V126: A Colonial Williamsburg Pocket for Colonial Williamsburg

I’m about to leave on a West Coast cruise for eight days and I thought I’d take along some embroidery.  I’m not much of an embroiderer, but it interests me, and I thought it would be fitting to try my hand at embroidering my version of a pocket from the Colonial Williamsburg collection for our trip to Colonial Williamsburg in October.  Fitting!

American, 1740-1770; This is the only image of the pocket I could find online, from CW’s eMuseum, but “Costume Closeup” has much better images, if you have that book.

I used the pattern from Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern, 1750-1790 and printed it out close to the actual size noted in the book – 17.5″ x 14″ .  I will be embroidering on a medium weight cotton-linen ground, with your everyday embroidery floss.

The pattern from “Costume Closeup”

I don’t intend to follow the color scheme of the original pocket, but to instead just go as it seems right, and try some of the techniques in 18th Century Embroidery Techniques.  Here’s another pocket from Colonial Williamsburg’s collection, with more striking colors:

American, 1740-1760

The original pocket is bound in printed cotton bindings, but I love the look of petersham in a contrasting color…but first I have to get through all the embroidery!