Activity 2
Explain that the children are going to design and create their own fabric tokens.
Fabric – is cloth or other material produced by weaving or knitting fibres. Fabric is used for making clothes, covering furniture, etc.
Explain that fabric includes wool, ribbon, threads, felt, lace, cord, denim, leatherette, fleece etc.
Q: Why do they think that a lot of the tokens were made from old pieces of fabric?
(See curriculum links KS2. Art and Design & Design Technology.)
In the 18th Century people used different images and colours to represent feelings and hopes. Quite often these symbols were sewn or embroidered on to the pieces of fabric that were left as tokens.
All tokens can be decorated with symbols, initials, drawings, or textiles that represent something important to them—family, friendship, dreams, or memories.
For the mothers and parents leaving the tokens with their child at the Foundling Hospital, the pieces of fabric were often decorated with an acorn or a bud, which might suggest new growth, or a bird or a butterfly the chance to fly free, or a flower, the capacity to blossom and bear fruit.
Ribbons were common courting or dating gifts and may have been left by mothers as a representation of the strong bond she had with the child. Hearts, by then a well-established symbol of love, were embroidered onto fabric, cut out of paper or fabric, or left in the form of a playing card in the suit of hearts.
Share the PPT – Tokens left at the Foundling Hospital
Ask the children to look out for different symbols on the fabric.
Q: What symbols did they notice?
Q: What might these symbols represent?
Q: Was there any other embroidery that you noticed?
Complete Activity sheet 2 – symbols and their meanings