Souvenir de ma Jeunesse
A treasure to an embroidery fan, "Souvenir de ma Jeunesse" should simply translate to "Memories of my Youth" or "My Childhood Memories". This is what they called the "sampler bands" that were also reffered to as "pronklap"; stitched by Dutch schoolgirls in the late 19th & early 20th Centuries and were often the result of a year of school where girls learned different embroidery stitches & sewing and crochet & knitting techniques that they would be needing throughout their lives.
These sampler bands would generally start as simple techniques and would lengthen over the years with new additions as exercises were becoming more sophisticated and difficult. Some of these bands reached several meters long!
The girls of the grande bourgeoisie and nobility did not attend public schools but were trained in institutions or by residing instructors (like a governess or nanny).
These samplers are again very popular today and are being reproduced by contemporary Dutch stitchers!
Some nice pictures of Joke Visser's at l'Aiguille en Fête held this year in France; again from her stand, pictures taken by Tempus Fugit and some lovely samples at Berthi's blog. And last but not least, have a look at what my dear Gigi is showing us from her collection - probably the wildest of all!
Aaaaand finally, here is my humble sample that is about 125 cm long obviously not by a noble Dutch lady :)
All the info above are my recollection of what I have understood from the online Dutch-English translations over the months. So, please anybody with better knowledge, correct me!
