Alice Harcourt 1852 is a beautiful sampler with a story to tell. Dating to December 9, 1852, the original piece has survived for more than 170 years, although time has not been particularly kind to it. Much of the original needlework has deteriorated, and a large portion of the upper right corner was torn away and lost. Despite the damage, Alice's name and the date she completed her work remain clearly visible, preserving a small but meaningful connection to the young girl who stitched it so many years ago.
When I began recreating Alice's sampler, I wanted to preserve as much of the original design as possible. However, because significant portions of the needlework were missing, an exact reproduction was impossible. I carefully studied the surviving stitches, motifs, colors, and overall arrangement, drawing upon the traditions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century schoolgirl needlework to imagine how the missing sections might originally have appeared.
The resulting design is a combination of historical preservation and thoughtful interpretation. Traditional alphabets and numbers, birds, evergreen trees, flowering plants, and baskets of blossoms are arranged within a delicate geometric border, all worked in the beautiful red and green colors so characteristic of early needlework.
Although this sampler began as an effort to reproduce an original piece from 1852, the extensive reconstruction required a considerable amount of creative interpretation. For that reason, Alice Harcourt 1852 is classified as an original design rather than a faithful reproduction. My hope has been to honor the character of Alice's surviving work while giving new life to a sampler that might otherwise have been lost to time.
It is a pleasure to share Alice's needlework with a new generation of stitchers, and I hope you will enjoy bringing her sampler to life once again, one stitch at a time.
Design: Alice Harcourt 1852
Classification: Original design based on a damaged nineteenth-century sampler
Style: Traditional schoolgirl sampler
Technique: Counted cross stitch
Fabric: Suitable for linen or Aida
Stitching: Over two threads on linen or one square on Aida
Colors: Traditional red and green
Format: Digital PDF download
This listing is for a digital PDF cross stitch pattern only. No physical product, fabric, floss, or stitching supplies will be shipped.
Photographs of the finished sampler are digital stitched mockups provided to illustrate how the completed design may appear.
Alice Harcourt 1852 is a beautiful sampler with a story to tell. Dating to December 9, 1852, the original piece has survived for more than 170 years, although time has not been particularly kind to it. Much of the original needlework has deteriorated, and a large portion of the upper right corner was torn away and lost. Despite the damage, Alice's name and the date she completed her work remain clearly visible, preserving a small but meaningful connection to the young girl who stitched it so many years ago.
When I began recreating Alice's sampler, I wanted to preserve as much of the original design as possible. However, because significant portions of the needlework were missing, an exact reproduction was impossible. I carefully studied the surviving stitches, motifs, colors, and overall arrangement, drawing upon the traditions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century schoolgirl needlework to imagine how the missing sections might originally have appeared.
The resulting design is a combination of historical preservation and thoughtful interpretation. Traditional alphabets and numbers, birds, evergreen trees, flowering plants, and baskets of blossoms are arranged within a delicate geometric border, all worked in the beautiful red and green colors so characteristic of early needlework.
Although this sampler began as an effort to reproduce an original piece from 1852, the extensive reconstruction required a considerable amount of creative interpretation. For that reason, Alice Harcourt 1852 is classified as an original design rather than a faithful reproduction. My hope has been to honor the character of Alice's surviving work while giving new life to a sampler that might otherwise have been lost to time.
It is a pleasure to share Alice's needlework with a new generation of stitchers, and I hope you will enjoy bringing her sampler to life once again, one stitch at a time.
Design: Alice Harcourt 1852
Classification: Original design based on a damaged nineteenth-century sampler
Style: Traditional schoolgirl sampler
Technique: Counted cross stitch
Fabric: Suitable for linen or Aida
Stitching: Over two threads on linen or one square on Aida
Colors: Traditional red and green
Format: Digital PDF download
This listing is for a digital PDF cross stitch pattern only. No physical product, fabric, floss, or stitching supplies will be shipped.
Photographs of the finished sampler are digital stitched mockups provided to illustrate how the completed design may appear.
