The table settings include embroidered drawings of the usual paraphernalia of cutlery, crockery, and glasses, as well as bread to be shared. The use of this ubiquitous domestic item, embellished with stitch, references the legacy of female disempowerment, 2 and more recently women’s voices of protest through stitch,3 within a commonplace occasion associated with so-called women’s work, and likewise one where stories are often told. For this reason, I have embroidered objects for an imagined dinner party upon a vintage tablecloth, featuring a table set for four of the female protagonists in Carter’s The Bloody Chamber (1979). Historically women told these stories to each other while they worked, often with cloth,1 and usually in the home surrounded all things domestic. From the young bride who is rescued by her mother, therefore thwarting the gruesome Bluebeard, to Beauty’s stance against the Beast who wins her in a game of cards, Carter has timelessly reignited the pre-Grimm origins of such tales as stories that empower rather than oppress women. Angela Carter’s reimagining of some of our best loved fairy tales sits at the heart of feminist perspectives on her work.
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