The University Centre Shrewsbury banner

I can finally write about the 'secret sewing project' which I alluded to a few weeks ago. I have been putting together quilt blocks to create a community banner for University Centre Shrewsbury.

The banner was the brainchild of Professor Deborah Wynne who, as well as being the organiser of the Textile Study Days and my dissertation supervisor for my Masters, is a lecturer in the English Department at both the Shrewsbury and Chester campuses. When the first students on the English BA Honours degree course at Shrewsbury were coming to the end of their studies, Deborah thought that it would be a good idea to commemorate the occasion. She asked the students to each make a quilt block 30cm square, containing their name and something which represented themselves and/or their time at Shrewsbury. The result was 17 very different blocks. Knowing that I sew, she asked if I would be able to put them together into a quilt.

I must admit that initially it did look like a challenge. 17 blocks is an awkward number to work with, and there were some 'variations' from the 30cm measurements. Add to that a wide selection of backing fabrics, and some alarmingly narrow seam allowances, and I had my work cut out. The first thing I did was photograph all the blocks and print out small images of them, all to scale. I played around with these until I got an idea for a suitable arrangement. I decided to make an extra block containing information about the banner, and to make it the same size as the largest of the 17 to balance it out. This gave me a basic layout to work with.

One of the potential layouts for the blocks

The inspiration for my block came from the banner at Glasgow Women's Library, which I visited a couple of years ago. The idea of books and a hot drink seemed perfect for the student experience!

The Glasgow banner

Unfortunately my drawing skills weren't up to even this simple task, so I cheated. I created a suitable still life, photographed it and displayed the image on my laptop, then laid a sheet of tracing paper over the screen and traced the outlines.

The 'design' for my block

The background fabric was a lucky find of a print of piles of books, and the books and mug are appliqué. I embroidered the dates onto the mug, and the other details onto the book spines.

My block in progress

Sewing the blocks together like a normal quilt was never going to work, so instead I mounted them onto a base of heavy white cotton. I drew out the placement of each block first.

The block placement marked out

Then I laid each block in place, and used rulers and some offcuts of board to check that it would be positioned correctly once the sashing was added between the blocks.

Checking the positioning of the first block

Even though I knew that the stitching attaching the blocks to the base fabric would all be covered, I still chose to use a matching thread for each block - just in case! I also sewed round elements in each block, to keep the fabric attached to its base.

All the blocks attached to the base fabric

Then it was time to add the sashing. For this I wanted a neutral fabric which would not detract from the blocks, but equally I didn't want something which was totally plain. Fortunately my local fabric shop came up trumps, with a subtly patterned fawn craft cotton remnant which was exactly the right size. I put the vertical sashing on first, machining one side, then flipping the piece over and slip-stitching the other side. The pieces at the ends of the rows of three blocks were wider, to fill the gaps.

The vertical sashing pieces in place

Next I added the horizontal sashing the same way. Once it was all in place, it really worked to frame each block, while at the same time acting as a unifying feaure.

The sashing completed

The backing fabric was added, and then the side and top and bottom borders. That was a lot of slip-stitching! I also added a sleeve along the top to hold the pole for displaying the banner.

The completed banner on display

It was a challenge to make it all work, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. It was just so apparent how much all the contributors had wanted to be involved. The degree of sewing skills varied widely, but the enthusiasm with which they had entered into the project clearly did not. It made me really want to create something which did justice to their creations. We had a grand unveiling of the quilt on Thursday, and a number of its makers were able to attend, and explain the inspiration behind their blocks. After so many hours spent working on banner, it was lovely for me to be able to put faces to some of the names, and to hear their stories.

The Chester centenery banner

Finally I can write about what I've been up to these last few weeks! Warning: this is a long post, as there's a lot to explain.

14 December was the centenery of the first general election in which (some) women were allowed to vote. In Chester this was marked yesterday with a day-long event exploring different aspects of the suffragettes and female political participation in Chester, called 'Chester: Suffragette City'.

The day was organised by Professor Emma Rees, a woman who manages to do far more with her time than seems reasonable. Among other things Emma is director of the Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester, and runs the MRes course on which I'm a student. One of the things Emma wanted to do for the event was make a banner, so she looked round for a helper to run the project - someone with an interest in women's history who could also sew. Which is how I got involved!

Banners played an important role in the suffragette's campaign for the vote. It was realized early on that they added a strong visual element to marches and rallies, which helped to get press coverage. This poster for a procession in 1911, in the suffragette colours of green, purple and white, emphasizes the banners as a selling point for the event.

Banners were made for groups of workers and for specific places: to show that the demand for women's suffrage was widespread and not just limited, as detractors claimed, to a few women.

Banner design for scriveners (writers)

Edinburgh banner, based on the city's coat of arms

Some banners also celebrated women of note, to make the point that for all these women had achieved, they were still denied the right to vote.

