I happened to notice that my Christmas Cactus seems to think that it is Christmas time!
Odd little fella. Or is he? Lately, I have been working on projects that will be worn this December at the Dickens’ Festival in Carlyle. Perhaps Mr. Cactus is just getting in the spirit of things around here. So lets follow along, shall we?
When we think Christmas and Dickens, we think “A Christmas Story” which is about Scrooge who is a miser. So let us check out a couple of miser’s purses (nice segue, eh).
The right side is showing the correct side and the left is showing the back. Both sides are, in fact, the same.
It is a crochet and beaded bag from 1870’s and is from the Costume Museum of Canada’s collection.
The ends are beaded
Honestly, I must have been brain dead the day I took these photographs because I could not figure out how to get in it. Now that I look at the photographs, it is obvious. The top layer is a flap that you would lift to reach into the pocket. Gosh, I am so dim sometimes!
The two pockets are joined by braided strand that are knotted in the middle. (Yes we noticed the broken bead section and the loose beads and the poor thing was safely packaged up in an envelope to await some conservation work.
The rings are attached to the knot. The end ring is covered in a stitch that I have done when doing Dorset buttons. That ring could attach to a chatelaine of some type or be worn on a finger.
I think I have another project to try some day!
Before I start another miser purse, I should pull the one I have started, out of the UFO pile. This is as far as I got… Bah, humbug.
It has been so long since I have looked at it, I will have to figure out how to do it again. I can’t even remember what my plan was for the bead pattern.
May be this bag from the 1890’s (also from the Costume Museum of Canada’s collection) will inspire me.
Happy Christmas in May and a Bah Humbug to you and yours.
Do you have a pattern?
Sorry, no. When and if I get to these, I will be eyeballing it and trying to figure out a close facsimely