The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine

Rating:
Summary: You'll never look at a sampler the same way again
Review: If you've ever looked at samplers or thought of the ways in which needlework shaped the lives of women for centuries (mostly in the negative sense), you will enjoy this book immensely. Parker takes one of the central tasks expected of women in the 18th and 19th centuries and shows how women used needlework as an outlet to express feelings of dismay and dislike. It just goes to show you: where there's a will, there's a way.

If you enjoy learning about women's lives in the past, and have either an interest or an aversion to needlework yourself, I think you will enjoy this most unusual history.

Rating:
Summary: You'll never look at a sampler the same way again
Review: If you've ever looked at samplers or thought of the ways in which needlework shaped the lives of women for centuries (mostly in the negative sense), you will enjoy this book immensely. Parker takes one of the central tasks expected of women in the 18th and 19th centuries and shows how women used needlework as an outlet to express feelings of dismay and dislike. It just goes to show you: where there's a will, there's a way.

If you enjoy learning about women's lives in the past, and have either an interest or an aversion to needlework yourself, I think you will enjoy this most unusual history.