Simple directions in needle-work and cutting out….
A Nearly Complete Example
Rare
[Education]. (Mrs. Campbell). Simple Directions in Needle-work and Cutting Out; intended for the use of the National Female Schools of Ireland. To which are added, specimens of work executed by the pupils of the National Model Female School, Dublin: Printed by William Holden, Hibernia Press Office, 1835.
8vo.; brown marbled boards; leather spine; edges worn and split. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition; reprinted in 1853 and 1861. Includes 84 pages of instructional text, followed by 22 leaves of green paper, on which are mounted 32 specimens of sewing, darning, knitting and embroidery (out of a possible 35)—all prepared by students over a number of years. The skills taught in this book are grouped into chapters by degree of difficulty according to class year, or “division.” The First Division teaches hemming, sewing, seaming and stitching; the Second Division instructs on overcasting and marking; the Third Division advances to mending, making, knitting and platting; and so on. In addition to the written instruction, there are also measurement charts indicating various sizes for a given garment – for example, bibs, caps, frocks or petticoats – and the amount of fabric needed to make the intended item. The miniature projects preserved in this book are also arranged according to class year; the earliest examples are more elementary – on the page that begins with the “First Class” specimens, there is a small square of hemmed paper and a small square of hemmed calico – and gradually advance to the elaborate “Tuscan Plat” – a project for the Twelfth Class involving tiny rows of braided straw. Each “Specimen” page indicates the page of the text where a step-by-step explanation of the featured stitch can be found.
The National Female Schools of Ireland were established to teach girls from poor Irish families a respectable and viable trade – like sewing and knitting – that would assure them employment. The first two model schools opened in 1835, and the Model School system continues today; Mrs. Campbell, who compiled this book, was a Mistress at the Central Model Female School. The Model Schools operated on a Monitorial system, whereby the monitors were responsible for preparing the work for the students, supplying the appropriate materials, and making sure the students returned all the materials after class (small rewards or money were given in exchange). Pedagogical instruction was supplied by the publication of teaching manuals; the “Introductory Remarks” section offers surprisingly sophisticated advice for the monitors to effectively teach their students: “All children cannot be taught by precisely the same methods, or the same language; some may comprehend one form of words, others may not, and it will be the duty of the Monitoress to vary the mode of expression and instruction until she perceive that all clearly know her meaning.” The selection of the Monitoresses was a task not lightly undertaken:
Much attention should be given to the selection, instruction, and training of Monitoresses, both as regards morals, tempers, habits, abilities, and general good conduct; considering how much the principles of the children may be improved or corrupted by their good or evil example, and how much the general utility of the school may be promoted or retarded by their vigilance or supineness.
These standards, inevitably, owed much to the success of the schools and the benefit of the children in them.
According to the “Introductory Remarks,” the samples of stitches in the book can be used to benefit both the instructors at the Model Female Schools – as a teaching aid – and the students who are learning the stitches. As suggested earlier, these visual examples provide teachers and students an alternate mode of understanding each stitch; indeed, mastery of the more intricate examples – “gathering and fastening-in gathers” (sixth class); “tucking and trimming” (sev
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