Collection Care blog

Behind the scenes with our conservators and scientists

22 January 2025

When Textile and Paper Shake Hands: Conservation of Textile Samples in the Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting Book by Gee Roxas

As noted in some of the previous posts in this blog (Textiles come in all shapes and sizes at the British Library - Collection Care blog), various textiles, as well as objects containing textiles, are present within the Library’s collections. Coming fresh from my recent postgraduate training, I consider myself fortunate to have spent these past few months at the British Library gaining professional experience in textile conservation and learning from my paper conservator colleagues. I have been privileged to work on some interesting and, in the case of this particular project that I am going to talk about in this post, the most charming textiles in its collections.

The book, Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting, (C.194.a.371) was printed in 1832 in Westminster, London as an educational instruction manual, complete with instructions on stitching and garment-making techniques accompanied by finely crafted miniature garments and samplers. Due to poor storage conditions at some point in its lifetime, dirt had accumulated on the sides of the textblock. There were gaps between some of the pages in the textblock due to the bulkiness and irregular shapes of the textile samples, so some of the dirt had fallen through these gaps. The samples were stitched onto the pages of the book, creating holes on both textile and paper and pinning the samples down in a way that restricts both their movement and the reader's view.  In addition to the creases formed from being pressed flat, some of the samples were in a position that distorted corners or created additional folds (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. There is miniature sleeveless pale green dress on the left hand page of the open book. The dress is made out of soft pale green material and it has a full length front opening which is edged with tiny herringbone stitches; the hem is also edged with tiny herringbone stitches; the waistband and shoulder straps are made from off white silky ribbons; the miniature garment is attached to the left page of the open book with a cotton and paper hinge.
Figure 1. Green dress sample in the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before treatment. Positioned too close to the page’s top edge and gutter, The shoulder straps were distorted and the skirt was creased.

The conservation treatment focused on making the textile samples cleaner and the book fit for purpose as a library material under BL restricted access. As part of the Library’s collection, the book is expected to be handled by readers in the future, so the final product needs to be sufficiently robust for handling while giving adequate access for examination and study.

In preparation for the treatment of the samples that needed cleaning, they were taken out of the book to avoid the risk of damaging the paper in the process. Much dirt was removed by gently tamping the fabric with pieces of cosmetic sponge (Fig. 2 and 3). 

Figure 2. There are seven tiny samples on this image: (left to right) white cotton shift sleeve; white cotton baby’s cap with frills and pin-tucked decoration; white cotton man’s shirt; soft pale green dress; darning; alphabet sampler embroidered in red on linen; small box containing samples of smoke sponge used to clean samples.
Figure 2. Samples from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371) and pieces of sponge used in removing surface dirt.

 

Figure 3a. Man's white cotton sample shirt before conservation surface cleaning: high collar with buttonhole and gathering into neck; top of fully gathered sleeve showing underarm gusset; some areas of white cotton discoloured by ingrained surface dirt.
Figure 3a. Man’s shirt sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before surface cleaning.
Figure 3b. Man's white cotton sample shirt after conservation surface cleaning: high collar with buttonhole and gathering into neck; top of fully gathered sleeve showing underarm gusset; some areas of white cotton lightened in colour by the reduction of ingrained surface dirt.
Figure 3b. Man’s shirt sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), after surface cleaning.

After confirming that the dyes were washfast, the green dress and the sampler with red embroidery threads were further cleaned using an aqueous detergent solution. In addition to removing dirt, wet cleaning the dress (Fig. 4) provided the opportunity to relax the skirt and redistribute its fullness so that it fits within the width of the textblock. For the miniature sampler (Fig. 5), wet cleaning reduced some of the foxing stains on its ground fabric. 

