"A rare opportunity to study this design created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth..."
Jenny Adin-Christie
Jane Austen's Needlecase
4 days: 16th-17th, 19th-20th August 2027 Fee: £525
A rare opportunity to study this design which was originally created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth in 2025. The design is based in Jane's home in Chawton, Hampshire, where she spent the last eight years of her short life, a period which became most creative and productive of her writing career. During these eight years, her most celebrated works were either edited and published (1811 Sense and Sensibility, 1813 Pride and Prejudice) or written and piblished (1814, Mansfield Park, 1816 Emma). Persuasian was also written between 1815 and 1816 and Northanger Abbery was revised but these were not published until after her death.
It seems rather lovely to marry this design with the city of Bath, where Jane also lived for a period with her family, and where the Jane Austen festival is celebrated each year.
The needlecase depicts the house at Chawton worked in burden stitch, couched gimps and with tiny details. This is surrounded by an arched bower of stylised oak leaves and ivy leaves, motifs taken from the Wedgewood china and original wallpapers in the house. Worked in silk shading with goldwork elements. The lower half of the design is inspired by Jane's needlecase which was made by Jane for her neice, and a whitework handkerchief which was stitched by her sister Cassandra. These motifs use elements of cut purl work with beads and sequins. The design's fan shape is also inspired by the Wedgewood china.
The completed design is made up into a fan-shaped needlelacase with internal wool flannel pages. It is backed with a panel of fabric printed with the design of one of the original pieces of wallpaper from the cottage.
This design is suitable for embroiderers with some experience of working fine embroidery but you will be guided through step by step whatever your experience. You will not be able to complete the design in four days but you will have learnt the stitches and will be provided with a comprehensive book of illustrated instruction and access to videos of the entire process, to allow you to complete confidently at home.
Class kit
Students will be provided with a full working kit containing all the materials and needles required to produce the embroidered panel and to make this up into the needlecase. This includes a comprehensive illustrated instruction manual and access to a full suite of videos of the processes. The cost of the kit is £225.00.
About Jenny
Jenny’s career stemmed from a rich family heritage of craftsmanship, being taught to stitch and make from an early age by her mother, a teacher specialising in textiles, and her father, a master gunsmith and fishing rod builder.
Fine hand embroidery became her true passion, and Jenny was encouraged to apply for a sought-after place on the rigorous three-year Apprenticeship course then offered at the Royal School of Needlework, Hampton Court. Here she learnt to work a hugely diverse range of traditional and more contemporary techniques to a professional standard, training simultaneously in art and design.
Jenny graduated from the Apprenticeship in 1996 with distinction and awards in goldwork and silk shading, before being honoured with full-time employment at the RSN. This role allowed her the enviable opportunity to practice her skills on the enormously varied commissions of the commercial studio, and as a tutor on the broad range of courses. Jenny thus became widely recognised as a specialist in the fields of whitework, metal thread, raised embroidery/stumpwork and embroidery design.
Ten years of invaluable experience as a senior tutor and studio embroiderer, eventually becoming Assistant Head of the Studio at the RSN, allowed Jenny to branch out as a freelance embroiderer when her daughter was born in 2008. Jenny now works full time as a professional hand embroiderer, running her own business from her home studio in Surrey.
