LSU Faculty In Stitches at Louisiana Book Festival

LSU faculty will be well represented at the 15th annual Louisiana Book Festival on Saturday, November 10 at the Baton Rouge Capitol. Among them is Pamela Rabalais-Vinci, instructor and director of the LSU Textile & Costume Museum and co-author of the new collection Mending for Memory: Sewing in Louisiana. She’ll be speaking about the oral history research behind her essay, “Each one a unique creation: Hand-sewn infants’ and children’s garments in Louisiana,” which tells the story of generations of women of French descent in southern Louisiana who built a formidable cottage industry by sewing and selling their work. Mothers taught daughters and daughter-in-laws, who then in turn taught their daughters, sisters, and mother-in-laws. Many were part of the Acadian Handicraft Project, based at LSU from 1942 to 1962, which aimed to connect skilled sewers with retailers of fine clothing across the state (there was even a gift shop on LSU campus) in an effort to preserve the craft and sustain the industry within a larger push to support French language and culture in Louisiana.

“When I began to go through the records in the 1990s, I discovered lists of workers and craftsmen who were part of the project, such as weavers and basket makers, but mainly I found lots and lots of sewers,” Rabalais-Vinci recalls. “And most of them made children’s wear, layettes, and many of them shared the same surname—LeBlanc.”

The LeBlanc community lived outside Erath, south of Lafayette. The husbands were generally farmers while the wives raised children—and sewed (and sewed, and sewed).

“It was a way to boost the family pocketbook, but also a great source of pride,” Rabalais-Vinci says. “So looking at these names 40 years later, I wondered, whom could I contact? I was able to get through to three who still had that same home phone number, and then I went to meet with them to record their stories, and through them learned about countless others.”

Going through preserved correspondence between the director of the Acadian Handicraft Project at LSU, Louise Olivier, and the various sewers and retailers, Rabalais came across detailed drawings.

“These women were essentially establishing a kind of copyright on their designs,” she explains. “It was their way of stating ‘my way, my stamp’ when embellishing a dress, for example.”

One of the sweetest quotes she came across during her research was from a lady who lived in the middle of the LeBlanc community: “I’m making things and saving them. I may not be able to sew by the time they [grandchildren] have children. I make them bonnets and little dresses, different colors and different sizes, different things. I make a little gown and blanket and put them in a Ziploc, those gallon things. And I put a piece of tape on it and I put the date that I made it, and they’re going to have fun one day.”

The type of sewing these women did is now endangered knowledge. Traditionally known as French sewing, common features are French (hidden) seams, tiny tucks and lace insertions, fine embroidery work, and tiny buttonholes—all worked by hand and incredibly time-consuming; true works of wearable art.

“These women might have taken the money and bought a new sewing machine or a freezer,” Rabalais-Vinci remarks. “But mainly, they produced a memory for future generations to hold on to, and through their work they are remembered within their community and family for their contributions.”

Other than Rabalais-Vinci, several LSU faculty will be present at the Louisiana Book Festival to discuss new works of their own. Sylvie Dubois (LSU French Studies) and Malcolm Richardson (LSU English) will talk about their book, Speaking French in Louisiana, 1720-1955: Linguistic Practices of the Catholic Church, while Katherine Henninger (LSU English), who was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship last year, will serve on the panel for One Book, One Festival: The Great Big Doorstep by E.P. O’Donnell. Joshua Wheeler (LSU English) will elaborate on his latest collection of essays, Acid West, while now-retired LSU faculty Ben Forkner will present his fourth book on John James Audubon, and Mary Manhein, “The Bone Lady,” will add some extra suspense to her new young adult novel, Claire Carter, Bone Detective: The Mystery of the Bones in the Drainpipe.

 

Elsa Hahne
LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
225-578-4774
ehahne@lsu.edu