![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-1.jpg\")
\nThe fabric was African printed cotton. Birds flew across it. As if it had a theme–Postoffice Air Mail. <\/p>\n
London, England, August, 2017
\nThe woman who got on the bus ahead of me was white, as am I. I followed her down the aisle towards the only empty seats. An aisle seat was almost vacant. A black woman sitting in the window seat had most of her billowing cotton dress scrunched under her.<\/p>\n
She looked at the woman ahead of me and patted the seat. Her big smile revealed she was missing one of her front teeth. The white woman nodded no, and kept on going.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The lady beside the window patted the seat out to me. We did a little pantomine. Wasn\u2019t the woman ahead of me going to sit there ? No, it was vacant. I pulled off my back pack (without hitting anyone on the head) sat, and noticed that Window Seat Woman had on an amazing yellow dress with cut out sleeves. \u00ab Love your dress, \u00bb I said.<\/p>\n
\nThe fabric was African printed cotton. Birds flew across it. As if it had a theme–Postoffice Air Mail. <\/p>\n
Me : Hey I\u2019ve got that fabric at home. It\u2019s neat isn\u2019t it ? All those birds flying like they\u2019re on a mission.
\nWoman : I\u2019m going to my church to help decorate for a wedding, so I got dressed up.
\nMe : Well, you look great.<\/p>\n
We sat in silence, and then she turned to me.<\/em> We jabbered on and found we\u2019d both arrived in London in 1964, we\u2019d both found work. She felt people\u2019s dislike of her still. But I\u2019d made her smile and she\u2019d be smiling all day.<\/p>\n My stop was next and once again, \u00ab God Bless You \u00bb said the woman.<\/p>\n Me : God Bless you. You\u2019ve made me feel wonderful.<\/p>\n Both of us smiled ear to ear and we kept Blessing each other as I got off the bus. I turned and waved goodbye. I\u2019m not addicted to the British journal \u00ab selvedge THE FABRIC OF YOUR LIFE \u00bb<\/strong> but I am a Heavy User. (https:\/\/www.selvedge.org<\/a>) <\/p>\n And I do have fabric : my sister\u2019s Stash, my mother\u2019s Stash, and my Stash. Hoarded bits & pieces of not \u2018fabrics\u2019 but upper echelon \u2018Textiles\u2019 from all over the world.<\/p>\n Midsummer. I arrive in London, England for a Jetlag Recovery week with my childhood friend, Susan.<\/p>\n First we did London\u2019s Victoria and Albert Museum with an exhibition of the Spanish couturier Crist\u00f3bal Balenciaga\u2019s work (1895-1972). How influential was Balenciaga \u2013 in the fashion world? Christian Dior called him \u201cthe master of us all.\u201d Alma-Tadema\u2019s art is amazing. Beginning around 1911, he influenced films with \u201cthe look of antiquity\u201d from the original Birth of a Nation to Ridley Scott\u2019s (2000) Gladiator.\t<\/p>\n Now to France, to Toulouse, to a special bus on the way to Chateau Dumas. We were a motley crew\u2026but somehow the same\u2026linen, creases and folds, floaty silks, three-meter long scarves, and chunky jewellery, if any at all. Limited hairstyles, a variety of colours (that\u2019s skin and hair), multiple languages — English being prevalent. And it was difficult to pin an age on any one of us.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a corner of what we found. It doesn\u2019t show the whole Chateau but it does show my view from the dormer window, at the top, on the right. And to the right of that is my all-mod-cons ensuite in the brick square on top of the \u201ctower\u201d.<\/p>\n Ahhh, the French Chateau \u2014 Chateau Dumas. I\u2019ve been tied in knots trying to write about it. Any description sounds very la-de-dah and letters to me from the other \u201cDumasiennes\u201d (Get it??? Chateau Dumas\u2026) are full of words like \u201cmagical\u201d (not that it isn\u2019t). We began with Flea Markets where we bought strange-and-plain, mid-1800s night-shift-dress-like things in coarse linen. We tore them apart and remade them into other scratchy wearables, maybe even cool fashion in some cases.<\/p>\n Inside was a different style: If It\u2019s Not Out And Visible, I Can\u2019t See It to Use It. I didn\u2019t know other people worked this way too — in visible chaos. <\/p>\n Lines of little dots of blood showed the paths of my sewing. The fabric in all the shifts was tougher than denim and there was a lot of hand sewing. Especially by moi sewing on buttons. I kept stabbing my fingers, not buttons, which made me bleed. Blood on the garment? No problem. Here, sew this over the blood. And I DID have a thimble. Too awkward.