Category Archives: Project

Project: Elizabethan Assembly – the white skirt

Costuming, Embroidery, Project

Beaded and embroidered white Elizabethan skirt (restart August 2020)

A long, long time ago, back in New Jersey / the Barony of Iron Bog before it became a barony, I started my Elizabethan Assembly project (the box I packed it in says 2010, which would be the date that box was packed, not the project started). It was to include a proper pair of bodies, underwear, chemise, two skirts, and two bodices for mixing and matching. Lucet cording I made was to hold the points together. The blue skirt & bodice were to be beaded and corded, and the white skirt & bodice were to be beaded and embroidered.

Picture 1: Lots of cloth involved in the skirt

It is a VERY big, ambitious project. The challenge is the beadwork and amount of cloth involved make transporting it around impossible. With the 2020 homebound (and finishing the beaded coif project), I thought now might be a good time to break it out again.

The fabric for the white gown was bought in Philadelphia, scraps at the end of an industrial bolt. As soon as I bought it, I knew I would be enhancing it with embroidery. Queen Elizabeth had several white outfits with pastel shades. I am using that as my inspiration.

Materials being used

  1. Fabric with white embroidery and backing. Unknown materials.
  2. Embroidery enhancements – Splendor Silk 12-ply Pink (S-884), Blue (S-867), Purple (S-811), Yellow (S818), and Green (S-830)
  3. Blue glass beads (The Bead Shoppe – 6/0).
Picture 2: The bottom of the fabric is untouched, but the starbursts have been worked on.

White Fabric restarted on August 1, 2020

Right now I am going to concentrate on finishing the fabric preparation for the skirt and the bodice. In picture 1, you can see all the fabric involved, some of what has already been done, and the hoop at the very top. Picture two shows what the bottom of the fabric looks like without enhancement, although the startbursts have been worked on. Picture three, you can see a mixed of untouched and enhanced stars.

Picture 3: Mix of adjusted and unadjusted stars

Next up and figuring out where all the materials are and getting this project set up for quick picking up and putting down.

I do plan to use a machine for assembly and likely will get find an Elizabeth outfit expert to help with assembly when the time comes – because – holy moley, I don’t want to screw this up when it comes to that point.

 

Project: Beaded Coif

Accessories, Beading, Project

Beaded Coif – From Atlantia University class (October 2019)

A friend and I took the Beaded Coif class by Lady Adair of Makyswell (MKA Catherine Yvonne King) during Atlantia University. I had to attend for exchequer classes in the morning. Free in the afternoon, I dropped by the beading class. It was preplanned, as the class required the coif to already be made. My friend picked out the fabric and helped me do the initial cutting out.

The fabric is a cotton print and I am following the design. Other materials being used included glass beads (bronze and “pearls”), polyester thread, and beading needles the teacher provided. I added DMC cotton embroidery thread, green and white beads, and other needles, scissors, and materials as needed.

I’m not attempting a competition piece, just a beautiful something when done.

Coif Started – First picture on October, 8, 2019

Coif completely sewn. First beads attached. Here you can see the extensive pattern I plan to cover someday.

Coif Continues – November 21, 2019

I decided doing everything in beads first was crazy, so to save time I would do some of the leaves in brown and some in blue.  I completed the brown leaves in November.

By the way, I did a quick count on the embroidery vs. bead time. It was NOT faster. (sigh)

Coif Continues – December 31, 2019

Last pictures before tax season slowdown. The blue leaves are complete.

Pictures are Left Side, Back, Right Side.

 

Coif Continues – May 10, 2020

All small pearls added to the blue leaves. I killed the first of the three beading needles which the teacher gave us for the project today. I’m running low on the copper beads she provided as well, which is not the standard size I use. Also beginning to run low on the green beads and will need to switch to a different group of green beads I do have that are close.

Knowing I would likely run out part-way of the various beads is one of the reasons I decided to work the areas in a somewhat random pattern – so that the differences will be mixed throughout the final project.

I’m getting a lot done during the video meetings during the stay-at-home orders. Next post will be when I have all the large pearls on the project.

Pictures are Left Side, Back, Right Side.

Coif Continues – July 13, 2020

I’ve lost the second of the three beading needles. It’s somewhere in the house I hope. The copper beads gave way to a red embroidery floss, and I’ve started a third group of green beads.

Now just to fill in the last bits of missing. Nearly done!

Pictures are Left Side, Back, Right Side.

