Caring For Textiles

Textiles enrich our lives. We preserve, repair, restore & display.

Interwoven Exhibit at Hillwood

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Interwoven at Hillwood Museum

The title alone feels comforting, reassuring that what we do every day, with whom and with which materials, are all interrelated, interlaced, intertwined and ON VIEW NOW!

It was a huge privilege to be intimately intertwined with Hillwood over the past year, conserving and preparing many of the textiles on display in this exhibition.

Portrait of Marjorie Merriweather Post; Gold framed painting of white woman wearing pearls and fluffy white lace, with large panel of intricate white lace on display below portrait.
CFT team: Young man and three women stand in front of yellow colored textile embroideries

Curator Megan Martinelli, has deftly chosen treasured textiles of Marjorie Merriweather Post; furnishing fragments, bits of lace, cherished embroideries, quilts, baby clothes, high church vestments, and relics, all of which are now preserved in the museum collection. Some were cut apart, remade, refashioned into other accessories or furnishing, but never thrown out or forgotten.

The selection reveals Mrs. Post’s deep knowledge and love of textiles, and her lifelong pursuit of reusing, refashioning and saving beloved fabrics – as seen in her use of paisley shawls and quilts for upholstery. For those of you who love lace, there are several stunning examples.

Display of three cream-colored lace cotton dresses shown standing on dress forms.
Close detail of very fine intricate lace depicting a central figure and floral patterns on a dark background..
Dark room with black walls with three textiles illuminated on display.
Dark room with black walls displaying four standing dress forms with historic clothing, and four flat red colored fabrics.

The exhibit is really about textile processes and preservation. What an absolutely perfect philosophical fit with our conservation work; to channel our ‘inner Mrs. Post’, “always trying to extend the life of each textile,” examining and analyzing the structure and embellishments, caring for every type of textile regardless of value or fragmentary condition, employing sensitivity in matching threads and fabrics for patching, and envisioning the best display methods to highlight each textile’s story.  

A Peak at the Exhibition and Behind-the-Scenes Magic

Sharing our treatments, repairs, mounting and installation work.

Woman with blonde hair is squatting in front of a white silk lace slip adjusting the hem. A large vertical turquoise colored silk panel with white lace pieces on it is to the left.
Young man in black shirt standing on left and white woman in black shirt kneeling are holding a dress form with a blue and black dress, and attaching the closures on the back of dress.
Same white woman in black shirt attaches hooks and eyes in the back of a blue and black long dress.

Welcome to Paisley Corner

Delicate sheer silk crepeline patch supports were hand stitched to the paisley silk chiffon dress.

A corner of a room with a painting of a woman in white silk bodice; a tall dress form with a pink and cream-colored long dress; a large black cloth on left wall, a large red colored cloth on right wall, a small red colored sofa in front.
Close up of silk paisley dress and white silk chiffon fabric with pins securing a stitching repair.
Close up of red colored sofa and cloth on wall with curving patterns known as paisley.
Close up of white silk chiffon fabric after the stitch repair is complete.
Detail of cream colored and pink long dress with tie in back, showing pattern of curvilinear patterns known as paisley.
Close up of white silk chiffon fabric and repair fabric behind it on a grey board.

Similar support patches of silk organza supported numerous holes in the large paisley shawls.

Detail of red, blue, green fringed woven striped cloth with pale red patch in bottom right corner.
Detail of same red, blue, green fringed woven striped cloth from the other side, showing just a tiny bit of the pale red patch repair.

A Whole Holey Ensemble

This linen ensemble was extensively cut up by Mrs. Post, yet kept and treasured.

Cream colored linen with cream colored floral embroidery and lace inserts, with large holes cut into fabric in center, where a hand is visible.
The same cream-colored linen cloth flattened out with a sheer invisible fabric in the holes, pinned with yellow headed straight pins.

After cleaning and pressing, Katherine inserts panels of semi-sheer silk organza into all the voids, creating a whole holey ensemble.

White woman wearing blue blouse and black glasses, sits at table repairing s cream colored linen cloth in front of her. One hand up, one hand down, as she sews.
Display of cream-colored linen long skirt and long-sleeved jacket on a dress form.

