HELP... please. 18th century crafts/quilting/hand dyeing threads?

Question

Hello,
for school i must learn a craft from early american times (around the 18th century, give or take)
so far i am leaning towards making a quilt with hand dyed threads, but i need some help
We have until april to finish our craft, are there any other crafts that would be interesting (quilting is one of the only ones i could think of)
and do you know of any sites that would have information on these crafts
(expecially quilting and hand dyeing fabrics-what natural things can you use to dye fabrics that you could find in the fall/winter... i cant find anything other than acorns.)

i know this was a long question, sorry. but thank you for any help, it is very appriciated!

Answer 1

There's an excellent website on the history of quilting (links below). The first link is to the page on dyes, and the second to their articles page. Hand dying fabrics can be a difficult process, especially if you're trying to do it from natural materials. Fabrics were purchased during the later 1700's, so you could probably skip the hand-dying process and find fabrics that are reproductions of the type used during the mid to late 18th century. Quilting wasn't very common in the earlier part of the century, mostly because it was such a time consuming process, first creating the fabric, then making it into a quilt. As fabrics became more readily available, quilting increased.

Quilting, especially hand quilting, is very time consuming and requires a great deal of skill. You might want to consider making a doll or baby quilt, which was common in the 18th century. It's especially nice because it's smaller than a full size quilt, but still true to the time period. Check the third link for more info.

Be careful about your fabric choices - the fourth link is to Hancocks of Paducah, a reputable website that sells all sorts of fabrics, but you need to be sure which ones are from the time period you need. Check out Marcus Brothers, among others.

I've included a link to a couple of hand quilter's websites - this is a great place to get instruction on how to sew pieces together, and how to quilt the finished product.

Good luck - if you choose quilting, it's extremely addictive!

There's also spinning, needlework and basket making, if you want to try something different.

Answer 2

You could try making molded candles from beeswax.