Standards Met:
VA8MC.1 Engages in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas.
VA8MC.2 Identifies and works to solve problems through authentic engagement (thinking, planning, and experimenting) with art methods and materials, exploring the nature of creativity.
VA8MC.3 Demonstrates how artists create and communicate meaning in artworks.
VA8MC.4 Participates in aesthetic dialogue about his or her artwork and artwork of others.
VA8CU.1 Discovers how the creative process relates to art history.
VA8CU.2 Investigates and discovers personal relationship to community, culture, and world through making and studying art.
VA8PR.1 Engages in art making process with care and craftsmanship.
VA8PR.2 Creates artwork reflecting a range of concepts, ideas, subject matter.
VA8C.1 Applies information from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of artworks.
ELA8R2 Understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing.
ELA8RC3 Acquires new vocabulary in each content area and uses it correctly.
ELA8RC4 Establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas.
Lesson Plan:
If the teacher has experience in sewing, one way to show the manner in which many Victorian women spent their time is to provide lessons on embroidery. As the students can see in the cross-stitch sampler in the Traveling Trunk, Victorian women spent much time and effort on all sorts of decorative textiles, from crochet, to knitting, to tatting, to embroidery. The women of the time would display these handcrafted textiles in their homes, as well as on handkerchiefs and clothing.
To facilitate this activity, each student needs his or her own piece of felt; different colors may be provided. Traditionally, one could use any type of fabric, the finer the better, to stretch inside an embroidery hoop. For the sake of cost efficiency, felt is a material staunch enough to use without a hoop. The students will also each need their own embroidery needle (they are sold in inexpensive packs at any craft store) and a yard and a half of embroidery floss. This material is also inexpensive, and can allow the students some freedom in their own design.
To start, have the students write one word in pencil on the felt. (Tip: cursive is easier to follow with a needle.) Next, show the students how to thread the needle, and tie a secure knot onto one side of the floss. By not securing both strands, the floss is allowed to lengthen without rethreading.
The teacher may demonstrate the backstitch, which looks similar to a machine stitch. This could be time consuming, but will show accurately the complexity of the Victorian pastime. First, push the needle up, starting on the wrong side of the felt. Push the needle back down through the right side of the fabric, and pull taut.
Next, thread the needle up through the wrong side of the fabric a little distance away from where the needle last passed—make sure to follow the penciled lines as you go. Then, push the needle down again, where the needle last passed down through. Continue with the backstitch until the entire word is embroidered onto the felt.
