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A modern steam punk corset in a paisley (buteh) material (TRC 2020.3832).We are getting more and more ‘textile’ questions being directed at the TRC via social media and emails. They range from what is wrong with Dutch sheep and their wool (there was a recent newspaper article stating that the wool was too coarse for general use) to when did manufacturers start adding shoe sizes to the soles of their knitted socks (that question really floored me, I have no idea!).

We recently had another question from someone working on a school project about corsets and the different types. We could point her to various useful books and to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s amazing collection of corsets (the great advantage of having such collections online!).

In a TRC blog last year, Shelley Anderson mentioned a form of needle lace that is now called Tenerife (or Teneriffe) lace, also known as roseta canario or calado canario in Spanish. Because of the round (medallion) shape of many of its end products, this form of lace is also sometimes called ‘sol lace’.

Tenerife lace collar, late 19th century (TRC 2020.0462)

Tenerife lace is distinctive for its radial threads that are usually wrapped around the pins or ‘teeth’ that are placed along the edge of a small round wheel, and for the medallion pattern that is woven with a needle. The wheels are usually made of a rigid substance, such as thick card, wood or metal (see TRC 2023.2316a-c). The resulting medallion is removed from the wheel and then stitched to other examples to make a much larger piece.

Tenerife lace metal wheel, early 20th century (TRC 2023.2316a).

Tenerife lace metal wheel, with radial threads, early 20th century (TRC 2023.2316b).

Tenerife lace metal wheel, with the beginning of a needle woven pattern, early 20th century (TRC 2023.2316c).

Visit to the TRC by women from the Morschwijk, Monday 27 November 2023. Photograph by Femke Bolding.On Monday, 27 November 2023, the TRC welcomed an international group of women from Huis van de Buurt Morschwijk in Leiden. This is an informal group of women living in the Morschwijk, a district of Leiden. The women originally come from Colombia, India, Indonesia, Morocco and Surinam.

The meeting started with an introduction to the TRC by its director, Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood. This led to a discussion about dress and identity, one of the main themes of the TRC's work: We study what men and women wear in order to say, consciously or not, who they are or who they want to be.

Visit by group of women from the Morschwijk, Leiden, to the TRC, Monday 27 November 2023. Photograph by Maria Linkogle.After the introduction, a tour was given of the current Fashion of the 1920s exhibition. Afterwards we had lunch when we further discussed dress and identity.

A number of our guests talked about their knowledge and experience with making their own clothes and about decorating clothes with embroidery for their own bridal outfit.

Marianne Rutten (1924-2021), photographed in c. 1942. We have recently had a surprise donation by Jeantine van de Ven, Leiden, who popped in with several bags and boxes of textiles and other objects that belonged to her mother, Marianne Rutten (1924-2021). Among the items was a small cardboard box (TRC 2023.2567) that has led to various thoughts and reflections!

More specifically, it is a memory box that reflects life for one young woman in 1944 and 1945. The contents of the box were assembled by Marianne, who was born and brought up in Tilburg in Noord-Brabant, which lies in the south of the Netherlands and was one of the first Dutch cities to be liberated from the Nazi Germans in 1944.

It would appear that when the Prinses Irene Brigade (the Netherlands), the 15th Scottish Infantry Division and other troops arrived in Tilburg in October 1944 there were 13 days of serious fighting, but once the Germans had been forced out there were some large, public parties and the Scottish infantry provided pipe band music.

Wooden knitting sheath, Britain, c. 1900 (TRC 2015.0256).In a recent donation from the former Museum voor Naaldkunst, there was a small group of knitting sheaths. Up to then, we only had one of these objects in the TRC Collection (TRC 2015.0256), which dates to about 1900 and comes from northern England. So the opportunity to have several more that illustrate different types of sheaths fitted nicely into our plans to add depth to the TRC Collection.

Hand knitting, especially of stockings and socks, and later caps, gloves and jumpers, was an important cottage industry in many parts of Europe from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. Many women (and some men) knitted clothing for themselves and their family, but they could also supplement their incomes by making knitted goods for sale.

Over the centuries, in order to make the hand knitting quicker, various tools were developed including knitting sheaths, which meant the knitter could continue plain knitting while carrying out other domestic jobs, such as looking after babies, or while walking to the market or work, carrying baskets on their heads or backs, etc.

Hair pin with a stylised bat, with kingfisher feather decoration, China, 20th century (TRC 2023.2525).Over the last year or so, Mrs Quirina Vreeburg from Haarlem, the Netherlands, has been giving the TRC various items from her collection of Chinese textiles and dress. These included some beautiful woven and embroidered gowns for both men and women, normal and lotus shoes, as well as a range of decorative purses and caps.

There have been several blogs about this donation, namely about the lotus shoes and about some other textiles, including a jacket made from reed. We have also already created a mini-exhibition with the lotus shoes and we are planning one about the various types of purses and their decoration.

In early 2023 the TRC was contacted by Hennie Stevan-Bathoorn and Sjoerd Stevan from the former Museum voor Naaldkunst, Winschoten in the northeastern part of the Netherlands. They had run a private museum for needlework and related lace techniques, in all of their many different forms. Due to their age, the museum was closed in 2016 and since then they have been trying to identify suitable new homes for different parts of the collection.

Three book titles, published by the former Museum voor Naaldkunst, Winschoten

A sheet of nine Ukrainian stamps was recently donated to the TRC (TRC 2023.2460). The stamps show details of an embroidered blouse, called a vyshyvanka, including cutwork or drawn thread work in the form of small squares in a diamond-shaped pattern. This traditional woman’s blouse is very popular in Ukraine, especially since the Russian invasion.

Sheet of nine stamps from Ukraine showing the embroidery on the Ukrainian vyshyvanka blouses (TRC 2023.2460).