The Birds and the Bees.

Many of you will know that, in my younger days, I was part of a Morris dancing side. The kit we wore then, was a white blouse, with a white embroidered in white skirt, knickerbockers with broderie lace on them and a pale blue tunic which went over the head and was secured at the waist by a band. Red socks, red shoes and of course, bells completed the outfit.

After a while, I began to be a bit bored with our ordinary Kit!

As I was a musician half the time and a dancer the rest, I spent much of the time with my back to the audience. How much nicer I thought, if the audience had something to look at, on my boring blue
back.

So I took out my needle and embroidery threads and, with the help of some books on Roumanian embroidery, I stitched some pretty flowery patterns.

How boring was the front of my kit now!

So I stitched  two little fellows from the Lindisfarne Gospels whom I called Bill and Ben.

Bill and Ben began to get a bit lonely on the front. So I added a couple of birds and snakes also from the Lindisfarne Gospels - a beautiful Mediaeval illuminated manuscript I much admired.

Of course...there was just a little space to squeeze in a few more flowers.
Then I added two Dorset Buttons I'd picked up at the Wimborne Folk festival, in Dorset, naturally.

So now, everyone front and back had something to look at. Except me. I couldn't see any of it.

So I began a running design along the hem.

The last bit was one of the birds I had already stitched for my final City and Guilds exam piece as I liked him so much. He's a Mandarin Duck.

And the final bird on the hem was a Wren.

There wasn't much else to stitch onto!

But I found a corner!

Right where the buttons did up at the sides.

And I had started a trend. Others in the side decided they too wanted to have embroidery on their kit which reflected their personality. My dancing partner, Trish embroidered a huge Dragon on the back of her pinafore. Hmm....What did that say about her I wonder ;)

I no longer use the kit. But I take it out now and again and look at it. I might be tempted to add just a weeny bit more.
:)