Have a hankering to make your very own 19th century lawn game? Well! You've come to the right place!
I don't remember where exactly my sisters and I got the set of graces that lives at my parents' house. It could have been a Christmas gift the year my mom declared that all gifts given and received would be ones that could have hailed from the 19th century. Or maybe it was purchased at any one of the innumerable historic house museums where my sisters and I spent our childhoods taking the wind out of the sails of unsuspecting docents. However it got here, the game has lived in the pass-through closet next to my parents' kitchen fireplace for the last thirty years and every summer it gets pulled out for some good old-fashioned fun.
The thing is, graces really is exceedingly fun to play, even if you're not someone who paraded around in historical dress in their formative years. If you're up for a rollicking good time and have a few minutes to make your own fun, read on:
All you need is two wooden dowels, an embroidery hoop or two, and some scrap fabric or ribbons.
First cited in the 1831 American Girl's Book: Occupation for Play Hours by one Miss Eliza Leslie, the instructions for playing graces are as written:
This is played with two small hoops and four sticks. Each player takes a pair of sticks and a hoop, and stands opposite her adversary. The sticks are held on in each hand, so as to cross; the hoop is hung on their points, and then tossed over to the other player who must endeavor to catch it on the points of her sticks having first tossed her own hoop toward her opponent.
Miss Leslie goes on, but what she doesn't quite elucidate is that to toss the hoop one must simply uncross the sticks. In one terrific unscissoring, the hoops go flying across the lawn where they are hopefully (or not) caught by the adversary. It's so fun?!
She is right to mention that starting with two hoops might be overly ambitious:
To become so dextrous as always to catch the hoop, requires considerable practice. Beginners had better commence with one hoop only, between them; as it is much easier than to keep two going at once.
For the sake of this tutorial, I made a set of graces with just one hoop and four sticks. If you are feeling dextrous, by all means, use two hoops.
In the words of Miss Leslie, "This little game affords very good and healthful exercise, and when well played, is extremely graceful."
Materials:
1 or 2 10-inch embroidery hoops (solid inner hoop only)
Ribbon or strips of cotton scrap fabric
2 36-inch wooden craft dowels (1/2 inch diameter); cut in two
Sandpaper
Instructions:
+ Begin by cutting each 36-inch dowel in half.
+ Use a bit of sandpaper to smooth any rough edges, focusing especially on the length of the dowels to help the hoop fly off with ease. (Graces are typically manufactured with pointed sticks, but the points are truly inconsequential to the game. If you'd like to have at your dowels with a pocket knife, by all means do. Otherwise, carry on.)
+ If you'd like, wrap your hoop with ribbons or fabric scraps to increase the graceful vision of your hoop floating across the lawn. I cut slits into the ends of my fabric scraps (as seen in my cotton rag rug tutorial) to secure my fabric scraps to the hoop and then wrapped them around the hoop, securing the end with a small knot.
+ Using two colors and an alternating twist makes for a pretty criss-cross design, but there are no rules here.
+ To finish, tie two lengths of fabric or ribbons around either side of the hoop (making a knot at the middle of the fabric strips) so that when they fly through the air there’s some impressive fluttering to show for it.
Questions? Just ask!
For the curious:
If you are not in a DIY kind of mood, you can purchase a set of ribboned graces from the likes of Colonial Williamsburg or Historic Jamestowne or likely most old-timey places you like to frequent.
If you, like me, prefer to play graces while frolicking in a 19th century style undergarment, you can find a nightgown like mine at Salter House.
If you would like to cover hoops with your own 2” bias,go to Farmhouse Fabrics. I cover all my hoops with fabric bias.
Sounds like a good craft/hand:eye coordination combination, which is always helpful in long summer vacations.. :)