A remarkable post-war needlework archive belonging to a Judith A. Fenn, comprising handwritten notebooks with a group of original worked textile samples, embroidery studies and needlework exercises.

September 1946 is the first full year after the Second World War, these notebooks record the systematic teaching of traditional sewing and needlework techniques, illustrated with carefully executed diagrams and accompanied by surviving practical examples. The archive captures a period when sewing, mending and textile skills remained an essential part of everyday life and education, providing a fascinating insight into the domestic and craft training of the immediate post-war years.

The notebooks contain detailed notes on needlework tools, seams, hems, bindings, tucks, pleats, decorative stitching and techniques, The accompanying worked pieces demonstrate both technical proficiency and artistic development, preserving not only the finished work but the learning process itself.

Unlike many surviving samplers and needlework pieces that have become detached from their history, this archive retains its owner's name and documentation, creating a coherent and highly personal record spanning crucial years. It offers considerable interest not only to collectors of needlework and embroidery, but also to textile historians, museum or researchers of domestic education concerned with the preservation of everyday life in post-war Britain.

A one of a kind survival and an evocative document of women's education, craftsmanship and domestic culture during a pivotal period of twentieth-century history.

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