A Selvedge Boxing Day Crossword by Polly Leonard
Today, while the house is quieter and time feels momentarily unspooled, why not try unravelling Polly's crossword? Created for the stretch between Christmas and the New Year, it’s a puzzle to return to between cups of tea, winter walks, and long afternoons indoors. Whether tackled in one sitting or dipped into over several days, it offers the simple pleasure of words, woven with the spirit of textiles.
Check back on Selvedge Stories on New Year’s Day, when the answers will be revealed.
Take your time, follow the clues, and unravel at your own pace:
ACROSS
1. Add drama and crispness to a collar
4. Twentieth-century garments that evolved from underwear to outerwear
9. Like the embroidery stitches Vyshyvanka, Nyzynka, and Lyshtva
10. What a windsock is used to detect
11. Dance often performed in a dress with an asymmetrical hemline
12. Material used in corsetry in the 18th and 19th centuries
13. ___ dress (garment worn at a black-tie event)
15. Outdated term for dress that reflects cultural heritage
17. ___ of my affection
19. Sequin, for example
22. Hats favoured by Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II
24. Outerwear that originated with the Inuit people
26. Type of textile made famous by a community in Alabama
27. Like ill-fitting clothing
28. Elevate to a higher level
29. Like the origins of Aran knitting patterns
DOWN
1. Tool invented by John Kay in 1733
2. Ubiquitous protective garment
3. Undergarment that exaggerates the silhouette.
4. Metal containers ideal for storing buttons
5. Cosy Danish aesthetic
6. What conservation is to a museum
7. Pageant accessories
8. High-ranking official
14. Embroider or bejewel
16. Accessory debated by the Royal Ascot dress code committee
18. Burlap, brocade, or Batiste
19. County home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
20. Material used to create smocking using a shirring technique
21. Belle ___
23. Tool used to open curtains
25. Selvedge Issue no. 09
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Image Credits:
Lead: Portrait of Polly Leonard by Alun Callender