Button It

And now you've heard about the history of dressmaking - cast your eyes over this blog post on dress fastenings by a volunteer with the Australian Dress Register.

So my button obsession is not so much compulsive collecting as amassing a research resource. 

Is so, too!

Image shamelessly pinched from The Shopping Sherpa because her pics are always excellent and mine suck.

Women's Work

Finally got around to listening to "A stitch in time: dressmaking in Australia" a recent broadcast on Radio National's Hindsight program.

To quote from the website:
Before the advent of cheap ready-to-wear clothing mass-produced in offshore factories, dressmaking was an essential and versatile skill in women's lives, something they could deploy to feel like a million dollars, or use to earn a dollar or two. This feature probes the role of dressmaking in the lives of Australian women across the generations, as a domestic economic strategy, a female accomplishment, an aspect of technical education, a livelihood.

Seriously, do yourself a favour, it's both fascinating and extremely well done.  It surveys the history from colonial Australia to contemporary bloggers.  Excellent.

The image is of Patricia Lee in the dressmaking class at the Canberra Technical College, courtesy of the ever fabulous ACT Heritage Library.

Truly local yarn soon

Lifted from the latest Poacher's Way newsletter, Spring 2010.

Eco sustainable wool mill on horizon for Bowning - Crisp Galleries

These are exciting times for the Crisp family, with the recent announcement that their historic ‘Gwandoban’ shearing shed (circa 1856 and moved from Harden to Binalong in 1914, then to Bowning eight years ago) will be rebuilt to house the new Yass Valley Woollen Mill, in conjunction with the Armour family, of Bookham.

With a majority of Australia’s woollen mills closed, and China now processing 82% of the world’s wool production, the Yass Valley Woollen Mill is set to become Australia’s premier processor of superfine wool.

The ‘mission’ of The Yass Valley Woollen Mill is to produce an Australian grown and made, eco sustainable yarn and fabric that can be totally transparent along the supply chain.

Between them, the Crisps and the Armours have a vision to create not only a productive and sustainable mill but also a valuable tourist and educational facility. The ‘great hall’ which runs the length of the 50m building will be transformed into a viewing room, with retail space selling products created with Yass Valley yarn.

The Yass Valley Woollen Mill is a serious commitment to the wool industry to ensure its sustainability into the future.

CAN'T WAIT! - Read the full press release on the Crisp Galleries website.

Early Spinning and Knitting on the Monaro

Archibald Crawford was born in 1833, in Campbelltown, Scotland and was 10 years old or so when his family settled for a year on The Dry Plain on the Monaro in about 1844. He was in charge of a flock of 800 lambing ewes. 

He writes in his memoir Eighty-Five Years in Australia (Sydney: John Sands Ltd; 1925), pp 22-23.

My mother, of whom I was very fond, used to spin all the wool for our knitted garments, of which we wore a good many. She never spoke English in the home, although she had an average knowledge of it, but always Gaelic. When she was knitting, sewing or spinning, she would sing old Gaelic songs to us; she had a very sweet and pleasing voice. One of my brothers-in-law, named Brayshaw, made the first spinning wheel which she used in this country; later on, when we went to Victoria, she got an imported one, which is still in existence as far as I know, and would probably be used during the Great War. At night I had to tease the wool for carding, another thing I did not like doing, and one night I was complaining and mother said to me, "No doubt you do think it a great bother to have to tease the wool, but you just think when you are out in the snow to-morrow how you would feel if you have no nice warm socks to wear." The next day I had reason to remember her lecture.

Here's your hat, what's your hurry

Time Thief Watch Caps 2007.40-49

The hat on the top left is in Spidey dyed yarn. It's lovely. The scraps went to making a child's pair of wristwarmers. Mum's now doing them in 3 sizes. Bloke, woman/teen, kid. The children's ones are the cutest things out and all of the kids in the neighbourhood are sporting a pair. Mum reckons it's a great way not to waste the ends of balls. The boys next door reckon they make the playing of knuckles a heck of a lot easier.

The black, cream and red one on the bottom right was mostly knitted at the Save Albert Hall meeting last Thursday night. It was going to be just black and cream, but the meeting was so passionate it needed that little bit of red.

Here it is posing on the sundial as we went in.

TRIVIA: The sundial pedestal was part of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, England. In 1934, Mr JN Reeson acquired several pieces of decorative stonework that had been removed during refurbishment, and presented some of them to the Federal Government for use in Canberra. A bronze sundial and a plaque were cast for the pedestal, and in 1936 the circular rose bed in front of the Albert Hall was slightly modified to take the new structure.

Source: Very well researched and edited article on the ACT Heritage Library's website.