Sew What?

In this episode Isabella interviews Dr Emelie Gevalt and Dr Caroline Culp, co-curators of the upcoming exhibition Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American “Schoolgirl” Art at the American Folk Art Museum. The three talk about the exhibition, the pieces within it, and how themes of identity, belonging, and place emerge in schoolgirl needlework and other art forms. The exhibition opens on 9 October 2026.

You can find out more about the exhibition here: https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/locating-girlhood/. You can buy the accompanying book here: https://shop.folkartmuseum.org/locating-girlhood-place-and-identity-in-early-amer.html.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode Isabella interviews Dr Eliza McKee, Irish dress and social historian. The two talk about the dress, textiles, and needlework of the Irish poor. You can find Eliza on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/irishdresshistorian/.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode Isabella interviews Lisa Little, curator of Sheringham Museum at the Mo, and Lesley Lougher, volunteer and former trustee of Sheringham Museum at the Mo, about John Craske (1881-1943). John Craske was a Norfolk fisherman who took to painting and embroidery after falling ill. The trio talk about how Craske came to embroider, the style and content of his stitching, and how a group of women put his work on the map.

You can learn more about the museum here: https://www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk/. You can buy Lesley Lougher and Jan Hillier's book about John Craske here: https://www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk/product/john-craske-fisherman-painter-in-wools/. You can learn more about the Murmuration Tapestry here: https://nearlywildweaving.wordpress.com/the-murmuration-collaboration/.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode Isabella interviews Dr Brenda Rewhorn, the chairman of the Ring of Tatters and a maker of all sorts of textiles who did her PhD on the history of tatting. The two talk about the development of tatting, the different types of tatting that are practiced, the tools involved in tatting production, and modern day uses of it. You can join the Ring of Tatters here: https://www.ringoftatters.org.uk/.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Dr Eleanor Houghton about her new book Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes, published by Bloomsbury.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can buy Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/charlotte-bront%C3%ABs-life-through-clothes-9781350514089/. You can find Eleanor on her website here: https://www.eleanorhoughton.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/eleanorhoughtonhistorian/.

In the first part of this two-part episode about needlework in India, Isabella interviews the staff at Chanakya, based in Mumbai.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find out more about Chanakya International here: https://chanakya.in/ and the Chanakya School of Craft here: https://chanakya.school/index.php. You can also find them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/chanakya.in/ and https://www.instagram.com/chanakya.school/.

In the second part of this two-part episode about needlework in India, Isabella interviews the staff at Shrujan and Shrujan LLDC, based in Bhuj.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find out more about Shrujan here: https://shrujan.com/ and Shrujan LLDC here: https://shrujanlldc.org/. You can also find them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/shrujanindia/ and https://www.instagram.com/lldcshrujan/.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Dr Elizabeth Way about her exhibition Art X Fashion, on display at the Museum at FIT until 19 April 2026.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find out more about Art X Fashion at https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/art-fashion/index.php and more about the Museum at FIT at https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Alexandra Peters about her sampler collection and the importance of studying samplers.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

Alexandra's website is https://www.alexandralallypeters.com/. You can learn about her upcoming talks at Norwalk Historical Society and Suffield Historical Society here: https://www.alexandralallypeters.com/talks. Alexandra also mentions https://www.thesamplerguild.co.uk/, http://www.samplerconsortiuminternational.org/, and http://antiquesamplers.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Hannah Sutherland, ACR, Senior Textile Conservator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The two discuss what is involved in conservation, knitted masterpieces, and the exhibition Marie Antoinette Style.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find Hannah on Instagram at Instagram.com/hannahjoycetextiles. You can find her Textile History article at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00404969.2025.2505489.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Shilei Zeng, Assistant Curator of China at the Victoria and Albert Museum and final year PhD student at King's College London. The two discuss Shilei's research into the use of Chinese textiles in 18th-century Britain and beyond.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find Shilei on Instagram at Instagram.com/fashioneastandwest.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Micah Clasper-Torch, an artist, designer, and educator whose work is centred around the traditional craft of punch needle rug hooking. The two talk about the history and use of punch needle in all of its forms.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can find Micah on Instagram @claspertorch and @punchneedle.world. Her websites are https://www.punchneedleworld.com/ and https://www.micahclasper-torch.com/. Her book, Punch Needle Fashion, is out now.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Ruth Battersby, Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at Norfolk Museums Service. The two talk about the embroidery of Lorina Bulwer, a Victorian woman institutionalised in the Great Yarmouth Workhouse who spent her days embroidering vibrant, angry, and extremely long biographical scrolls.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Alexis Penny Casdagli, the daughter of Major A.T. Casdagli, an Anglo-Greek spy famous for embroidering subversive needlework during his time in German POW camps in WWII.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can read Major A.T. Casdagli's wartime diary, Prouder Than Ever, through Cylix Press here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/. Also be sure to check out Alexis Penny's blog here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/alexis-pennys-blog/.

As a note, the Greek Civil War is mentioned in this episode as being in 1948. The Greek Civil War took place from 1946 to 1949.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Jo Andrews, host of the wonderful textile podcast Haptic & Hue.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

You can listen to Haptic & Hue and learn more here: https://hapticandhue.com/listen/. And be sure to check out the Textile Travels guides here: https://www.textiletoursofparis.com/textile-travels.

In this special holiday episode, Isabella interviews a variety of individuals who helped plan and who attended Gathered at Gressenhall, a special textile takeover day at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, which took place on 29 September 2024.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

Show notes:

• Fiona Ashley mentions that Gressenhall's flax growing project began in 2023 -- it actually began in 2022
• You can find out more about Common Threads Press here: https://www.commonthreadspress.co.uk/
• You can find out more about GroundWork Gallery here: https://www.groundworkgallery.com/

In this episode, Isabella interviews Dr Seth Rockman, associate professor of history at Brown University, about his new book Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews Sarah Brokenborough, a PhD student at Tulane University, about her master's dissertation entitled "What’s the Use?: A Comparison of Needlework Samples Made By Free, Freed, and Enslaved Schoolgirls in the Early Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World."

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews three people from Fine Cell Work, a British charity that runs rehabilitation projects in prisons by training prisoners in paid, skilled needlework.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.

In this episode, Isabella interviews writer, historian, teacher, and lifelong mender Kate Sekules about the history and importance of mending and darning.

Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.