Figure 4a. Pale green dress sample, before conservation treatment. The small dress is positioned too close to the top edge of the pages and gutter, The shoulder straps are distorted and the skirt, near the hem is creased and heavily soiled.
Figure 4a. Green dress sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before wet cleaning.
Figure 4b. Green dress sample, after conservation treatment: wet cleaning to reduce heavy soiling. The small dress has been re-positioned so that the shoulder straps and dress are not distorted and sit centrally on the page.
Figure 4b. Green dress sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), after wet cleaning.

 

Figure 5a. Miniature sampler stitched on white linen with red thread. Red cross stitched capital letters visible on top line L, M, N and on line below T, U, V, W,X, Y, Z. Line underneath red numbers are visible 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and two lines below and centered lower case b - s and t -z. There is a red cross-stitched border. Image taken before conservation wet cleaning showing some darker discolouration around the lowercase letters and throughout the linen is slightly discoloured.
Figure 5a. Miniature sampler from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before wet cleaning.
Figure 5b. Miniature sampler stitched on white linen with red thread. Red cross stitched capital letters visible on top line K,  L, M, N and on line below T, U, V, W,X, Y, Z. Line underneath red numbers are visible 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and two lines below and centered lower case b - s and t -z. There is a red cross-stitched border. Image taken after conservation wet cleaning and overall appearance of the white linen is much brighter and cleaner.
Figure 5b. Miniature sampler from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), after wet cleaning.

Moisture, in the form of fine mist, was gently applied to the crumpled frills of the baby’s cap (Fig. 6), just enough for the fabric to recover some flexibility for reshaping.  

Figure 6a. Baby’s cap or bonnet sample is made from fine white cotton. There are two layers of pleated and gathered frills around the face opening and back of the neck edge and tiny pin tucks which enhance and define the head shape and the formation of the bonnet. The frills are distorted through inappropriate creasing when in the book. The white cotton is discoloured grey from surface soiling.
Figure 6a. Baby’s cap sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before humidifying and reshaping its frills.
Figure 6b. Baby’s cap or bonnet sample is made from fine white cotton. There are two layers of pleated and gathered frills around the face opening and back of the neck edge and tiny pin tucks which enhance and define the head shape and the formation of the bonnet. The frills have been realigned and reshaped. Some of the surface soling has been reduced by surface cleaning with a soft cosmetic sponge. Needle holes are visible where the sample was previously stitched into onto the page.
Figure 6b. Baby’s cap sample from the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), after humidifying and reshaping its frills.

I thought about how to put the samples back in the book because, while stitching is usually compatible with textiles, it would mean either creating more stitch holes on the paper pages or making the existing holes larger and the attachment less secure. I took inspiration – and a few materials – from paper conservation, and prepared some hinges made of thin cotton fabric lined with Japanese tissue using wheat starch paste. This would allow me to stitch one end of the hinge to the textile sample and paste the other end to the page.   

Figure 7. This image shows the testing of newly developed textile-paper hinge on a mock-up. The new hinge is made from fine cotton pasted, using wheat starch paste, onto a lightweight Japanese paper. Japanese paper is very strong in comparison to its weight as its fibres are very long. This new hinge is light and strong and can be stitched to the samples and pasted to the paper pages of the book.
Figure 7. Testing the textile-paper hinge on a mockup.

After discussing my proposed method with my manager Liz Rose and the curator Catriona Gourlay, I proceeded with reattaching the samples with textile-paper hinges, each cut to an appropriate size and attached according to the size and shape of the samples and available space in its assigned page. This way, the samples are adequately secured into their places while having some degree of freedom for the reader's examination (Figure 8). 

Figure 8a. Man's white cotton sample shirt before conservation: showing limited opening accessibility when sample was stitched to left hand page.
Figure 8a. Man’s shirt sample in the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), before treatment.
Figure 8b. Man's white cotton sample shirt after conservation: showing flexible opening accessibility using new cotton paper hinge. The front and back of the shirt are accessible and can be safely handled to enable access.
Figure 8b. Man’s shirt sample in the book Instructions on Needle-work and Knitting (C.194.a.371), after treatment.

 

Gee Roxas, Textile Conservation intern 2023 - 2024 

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