Got some pretty fabric scraps? Turn them into awesome jewelry with my favourite tutorials from the large collection by @RedBlossomDesigns. 

Shown above is her contemporary style corded fabric links with coiled wire links tutorial. You can adapt this tutorial for bracelets too.


These fabric earrings use metal cones and large beads for the base. If you do not like such long beads, check out the same designer's other tutorial here which uses bead caps top and bottom.


Her braided fabric tube bracelet is simply lovely but takes some patience. If you do not have a tube turner tool, use a small safety pin to pull one end through so the fabric tube.


I also love her fabric cord bow tie hair pin tutorial. I recommend you check out your local Chinatown or Asian grocery store for chopsticks. There are all kinds of patterns to enable you to choose one that suits your fabric. 


This is a super fun way to adorn ready made hoop earrings!

   

Fabric Tokens from the Foundling Hospital Museum

Large numbers of people moved into London during the 1700's looking for jobs. Women were at a severe disadvantage if they became single mothers or widowed. There was no effective birth control, no social welfare, no childcare. Women had to find work, sometimes in the sex trade or starve. Many were forced to abandon babies and young children in the streets. 

A sea captain, Thomas Coram, was appalled to see such dire poverty and death. He resolved to help. It took him almost two decades to obtain the Royal Charter to establish his charity, The Foundling Hospital, in 1739, which provided care for abandoned children. The babies were fostered to wet nurses in rural families until they were about five. Most then returned to the Foundling Hospital where they were fed, clothed and provided vocational training until the age of 14.

As you can well imagine, the demand for spaces far exceeded what the charity could provide and there were various selection methods used over time.  Mothers and sometimes young families in difficult circumstances, were faced with impossible choices - a chance that their babies would live and on the other hand, the gut wrenching pain of losing these babies.

The hospital did keep records of the children taken in, including a large collection of tokens - buttons, ribbons, metal pieces, a sixpence, a nut, scraps of fabric. People were largely illiterate in those days so the tokens were used as a means of identity, to establish a bond, a token of love or a fervent wish that the children will prosper in the future.

Picture Credit : Michael Clarke

Often the mother would keep one piece of a scrap of fabric and leave another piece with the baby. Later on, staff would provide fabric pieces to be divided for the same reason. To identify the children should the children be reclaimed. The sad truth is, very few children were ever returned to their parents. A large part of the reason is the huge mortality rate of infants and children in a time when vaccines were not available.

Many mothers left heart tokens as symbols of their love, which are incredibly moving to see. A mother left this embroidered paper and fabric heart with the name William pinned at the back. Mothers still gave their own names for their infants despite knowing the hospital would rename them.

Pictures courtesy of Coram

Acorns - be they a printed element on a fabric or an actual acorn, were considered a symbol of new growth - a fervent hope for their children.





The fabric token collection is a rare one for historians as the textiles used for ordinary people's clothing do not usually survive.

The Coram Foundation still exists today as a children's charity. The orphanage/hospital system shifted to foster care in the 1950's.  You can read more about the Foundling Hospital Museum here or watch this video.  Visit if you are ever in London!


Before You Go:

jewelry making supplies

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM