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A Bustle & Sew Publication Copyright © Bustle & Sew Limited 2023 The right of Helen Grimes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this book is accurate. However, due to differing conditions, tools and individual skills, the publisher cannot be responsible for any injuries, losses and other damages that may result from the use of the information in this book.
First published 2023 by: Bustle & Sew Station House West Cranmore Shepton Mallet BA4 4QP www.bustleandsew.com
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Welcome to the January Magazine Hello everyone Another Christmas is behind us and we’re heading at what sometimes seems like the speed of light into the New Year. Outside the weather may be cold and grey - but in my garden there is still some colour. The viburnum is starry with tiny ice cream-pink blossoms, glittering with frost on a rare cold but sunny day, whilst the feeders are the centre of activity as hungry birds cluster and await (whether patiently or not) their turn to feast on the seeds, nuts and other goodies the Engineer puts out for them every day. There’s colour in this month’s magazine too as we greet the earliest signs of spring with the Snowdrops hoop - after all they’ll be coming into bloom here in the mild south-west by the end of the month. And if you’re snuggled up with a lovely new book - a Christmas present perhaps - then the little felt Library Fox could be the perfect make for you! There’s a felt bunny head, all snuggled up in his warm winter scarf, a pair of joyous magpies and much more besides to discover in this month’s magazine. And before you turn the page, I’d like to wish you a very happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year 2024! Best wishes
Helen xx
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January Although we are told that “January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow,” in fact we are more likely to experience frost than snow, which usually arrives a little later in winter, at least here in the mild southwest of England. Frost, ice and snow make life hard for our non-hibernating wildlife, especially birds and small mammals, whilst also causing major problems for travellers - motorists and pedestrians alike and sometimes it can feel as though winter will never end. But don’t despair. Although trees are bare and everywhere seems on first inspection quite lifeless, in fact the rhythm of life has simply slowed, not stopped altogether. Many animals are
hibernating and migratory birds have headed south for warmer climes, so fewer birds will be seen in the fields and hedgerows. Many insects will be hiding or hibernating in the leaf mould or tree bark and you may be lucky and spot various species of birds hunting for them, including woodpeckers, wrens, robins and blackbirds. You may even hear the last before you see them as they briskly toss decaying leaves aside in their never-ending search for food. The winter months are also the most likely time to catch sight of an owl in daylight, since the shortage of food forces them to hunt for many more hours than is necessary in the summertime.
The winter months are also a good time to see owls in daylight as the shortage of food forces them to hunt for many more hours than in the summer months. In many places farmers move cattle and other stock indoors to over-winter in barns. Ploughing the fields in preparation for sewing is the first task of the agricultural year. The first Monday after Epiphany (6 January) is known as Plough Monday, this was formerly the day that farmhands returned to work after their Christmas holiday - not that they actually did much work on this day as it was marked by various ceremonies and usually ended in general merrymaking. The plough would have been blessed at the church and then paraded around the parish by the farm labourers collecting money from householders along the way.
Although the shortest day is past and gone, January is a dark month here in northern Europe, the nights are still long and on dull overcast days it often feels as though there is precious little daylight to enjoy at all. Once the festive season is over, it’s time for us all to return to work - sadly the days when the festivities lasted for the full twelve days of Christmas are long behind us now. The cheerful seasonal envelopes dropping on our doormat bringing flocks of robins, When icicles hang by the wall…… snowmen and reindeer have been When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul, replaced by those plain versions with windows containing bills, offers of life Then nightly sings the staring owl, insurance and other such delights, Tu-who; Tu-whit, a merry note, then the beginning of January can seem a little flat - even depressing.
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January 6 brings the festival of Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the Magi - the three wise men who travelled from the East to worship the baby Jesus, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In the Orthodox Church it marks the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist around thirty years later. Also known as Twelfth Day or Twelfth Night, this is the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas and is the date by which you should take down your Christmas decorations to avoid bad luck. On Twelfth Night at London’s Drury Lane Theatre, the cast of the current show are served with a glass of wine and a piece of cake by staff in powdered wigs and 18th century livery, courtesy of the actor and former chef Robert Baddeley, who died in 1794 and left money in his will to fund this annual treat. Twelfth Night was a major occasion for festivities up until Victorian times, but today it’s almost entirely forgotten as we celebrate the New Year instead. Christmas carols were traditionally sung during the twelve days of Christmas, ending with a play but today
carol-singing more or less finishes after Christmas Day itself. The wassail bowl was also drunk during the twelve days of Christmas, sometimes as late as Old Twelfth Night (17 or 18 January) for the tradition of wassailing. In its most basic form this custom involved sprinkling fruit trees with ale or cider, hanging toasting the bushes and firing shots. Things could get more complicated though - one account describes how the wassailers meet after dusk on Old Twelfth Night with guns, lights and horns, and cider. They gather around “Apple Tree Man” - the most fruitful tree. Apple Tree Man is fed with cider or ale and toast or cake placed on its branches to attract robins, the guardians of the orchard. The Tree is showered with cider and wassailing songs are sung…
“Old apple tree, old apple tree, We’ve come to wassail thee, To bear and bow apples enow, Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full, Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs”
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January brings the snow… Makes our feet and fingers glow.
