October Eves Scarf

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” – Humbert Wolfe

I made this scarf last autumn as a test piece.  The linen isn't embroidery linen; it's a linen / rayon combination.   The color is a beautiful rich, dark-chocolate brown, which my photos don't do justice, sadly.  I posted a picture of this scarf previously, but never got back to the post to add details.  Also, I was even less pleased with the photo I used, so I'm re-posting it here.

I bought the linen to make a shawl with a scrolling floral vine pattern I designed.  However, I didn't want to buy all the floss, transfer the design, etc, only to discover that I couldn't stitch on this linen.  So, I decided to make a test-scarf and work out any issues that arose.

You may recognize the scrolling leaf/acorn pattern.  It's a detail taken from a 17th c. jacket at the V&A (Acc #919-1873).  Here's a link to the jacket if you wish to compare it.  http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80226/jacket/
Of course I changed all the colors (I can't ever let that alone) and modified the design to stand alone on a scarf.

Threads:  Patricia Woods from Mulberry Silks in the Cotswolds put together this silk floss packet for me (in 2 thicknesses: F or 40/3 and K or 70/3).  She's incredible.  She doesn't have a color card, so I gave her some of her autumn color #s that I had used previously, then gave her DMC colors to match close to, along with a description of the feel I wanted for the scarf colors.  She came back with this beautiful little floss packet (which you can see I've used already).  She was right on with the colors I was imagining for the scarf!  Click here to go to Mulberry Silks

In addition to Mulberry Silks (MS), I also used Au Ver a Soie silks (henceforth referred to as AVS).
The thread details:

Main vine - AVS Trebizond color 7365

Acorn caps  - AVS Perlee #s 274 and 519 

Leaves -  AVS Perlee (colors 274, 499,299) and MS (colors: 901F, 932K,362K,432K,350K)

Leaf veins - AVS 100/3 thickness in colors 179 and 628  

Stems - AVS 100/3 in 274 and 179

The stitches used (they are the same as those on the original jacket, except its main vine was either Chain or Reverse Chain)  :
Heavy Broad for the main vine
Detached Buttonhole (with a Reverse Chain outline) for the leaves and acorn bodies
Trellis stitch for the acorn caps
Stem stich for the leaf veins and stems.

This diminutive detail appears on the opposite end of the scarf.

What I learned from this test:
Stitching on linen/rayon worked fine.
The linen is a little stiff for a scarf, but will be fine for a shawl - it can be worn tied in a half knot only, not double wrapped as I usually do.
I didn't care for the Trebizond thread in this application (Heavy Broad stitch).  It got "ratty" very quickly and was difficult to work with.

Rich Red Embroidery Accoutrements for Autumn and Winter

‘Now, when she had dined, then she might go seek out her examplers, and to peruse which work would do beste in a ruffe, whiche in a gorget, whiche in a sleeve, whiche in a quaife, whiche in a caule and whiche in a handcarcheif…’

Barnabe Riche…Phylotus and Emilia

As a life long hiker living in Pennsylvania, I know that signs of Autumn are visible in the woods by early August.  A smattering of yellow leaves dot the trails and the deepest brush has begun to die off.

Although the days are still long, I find that I begin to want candle light burning in my fireplace in the evenings.   More telling, I desire a more Autumnal palette.  Each Spring, I set my breakfast table with creamware plates and pink glassware.  Come August, out come the brown transferware plates accompanied by deep gold glassware.  I change out the cushions on my back porch wicker from a pink/ green calico print to a rich, deep red calico.

Of course, my embroidery accoutrements change as well.  I made this sweet bag and needlebook several years ago ( I'm adding them to my blog to document how I made the sweet bag. )  Later, I was tickled to come across the zippered tapestry bag that matches them so well.  I had already made a cover for my slate frame using this same tapestry fabric.









The needlebook design isn't mine - It's by Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose.  I changed the colors from navy thread on white linen to rich red silk thread on a gorgeous gold 28 ct linen.  The red beads accenting it are from Mill Hill.  My favorite needlebook!

My first attempt at designing a sweet bag.  This isn't meant to be a reproduction Elizabethan sweet bag.  Arabesque designs are my favorite and I decided that if I'd lived in the early 16th century my needlework sweet bag would have featured an arabesque design much like this one.  This arabasque design comes from a detail of an early 16th century design (shown below).  I modified it slightly to make it "free-standing".  I found the design in a book titled: Patterns - Embroidery Early 16th c by Claude Nourry.  It's available through Lacis:  http://lacis.com/catalog/



Threads used:

945 red Gobelin from Au Ver a Soie

968 gold by Mulberry Silks in England

Linen: 40 ct creme colored Italian linen

Mulberry Silks also provided matching gold silk to line the bag. 

The 16th century embroidery technique I chose is called Voided work because your design is "voided" meaning not filled in with stitches.  Typically the design is outlined in double-running stitch or back stitch.  However, because I wanted nicely curvilinear lines for my arabesque, I outlined the design using Outline stitch.  I covered the background using Long Arm Cross stitch, which is historically accurate.  If you want to learn more about the historically accurate method for Voided work, there's a wonderful article written for the SCA's (Society for Creative Anachronism) West Kingdom Needlework Guild:
http://www.bayrose.org/AandS/Voided_Work_Article.html

I no longer have the dexterity to make a 5 loop finger braid for the cord so I used twisted cord.

The small bead tassels (all 3 at the bottom of bag) are first covered with gold silk run lengthwise, then a loosely worked Detached Buttonhole stitch covering in red thread is added overtop, being careful not to pierce the gold thread as you work it.