<\/p>\n One of the Dumasiennes commented that every time she visited the studio, I was sitting in a corner, by a window, quietly sewing on buttons. Below, left, is a close up that doesn\u2019t show my blood under the three tiny shirt buttons in the photo. At the top of the coat in the right photo, is part of a donated\u201cfound\u201d garter. And you can see the improvised pocket I made from a fitted section of the split-crotch bloomers. Darts made them fit snugly over your derri\u00e8re. Now they make a perfect pocket on the lab coat covered in relics from the studio floor.<\/p>\n When you sew, your mind wanders. Or perhaps you are practicing a kind of meditation. Or daydreaming. Or trying spiritual renewal\u2026did I just write that??? What ever it is, it gives the sensation that your hands are connected to a million points in your brain\u2026yet they still follow instructions. Under your face, your brain circuits are firing, and your Mona Lisa mouth (you wish) has a secret smile.<\/p>\n I stumbled into this cramped space under some stairs and found hats, clothes, and scarfs from other workshops, attractively set out, of course, beside a case of textile reference books including \u00ab The Quilts from Gee\u2019s Bend \u00bb. A classic. The ladies of Gee\u2019s Bend are folk heroines. They are descendents of slaves and put their children through university by selling their marvelous, unique quilts. They were made of every scrap that passed through the women\u2019s lives from burlap bags to plantation workers\u2019 old dungarees. <\/p>\n The ladies of Gee\u2019s Bend were inspired by, and helped by, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who went to Gee\u2019s Bend and told them to take the ferry to Camden and register to vote. \u201cYou are somebody,\u201d he told the residents. \u201cCross the river for Freedom\u201d. They did.<\/p>\n Selma, & Gee\u2019s Bend (February 10, 2015)<\/a><\/p>\n This is the Chateau\u2019s central stone staircase with shoes and shoemakers\u2019 lasts artfully placed. The lace-up black \u201cSchool Marm\u201d shoes looked as if they\u2019d belonged to a girl who did the can-can. And they might have. An \u2018entrepreneur\u2019 drops off new shoes to dancers who use them until the shoes are scuffed, wrinkled and \u201cold\u201d. That could take five years. And then the messed-up and worn-out shoes go to a flea market to be sold.<\/p>\n Flea Markets. French. The first market in nearby St. Antonin Noble Val, included brocante\/antiques, textiles, leather, linen, lace, cheap clothing and a few farmers with their crops. The usual. We held back \u2013 we knew about the other market, in our own town, Auty. We were right. More Stash.<\/p>\n Tea Time Outside the Studios. Twice a day we had Official breaks. We were forced to eat up leftover desserts on these breaks. It was tough going. Breakfast\/ tea break\/ lunch\/ tea break\/ glass of wine, champagne if we were lucky\/ dinner. All delicious. All French. Local produce. Local wine. In berry picking season. Easy to divide into dishes for vegetarians, vegans and hearty meat, fish and seafood eaters.<\/p>\n Marlene: experienced Dumasienne. Attended Chateau the previous year. Currently lives in South Africa and sends us her fabulous photos.<\/p>\n Rachel Hazel instructor. Textile Narratives: Book Art Journaling Specialist. Lives in Edinburgh & Isle of Iona. www.rachelhazell.com<\/a> Rachel laughs continuously so we all want to be near her.<\/p>\n Christine Mayer. Clothing Instructor covering : Design, Workshops, and is also a Specialist for Retreats. Christine lives in Berlin. christine@intothelight.de<\/a> <\/p>\n Bought or brought or wrought?<\/strong> Christine showed no excitement for my handmade silk pajamas from the 1920s or 30s China. Just as well. Here they sit on the two scratchy linen shifts I bought.<\/p>\n The Coat again. Christine was taken by my two dense linen shifts. I\u2019d also bought equaly heavy, lace-trimed split-crotch pantaloons often called knickers. Neat eh. They were essentially two legs open at the bottom and the crotch, and attached to a waistband at the top. Easy access to your privates. I decided to make a coat. What was I thinking? It was summer in the south of France. But Christine set me off on the right track and I \u00ab freely \u00bb draped a shift and the pantoloons on a dressmakers\u2019 judy. <\/p>\n Christine helped each one of us. I don\u2019t know how she kept track. Every so often she stopped and gave us useful instructions such as how we could make our own sleeves and pants patterns, instead of stealing them from old patterns. Hemming garments wasn\u2019t high on Christine\u2019s list and you know, it worked. On her. <\/p>\n Christine is calm, encouraging, supportive, brillant, and mystical in the nicest possible way. She dressed in her own creations, pale or outright white, threads hanging from all over them. No need to hem anything just listen to the fabric like she told you to, and if you\u2019re honest and committed, by the end it will all work out. Be positive. Think good thoughts. You know, all that stuff you hear at craft fairs. Except the Dumasiennes and Christine mean it.