**Sold Out** Embroidery workshop: Jane Austen’s Lavender Bag

‘she has nevertheless desired me to remind you to purchase for her two bottles of Steele’s Lavender Water when you are in Town,’

Jane Austen, Wednesday 14 January 1801

We are delighted to welcome embroidery expert and Royal School of Needlework tutor Chrissie Juno Mann to Chawton for this exclusive workshop on site at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton.

In this full day event, Chrissie will lead a relaxing and inspiring session of hand embroidery, taking inspiration from the charming cottage garden at Jane Austen’s House. You will also enjoy an exclusive House tour and lots of Jane Austen discussion over cups of tea and a delicious lunch.

Over the course of the day you will make a pretty lavender bag, using a combination of stitches including silk ribbon work and a wonderful ribbon woven wheel for the centre. By the end of the session you will have created a charming memento of Jane Austen’s House and will have the skills to create more in your own time!

Lavender, with its clean, floral scent, has been a popular way to naturally scent baths, bed clothes and even hair from Roman times onwards. In the Regency era, lavender was predominantly used as a floral water or as dried flowers, placed in linen closets and dressing rooms to keep bugs at bay. It was also used as a medicinal herb, to help revive and refresh ladies in illness or distress.

Jane Austen would have been very familiar with it. In 1801 she asked Cassandra to purchase lavender water whilst she was in town, and a recipe for lavender water features in Martha Lloyd’s Household Book, kept whilst she lived with the Austens at Chawton. It also features in the novels – in Sense & Sensibility, Lady Middleton’s daughter is doused with lavender water by the attentive Miss Steeles.

Today, the pretty cottage garden at Jane Austen’s House is heady with lavender flowers in summer, as it would have been in Jane Austen’s day. Weather permitting, we will take our embroidery into the garden to take inspiration from the beautiful natural environment as we work!

This course is suitable for someone with some stitch experience.

The Essentials:

Date: Monday 23 August

Time: 10am – 4pm (British Summertime)

Location: Jane Austen’s House, Chawton (find us!)

Cost: £180

BOOK HERE **This event has now sold out. We are also running an online workshop**

Your ticket includes:

• An exclusive embroidery kit, created by Chrissie Juno Mann in collaboration with Jane Austen’s House, providing everything you need for the workshop. It will also contain a detailed instruction booklet that will allow you to recreate this embroidery design in the future.
• 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 Chrissie’s time and expertise as possible. This is a rare opportunity to have the House and Garden (almost) to yourself!

About the tutor

Chrissie Juno Mann is an award-winning artist and hand embroiderer and a qualified tutor for the Royal School of Needlework. Based in the heart of the New Forest, she trained as a specialist in the art of hand embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework, Hampton Court Palace. She teaches around the UK, both for the RSN and independently, creating inspiring day classes and embroidery retreats, as well as creating her own work.

Chrissie’s love of animals and the environment underlies much of her work, along with an interest in cultural history. She loves working with historical homes and unique sites of interest to create exciting classes that appeal to their visitors.

Find more about Chrissie at https://www.cloudjuno.co.uk/

About the embroidery kit:

The embroidery kit has been specially created by Chrissie Juno Mann in collaboration with Jane Austen’s House for this event; it includes all the materials you need to complete the project.

Please bring your own scissors and embroidery hoop (6” or 8” seat frame or clap hoop).

Contact details:

Please ensure that you provide a valid email address, so we can contact you with booking confirmation and any further details.

Cancellation:

We will do everything we can to ensure that this event can go ahead as planned, however we retain the right to cancel or postpone the event if necessary, in which case you will be entitled to a full refund.