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Chevenning - Can Anyone Help?In Nottingham, in the early 1900s, there was a factory which specialised in the manufacture of silk stockings for the aristocracy. My elderly mother-in-law remembers working as a 'chevenner' (spelling suspect). She worked with a very fine needle down the back seam and heel of a stocking, embroidering a very fine pattern. She refers to it as 'chevenning'. I wonder if there is a connection with the French word 'chevron'. She has also remembered the word 'clock' as a description of her 'chevenning' work. My Oxford dictionary defines a meaning for clock: an ornamental pattern in silk worked on the side of a stocking. Hence 'clocked', embroidered with clocks.
When my mother-in-law worked at home she used to work with an oil lamp which would be transformed into a brilliant light by using a saucer of aqua forte which she obtained from the chemist. She used a 'stockinger's lamp', which consisted of a glass bowl in which the aqua forte was placed. A lamp was then placed behind the bowl and shone on the work with a pure white light. When her mother did this work the lamp was an oil lamp. In mother's time, it was replaced by an electric light. She remembers that sometimes a brass button or similar was dropped into the aqua forte, supposedly to brighten the light.
As an ex-sailor, my 'embroidery' was restricted to sewing canvas with a size 14.5 needle? at 7 stitches to the inch. But I do hope that mother's memories might provoke some interest in your numerous readers.
David Simpson