A Woman's Place Was in the Home
The vintage hand-embroidered pieces (towels, table runners, dresser scarves....) were made by Anna Drotleff (1894-1978) and are now a 1950s style wrap dress. There is a matching coat seen on the next page. My goal was to show as much of her handiwork as possible by giving it new life out of storage.
The dress itself was made by me. The pattern is a vintage 1950s one that has been in my collection forever. This is the 3rd dress made using this pattern as the base form. The individual pieces of this garment were cut apart to salvage the needlework. I discarded the stained and dirty center parts. The front is made from the ends of dish towels, hence the center seam as a towel is not that wide. The skirt pieces were specifically chosen for their designs as far as style, scale and color. When we broke up mother-in-law’s house, we found about 20+++ file boxes stuffed full of needlework pieces. I tossed the worst of them, donated a few, and kept the rest. My husband’s mom saved everything her mother had ever made. Dresser scarves, chair scarves, tablecloths, towels, runners, hankies, pillowcases, baby clothes.... This dress used what I considered the uglier of the pieces so I did not mind cutting them up.
2019
The dress itself was made by me. The pattern is a vintage 1950s one that has been in my collection forever. This is the 3rd dress made using this pattern as the base form. The individual pieces of this garment were cut apart to salvage the needlework. I discarded the stained and dirty center parts. The front is made from the ends of dish towels, hence the center seam as a towel is not that wide. The skirt pieces were specifically chosen for their designs as far as style, scale and color. When we broke up mother-in-law’s house, we found about 20+++ file boxes stuffed full of needlework pieces. I tossed the worst of them, donated a few, and kept the rest. My husband’s mom saved everything her mother had ever made. Dresser scarves, chair scarves, tablecloths, towels, runners, hankies, pillowcases, baby clothes.... This dress used what I considered the uglier of the pieces so I did not mind cutting them up.
2019