 

Coif is DONE – July 30, 2020

I finished sewing in the inner lining today during an A&S zoom meeting.

Materials used

  1. Printed cotton fabric (which the design covers – treating it like an artist gave me a base to work form.
  2. Lining of coif also a cotton fabric. Sewn together with Coat all-purpose 100% polyester thread. Coif attached to coif when complete. Hand needle and everything hand assembled. No machine used to make the coif.
  3. Bead thread provided by teacher, likely 100% polyester. Beading needle provided by teacher. Pearl-like glass beads (2 sizes) and copper glass beads provided by teacher.
  4. Green glass beads were mine – three different sources, from my huge bead box, as well as the white glass beads of similar size, only one source for that.
  5. DMC cotton embroidery thread – blue (792), brown (3826), and red-copper replacement (814 and 815).

Lady Elspeth Mereberie (the friend who attended the class with me) gave me a Styrofoam head to display the project and encouraged me to cover it with pantyhose to look even better.

Now onto the final results!

First on the right, you can see how the lining looks. Covers the mess of beading stitches and will help protect the coif when it is worn.

Next the normal grouping of left, back, right. You should be able to click these for bigger pictures.

 

And one final closeup. Where you can see at least two tones of green beads, the copper beads and the red substitute, the different two different size pearl beads and the white beads in the blue leaves, etc. This is the middle back.

 

Project: Smocking – Smocked Aprons Prizes

Embroidery, Project,

Smocked Aprons – Prizes for Cooking Competitions

The Sacred Stone Cooks Guild uses colored aprons to indicate rank within the guild. I host an annual cooking competition at Flight of the Falcon. The competition is split into two parts, one for the general public and one aimed at the cook’s guild. The winner of the cook’s guild part of the competition gets a colored apron in their rank.

To have enough prizes, this means I need to have four aprons available: Black (apprentice), Red (Journeyman), Green (Prefect) and White (Chef). I started making them in 2016 when I taught the smocking class at Runestone Collegium in November.

I have found brown, cream and white smocked aprons in paintings. Also examples exists of utility aprons, without smocking, in blue (light and medium), pink, red, teal, green, and black (a favorite of painters).

If you are really, really into aprons a great place to find images with the appropriate attribution is: Medieval & Renaissance Material Culture: The Linspages at Larsdatter.com – Apron (http://www.larsdatter.com/aprons.htm).

This is an on-going project as I will need to replace aprons when one has been passed on.

Black Apron (Completed 7/8/2017)

Made from linen cloth, hemmed and embroidered with black linen thread (Londonderry 50/3) after the thread was run through beeswax. The sides of the apron are raw edges, and the belt is 10 feet long. The final measurements 31 inches belt to hem, 57 inches wide along the drawn thread area and 21 inches where smocked. Eight rows of honeycombed are gathered and the hemwork was done with Hound’s Tooth. Started November 2016 and completed at the Cook’s Guild meeting on 7/8/2017.

White Apron (Completed August 2017)

Linen, hemmed and embroidered with linen (Londberry). Eight rows of honeycomb and hemwork is just the Hound’s Tooth. I decided to make the White Apron as close period styling, and therefore just a single row of hewwork) as possible in case someone outside the Sacred Stone guild won the competition. More elabroate cut and pulled work aprons exist but they were not smocked. Smocked aprons pretty much were smocked on top and one line of hemwork. Completed at Pennsic in 2017.

Note: The belt attachment to the smocking is not happy and beautiful. I may be taking it apart and reworking it later this year.


Red Apron (Completed August 2017)

Again linen, line, honeycomb and hemwork. The red is the second level within the guild so I did two rows of drawn work. One the hound’s tooth because I just love the look of the stitch. The other an interlace with two twists. Completed at Pennsic 2017.

Green Apron (Completed 9/14/2017)

So I ran out of time before Flight 2017 and only had about half the green apron finished, but no worries. The Sacred Stone guild only had one Prefect (green level), what are the chances … guess who won? Third level got three rows of drawn work. The first row is Hounds Tooth. The second is a single interlace row – the bars were gathered in groups of 8. The third row from the bottom is three interlace – the bars were gathered in groups of 6. Completed at an A&S meeting after major attacking at DragonCon at the beginning of September so I could give the prize to Mistress Lorelei Greenleafe at the next Sacred Stone event. Done in September, only half a month late.

Now that the green has been won, I will need to make another green apron.

