Suffragettes, Suffragists & the vintage style rosette...

Those of you who remember my Suffragette post will understand how excited I got recently when I heard that there was to be a re-enactment of the The Great 1913 Suffragist Pilgrimage from Lands End to London to celebrate it's centenary in a small town nearby! 

In the week or so leading up to the event in Corsham, Wiltshire there had been a display of Suffrage images, posters & fully dressed costume dummies in a couple of 'pop up' shops and I couldn't resist popping in to see it all.

Here's one of the fab dummies put out in the sunshine especially for the march!
(note the Suffragist colours)

I had a very interesting conversation with one of the ladies in the pop up shop who explained that there were two types of Suffrage supporters  - the more militant 'Suffragettes' who wore sashes of purple, white & green and had a tendancy to smash windows & generally cause mayhem and 'Suffragists' who also wanted the vote for women but who went about campaigning in a more peaceful way such as this pilgrimage and wore their own colours of red, white & green to distinguish themselves from their rowdier sisters-in-arms.

Apparently they had a good reception in some towns and in others they were shouted & booed at so it wasn't all plain sailing and at times they faced quite dangerous crowds.  In all the walk took around 6 weeks and they managed to collect something like 46,000 signatures for their petition on the way! The event has been organised alongside a play by a theatre group called Dreadnought South West which has been running in towns along the original pilgrimage route to celebrate their amazing, brave journey - you can find out more or buy tickets to see the play here 

So, with all the excitement this morning I grabbed my camera and went along to watch the re-enactment...

It all started at the Methuen Arms... banners at the ready!

Then it was time to march through the town!

A little singing & some rousing campaign speeches!

'Dr & Mrs J E Crisp' welcome the group to the town just like back in 1913..

We want the right to Vote !

A sea of Suffragists outside the town hall

I think it was really impressive - don't they look brilliant in their costumes?  It must also have been very hot dressing up during this current heatwave in all those long sleeves & skirts but at least they had hats on! 

It certainly looked like they had put tons of effort into making everything and I learnt that as well as a local knitting group helping to make lots of woolly flower corsages for the ladies to wear, that a local school had been involved in making banners which were dotted about the town.   

After finding out about the event last weekend I had immediately decided on my own little tribute make for the Suffragists with a campaign style rosette....

If you fancy catching up with the march and would like to make your own version of the rosette here's the step by steps...

1) Begin by drawing out 3 template circles on paper to use as the pattern.  You can make them any size you like for bigger or smaller rosettes but I used 10cm, 8cm, 6cm....

2) Pin & cut your circles out in your chosen fabrics (remember its red, white & green for the Suffragist)....

3) Then make a small running stitch along the outside edge of one of the circles...

4) Pull the ends of the thread so that it bunches up like this...

5) Then flatten out like this...

6) Repeat with the other two circles of fabric...

7) Then stack them on top of each other like this..

8) Find a nice large (vintage) button and a needle & thread.. 

9) Sew the button on top the fabric circles to secure everything then simply add a pin to the back and you are ready to join the march!

A big well done to everyone who helped prepare and take part in the march - I think it was a huge success and it got my vote!


Happy Making :-)

xxxx