Swimming Days embroidery pattern

Hi there,

What strange and difficult times we live in with this Covid 19 lockdown. I know it is hard for so many people, but am heartened by the wave of creativity that is popping up everywhere. Perhaps some small and good things will come from this pandemic and as people find time to pick up some stitching rediscover the art of ‘making’, even if it is a small project, it is refreshing to see. I have had quite a few questions on my Etsy shop from newbie embroiderers and I am always happy to answer these. Creating something hand made is so special and I thank everyone who has bought my patterns and kits over these last weeks and am thrilled to have sent little parcels of Ruby’s designs to as far away as New Zealand and California.

Two of my patterns ‘Skiing Days’ and ‘Skating Days’ have been really popular so I decided it was time to switch to a more warm weather theme and the new design ‘Swimming Days’ is certainly that.

The origin of the word ‘Lido’ is from the italian word meaning beach, shore or bank and these outdoor swimming pools were originally found along the coast. In the 19th century, wealthy tourists swam at the Lido in Venice and this may have been how the word sneaked into our vocabulary and our consciousness. They became immensely popular in the 1930’s and many were built around the UK coastline. The South Bay Lido in Scarborough was apparently one of the most splendid in Europe, unfortunately now it is in ruins and deserted, a casualty of the long decline precipitated by mass foreign travel. I remember going to the Lido at Saltdean in Sussex when I was a little girl staying with my grandparents. It seemed it was a perennially sunny place (of course it wasn’t) but even then, it seemed to belong to a bygone era. Lido’s were also built inland and today some of those are still much loved and used - we have one not too far away in Ilkley and there are others around the UK including in London.

I am happy to say that the Saltdean Lido is a survivor and with local community support and grants it has been renovated and is open to enjoy (normally) and I do hope one day to go and visit again. Being a vintage girl, I always love looking at old photographs of lido’s in the 30’s …. the costumes, the hairstyles and the feeling of a gentler age. The art deco style of the period was very distinctive and easy on the eye and my design is based on all of these elements and it was fun and quicker than you might think to stitch.

The design really only uses 3 basic embroidery stitches: satin stitch, back stitch and chain stitch so it is not a difficult project. There are some quite small areas of stitching but it is relatively straight forward otherwise. Check out a little video at the bottom of this post to see how my design progressed.

When it was finished, I decided to make my embroidered piece into a pillow (mainly because I happened to have a spare one taking up space in my sewing cupboard. I used some absolutely gorgeous ‘Dear Stella’ fabric called ‘Bite Me Multi’ and with the addition of some striped ribbon, it made up into a lovely seaside summery cushion to brighten up these spring days.

Printed and pdf patterns are available in my Etsy shop here and I am working on some kits which should be available soon. Meanwhile, I hope you will all stay well and carry on creating…..

Toodle…oooo Ruby x