Political Campaign Fabric: 2012

Among the earliest campaign memorabilia is this pair of cardboard thread boxes or sewing kits from the presidential contest between John Quincy Adams (on the left) and Andrew Jackson. Each features a portrait of the candidate in the box top and rainbow printed paper sides.

The tops have pincushions with mottos

"Victory for Adams"

and

"Don't Forget New Orleans"

Here's another Jackson box with the lid flipped over to show the portrait under glass. The boxes are attributed to the 1824 or 1828 campaigns.

They measure 4" x 5" x 2-3/4" tall.

A hexagonal box for John Quincy Adams also survives.

The pincusion says "People's Choice" and here is the lid flipped over.

Jackson portrait fabric may have also been a campaign souvenir. This portrait of him in uniform harks back to the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812.

The print was reworked for the 1876 Centennial.

See more about this fabric on a blog post here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/05/lafayette-or-jackson.html

My friend Georgann and I have been making campaign boxes for 2012.

You may recognize the incumbent in this new version of the Jackson print.

I made some new campaign fabric by dropping the official President Obama portrait into the old Jackson fabric. I used the 1876 print and coloring because it has sharper detail.

I printed out small pieces on my color printer.

But maybe you would like some 2012 campaign fabric.

So I decided to make some 2012 Democrat campaign fabric that people can buy from Spoonflower.com, which is a print-on-demand fabric site. I put the image into the Spoonflower repeat system and this is what came up.

Here's what a fat quarter looks like.

You can buy this yardage from Spoonflower by clicking here:

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1332531

See more about Spoonflower's custom fabric printing service here:

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

A how-to on the square thread box next post.