<\/p>\n Nida never stopped. She made a colorful and splendid coat for Marlene. Nida made it the night before. In her \u2018spare\u2019 time. <\/p>\n Gigi adjusts the coat and its ruffley sleeves. Every workshop should have a Gigi. <\/p>\n Gigi\u2019s foot recovered and she met the Butten Man who surely has a real name. Never heard it. He travels in a van stuffed with notions from the past\u2026that is thousands of buttens, ribbons, hooks and eyes and really neat cast aways. A tiny pen knife with a pearl handle ingraved, \u00abA Souvenir of Our Lady of Lourdes \u00bb appeared and he put it into my hand mumbling \u00ab un Cadeau \u00bb. (I think, I\u2019m not French Canadian). Well that got the bargaining going. And Gigi and the rest of us received quirky but appreciated deals. Fabrication Proph\u00e8te These snaps were Guanteed not to rust.<\/p>\n Another day. We used woad to die clothes and textiles we\u2019d brought with us. Woad???? What colour is woad? Blue\u2026looks like indigo but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s a medieval plant called woad (Isatis tinctoria) and it\u2019s known as The European Blue. There\u2019s a certain order to doing things with woad and there are many steps and rules. I kind of glazed over.<\/p>\n I do know you have to slide the fabric into the huge dye vat without bubbles forming. The oxygen in the bubbles of air starts the woad working. And if you try to take your piece out to check the colour, and you\u2019re clumsey like me, someone else\u2019s fabric will hook on your long stick, the fabric will get a shot of oxygen and you have to take the whole piece out with a lot if your new-found friends shouting at you as the dyed piece turns green here, blue there, darker blue over there. It will eventually work out. Or not.<\/p>\n Google Denise Lamert, the woman with the blue hands (to the right, below), knows all, and is a good guide. She\u2019s wringing out something just dyed with woad. Denise supplied the rest of us with rubber aprons and rubber gloves. Denise\u2019 head is stuffed with information. Napoleon\u2019s army wore uniforms blue with woad. That blue probably takes many dips in the dye vat. But it\u2019s a swell fact.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know why I zoned out so often in Woad 101\u2013 maybe the way the dyed samples surrounded us as if we were in a fairy tale \u2013 and we were all princesses. After a week you get used to it. And to constant smiling Dumasiennes. And textile conversations. And ros\u00e9. Or red. Or white. Or Champagne.<\/p>\n We put on a fashion show.<\/p>\n We hung out. Mainly, we laughed.<\/p>\n And we worked and designed, and sewed. And bled.<\/p>\n Dear Dumasiennes ,<\/p>\n Barbara<\/p>\n August, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" London, England, August, 2017 The woman who got on the bus ahead of me was white, as am I. I followed her down the aisle towards the only empty seats. An aisle seat was almost vacant. A black woman sitting in the window seat had most of her billowing cotton dress scrunched under her. She […]<\/p>\n Read More...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":744,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWoman : You\u2019ve made my day.
\nMe : I have ?
\nWoman : People here don\u2019t look a person like me in the eye. They don\u2019t want to sit beside me\u2013like that woman. They ignore me. You spoke to me, you\u2019re nice and, you\u2019ve made my day.
\nMe : I\u2019m Canadian. We\u2019re very polite.
\nWoman : Well God Bless you.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-2.jpg\")
\nA little bird made me do it. No.
\nFabric made me do it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-3.jpg\")
Every year, Selvedge hosts several all-inclusive residential craft workshops at Chateau Dumas, a private estate with 18th century interiors, and glorious panoramic views \u2013 set amongst rolling hills in peaceful, scenic countryside less than an hour north of Toulouse international airport. Don\u2019t be put off by the word craft in their description. Think high art.
