We had set the date of Saturday, March 9, 2019 for the sewing party and I had sent an advance email, requesting volunteers from our museum advisory committee to help sew. The sewing of the Velcro/twill strips does not need to be done by a professional, but it does require care and attention to detail in order that the stitches distribute the weight of the textile evenly, and that the sewing thread runs between the warp and weft yarns rather than piercing any of the textile yarns. On the Friday before our sewing party, Tawney and I set out four textiles and the sewing supplies: tapestry needles, colored thread, scissors, and the corresponding Velcro/twill strips.

Sewing Velcro/twill strips to textiles at the Luther Bean Museum

On Saturday morning, four of us met at the Luther Bean Museum for our sewing party: Tawney Becker, Linda Relyea, Delfin Weis, and me. We worked around the very long dining table that serves as our conference table in the museum. I showed each person how to place the Velcro/twill strip along the end of the textile and how to sew the strip onto the textile. Also, and very importantly, how to avoid piercing the textile threads, which means a constant look at where the tip of the needle is coming through the textile on each side of the textile. For the sewing novices like me, it is a slow sewing process. Linda, with sewing experience, was the star! In the three hours that we sewed that morning, we greatly advanced this part of the project. Tawney and I finished sewing the strips to the textiles over the following weeks.

Velcro loop machine sewn onto cotton twill

After reviewing best practices for textile support systems, we chose the Velcro support system for its ease of installation, for its even distribution of weight across the width of the textile, and for its strength and ability to support heavy textiles. We purchased spools of Velcro (which comes in two parts: loops and hooks) and cotton twill. Tawney’s friend, Rhonda Borders, was kind enough to machine sew Velcro loop strips onto the cotton twill strips for each of thirteen textiles. The extra strips would enable us to display other textiles in a future display or to rotate textiles in a display. I labeled each Velcro/twill strip with the accession number (means of identification of objects) of its corresponding textile.

Next, I reviewed best practices for sewing onto textiles and discussed needles, thread, and sewing techniques with Jeanne Brako, our textile Conservator. (I met Jeanne on the trip to the Center of Southwest Studies as discussed in the blog: A Fortuitous Journey, published Oct 9, 2018.) Jeanne was kind enough to serve as our pro bono Conservator throughout this project.

Having printed a sheet of color photographs of the textiles, I went to a quilting shop to gather supplies for sewing. This included tapestry needles, which have a blunt end and are less likely to damage the wool yarns of the textiles, and 100% cotton quilting thread in various colors to match the textile ends where the Velcro/twill strips would be sewn onto the textiles.

Sewing Velcro/twill strip onto textile

With tools and supplies in hand, I now learned how to sew the Velcro/twill strips onto the textiles. This was accomplished mainly through emails, phone calls, and texted photographs of my stitches on a practice strip to Jeanne, to get her approval on my technique (which wasn’t pretty but would do the job). Once the sewing was under way, it was time to bring in the troops for a sewing party.