Green Apron 2 (Started 9/14/2017 – Completed 4/20/2020)

As soon as the final stitch was in the green apron for the 2017 prize, I put the dots on the fabric for another green apron so I have a complete set for 2018.

So life happened, and it took a while, but I finally got the second green apron done to replace the one I have given out as a prize. Honeycomb smocking with a hemwork bottom. Five rows of embroidery.

Project: Open Work – Drawn Thread Linen Towels

Embroidery, Project, ,

Drawn Thread Linen Towels

I make a lot of Drawn Thread Linen towels as they make awesome Largess gifts and they are one of the few embroidery objects I make in under 20 hours.

The Hawkwood Largess Linen Towel (2017 May) – Made from linen cloth, hemmed with linen thread, and embroidery done with linen thread (100/3. 80/3. 50/3 and 30/3 widths). The embroidery was started on May 18 and completed May 19 and took 10 hours. The item was given away in the Hawkwood Largess Basket on May 20.

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The Atlantia Largess Linen Towel (2017 May)

Tools and Materials – Linen Fabric (not an even weave); hemmed with Bocken Knyppelgamn’s Linen tread (90/2); Satin stich and drawn work gather stitches worked with Londenderry’s 50-3; The interlace stitch secured with Londenderry 30/3. All linen thread run through beeswax before stitching. No hoops, frames or other tension tools used during the sewing. An embroidery needle (sharp) used for all sewing. Steel pins were used during the hemming stage. Small embroidery scissors used to cut the fabric to draw threads and also during the sewing.

Technique notes: An away knot was used to start the stain stitch and the drawn work gather stitches. Most of the end threads were tucked into the satin stitch lines. Those that were not, are turned into the back along the stitch work. This towel is slightly larger than my normal draw length for thread so I have four threads end during at the “wrong” place.

New stitch: I love the interlace stitch but had been unable to get the double ladder interlace to work with my typical 8-gather. It was just too stiff and twisted the fabric at the edges. This time I only did a 6-gather for the interlace area (8-gather was used for the Hound’s Tooth and the Zig-Zag). This time the interlace did not pull the edges out of alignment. A little extra work, but I got to try something new!

Date worked – The embroidery was started on May 20 and completed May 26.

Final Ownership: Passed on to Mistress Gisela vom Kreuzbach who was coordinating the Pennsic Largess Basket for Atlantia in 2017. Unknown which kingdom received the towel as a gift.

Project: Lacis – Lady’s Room

Embroidery, Project

Lacis Project – Lady’s Room Door Hanging

Originally conceived when I lived in Iron Bog (East Kingdom) in 2004, I complied the design from patterns found in Renaissance Patterns for Lace, Embroidery and Needlepoint: An unabridged facsimile of the “Singuliers et nouvezu’=pourtraicts” of 1587 by Federico Vinciolo and Patterns Embroidery: Early 16th Century by Claude Nourry & Pierre de Saincte Louie. The project comes as two wall hangings; one will be a Lady’s Room door hanging showing Spring and Summer and the other will be a Lord’s Room door hanging featuring Fall and Winter. Pages from the book where I transcribe the patterns include FV89 (Spring), FV90 (Summer), and CNPSL61-63 (letters).

The full pattern for the Lady’s Room is 127×378 squares. The pattern has 8 major segments including the top and bottom borders, plus the right and left borders which are being completed as I work my way down the design. I actually started the first wall hanging in May 2011 and completed the top border in September 2011.

The project then was set aside as I worked on other things, like writing, moving, job hunting, troll at Pennsic, etc. In March 2017, I have decided to make a concerted effort again on the project and put a week of 2 to 3 hour nights into it after doing taxes. So after 20 more hours, I got a second border section done. At this rate, it I don’t get distracted again, I should have this completed in mid-June and can start work on the Lord’s Room door hanging. (In the meantime, I also need to Job Hunt again, be a Seneschal, teach at least three classes, make aprons for prizes for Flight, etc …. so distraction will happen.)

Materials being used: Store bought mesh (unknown material) and Cotton Crochet thread size 10 (due to cost – I am going through a lot of thread).

Tools used: Large tapestry needles, scissors, and a 12-inch embroidery hoop.

 

SEPTEMBER 2011 PICTURES

Top Left Corner
Left Corner for Top Border
Middle Design for Top Border

First Border Completed (Sept 2011)

MARCH 2017 PICTURES

Second Border Complete (March 2017)

Click here for all pictures