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A London Author: A (very) little about Molly Hughes Molly (christened Mary) Thomas was born in 1866. She attended the North London Collegiate School and the Cambridge Training College for Women, and was later awarded her BA in London. As head of the training department at Bedford College from 1892 until 1897, she played an important role in expanding and rationalising the teacher-training curriculum. It was Molly Hughes who wrote the snowdrop poem featured in the snowdrop hoop project. She was a pioneer of women’s education, though is perhaps best known today for her trilogy of books, “A London Child of the Seventies,” “A London Girl of the Eighties” and “A London Home of the Nineties” about her family life in the later decades of the nineteenth century. A London Child (my favourite of the trilogy) tells of the life of a London stockbroker, Tom Thomas, his wife, Mary, and their five children, as recalled by their youngest child and only daughter, Molly. "We were just an ordinary, suburban, Victorian family, undistinguished ourselves and unacquainted with distinguished people," Molly says at the beginning of her book. She writes, in a simple and lively way, of the life she shared with her four brothers, Barnholt, Vivian, Tom and Charles; of going to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, and supper at the grill in the theatre afterwards (with a glass of wine to add "that touch of diablerie"); of walking a mazelike route of side streets from Canonbury to St Paul's on Christmas Day; of going on excursions up the Thames to Kew, things we enjoy doing still today. But “A London Child” ends tragically. Molly's father is run over and killed in a railway accident. After her father's death Molly's life was very hard. Her father had left no money and so his children had to put aside their larger ambitions and go to work. (Molly became a teacher.) One of her brothers, Charles, dies, of a sudden illness, in his twenties, just as he is finally about to find time to paint, while Barnholt becomes a sailor, and dies in South America. Molly is courted by a very good, very poor young lawyer - a clerk, really - named Arthur Hughes. After an engagement of ten years, they marry and have a daughter named Bronwen. But Bronwen dies, too, suddenly and cruelly, just after her first birthday. And, finally, in an unspeakable irony, Arthur is killed in the same kind of accident that claimed Molly's father. And yet Molly resolutely shook off despair. She actually wrote all three books in her family trilogy as an old lady, living alone in the 1930s in a cottage in the suburbs. But she kept to the end of her life all the clarity and mischief of a happy child. What Molly wrote in tribute to her mother was true of Molly, too: "She had braved her full share of tragedy, and yet had always managed to 8
suck merriment from the least cheerful surroundings." Molly died in 1956. If you’re interested in reading any of her books, they are available still on Amazon.
Stuck on you… some notes on Applique!
Pattern from issue 147 of the Bustle & Sew Magazine 9
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Nor, even at this barest of seasons, is the earth utterly flowerless. At every breath of mild air, dandelions and daisies peer up from the turf; violets and primroses open singly in sheltered garden nooks; the lesser celandine in the lanes opens a golden eye to the sun, or turns the papery white of closed petals to the wind. All of them smile upon winter’s face, the more precious for their rarity….
January in the Kitchen Garden The work to be done in the kitchen garden in January depends altogether upon the weather. In open frosty weather no opportunity should be lost for wheeling manure on the vacant ground. All the refuse about the grounds should be collected and added to the manure heap, and that burned or charred which will not readily decompose, should also be added to it. This is also the season when the forethought of the gardener may be exhibited. He has to lay down his plan of operations for the year, or at least for the next three months; and on his judgment in doing this much of the successful cultivation depends. If he covers too much ground with early crops in these three months, not only will great waste arise, but he will have forestalled the space required for the main crops in April, May, and June, when some of the most important crops are to be sown. He should make his calculations now, o as to secure a constant succession of the various products as they are required, but leaving little or nothing to run to waste. It is a good practice, in going through the orchard, bush fruit, and trees generally, to cut off all spare wood at this season, assort them as to size and shape, and tie them up in bundles ready for use as pea sticks and other purposes.