Jane Austen banner

Banner-making workshops were held, and Mary Lowndes, an artist who was also a suffragist, wrote a pamphlet entitled Banners and Banner-Making to help would-be banner-makers.

Image courtesy of the Women's Library at London School of Economics

Based on this research, Emma and I decided that our banner should represent notable women of Chester throughout its long history, and should be in suffragette colours. In the spirit of the original banner-makers, it also needed to be a design which could be worked upon by multiple people.

I cannot draw at all, but fortunately Emma knows a man who can. Graham Boyd is a designer and muralist, and he came up with a design which fitted our requirements perfectly. Emma put out a call for people who could sew and who wanted to be involved in the project, and we were off!

For making the banner I borrowed heavily from the instructions provided for the Processions project earlier this year. Graham provided a cartoon (a full-sized drawing of the design), and I used this to trace each section of the banner onto a separate piece of white cotton.

Tracing part of the design, the fabric is held in place with pattern weights

All of the drawing with a frixion pen, which uses an ink which becomes invisible when ironed (thank you to Leimomi Oakes, The Dreamstress, who first introduced me to this fabulous tool). Because the individual sections of the design were going to be held in place with bondaweb before being sewn down, it was very likely that the ironing would remove lines which would be needed later in the construction process. To get round this, I went over all lines which I thought might be affected with tacking stitches in different colours.

Using bondaweb means that the design elements have to be cut out back-to-front, prior to being ironed in place. This was relatively easy with the lettering, because I could copy it into a document and then flip it before printing it out. For other pieces it was more complicated, but I only got one (fortunately small) piece wrong.

Tracing the letters onto bondaweb and fusing it to the fabric

Some of the completed letters

The design was split into six sections, one of which was lettering only. Four of the other sections I made up into 'kits': containing the backing fabric, the coloured pieces, instructions, and a repair kit of spare bondaweb and fabric in case any gaps appeared when the pieces were put together. Fortunately none of the repair kits were needed. The sections were given out to the banner-makers, to be worked on at home. Although I had every faith in my co-workers, I must admit that I was still very relieved when I got the sections back, and everything matched at the joins!

It fits! The two sections of St Werburgh, with the pieces which cover the join laid on top

Sewing the sections together

This seems a good point to talk about the figures in the banner. Minerva represents the city's Roman period. She is the Roman goddess of wisdom and warfare, and as a result is frequently portrayed with an owl for the former, and a helmet, shield and spear for the latter. Chester has a shrine to Minerva, the only one of its kind in western Europe still in situ. The medieval period is represented by St Werburgh, an Anglo-Saxon princess who became a nun. She is the patron saint of Chester, and the cathedral is named after her. She is alleged to have brought a dead goose back to life, after it had been eaten!

The central figure of the group, worked separately so that she could be applied over the join between two sections, is Susannah Brown. Along with her sister, in 1780 Susannah Towsey founded what would eventually become Browns department store in Chester. This was a millinery and haberdashery business, and Graham depicted her holding a ribbon to reflect this. She appears to have been an astute businesswoman; even after her marriage the business was very much in her hands. Initially she would travel down to London herself to buy stock, but as the business grew she sent an assistant instead: records exist of her providing detailed instructions of which shops the assistant should visit, and what to buy. As no images of Susannah could be found, I went through my books on eighteenth century costume (an arduous task, but someone had to do it!) to provide Graham with some images from the period.

Frances Bulwer, 1794, from Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield

Susannah in progress

Black net was used to provide shading in areas which needed it, although there were a couple of times when I did regret my bright idea to add tiny sections of black net to accentuate Susannah's ringlets! Where a line was needed to separate two areas of the same colour, for example between Susannah's neck and her fichu, this was done by applying a length of narrow black ribbon. Small details, such as eyes and mouths, were cut out from black fabric.

As more pieces were sewn together, it became harder for multiple people to work on the banner at the same time. Where possible we got round this by sewing from opposite ends towards one another, or by adding detail to smaller pieces before they were attached to the banner.

Working on the banner

Finally all that was needed was to add the border and hanging loops, and we had a completed banner. It was unveiled by the banner-makers at the Suffragette City event yesterday, after a talk by Graham and me. I particularly love the way that Minerva's owl and Werburgh's goose balance each other, and the inclusion of #MeToo brings the design right up to date.

The completed banner

One of the speakers was Helen Pankhurst, granddaughter of Sylvia and great-granddaughter of Emmeline. It was a real thrill to listen to Helen speak while she stood in front of our banner.

Helen Pankhurst

It has been a very different project from the work I usually do, a steep learning curve at times, but great fun. A huge thank you to Emma for asking me to co-ordinate the project, to Graham for his fabulous design, and to my fellow banner-makers for all their hard work. Finally, here are a couple of pictures which Emma took on the day.

