The Great Gatsby Embroidery - Literary Threads No. 4

Ever since I saw the latest film adaptation of Gatsby, I knew it would be on my list of Literary Threads and here it is.

I know I have been dragging my heels over here with this, but finally it is finished and you know what….. I am thrilled with it. It’s a dramatic statement for sure, but what else would you expect with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby and indeed all his works provide a great backdrop for an embroidery pattern that encapsulates ‘The Jazz Age’. In fact it was Fitzgerald who coined that phrase and set it in gold as a tribute to an era that was just loaded with glamour and glitz. It was a time of enormous change and progress - the drastic departure in fashion and the short bobbed hair alone indicate the sweeping of a new broom after the constraints of the Victorian age and the horrors of the first world war. How must it have been to see the corsets of the last 200 years tossed aside for fluid, loose fitting garments that draped elegantly bringing comfort as well as style. How must it have been to get rid of long tiresome trusses in favour of short, swingy bobbed curls and a more natural look. The whole idea of a radical changing lifestyle must have been so refreshing to the young of the day and quite alarming to the older folks. In essence Fitzgerald’s books are all about this.

Born in 1896 to a family that once had some pedigree and grand connections, but now found the money and any sense of entitlement were diminishing, Scott grew up with aspirations seemingly beyond his grasp. Scott Fitzgerald always wanted to be the best and have the best and when he couldn’t always achieve this he simply embellished his situation or made it up. With dashing good looks and handfuls of charm, he could carry it off with the romantic flare of the young. However he wasn’t really on the trajectory he dreamed up for himself - he never completed his studies at Princeton and when the first world war offered an opportunity for heroism, despite joining up, he never left American shores or saw action. His dreams of being a romantic poet in the vein of Rupert Brooke propelled him to write and his short stories found some success in journals.

It was his first book ‘This Side of Paradise’ that really brought him the financial reward and a lot of attention and he revelled in both. At the same time, his marriage to the wild but beautiful Zelda Sayre was to prove both his inspiration and his destruction.

Living the high life, travelling to Europe and cavorting with the jet set in Paris, including the infamous Ernest Hemingway reeked havoc on both of them, while at the same time producing characters and stories that would illustrate the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in novels that are still fascinating today. It seems almost to have been like living in a time bubble - the fashions, the music, the exotic locations…. none of it sustainable but just for a moment a glittering period in history. ‘The Lost Generation’ as Fitzgerald called his contemporaries, struggling with tossing away the old values and ways of decades in favour of anything new and exciting that broke the rules. It didn’t last and neither did they. Zelda and Scott tore each other apart, fuelled by alcoholism and instability. As time moved on, it seemed as if his novels were already out of vogue and the money started to dry up. He was forced to work on film scripts while he battled his demons and Zelda was already committed to a sanatorium from which she never left. He died prematurely in 1940, a lost soul. His books slumbered for a while, out of fashion and from a lost generation, but with the passage of time, they have taken on new meaning as encapsulating this glamorous and ever fascinating period in history. Film adaptations have added to his re-emergence as one of the all time ‘great american writers’ and if you read his books you will probably agree with me that he deserves it. His books are actually funny, direct and a homage to human nature. Most things, especially when it comes to ‘money’ and it’s effects on both individuals and society as a whole (which is actually what a lot of his writing is about) still hold true today in our modern world.

I really enjoyed working on this embroidery design and when it was finished I made it into a cushion cover using V&CO’s Ombre metallic confetti fabric by Moda. That little bit of sparkle is the perfect background for such a glamorous couple.

I have printed patterns, pdf’s and kits available in my Etsy shop so hope you will hop over there and take a peak.