing and exposure to sunshine will lessen the stains but will take much longer and if you are using the sheets as curtains, is not practical. Good luck!