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A (very) Little Look at Hand Sewing Needles
One of the earliest stories to mention sewing needles can be found in the Bible when Adam and Eve sew fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, while evidence of use of needles with an eye dates back as far as 25,000 years and more - a remarkable history indeed. In the seventeenth century a silver or gold needle was considered a splendid gift amongst the wealthy and kept secure in a leather pouch at the waist. Two hundred years later however, manufacture of the humble needle became a toxic and risky occupation, taken over by the introduction of machinery in 1828 and by 1847 50 million needles
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Comfort and Warmth…
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Making Marmalade When the harvest of orangeblossom is plucked and the wild oranges turn golden, everyone picks them for a delicious bitter marmalade. Neighbours this year vied with each other in showering these wild oranges upon us until Emilia, grown desperate, announced her intention of making marmalade at once. From that moment everything in the house became sticky. Emilia and Lucienne were up to the eyes in marmalade. The kitchen table and all that was laid thereon became coated with it. Forks, spoons, and knives tuck to our hands, plates clung to the tablecloth. The smell of cooking oranges pervaded the whole house; every casserole and kitchen vessel was filled with soaking oranges; the stove completely covered with preserving pans, some of them borrowed from an obliging American neighbour. Even our was stiffened with marmalade after the sticky hands of Lucienne had ironed and folded it; for in Provence the maids do all the household ironing as part of their job. When a mass of pots were filled and I had soaked papers in brandy to preserve the marmalade, and we had tied on the covers and labelled the jars, Emilia proudly invited to enter her “jam-shop.” When he made his enthusiastic exit, his feet stuck to the parquet in his study. He had been paddling in marmalade.
from Perfume from Provence, 1935 by Winifred Fortescue (1888-1951)
Classic Seville Orange Marmalade Ingredients ● 1.3kg Seville orange ● 2 lemons, juice only ● 2.6kg preserving or granulated sugar
Method ● Put the whole oranges and lemon juice in a large preserving pan and cover with 2 litres/4 pints water - if it does not cover the fruit, use a smaller pan. If necessary weight the oranges with a heat-proof plate to keep them submerged. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for around 2 hours, or until the peel can be easily pierced with a fork. ● Warm half the sugar in a very low oven. Pour off the cooking water from the oranges into a jug and tip the oranges into a bowl. Return cooking liquid to the pan. Allow oranges to cool until they are easy to handle, then cut in half. Scoop out all the pips and pith and add to the reserved orange liquid in the pan. Bring to the boil for 6 minutes, then strain this liquid through a sieve into a bowl and press the pulp through with a wooden spoon - it is high in pectin so gives marmalade a good set. ● Pour half this liquid into a preserving pan. Cut the peel, with a sharp knife, into fine shreds. Add half the peel to the liquid in the preserving pan with the warm sugar. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, for about 10 minutes, then bring to the boil and bubble rapidly for 15- 25 minutes until setting point is reached. ● Take pan off the heat and skim any scum from the surface. (To dissolve any excess scum, drop a small knob of butter on to the surface, and gently stir.) Leave the marmalade to stand in the pan for 20 minutes to cool a little and allow the peel to settle; then pot in sterilised jars, seal and label. Repeat from step 3 for second batch, warming the other half of the sugar first.
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In Dark Weather Against the gaunt, brown-purple hill The bright brown oak is brown and bare; A pale-brown flock is feeding there Contented, still. No bracken lights the bleak hill-side; No leaves are on the branches wide; No lambs across the field have cried; - Not yet. But whorl by whorl the green fronds climb; The ewes are patient till their time; The warm buds swell beneath the rime For life does not forget.
The Royal School of Needlework was founded in 1872 with a mission to preserve the art of hand embroidery. To mark its 150th anniversary the RSN launched the RSN Stitch Bank to continue this mission. The RSN Stitch Bank aims to digitally conserve and showcase the wide variety of the world’s embroidery stitches and the ways in which they have been used in different cultures and times. The RSN Stitch Bank is an ongoing project and new stitches are added regularly. The RSN will be working with partners around the world to include stitches from different traditions.
Every year we lose historic textiles through wear, age, and the more aggressive routes of war, neglect and destruction. We know that stitches from history have been lost because they fall out of use. Then, when an older embroidered piece is discovered, curators and museum staff cannot recognise the stitches. Textiles and the knowledge of stitches throughout the world continue to be threatened by wars and other disturbances, as well as changes in manufacturing processes. Stitchers can use the RSN Stitch Bank to find a new stitch to use in a project and learn how to make it using videos, written instructions, illustrations and photographs for each stitch. Researchers, curators, historians and students can use the site to learn about the use, structure and history of each stitch in a range of embroidery techniques and to identify a stitch on a textile. You can browse the stitch wall here You can also create your own folder and save the stitches you are most interested in. It is all completely free and an amazing resource for stitchers!
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Templates
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