Good morning,

I’m going to be away for the next two weeks, and I’ll be leaving you to the brainy charms of Saxey for the next fortnight. Longtime subscribers will know that this is always a treat, I’m looking forward to it as much as you are.

It’s my sister in law’s wedding tomorrow, and as this will be an event involving lots of bright and happy textiles, please enjoy a Fem Friday that’s all about using embroidery and sewing to put your own stamp on the world. We start with a great piece on body image and making your own clothes. It makes it sound like something that’s a lot less difficult than I’d previously assumed, so I’m interested in any stories you have on how easy or hard, or rewarding or frustrating, this is:

I want the clothes I imagine, and not from some distant past. And I won’t wait for some distant future, where it makes economic sense for brands to grade their clothing patterns to the middle of the road, or somehow intuit my exact and perfect shape. I have the tools, and the skills, and I will do it myself. I’ll grade the patterns myself. I can do it. I’ll sew the garments myself.

https://catapult.co/stories/what-we-wear-mapping-my-body-with-sewing-patterns

Moving from the new to the traditional, please enjoy this lovely map/visualisation showing the different embroidery traditions of Pakistan:

http://mymodernmet.com/pakistan-india-embroidery-map/

My favourite of these pictured above is Phulkari, so here’s a video on the traditions of Phulkari embroidery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6tiOyn7wic

I liked these traditional styles even more when I read this article, which makes the point that embroidery is like handwriting – that everyone has their own identifiable style even within traditions like those seen above. This is actually about making clothes for Game Of Thrones, which I am aware is not real history, but the point stands:

Like drawing, embroidery is inseparable from its maker’s hand, and embroiderers have recognizable styles: Carragher’s lines tend to be flowing and organic, with a loose, gestural vitality, and she is fascinated by plants and insects. “Growing up on the Isle of Wight, I was always collecting dead butterflies and things off the ground,” she told me. “With Cersei over the years, with her various lion embroideries, I’ve thought, Right, I’m going to pick a sculpture and copy it exactly—but when I start to stitch it winds up drifting back into my world.”

www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/embroidering-game-of-thrones

Happy making!

A xx.