Onstage with Graham and the banner-makers

The banner alongside Graham's design

We Remember Them - the poppies project

Last Friday (22nd June) was the Centenary Service for We Remember Them 1918 - 2018, the University of Chester's commemoration of the 77 staff and students who lost their lives in World War One. The university sewing group's poppies project has been part of this.

77 poppies - one for each of the fallen

Most of the poppies were three-dimensional, but three had been worked in cross stitch. These were sewn flat onto the wreath, and the others attached around them.

The wreath with the cross stitch poppies and the third row attached

Once the wreath was complete, it had to be sewn onto the backing fabric. Because the backing would be laced across a board for the display, it needed to be stretched before the wreath was attached. Otherwise there was a danger it would tear when it was pulled taut. I got round this by pinning the stretched backing fabric across a large notice board, and then sewing on the wreath (with a metal ruler underneath where I was sewing, so that I didn't accidentally stitch the whole thing to the felt cover of the board). It was quite a stretch to reach across at the corners!

Attaching the wreath to the backing

The completed wreath sits inside a beautiful oak cabinet made especially for the project by Rob Nicholas, a very talented cabinet maker from Liverpool. Rob based the cabinet on World War One campaign chests; the wooden boxes soldiers were given to store their belongings. The cabinet can be displayed flat, or raised like a lectern in keeping with its academic surroundings. There is a poppy on each side of the base, and the names of the 77 are carved into the interior. It is a lovely piece; when Rob delivered it we were all thrilled.

The cabinet

Friday's commemoration began with a service in chapel, which had been specially decorated for the occasion. Because the university was originally a teacher training college, many of the 77 were teachers. The display included 77 crosses decorated by children at some of the schools where they had taught, along with more of the poppies.

The display in chapel

As part of We Remember Them, members of the Alumni Association had researched the names on the war memorial, and had been able to trace a number of their descendents. Many of these family members were able to come to the event, including one lady who travelled all the way from Australia! After the service there was a lunch in the dining rooms, and a chance to look round an exhibition of the information found so far.

Part of the exhibition

Posters about individual alumni

The poppies project display

All in all, it was a lovely day. It really brought the 77 to life; no longer just names listed on a  memorial, but individuals with stories and families, and lives cut cruelly short. It was a real priviledge to have been involved.

The wreath inside the cabinet

The poppies project - making the wreath

I've been very bad at posting about the Poppies project, the University of Chester sewing group's project to commemorate the 77 university staff and students who died in World War One.

In my defence, it's been difficult to post about. Unlike our previous project, this time most of the work has been done by group members at home. At each meeting more poppies were added to the collection, but not much actual sewing or knitting took place during meetings. One exception was when Nicola brought in her embroidery - her poppy was made up of four embroidered petals with wired edges.

The first petal of Nicola's embroidered poppy

We ended up with well in excess of the 77 poppies we had been aiming for; more than 100 over the target in fact! For various reasons, I hadn't been able to get fully involved in the project last year, so I offered to make up the wreath of 77 poppies which will be displayed in the campaign chest. The remaining poppies will be used in displays for the commemorative event, which takes place later this month.

The chest is being made specially for the project. I was given the internal dimensions, and decided that the simplest way to ensure that the wreath fitted inside was to make a mock-up from a cardboard box. It soon became obvious that the poppies would need to be tightly packed on the wreath; they completely filled the mock-up when laid flat.

The 77 poppies inside the cardboard 'chest'

The wreath base was made up from rings of 'bump'; thick curtain interlining fabric, sewn onto a base ring of heavy interfacing. The rings grew narrower, to create the curved shape - it ended up reminding me of the ending of Looney Tunes cartoons!

That's all Folks!

A final wide ring of bump was sewn over the top, to smooth the edges out. Fortunately bump both stretches and contracts quite easily.

Now looking more like an iced doughnut

Because the bump is quite fluffy, I had to cover it with a layer of cotton. This did not stretch to accommodate the curves, so I pleated it as I went round. To me the end result was reminiscent of puttees, the leg wraps worn by soldiers in World War One.

The completed wreath base

This gave me a base onto which I could sew the poppies. I sorted them by size and technique, and placed 12 of the smallest ones around the inner edge, and 26 of the largest ones around the outside. (Although the maximum size was meant to be 8-10cm diameter, there were some, ahem, 'generous' interptretations of these measurements!) As the photo shows, they had to be overlapped to fit them all in.

The first two rows of poppies

Sewing the poppies in place was hard work. Not all of them had backs which were easy to sew through; in some cases I had to attach a felt backing first, and sew that to the wreath. A lot of the time there wasn't room to manoeuvre the needle easily, so I had to use tweezers to pull it through the fabric.

The remaining poppies were attached in two further rings, of 17 and 22 flowers. These were even more awkward, as the space I had to work in got smaller and smaller. It was one of the trickiest things I've ever worked on, but the end result was worth it. I will post about that after the commemorative event, which takes place in a couple of weeks.