Dorset Buttons and Dorset Feather Stitchery

What an awesome last day this has been! Regular readers of this blog already know how warmly I have been welcomed by so many people here. Today provided more evidence of the kindness that abides in Dorset hearts.

Through the Monday quilt group, I learned about Dorset buttons, an art that supported thousands of local people from the late 1600's onward. These buttons, handmade and intricately woven, (some on rings of bone or brass) were much sought after not only in Europe but also in New York, Boston, and Quebec. It was the invention in 1860 of Ashton's Button Machine that put an immediate end to this industry. The art of making many of the designs has been lost forever, but the Dorset Crosswheel button survives. Local needlewomen still make them in the old way and use them to decorate clothing, costumes, and other needlework projects.

My Monday quilting friends also told me about Dorset Feather Stitchery. I had shown them my "Winter Wonderland" project, an embroidery that will be sewn together with other embroidered panels to make the center of a quilt, and they suggested that I embellish the seams with Dorset Feather Stitchery. There's a book, they told me, published by the Women's Institute, that teaches how to do the stitchery and also the buttons. I've been looking for it in museums, bookstores, and libraries, but without success.

The lady who owns a card shop in the nearby village of Easton suggested I look for it in the Country Market. This event is held every Friday morning in the village and gives local people an opportunity to sell their handicrafts, baked goods, preserves, produce, etc. There would be members of the Women's Institute there, she said, and maybe one of them could help me. So I walked down to Easton this morning, not knowing that I was about to hit the jackpot!

Soon after arriving at the market, I felt a hand on my arm and heard a voice say, "Are you looking for information about Dorset buttons?" That voice belonged to Claire Youngman, who had heard from the card shop lady that I might show up on Friday. Claire had come prepared with a folder full of information and even had a small card with some of those original buttons sewn on it. They were amazing: no bigger than a shirt button but so intricately woven from fine white thread into various shapes...some conical, some domed. Showing me the rest of the information in the folder, Claire discovered that she had two copies of an instructional leaflet and insisted that I take one.

When our discussion turned to the Dorset Feather stitch, Claire called another woman over... Mimi Walker, the recognized authority on the subject in these parts. After just a few moments of talking with Mimi, she asked me if I could wait there for five minutes so she could go home and get some of her work to show me. What she brought back was a cushion she had made...richly and meticulously embroidered with a variety of stitches in a palette of tourquoise, gold, and white. It was truly a work of art. She also brought me the book put out by the Women's Institute, the one I had been looking for. She insisted that it be her gift to me, and with a beholden heart I accepted it.

Mimi told me that her chapter of the WI meets each month to practice their art and invited me to join them, which I shall. My new goal is to finish embroidering the last of my Winter Wonderland quilt panels and have them sewn together in time for our return in the fall. Then, under Mimi's supervision, I will add to it this lovely stitchery. I'll also put some Dorset buttons among the snowflakes that are already part of the design. Won't this be a perfect souvenir!

I never want to forget the kindness of these women.