The wooden forms used for the large bead tassels were extremely difficult to find.  In the end, I purchased an entire bag of wooden shapes just to get them.  Even then the holes drilled through the centers were barely large enough to cover the form with silk.  The cording doesn't really run thru the wood form and knot off at the end as it should (because there wasn't room to run it through).  I just made it look that way.  Hopefully, with so many people making sweet bag reproductions today wood tassel forms are more readily available.  If anyone knows of a supply for the wood forms, please be so kind to add a comment with link to this post.  I plan to make a true reproduction sweet bag some day.

Here is a link to a wonderful bibliography of period embroidery design books, called modelbuchs, written by Mathilde Eschenbach, of the SCA.  Section B includes books that are available online for free.  By pure serendipity I met Mathilde one day when she signed up to attend an embroidery research trip my EGA chapter hosted at the Metropolitan Museum's textile center.  I had advertised extra seats available on an SCA web site and she signed up.  At the textile center, she was the only other attendee using their computer database to look up extant embroideries.  I mentioned to her that I had found this bibliography written by a Mathilde Eschenbach only to find out I was talking to her!  It's a small embroidery world!
The link:  http://home.comcast.net/~mathilde/embroidery/bibpatbk.htm

Christmas Ornament/Purse Inspired by Trevelyon's 1608 Miscellany

 This design is actually a detail from a panel-type drawing that was published in Thomas Trevelyon's 1608 Miscellany.

The last I read about it, there are actually 2 extant manuscripts, one owned by the Folger Shakespeare Museum in Washington, DC, the other was in a private collection.  The Folger Shakespeare Museum has printed a reproduction of their copy, available for $750 on their website.  That's not the copy I have - lol !  Ask your local museum or research library to purchase a copy of it!  I'd love to see this book.

There is a much less expensive route to get some of Trevelyon's patterns.  The 41st Volume of the Walpole Society includes some of his patterns.  You may be able to purchase a used copy (which I did) or possibly get it on an ILL.




I made this mini-purse (2-1/2"wide by 4" high) as a Christmas tree ornament 2 years ago.  As you can see, it's a fully functioning purse, as well.  The back has the same design as the front.

Linen:  50 ct Kingston
Threads by Mulberry Silk of England
her website:
http://mulberrysilks-patriciawood.com/store/

Stitches used:
Spiral Trellis for berries
Detached Buttonhole on leaves
Couched #5 smooth passing gold "thread" for branches  (my first attempt at couching and I should have couched closer together.  It looked great while on the embroidery frame, but shifted after assembly)
Van Dyke for the veins on the leaves.
Heavy Broad for purse outline (the red)
Paillettes

I used real gold thread and paillettes.   When hanging on my Christmas tree, the paillettes catch the tree lights and sparkle beautifully.

A Floral Scarf to wear whilst riding horseback with the Queen of a Spring Day

This floral scarf for Spring was inspired by the following :

Queen Elizabeth (I) and her Ladies sometimes wore scarves while riding horseback and enjoying other outdoor activities, according to biographer Janet Arnold in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd.

The following excerpt is also from the same book:

"The description of Elizabeth uncovering herself... probably means that she removed a light gauzy scarf from around her neck.  Elizabeth had many exquisitely decorated scarves.  One... made in 1591... was of white silk cypress, embroidered with scaling ladders, armed men and other devices in the borders at each end."
"  Stubbes described them as extravagant accessories in 1583:
   Then must they have their silke scarffes cast about their faces, and fluttering in the wind with great tassells at every ende, eyther of gold, silver or silke  But I know wherefore, they will say, they weare these scarffes, namely, to keep them from Sunne burnyng."

That my scarf may be similar to the one described above, I have embroidered the floral border at both ends of the scarf and included a long fringe to "flutter in the wind".

Stitches used include:
Ceylon (insect wings, strawberry leaves)
Outline, 
Detached buttonhole (leaves, buds, carnation)
Trellis (insect body)
Spiral Trellis (base of pomegranate)


Linen:  60 count fine Cambric 
Threads:  Mulberry Silks and Au Ver a Soie's Gobelin Silk
Rolled, hand worked hem.




THIS POST IS INCOMPLETE, MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW .

Elizabethan Purse : Peascods & Posies

The Peascod greene oft with no little toyle,

Hee’d seeke for in the fattest, fertl’st soile,

And rend it from the stalke to bring it to her,

And in her bosome for acceptance woo her.”

William Browne of Tavistock

This is a project I finished several years ago.  I designed this purse in preparation for travelling to Plimoth Plantation to help with the embroidery of the Plimoth Jacket, currently on display at Winterthur.  Prior to this, I had never done any non-counted Elizabethan embroidery, so I wanted to practice before I worked on the jacket.  I had just taken a class in Richmond, VA from Chris Berry thru the Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA).

The purse is the same front and back, except for a color change or two.  All stitches used are Elizabethan period stitches.

I used Kingston 50 ct cream linen, silk buttonhole twisted threads from Au Ver a Soie and Mulberry Silks, and #5 smooth passing gold wire from Golden Threads.

The lining is a cornflower blue that matches the medium blue silk thread.

The leaf shown here is worked in Up & Down Buttonhole stitch.

Lady bug is worked in Spiral Trellis stitch.  A wonderfully fun stitch to work, and it can be padded to produce a really 3D effect.

The vine is done in Reverse Chain stitch using #5 smooth passing gold wire (real gold).  It's one of the first things that non-stitchers are drawn to on this purse.  I've been told that it looks like I laid a gold chain down on the purse and attached it.

The red caterpillar is worked in Ceylon Stitch.

Here's a photo of the peascods before the embroidery was cut off the slate frame.  You can see a bit of the peas peeping out of the pods.

The caps are Ceylon stitch, the pods are worked in Detached Buttonhole stitch.

The blue flower, Columbine, that you can see a bit of is worked in Trellis stitch worked on a diagonal.