My Blue Heaven

Though a lot of French fabrics have red in them (the dye was called Rose Madder), there is also a tremendous lot of indigo blue. They learnt how to use the dye from the Far East, particularly Siam, and it was quite a complicated business to get the different shades - it all depended on the quantity of dye and the amount of 'dips' in the vat as well as exposure to sunlight which changed the muddy greens to the brilliant blue we know. Blue was used for many household linens like these tickings which were feather bed and mattress covers, pillows, bolsters and household cloths. They always look crisp and clean and appeal to most of us for kitchen, nursery and holiday house decoration. In particular, most men find them very smart and attractive. You know how they like blue striped shirts, socks and ties!

A doctor once told me that this is because men's eyes are not good at perceiving blue and they therefore have a great need for it in their colour spectrum.

TORCHONS ROUND THE KITCHEN

THESE ARE TYPICAL TORCHONS (TOWELS OR CLOTHS) used in French kitchens  to dry, clean and wrap, china, cutlery, glass, iron pots and pans, as well as preserve bread, meat and fish, and keep flies off .  Most kitchens in old France had open fires for cooking, with hobs and chains to fix the saucepans at different heights as well as spits for roasting and any ovens were mostly used for bread baking.  For the Sunday roasts, the pans were often carried down to the bakers' ovens which were still hot and were empty - Frequently without hot water, no handy detergents and dim lighting, it must have been a hard and awful job to get the pots and pans clean.   The Pot au Feu was a staple with bits of meat and any veggies being thrown in to make a hot nourishing dish and of course, all kinds of casserole were popular, economical and filling. The first course was often soup taken in a bowl, and supped, with plenty of bread,  and the next was the more solid bits fished out and put on a flat plate.  Washing up was done in big flat stone sinks and of course the soft, creamy pottery soon became cracked and chipped.  The drying cloths came in many weights and patterns - coarse and dark hemp for black pots, lighter linen for china and and very fine for glasses - with special ones for cutlery as well.   They were hung to dry from rows of hooks and sometimes you find enamel racks with the different labels printed on them.  Hemp, linen and cotton were used in varying mixes and amounts, depending on local crops and weavers, and you can still find masses of them at any good linen stand at antique fairs and brocantes.  Most have initials neatly embroidered and they come in large sets - I would not bother with any that are worn or stained!

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

strips of hand dyed linen on old hemp sheet
to make a smart shopping tote

ticking scraps left over from cushion-making

long narrow strips gathered and hand-sewn make good non-slip hangers
ticking and provencal print scraps

more ticking squares added to a n old coarse-woven sheet for a contemporary look cushion

  It's always nice when someone you know gives you a mention, especially if it is favourable - and Kaari Meng, my old friend (but she is actually quite young) has written a skittish Blog about my frugal ways.  She is quite right, I never throw anything away and that does not mean that I have awful piles of useless rags cluttering up the place!  What I actually do is much more interesting for me - it's a form of sieving, rather like a granite quarry where all the stone has to pass a certain size and be bagged up in separate  packs and sacks  The biggest pieces, which are often the cut-off bottoms of too long curtains, often slightly weather- marked from the open French windows of French country chateaux, are cut into wide strips and mixed with toning plains to create cushions, using up the old braids and trims to make a pleasing frame.  The smaller pieces are cut into long strips about 6" wide and then cut again into lengths up to 12" long and joined together with short seams into strips in two or three different patterns (they could be all blue, or multicoloured tickings with the stripes placed in alternative directions, or mixes of plain and pattern).  They will make more cushions and tote bags;  and other oddments will make a band across the bib of aprons with pockets to match, and the final scraps, especially pretty printed 19c. cottons, are bagged in  new poly. display envelopes and sold to quilters and toy makers who love all vintage bits and can use the tiniest scraps for faces and paws.   .No problems getting rid of buttons which I remove from all throw-away items and I have three friends who will always dispose of them to keen collectors.  My scheme is to join up with like-minded friends and start the merry-go-round spinning.

An Apron for every Occasion

   I confess that aprons and all 'work wear' have a special appeal for me and in France they come in a very wide variety of material, size and shape for both men and women. Many are for specific jobs and to me, are a sort of link with the daily work and lives of past generations. My collection includes indigo linen, straight, long ones for cooks and gardeners with large pockets at the front; womens' everyday cream linen and hemp on a waistband for general wear, usually with neat cross stitch initials and two pockets; then there are the housemaids' in whitest lawn with bibs and ties and pretty circular pockets at the front. Butchers and chefs have big sturdy affairs with one side higher than the other to make a good wrap, and a protective patch across the midriff, often in a hemp and cotton herringbone weave. Bistro waiters' gear are not much more than a short square across the front, with pocket for cash. The final group are the girls' dark printed cotton and serge traditional costume wear, sometimes gathered and frilled with interesting stitched detail round the waist. The most impressive (and difficult to track down) is the sommelier's (wine waiter's) apron worn in restaurants, indigo or black heavy linen with leather straps, and pockets for the corkscrews, napkin and other tools of the trade.   Since typing this blog, I have sold some of the above to an opera company, so stock is very low - all now on my shopping list!

