Craven Museum visit

Thanks to Dee for her guest post about this month's meeting!

We were welcomed to Craven Museum by staff members Jenny and Megan, who started with a brief tour of the museum, pointing out items of particular interest in relation to textiles – ranging from a costume worn by a mill owner’s daughter and wedding outfits to a piece of cloth dating back 5,000 years.

We were then taken to the Education Room where we were given an interesting Powerpoint presentation about the textile related items stored in the museum and the resources they have access to.  The staff had also laid out several items of clothing from their stores which included a range of fashion through the ages, one of which was a beautiful silk wedding dress from the 1940s, owned by a titled lady, which had later been embellished with paints and beading by a maid.  Other items included shoes, baby clothes and table covers made in beautiful hand-made lace.  We spent some time inspecting the detail of these items before we were taken in small groups to the upstairs store room to see things not currently on display, such as samplers etc.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and are grateful to the museum staff for organising this bespoke  visit for us.

The afternoon was spent stitching back at the hall and some of the Skipton Castle squares appeared - sneaky peek below.

And hardanger from Gail's group...