Embroidery workshop: handkerchief

This Whitework embroidery day is inspired by a precious object from the collection: a handkerchief that Jane embroidered for her sister Cassandra, held in the Museum collection.

We’ll be stitching our own embroidered initials to decorate a beautiful Irish linen hemstitch edged handkerchief of our own – a lovely treat for yourself or a very special gift for a loved one.

Stitches that will be covered during the class include Padded Satin stitch, Stem stitch, Trailing and Eyelets. Each stitch will be demonstrated after which you will have time to practice. You’ll be shown how to personalise the handkerchief with your choice of initials, and how to create a stunning border.

Some experience of surface embroidery would be helpful for this class to enable you to achieve as much as possible during the session.

The day will include a tour of Jane Austen’s House, focussing on Jane’s sewing and embroidery work and items of dress on display. We’ll discuss her proficiency with a needle as well as a pen, and allusions she made in her letters to sewing projects she and her family worked on.

We’ll include refreshments throughout the day, including a delicious lunch, lashings of tea and plenty of cake!

We’ll also provide an embroidery kit with everything you need for this project, including a beautiful Irish linen hemstitch edged handkerchief.

The only things you’ll need to bring are some embroidery scissors and a magnifier if you think you might benefit from using one. It would be useful to have a pencil and paper in case you wish to take extra notes.

Details:

Date: Saturday 3 September

Time: 10am – 4pm (British Summertime)

Location: This event will take place onsite at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton. Find us

Tickets: £95

BOOK HERE

🫖 We’ll provide refreshments throughout the day, including a delicious light lunch, afternoon cake and of course plenty of tea throughout the day! If you have any dietary requirements, please let us know after booking.

✂️ We’ll provide everything you need for this project, but please bring your own embroidery scissors!

🪡 Some experience of surface embroidery would be helpful for this class to enable you to achieve as much as possible during the session.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Capacity for this event will be kept very low, to allow everyone to have as much of Jacqui’s time and expertise as possible.

Your ticket includes:

• An exclusive embroidery kit, created by Jacqui McDonald in collaboration with Jane Austen’s House, providing everything you need for the workshop.
• Lunch and light refreshments throughout the day.
• Exclusive House tour led by an expert from Jane Austen’s House.
• The capacity for this event will be kept very low, to allow everyone to have as much of Jacqui’s time and expertise as possible.

About the tutor: Jacqui McDonald

Jacqui is an embroidery designer and tutor. She has been with the Royal School of needlework since she joined as an apprentice 20 years ago. Since then she has been teaching on the Certificate and Diploma course at Hampton Court Palace where students learn many traditional techniques of embroidery. Jacqui also teaches day classes and summer schools here in the UK and America, leads an online course called ‘Technical Tuesdays’ to customers across the globe who want to study and perfect a different stitch and its variants each week.

Over the last five years Jacqui has been working as the lead embroiderer on the new RSN online Stitchbank that was released in 2021. She is also the author of the RSN Essential stitch guide to Crewelwork and the owner of a website specialising in embroidery materials and her own Crewelwork designs. Find out more…