What Samplers Tell Us About the Hands That Made Them

<p>Samplers tell stories in stitch, but whose tale are they telling? Perhaps the story of a young woman describing her family and choosing her own patterns and pictures, a child learning her alphabet and numbers by stitching. Or maybe it’s an anonymous sampler from a woman being prepared for a role in which she will spend a life stitching other people’s stories, effacing her identity, working as a seamstress or a servant.</p> <p> </p> <p>This episode of Haptic and Hue looks at how women in the past were united by their ability to use a needle. From the grandest monarch to the poorest maid they could all sew, it was a common language – one that they were fluent in and often better at than forming letters and numbers with a pen or pencil. It gave them a way of thinking that we have all but lost.</p> <p> </p> <p>But what they sewed divided them. Middle-class women were urged to create a home with berlin wool-work, firescreens, and antimacassars, or handstitched gifts demonstrating their skill and devotion. Even Queen Victoria stitched and gave away her handiwork while working-class women were prepared for a life of earning their living from the needle – working as seamstresses or mending clothing, stitching other people’s initials onto table linen, and family laundry.</p> <p> </p> <p>Find out more about how the needle and sewing united and divided women in this episode of Haptic and Hue’s Tales of Textiles.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can find a full script of this episode, on the Haptic and Hue Website at <a href= "https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/">https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-3/</a> as well as links and resources to the people you hear in this podcast and the organisations they work for.</p>