JUST SEW stories

Examples of embroidery have been identified in fossilised clothing from 30,000BC

Threads Of Life Clare Hunter Sceptre, €17.99 ★★★★★

When Clare Hunter was a child, her mother bought her fabric pre-stamped with designs and brightly coloured embroidery silks, then taught her a basic repertoire of embroidery stitches. ‘It seemed to me that embroidering... was not just a pastime but a portal to another way of life,’ she writes.

So it proved, for although Hunter’s Glasgow school steered her away from what was then known as ‘domestic science’ in favour of academic subjects, she eventually returned to her first love, becoming a banner-maker, curator and community textile artist.

Hunter writes that, ‘When I’ve been involved in a community textile project, I have always been amazed by how cheerful it makes some men to survey the group of women embroidering some intricate appliqué and joke, “I’ve got some trousers that need taking up”, or, “Can you sew a button on my jacket?”’

Such attitudes, she adds, are not necessarily about women, but about sewing itself – a visual language with an unsettling potential for delivering covert and subversive messages.

Embroidery is an ancient craft – examples of it have been identified in fossilised remains of clothing from as long ago as 30,000BC. But Hunter begins her cultural history with the Bayeux Tapestry, the 11th-century embroidery that unfolds the story of the Norman conquest of England across almost 70 metres of finely stitched linen. The tapestry’s history is obscure: it was probably made by English women, who were then renowned for their embroidery skills, but nothing is known about the individuals who stitched the intricately detailed historical narrative.

Across the centuries, anonymity has often been the fate of embroiderers – but not always. Mary Queen of Scots, who learned embroidery as a child, became an accomplished needlewoman who stitched political subversion into her creations, to ultimately disastrous effect. In 1569 a cushion embroidered by Mary with coded references to a plot to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I, was given to the Duke of Norfolk, whom Mary planned to marry. It was used as evidence at the Duke’s trial for high treason. He was convicted and executed.

In chapters headed Power, Frailty, Captivity, Identity and so on, Hunter explores the idea of embroidery as a means of secret self-expression and resistance. From the autographed quilts made by women prisoners in Changi jail during World War ll, the fragments of cloth left as identifying tokens with babies taken in by London’s Foundling Hospital, or Judy Chicago’s controversial feminist artwork, The Dinner Party (1974-79), needlework has been a way for the voiceless to find a voice. In a chapter entitled Value, Hunter recalls a bruising encounter at a creative writing class, where her idea for a book on sewing was brutally dismissed. Threads Of Life is a triumphant rebuttal of her sneering critic. More rigorous editing would have removed occasional repetitions and longueurs, but with its exquisite blue-and-gold cover and a text crammed with vivid anecdotes and colourful snippets of fascinating information, Hunter’s debut is an inspiration to anyone who has ever thought of picking up a needle and thread.