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Carding and combing at the September 2020 edition of the five-day TRC Intensive Textile Course. Photograph: Augusta de Gunzbourg. The author of this blog is sitting to the left.I am still recovering from the Intensive Textile Course at the TRC in Leiden! What a week!

As a researcher at the Rijksdienst van het Cultureel Erfgoed (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands), I am often confronted with small pieces of textiles, sometimes from an archaeological context.

I analyse a few fibres taken from the textile with an electron microscope (SEM) to study their condition and whether they have been dyed or stained. These small pieces and fibres are, of course, part of a larger piece of cloth! But what does the resulting information actually tell us about the larger cloth, the previous owner, what was the original colour (s) and how was the cloth used?

To gain more insight into textiles in general, I registered for the five-day Intensive Textile Course at the TRC. Under the inspiring supervision of the director of the TRC, Gillian Vogelsang, we identified fibres, we spun them into threads and we used weave frames to turn threads into cloth. Because of the corona virus we did so in a small group with six people, which enabled us to spend more time on practising and discussing the various techniques.

Maria Friesen talking at the TRC in Leiden about Mennonite comforters, 26th Sept. 2020. Photograph by Lynn Kaplanian-Buller.Last Saturday, 26th September, eight of us gathered at the TRC in Leiden under Gillian Vogelsang’s warm guidance and hospitality, to hear Maria Friesen’s presentation on ‘Passing on the comfort received in the past”. Maria's presentation, which was preceded by a brief introduction to the TRC by Gillian, has been filmed to share among anyone interested, and the film will soon be made available.

Maria Friesen is the coordinator of the European comforter groups that donate their comforters (relief quilts) to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). She came from Switzerland to tell us about how the most recent comforter-making project evolved among Mennonite initiators in Switzerland and spread to more groups in Europe.

In order to create a context, she told us about the history of the Mennonite Central Committee, which was founded 100 years ago. During her talk, Maria included many photographs that she had collected for the official celebrations, which unfortunately had to be cancelled because of the corona pandemic.

Yesterday (26th September) was a busy and very interesting day at the TRC Leiden as we had a guest speaker from Switzerland, Maria Friesen. She gave a talk about Mennonite quilts and the many roles of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in relief work in general. Lynn Kaplanian Buller will be writing a blog about the day's events that will be published very shortly.

Because of the corona crisis we had an audience of eight in order to ensure social distancing! One of the visitors brought a bag with some interesting donations for the TRC Collection. They included some handiwork books published in the late 19th century here in Leiden (Sijthoff Press) and in Alkmaar with the firm of Kluitman. There is also a booklet with instructions on how to adapt Western style clothing for wearing in the Dutch East Indies.

Rather intriguing are ten card sheets (just larger than A4 size) upon which were sewn various samples and samplers. These are in the process of being published in the TRC Collection database under the accession number TRC 2020.3838a-j.

First sampler ('naaidoek') worked by G. Filbry in 1928 (TRC 2020.3838a).

All of the sheets had the name G. Filbry hand written on them. The first item was dated 1928 and had the initials G.F., the name of Bussum (a town that lies southeast of Amsterdam) and the text Mijn eerste naaidoek (My first 'sewing cloth’ (lit.) or sampler). The sampler also included a 19th century steam train and that oh so modern form of transportation, a single propellor plane! There are some strange motifs in the background that may be stylised birds, or perhaps planes in the distance.

The last sheet had an item with the date of 1930 and is a more complicated, mending sampler. So it would appear the sheets represent various school needlework projects that took place over a two year period.

Knitted miniature vest and petticoat, worked by G. Filbry, between 1928 and 1930 (TRC 2020.3838f).

In addition to the two samplers, the sheets display a variety of miniature garments made by the same person with the initials G.F. These include a hand stitched chemise, skirt and apron, all in a white cotton material. There are also hand knitted and mended items, including socks, a vest, chemise and dress. Some of these miniature garments have fastenings such as ties and buttons.Knitted miniature sock and mending panel, worked by G. Filbry between 1928 and 1930 (TRC 2020.3838d).

Last week has seen some interesting events and developments. We have just completed the September intensive textile course. It was great fun with enthusiastic participants, although I must admit by the end of the week everyone was very tired. A sign that we have all worked hard!

Men's shirt in Steampunk style, using black cloth decorated with paisley motifs, ca. 2020 (TRC 2020.3834). Photograph: Violent Delights, UK.

The TRC holds a small collection of Jordanian clothing, including various embroidered garments and samples. It was built up with the help of Madame Widad Kawar of the Tiraz Centre in Amman, Jordan. The blog below was written by Fatima Abbadi, who discusses the traditional dress for women from the north of the country.

Detail of a dress from Irbid, in the north of Jordan, from the 1930's. The neckline is decorated with satin stitch and rekme embroidery (TRC 2005.0140).

"Little is written about traditional Jordanian dress. Very often it is confused with Palestinian clothing and its predominant cross stitch embroidery. Recently I even met people associating it with Moroccan kaftans. It should be added that many modern Jordanians no longer recognise their local traditional forms of clothing and indeed, embroidery. This is because of many factors, such as the introduction of machine embroidery, garment extinction and the fact that local patterns and stitch types are being replaced with Palestinian forms. As a result, typical Jordanian traditional dress has almost disappeared, very soon only to be seen in a few museums and other collections.

At the end of the Second World War, Russian Mennonites fleeing west were allowed to temporarily stay in the Netherlands, provided that the Dutch Mennonite (Doopsgezinde) community would house, feed and clothe them. The Mennonites, who during the last few centuries spread all over the world, are named after Menno Simons from the village of Witmarsum in Friesland, in The Netherlands. He was a 16th century former Catholic priest whose first name was taken up by many of his followers inspired by his reformist ideas. The Amish in North America are an offshoot of this group, being followers of Jakob Ammann.

Display of quilts at the TRC Gallery exhibition 'Textile Tales from the Second World War'. The quilt on top is the twin of the missing quilt that was sent to Syria. The yellow quilt at the bottom of the rack was given to replace the missing quilt.

Collecting face masks for the TRC COVID-19 collection at the TRC in Leiden has opened up a fascinating world for me. The variety in face masks is astonishing—almost as astonishing as the stories behind the masks. Here are just a few of those stories.

Corona face mask from Kenya, with Zebra design, 2020 (TRC 2020.3759).

Various people have seen the TRC’s latest exhibition, Textile Tales from the Second World War, and one of the comments we hear from elderly visitors is that they had as a child or at home a necklace, bracelet, ring or even cufflinks made with Dutch silver coins, especially the 10 cents (dubbeltje), 25 cents (kwartje), guilder (gulden) and the rijksdaalder (2.5 guilders).

What surprises people is there there are two related stories about these items. The first story concerns the coins that are dated from 1941 or earlier. The second is based on the coins from 1941 to 1944.

Bracelet made from Dutch silver 10 cent coins minted in Utrecht, 1941, and during the war made into a patriotic bracelet (TRC 2020.2714).