FUNDRAISING
OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED! GOAL: 5000 USD / 7000 CAD AND CURRENTLY AT 9%!
To keep our Library up and running, we hold a fundraising campaign from September to December.
This is the link to the donation button: Donate to keep the Antique Pattern Library running!
Your donation pays for costs of supporting our projects such as scanners and other hardware, the occasional shipping costs for people who want to donate books but can’t afford the transatlantic shipping costs, general costs such as internet service provider, office address, and our application for charity status. Volunteers do the scanning and editing, and new books are paid from our private purses.
Occasionally we get the question “Why don’t you just sell your stuff, you’d need no donation then?” which is correct, but not in accordance with the idea that our heritage should be available to everybody who wants to use or appreciate it, and profit is no part of that. To keep that, we do need donations. So, if you have a couple dollars to spare, we’d be glad to have them!
IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO DONATE, BUT WOULD LIKE TO HELP THE ANTIQUE PATTERN LIBRARY, INTRODUCING THE LIBRARY TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW OF IT YET, IS VERY USEFUL, SINCE IT BROADENS OUR USER BASE AND THEREFORE ALSO OUR FUTURE DONOR BASE. BLOGS, TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, RAVELRY, FACEBOOK, OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA – SHOW OTHERS YOUR FAVORITE PUBLICATIONS AND WHAT YOU MADE USING THEM. OUR WORK IS ONLY USEFUL WHEN PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE IT!
And now for the new publication:
N. Alexandre – Alphabets Variés No. 215
C-YS018 Alexandre – Alphabets Variés No. 215
Four cross-stitch alphabets, two small, one medium, one large with floral decoration.
Small hardcover book, sixteen pages.
Scanned 600dpi.
Scans donated and charted by Sytske Wijnsma.
As usual with this type of publication, there’s two pdfs, one for people who want the original color (blue only, sorry) and the other for people with a black and white printer. This is Alphabets Varieés Album No. 215, which means there’s some 800 alphabets by Alexandre only and likely many more. Evidently they sold like hot rolls. The smaller alphabets were used for handkerchief marking and maybe tea towels, medium for pillows and also for tea towels as I’ve seen tea towels with elaborate initials, clearly meant to show off as they have never been used. Large initials were for top sheets.
Often the marking was done with red floss, but white was also common as it wouldn’t leach color which the cheap red dyes were prone to. Even now, I wince when I think of the red t-shirt that my husband tossed in with the white laundry. Lots of pink linens was the result, and not equally dyed, but more like tie-dye patterns. It isn’t such a disaster on bed linen, but my single white pristine blouse that I wore only to official meetings had to be replaced. So, you can try these letters, but test your yarn first by dipping a piece in boiling water. If it results in red tea, select another floss.
We don’t have many Alphabets Variés booklets, offhand I can think of only two or three (because rare and expensive, duh) but Ramzi Gehwazis site has many more. If our selection of cross-stitch alphabets does not contain what you’re looking for, please head over to his site before hitting Etsy or Ebay with all the associated costs thereof. We do share patterns with him, although ours keep the non-commercial notice.