TigerTailTextiles: The Blog

Welcome back to TigerTailTextiles: The Blog! I took a break to focus on my exams but now I am ready to start writing again about the fascinating aspects of the world of textiles. This blog post will be about a hobby that I have discovered my love for recently: embroidery and more specifically the mindful benefits that embroidery can have. As someone that has suffered with ME/CFS since the age of nine, I’ve tried a variety of low energy activities that I can enjoy from my bed. Finally, I discovered hand embroidery which is, for me, the perfect low energy activity that I can pick up and put down depending on how I am feeling. Not only have I found it fun and satisfying to create beautiful pieces of art, I also discovered the mindful and therapeutic effect that embroidery can have. Daffodil Mindful Embroidery Kit Shop here Mindfulness is usually defined as becoming conscious and aware, focusing one’s awareness on the present and calmly acknowledging one’s feelings, thoughts and sensat...

By the end of World War I (WWI) over a quarter of a million soldiers returned from the war, severely disabled. They were shell shocked, blinded and crippled and trying to recover from the atrocities of war. Many of these men ended up housebound and the problem arose of how these disabled soldiers were meant to work and find suitable employment? The answer came in the form of threads and cross stitching.  In 1911, 3 years before the start of WWI, Annie Collin founded a charity called “The Friends of the Poor” with the aim to ‘bridge the gap between the rich and the deserving poor.’ The charity gained the support of Princess Mary Louise, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. Ernest Thesiger was an actor, artist and friend of the Princess, who’s hands were severely wounded in France during WWI. He saw first-hand the impact that embroidery could have on injured soldiers when he visited a friend in hospital. He suggested to the Government that they should set up an embroidery sche...

I n this age of global warming and organised climate change protests, we have become much more aware of the environmental impact of the products that we are using. This means that many people now seek to use more environmentally friendly products in their projects and everyday life.  The fashion and textiles industry has a massive environmental impact. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that it accounts for over 10% of the global carbon dioxide emissions and 1.5 trillion litres of water per year. According to The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) over £140 million worth of clothing is put into landfill each year. By 2050, it is estimated that 25% of the worlds carbon budget will be used for the fashion industry which would make it one of the most polluting industries, second only to oil!  Maybe this should not be so surprising when we consider that so many fabrics including acrylic, elastine (lycra), nylon and polyester are derived from p...

On the 15th of February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese. Thousands of civilians and allied soldiers (including 1,000 women) were imprisoned in the notorious Changi Prisoner of War camp. For the first few months of captivity the prisoners were treated fairly well with food, medicine and events, however, that all changed as the prison became more and more overcrowded. It was built to hold 600 prisoners but, by 1944, it held over 4,000.  Food and medicine became scarce and the Japanese, who had not signed the Geneva Convention, ran the camp however they wished. Malnutrition, diseases, brutality and deaths from dysentery, malaria and vitamin deficiencies abounded.  The women were separated from the men and communication was forbidden between the groups. In 1942, an inmate, Ethel Mulvany, came up with the idea to create quilts to pass messages to their men disguised as an act of womanly kindness. Mulvany was a Canadian who moved to Singapore during WWII with her husband, a mil...

Elizabeth Fry was born in 1780 and, as a Quaker, she worked to improve the lives of the poor, sick and imprisoned. In 1813, Fry visited Newgate Prison, London where she was astonished by the appalling conditions that the women and children were being held in. The women’s section was overcrowded and dirty. They lived in small cells where they slept on straw and did their own cooking and washing. She began to work to reform prisons and pushed for legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane. In 1817, Fry founded the British Ladies’ Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners. She campaigned for segregation of the sexes, female matrons for the female prisoners, religious worship, education and employment. She introduced items into the prison for the women to sew and knit, to give the prisoners a purpose. She favoured patchwork as it meant the prisoners could sew in small, confined spaces and it was repetitive to settle their minds. Patchwork also grows over tim...

In 1973, Chile saw the end of democracy. Terror reigned with the country under military rule for 17 years. Anyone who opposed this rule was arrested, tortured and often killed. In the midst of this brutality, a group of impoverished women sought to inform the world of the human rights violations occurring. This is the incredible story of how sewing acted as a source of resistance. Augusto Pinochet was born on the 25 th of November 1915 in Valpara í so, Chile. He aspired to enter the army and was accepted into the War Academy in Santiago in 1933. During his time in the army Chile was never at war, instead, Pinochet was appointed as Commander for one of the concentration camps imprisoning Communists in Chile. In 1970 a committed socialist, Salvador Allende came to power after three failed presidential bids. At this time, Latin America was in the middle of a “red scare” because, the Communist, Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba. The USA was worried about Allende, a Marxist, comin...

Welcome to TigerTailTextiles: The Blog! In 2019 I started TigerTailTextiles to make and sell handmade envelope cushions and other items. Since then I’ve attended craft fairs, sewn so many cushions that they’ve completely taken over the house and had so much fun running my small business. I’ve sewn many different cushions ranging from fun, bright llama cushions to luxurious, velvet jungle print cushions! You can find them all and more at  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TigerTailTextiles   or by following @TigerTailTextiles on Instagram. I have now expanded TigerTailTextiles and created TigerTailTextiles: The Blog. This blog will cover a wide variety of topics from historical and ethical sewing posts to sewing challenges, stories and so much more. Next week's blog will be a fascinating piece on one of the ways sewing has been used as an act of political resistance. Keep your eyes peeled for a new and interesting posts. You can find more content at @tigertailtextiles_theblog on Ins...