Hi,

I am new to the group, and have collected textiles for 20 years, and have a small Arts and Crafts collection of textiles and such. I want to start doing some embroidery using old Royal Society kit patterns, and am looking for some old vintage oatmeal colored medium weight linen in a semi-rough weave or any weave really, or any antique linen in a natural color and good weight so I can embroider onto it. Any one know of a source for this? The new linen is a lighter color and a thinner weight and not suitable for what I want. It just looks too "new" for my taste. Thanks!

Isadora

Hi, I'm sorry I can't help you with your hunt other than to suggest going to estate sales in your neighborhood. I have had pretty good luck finding older material goods at these. What I am looking for is embroidery patterns from the Arts and Crafts period. I have found one pattern set from Vogue but I have not had any luck beyond that. I know that there are kits but I want to use the patterns on my own materials. do you or does anyone have any suggestions.

If you haven't found what you want yet, try a full service needlework shop and look for "Dower Quality linen" - it's very heavy and comes in a range of colors...