The Blue and Black Afternoon Dress

This lovely, unique afternoon dress was incredibly fragile and required many hours of work. CFT staff repaired the shattered silk lining fabric with adhesive patches, reinforced the lace collar with netting, and secured loose areas of the blue silk floss serpentine embroidery.

Woman with gray hair, pink blouse, brown trousers holding black netting in both hands, as she inserts it into the left sleeve of a blue and black lace and silk embroidered long dress.
Long formal dress on a dress form; the back view is on the left, the front view is on the right. Blue silk embroidery, black netting lace, V-shaped bodice with tassels, high lace collar, long blue silk embroidered sleeves.

The gossamer netting and silk underskirt is required for the supportive slip underneath to be smooth and structured enough to hold out the asymmetrical train.

Standing female dress form torso and hips, covered in cream colored fabric.
Standing female dress form, seen from front, with long cream-colored slip skirt from waist to floor.
Standing female dress form, seen from back, with long cream-colored slip skirt from waist to floor.

During installation, CFT staff carefully repaired a long tear in the black silk tulle, using overlays of contemporary black silk tulle.

Close up of black netting with large white tear horizontally across the middle.
Person with dark hair and bangs hanging down, in front of black netting dress, with both hands reaching out stitching.
Close up of black netting showing rows of black stitching, repair to tear.

Embroidered Bed Panels

One of these sumptuous embroidered ‘bed panels’ was dismantled by Mrs. Post; she literally ‘harvested’ all the birds for another décor use.

Working closely with the curator, we ‘filled’ the gaping voids by nearly doubling over the panel so that the holes remained visible without detracting from the overall appearance.

Two pieces of long horizontal shaped gold colored shiny cloth covered in floral embroidery and outlined with yellow borders. The top one is complete. The bottom one has large white holes in the center and left side.

The lower bed panel in the above image is folded under to create the illusion of a fabric filling the voided areas. The folded edges are supported with a small roll of batting filled fabric snake for support. The result seen below, gives the visitor a more “whole” impression.

View of textiles on display. Top of the image, a gold-colored shiny textile with green and red curvilinear embroidery patterns, with dark brown edges and long tassels hanging from the bottom. Below in the bottom of photo are two long textiles seen from a side angle, laying on a tan colored angle. The two pieces of fabric are long, narrow, yellow in color.
Two textiles shown horizontally. The top one is yellow gold shiny embroidery with tassels along the bottom. The textile below it is similar in color and embroidery, but there are three large areas of solid yellow fabric, where the embroidery is missing.
Woman in straw hat, blue striped blouse and white skirt points to three golden colored embroidered textiles on display, to her right.

The Russian Handkerchief: An Overwhelmingly Sad History

At the time of conservation treatment, we did not know the tragic history embedded in this simple cotton kerchief, which is a souvenir of the royal coronation of Czar Nicholas and Alexandra in 1896. After the coronation, outdoor banquets were to be held for the people of Moscow. Rumors spread that souvenir gifts including food items, a commemorative cup and this cotton hankie would be given out. The rumor further evolved that the cups might be filled with coin; thousands of people gathered nearby in Khodynka Field in anticipation.  The townspeople rushed to receive items in limited supply, a stampede ensued, and about 1300 people were trapped, trampled and suffocated to death. Reportedly, many thousands more were injured.

Red and cream-colored printed cloth handkerchief, with bottom right corner lifted up to show brown board below.
Brown cardboard with very faint design of a textile on it, and grey and multi colored photo color card on the left.
Dark red and black swirling patterns with blue reflections like water at top of photo.
Red and cream-colored printed cloth handkerchief, with pale white sheer cloth over the middle of textile.
Close up of pale white sheer cloth and red and cream-colored printed cloth handkerchief.

The handkerchief was glued to acidic cardboard, was split torn in a few areas, and had become stiff and fragile.  We gently and slowly removed it from the board, upon where it had ‘burnt’ its impression, tested for color fastness, wet cleaned it, and applied a full lining to support all the tears, before pressure framing it for display.

Please visit Interwoven at the Hillwood Museum, open until January 3, 2027.
https://hillwoodmuseum.org/exhibitions/interwoven-tradition-textiles

Keywords: Textile conservation, preservation, textile repair, fragments, reuse, refashioning, lace, quilt, paisley, needlework, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Hillwood, interwoven, textile exhibition

All photos property of Caring for Textiles, unless otherwise noted.

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