POP GOES THE WEASEL

    It's great when you have a successful Fair and both buyers and sellers are happy.   I have recently had two very good fairs in a row and am glad that both were such fun and worthwhile.  The American Museum fair was quite hard work but it was wonderfully busy and the atmosphere was so lively and cheerful - many of our old friends and customers made the effort (some we had not seen for several years) and had a really good day out with their friends.  Everyone seemed to find something to buy that pleased them
 and as they all got in for free with our invitation, they may have had a little pocket money to spend!  They also got to see the beautiful features of the Museum and its estate, with gardens and arboretum so I do hope they will go back there when they have special friends to stay and want to take them out for the day.  Sitting on the long terrace with tea and a cookie from the coffee shop with that fabulous view across the wooded valley is quite a treat!     
My next Fair date was at the delightful Meeting House in Ilminster - a lovely small market town with the famous Dyers draper's shop complete with most of the original fittings - quite a period gem!
   There I sold the pretty cherry fabric illustrated on my recent Blog, several lengths of the Hungarian sack cloth for covering chairs, stools and ottomans, and I must now work through this winter to find new and exciting textiles for my next season of fairs which will start in March.  All the people on my mailing list will get invitations then (March 2012) listing our programme of fairs and I think I may have an exciting Country House venue in line.  Sellers and buyers take note !

A WEEK OF WORK

   It's strange how some of my weeks seem to follow a pattern - - last week was all about large shipments of natural and coarse linen and my buyers were not interested in the pretty, the decorative and the finer weaves.  One big lot of hand-woven  matched linen sheets (25 from the same household - which is so rare to find) has gone, as I prophesied, to the US, another big lot of rolls of Ukranian roughest weave is leaving for New Mexico, for film costumes, and the third lot of coarse natural 'taupe' sheets will be used to dress up a cottage near here, lined and interlined, to keep out the cold winds of winter.  I think the original weavers and gatherers of these fibre crops, hemp and flax, would be very surprised to know how far their wares are travelling, and how very pleased the customers for this coarse stuff are and how keen they are to find it.      The Flemish finer linen sleeping-bag liners (I had a hundred in July), have all gone and I was pleased that so many were bought by people who sew and make things and I do hope they all turned out o.k.  My own efforts got bogged down with the wrong needle in my machine, taken on holiday with me to France!!! but I am now ready to go full steam ahead and will publish results (if they are worth it, which I doubt).

RAVISSANTE!

These, oh so pretty, French bed hangings, do, I think, come into the category of just 'ravishing'. I spotted them spilling out of a cardboard box at the big French textile/antiques fair at Montpelier last week. They looked so tired, so dirty, so crumpled, that I was suspicious they would fall to bits if I pulled them out to inspect. They were yellow with old tobacco fumes(the French will smoke in bed) smelly and weighed down with heavy metal curtain rings, but I decided to risk the lot and staggered to my car with all in a plastic sack to keep the car's air nicotine-free. Later, back home, to my delight, a couple of days in three changes of cold water, some oxygen powder and mild soap, they have come up to something very near their original beauty and are now very bright and usable with original colours and patterns seen at their best.See later BLOG Any Connection and Pretty Good.  The big long soak is my secret for removing the dinginess of old cotton fabrics with white backgrounds - it does most of the work for you as it is soaking the inner core of the woven threads and the oxygen powder will then release the grease and dirt that is trapped deep in the material which your washing machine is unlikely to reach in a short wash.  See later BLOG Any Connection? and Pretty Good, for more about the curtains.
I use the same process for our own hankies, pillow cases and underwear that are losing their sparkle!(SORRY TO MENTION THIS DIRTY WASHING IN PUBLIC!)
  I really like this delicate Spring flower design with its ribbon twirly borders - so easy to complement with either blue or pink accessories in a bedroom with a few touches of green if you must! All for sale - four very deep PELMET bed curtains and a good big full length one, and a canopy, all lined, interlined and in good used condition but with several poor patches on the linings.  A real challenge for the home do- it -yourselfer!  The touches of mauve are so typical of French flowery patterns and I love it all! A bigger (photo) shot is to follow.


Can  anyone please date this print for me?



ANY CONNECTION ?



Modern repro Braquenie

   On my last buying trip to France I bought a very large quantity of printed cotton, all made up into four- poster bed hangings, and thought that the pattern of little bunches of flowers and twisted ribbons in an alternate blue and red ribbon trellis, was one of the very prettiest I have seen - so simple and fresh;  I wondered if it might be a Braquenie (one of the best and most famous of the pattern printers from the 18C. onwards until Pierre Frey took them over).  So I was rather excited when I saw a very similar pattern (by Braq. and Pierre Frey repro) in a magazine feature this week.    The cost is £156 per metre, a bit more than I paid for my shabby chic bundle!  I would love to know whether my attribution could be correct?  What think ye?  Has anyone ever seen this pattern before??  Do copy, if there is no copyright; I think it is a winner as you could go with the blue ribbon, or with the pinky red for your room decoration.  See BLOG Ravissante