Kits

This project was inspired by the pincushion in the Martha Edlin casket using a different pattern but a similar color scheme.  A small piece, 2" x 2.5", it is worked on 24-count Rain Barrel with Soie Paris threads.  A piece of wonderful real silk velvet is included for the backing.  A perfect quick project as it requires very little counting and is large scale!   

The instructions are free and available for download

Make a set of these 2.5" long gloves by whip-stitching lacet braid along the edge to itself.  They were inspired by a set that were found in the Martha Edlin Casket at the V&A.  Many caskets had small projects in them that the girls made, perhaps as starter projects.  

This kit contains the lacet braid, soie paris threads, gold thread, needle and contact paper and muslin needed.  The instructions are available here for free.

It is helpful to have something to protect the ends from fraying while working.  Fray check or Japanese rice glue works well.  You can buy Japanese rice glue from the pull down menu.

At least a half dozen embroidered cabinets are known to have small posies inside built out of silk braids and wire. The lacet braids are whip-stitched together at their edges in patterns to make petals while wires are wrapped with silk floss to make stems that can be attached to the braid petals. My reproduction lacets are made just for this purpose and come in many colors. 

Try these instructions to make your own pansy to place in a drawer of your casket - or use the instruction to inspire you to make a whole bouquet of flowers to display in a small bud vase.

Something to keep the lacet braid from raveling is useful.  You can use fray check or Japanese rice glue.  You can buy a tube from the pull down menu.

An elegant set of needlework necessities that are carried in their own silk basket, just in time for Easter!  The needlework is done in cross stitch over one on 36ct linen and complimented by Marsha Brown Smith's inventive finishing.  

The kit includes all the finishing materials including the wooden bottom and brass feet (except a manila folder and matt board).  A bunny shaped thread winder is included as well.   

Family register samplers became popular on the East Coast during the last part of the 18th century into the early 19th century.  Ittenerant painters traveled up and down the coast, drawing family trees for hire.  One artist had his paintings replicated in needlework by a unknown school in the Middlesex region of Massachusetts.  The majority of the known samplers of this style were made by girls from Lexington or Watertown.

This needlework nibble is in support of the new tree samplers acquired in 2014 by the Lexington Historical Society that are in need of conservation.  $5 of each kit sale will go to the conservation effort.

The kit contains the finishing materials including check silk, ultra suede, ribbons, and doctors cloth.  A limited number have the mother-of-pearl buttons or you can use your own.

The instructions for the sampler are not in the kit but are available online.

If you have always wanted an embroidered casket but are not sure of taking on such an enormous project, this kit was designed to allow people to make a sweet little trinket box, modeled off smaller boxes of the 17th century.  The box can fit a number of small needlework accessories like scissors and needles.  The edgings for these kits are now SILVER.

• This kit has everything needed to work a 3" deep x 5" long x 3" high trinket box in tent stitch over one on a 20-count linen.  
• The kit includes the wood trinket box, handmade archival covering papers, silver edging paper, pink silk lining, tin plated escutcheon, silver thread woven tape for the edges, linen, 32 tubes of Soie Paris and 6 tubes of a striped gimp thread.  
• Detailed Instructions for full assembly of the box as well as glue and a brush are included as well as links to a video of the paper covering assembly.  
• Silver acrylic paint for wood feet is not included in the kit, but is available at your local craft stores.