\nLast winter, Selvedge advertised a workshop \u00bb Free-Draping: A New Purpose for Vintage Textiles with Christina Mayer\u201d. You live in the Ch\u00e2teau, all your meals are provided by a chef ; there\u2019s an outdoor salt-water swimming pool; some of the rooms are ensuite, all are renovated and I signed up. Fast. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cBoy, I did this trip in the right order.\u201d I mumbled. Here was Balenciaga\u2019s take on \u201cFree-Draping\u201d (left) at the very entrance to the exhibition. Look at that sleeve. Free form draping or what?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-4.jpg\")
In the Leighton House Museum, I soaked up work by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Talk about drapery. Alma-Tadema was a Victorian painter. Here he is described in his show\u2019s catalogue: \u201cToday, he is best known for scenes of beautiful women in classical dress, on white marble Terraces that overlook a blue Mediterranean sea.\u201d I\u2019m not an art critic but the words \u201cromantic greeting cards\u201d spring to mind. So do Buttons \u2018n Bows Dancing on Draped Fabrics. I\u2019m being glib. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-5.jpg\")
Ten to sixteen women, including instructors. We all loved textiles, sewing, long straight pins and sharp scissors. Never were there sharp words. Considering that none of us were vetted before we arrived, together we were as one. Sigh.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-6.jpg\")
No corner of the Chateau has been left undecorated, styled as if we were there to do a photo shoot \u2013 for Selvedge Magazine \u2013 not make our fingers bleed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-7.jpg\")
I made a coat looking very science-lab-like, in spite of being covered in found antique buttons, lace, and gee-gaws. I made the basic coat from a pair of Victorian split-crotch pantaloons and one of the shifts. (bottom left)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-9.jpg\")
Sewing is the cure. It steadies your hands, your outlook. It allows your body to float into a comfortable slump, and if you can get that glazed look going in your eyes, you don\u2019t have to talk to, or answer, anyone. It was truly a ch\u00e2teau to get lost in. <\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-11.jpg\")
\nTrois Dumasiennes, left to right<\/p>\n
\nChristine wanted to peruse and question each of us about our stashes. I had bits of my sister\u2019s, my mother\u2019s, my daughter\u2019s, friends and strangers\u2026and my own.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-12.jpg\")
The PJ bottoms have large embroidered silk chiffon inserts that are triangular. They turn the PJ legs into what appears to be a Ginger Rogers\u2019 swirly skirt. The pale silk glows like the inside of a shell. Who would dare cut them up. Not I. I\u2019m going to frame them.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/initials.jpg\")
All of these shades-of-white shifts were very clean and in good shape. Workshops like ours are making them scarce. I\u2019m convinced they were originally worn by either women jail prisoners, orphans or \u2018bad-girls\u2019 sent to strict nunneries in the mid-1800s. In fact in the 19th century they were every day underwear for all, often worn with a corset.The shifts are well-sewn by machines and hand, and each has an identifying marker of initials embroidered in red. All the seams are finished inside.There is something attractive and compelling about them, and something forlorn. And perhaps a bit obsessive. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-13.jpg\")
Personally, I ripped them, cut them, tried all the pieces on the judy and got sewing. We had good, strong sewing machines\u2026but I was still able to break a needle. These machines operated backwards to mine at home and also I couldn\u2019t see the needle hole to thread it. My fellow Dumasiennes all had a go at it for me. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-18.jpg\")
\nDumasienne Nida from Thailand (left and right) was inspired by Christine\u2019s use of men\u2019s shirts. It was a surprise when when Nida started wearing her own clothes. \u00ab I\u2019m into colour, \u00bb was all she said showing up in a different spectacular outfit every day.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-16.jpg\")
That\u2019s Gigi\u2019s foot (photo rt) snuggled in the feathers, straw and lace. She had hurt her foot and it had to be elevated. The ivory silk thing in the back of the picture is Gigi\u2019s slinky project<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-19.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-20.jpg\")
Someone, maybe from Le Prop\u00e8te Company, hand wrote in red above the snap fasteners : <\/p>\n
\n =
\nQualit\u00e9 Parfaite <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-21.jpg\")
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-22.jpg\")
This ball of woad, is about the size of an orange, and would be expensive. I didn\u2019t bother to find out the price.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-23.jpg\")
Owned and run by Lizzie Hulme, the Chateau Dumas is a place you can relax, unwind and be creative. And happy. Have someone else decide what your day\u2019s meals will be, and then another smiling face will serve you dinner on the terrace. Or set up a picnic.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-24.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-26.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-27.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-28.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThank you every one of you.
\nIf I used a photo you took,
\nI\u2019m sorry. No mischief meant.
\nWe sure took a lot of pictures.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/fabric-29.jpg\")
<\/p>\n