Sew What?

In this episode, Isabella interviews Shilei Zeng, Assistant Curator of China at the Victoria and Albert Museum and final year PhD student at King's College London. The two discuss Shilei's research into the use of Chinese textiles in 18th-century Britain and beyond.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find Shilei on Instagram at Instagram.com/fashioneastandwest.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Micah Clasper-Torch, an artist, designer, and educator whose work is centred around the traditional craft of punch needle rug hooking. The two talk about the history and use of punch needle in all of its forms. 

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find Micah on Instagram @claspertorch and @punchneedle.world. Her websites are https://www.punchneedleworld.com/ and https://www.micahclasper-torch.com/. Her book, Punch Needle Fashion, is out now.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Ruth Battersby, Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at Norfolk Museums Service. The two talk about the embroidery of Lorina Bulwer, a Victorian woman institutionalised in the Great Yarmouth Workhouse who spent her days embroidering vibrant, angry, and extremely long biographical scrolls.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Alexis Penny Casdagli, the daughter of Major A.T. Casdagli, an Anglo-Greek spy famous for embroidering subversive needlework during his time in German POW camps in WWII. 

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can read Major A.T. Casdagli's wartime diary, Prouder Than Ever, through Cylix Press here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/. Also be sure to check out Alexis Penny's blog here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/alexis-pennys-blog/.

As a note, the Greek Civil War is mentioned in this episode as being in 1948. The Greek Civil War took place from 1946 to 1949.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Jo Andrews, host of the wonderful textile podcast Haptic & Hue.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can listen to Haptic & Hue and learn more here: https://hapticandhue.com/listen/. And be sure to check out the Textile Travels guides here: https://www.textiletoursofparis.com/textile-travels. 

In this special holiday episode, Isabella interviews a variety of individuals who helped plan and who attended Gathered at Gressenhall, a special textile takeover day at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, which took place on 29 September 2024.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

Show notes:

• Fiona Ashley mentions that Gressenhall's flax growing project began in 2023 -- it actually began in 2022
• You can find out more about Common Threads Press here: https://www.commonthreadspress.co.uk/
• You can find out more about GroundWork Gallery here: https://www.groundworkgallery.com/

In this episode, Isabella interviews Dr Seth Rockman, associate professor of history at Brown University, about his new book Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Sarah Brokenborough, a PhD student at Tulane University, about her master's dissertation entitled "What’s the Use?: A Comparison of Needlework Samples Made By Free, Freed, and Enslaved Schoolgirls in the Early Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World."

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews three people from Fine Cell Work, a British charity that runs rehabilitation projects in prisons by training prisoners in paid, skilled needlework.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews writer, historian, teacher, and lifelong mender Kate Sekules about the history and importance of mending and darning.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.