Online event: Jane Austen Embroidery with Jennie Batchelor

17/05/2020 6:00 pm – 17/05/2020 7:00 pm | Online

Join Jennie Batchelor, historian and co-author of Jane Austen Embroidery, at this online talk about embroidery in the era of Jane Austen.

We know that Jane Austen was as skilful with a needle as she was with a pen. She was a keen amateur embroiderer who was praised for being so ‘excellent in satin stitch’ that she would have put ‘a sewing machine to shame’. Jane’s letters document her embellishing caps and gowns while trying and failing to guard the patterns so that her friends couldn’t mimic her style.

But where she did get her patterns from? The most likely source is the Lady’s Magazine (1770-1832), a hugely successful women’s magazine that Jane Austen read and that for 50 years provided readers with monthly embroidery patterns. In this talk, Jennie Batchelor discusses her chance discovery of some of these presumed lost patterns and the new book she has written with Alison Larkin, Jane Austen Embroidery. 

This is a free online event and will be followed by a Zoom Q&A.

The event is a part of Chawton House’s Lockdown Literature Festival. Read more about how to view the talk here.

About the author

Jennie Batchelor is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Kent and the author of five books and many articles and book chapters. Jennie has co-hosted embroidery workshops and given various talks about embroidery, Jane Austen and Regency fashion for many events, including Lucy Worsley’s BBC documentary Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors. Jennie is also Patron of the Kent branch of the Jane Austen Society.

Jennie co-authored Jane Austen Embroidery with Alison Larkin, a book featuring 15 beautiful embroidery projects from the era of Jane Austen. Find out more about the book.