FUNDRAISING

OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED!  GOAL: 5000 USD / 7000 CAD AND CURRENTLY AT 19%!

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:

White flowers ON A GREEN BACKGROUND

BERLIN WOOLWORK

K-JO002 White pink flowers on a green background
Fragment of a Berlin woolwork pattern. Repeating pattern of hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) white flowers and leaves.
Handpainted pattern on cream cardboard. No publisher, designer, or number given.
Image donated by ebay seller joan10605, charted by Sytske Wijnsma. Pattern from her grandmother’s needlework studio in Manhattan, LaMer’s Studio, from 1909-1967, where she taught needlework and did work for musea and famous customers.

Repeating patterns were useful because they could be extended indefinitely. Victorian chairs, pillow covers, tea trays, mirror backing, purses, travel bags, slipper tops, all could be made with a single embroidery pattern. As patterns could be expensive, repeating patterns were favorites because of the multipurpose aspect but also because the patterns could be cut in pieces and shared, as long as each piece contained a full repeat. Berlin woolwork pattern makers could also shoehorn two, four, or even six repeating patterns on a single sheet, the smaller the repeat the more would fit without loss of information. The individual motifs were sometimes copied and used in another design, as plagiarism wasn’t frowned upon as it is now.