Mistletoe Scarf That Could Have Been Worn to King Henry VIII's Coronation

"Their own apparel and that of their horses was of black velvet, covered all over with branches of honeysuckle " of fine flat gold of damask, of lose worke, every lefe of the braunche mouing, the embroudery was very conning and sumpteous."

...from Hall's Chronicle containing the History of England of Henry the 4th to the end of the reign of Henry the 8th  ( 1548 and 1550 editions)

My inspiration for this scarf came from the preceding passage - a description of King Henry VIII's coronation procession.  When I read this excerpt I could see the horse trappings and banners with embroidered honeysuckle leaves, moving in the wind, as the horses and men progressed.  

At the time I read this passage,  I also happened to be  looking for an idea for a Winter / Holiday scarf....

Wouldn't mistletoe leaves look lovely and lend themselves to "moving in the wind" on a scarf?  

...The leaves would be formed from detached buttonhole stitch, which would be stitched on a couched outline on linen, and then cut away and fastened to the velvet.   (A much simpler process than it sounds.)

And there must be gold, real gold, as King Henry VIII's  procession would have had.  Branches worked in chain stitch in gold wire and gold spangles would answer to that.

To make it even more life-like, the mistletoe berries could be worked in spiral trellis so they stand away from the fabric,  seeming to be real berries.

 I recalled the gorgeous aubergine velvet I'd bought at a local shop -  not knowing what I'd do with it at the time - but unable to resist its luxurious look and feel.  It's a cotton velvet - unusual nowadays - with an exceptionally dense pile.  

The embroidery, and most of the assembly, was done last winter.  I wanted the perfect fringe to finish it, and couldn't find it locally.  It had to be a fine and rich looking gold.

  At last, a few weeks ago, my neighbor took me to NYC to enjoy the Christmas festivities.  During our visit I stopped in at Tinsel Trading Company.  I'd wanted to visit them for a couple years, and I had pinned my hopes on finding a fringe for my scarf there.  I wasn't disappointed.  The richness of it is perfect for the gold embroidery. 

 If you get the chance to visit Tinsel Trading do so!  I was like a child in a candy shop  - I wanted one of everything!  They have vintage, new and reproduction notions, displayed in old-world style, custom cabinetry.

I lined the scarf with a gold and silk gauzy fabric, found locally.

Voila - a scarf was born.  Can you see it in King Henry VIII's procession, moving in the wind, as I progress on horseback?

Mistletoe appears in the great herbal book of Leonhart Fuchs, De Historia Stirpium, published in 1542, which is known to have been available in England.

In England, the first written mention of mistletoe, in context with Christmas, appears in 1622, seemingly not a new custom by that time, although possibly regional.  (Reference Life in Elizabethan England)

Threads and stitches used on the Mistletoe Scarf :  

Spiral Trellis for the berries using Au Ver a Soie Perlee thread in color 211 - off white

Needlelace for the leaves using Gilt Sylke Twist (GST) thread in Gawdie Green -
   They were attached to the scarf with 3 or 4 back stitches that represent a center leaf vein

Reverse Chain for the branches in #4 Smooth Passing gold wire by Golden Threads

#4 gold spangles from Access Commodities
Glass Seed Beads from Mill Hill, color 00123

Finished scarf dimensions :  5" wide x 72" long, not including fringe.  Fringe width = 1-1/4"
  

Pomegranate Christmas Ornament

Then here´s to the maid in the lily-white smock
Who tripped to the door and slipped back the lock;
Who tripped to the door and pulled back the pin,
For to let these jolly wassailers in.

Wassail! Wassail all over the town!

excerpt from the medieval carol  The Gloucestershire Wassail 

If you are familiar with my blackwork purse, Pomegranates and Peas, you'll recognize this motif. The motif is taken from a jacket at the V&A museum. I think I've seen this pomegranate, in speckling stitch, on another period embroidery, or maybe in a modelbuch or pattern.  Does anyone else know of it appearing somewhere else?  Please add a comment if you do.

This ornament was a test piece for the purse.  It's one of my early attempts at speckling.  I wanted to stitch the purse in reds, but finding varying silk thread thicknesses in the same red proved impossible.  Here, I used a sewing machine thread for the finest speckling (not a silk thread). 

 I feel the plaited braid vine is too heavy for the piece - I used a  #5 real gold passing thread with a cotton core, because the size 4 either wasn't available at the time, or I wasn't aware of it.  Also, the silk core wasn't an option yet.  This piece was done before the goldwork was added to the Plimoth jacket.  Tricia had the same issue on the jacket - the #5 passing with cotton core was too stiff.   Through working this motif, I decided to go with the much finer tambour metal thread for the purse.  I felt it was also a better choice for stitchers learning the plaited braid because the tambour metal thread is extremely pliable.

Regardless of these deficiencies, the ornament actually looks quite lovely, and only an experienced stitcher could pick out its blemishes.  It's backed with a matching red satin fabric, stuffed with poly stuffing and trimmed with a twisted cord.  The plaited braid vine and spangles catch the tree lights and sparkle.

When I choose an ornament to embroider for my tree, I try to choose something that reflects what I've been working on that year.  I date the ornament so my tree serves as a visual record of my journey as an embroideress.

It's late here, and I've been baking for Christmas all day, and as Samuel Pepys closed his diary on December 18th, 1668,  "and I to bed."

And The Stockings Were Hung.....

 Lo, Now is come the joyful’st feast

 Let every man be jolly, 

Each room with ivy leaves is drest,

And every post with holly. 

George Wither 1660

Today many of us, myself included, pine for Christmas celebrations of the long distant past when we imagine life was simpler and therefore enjoyed more fully.

The world has become more worldly.  There is more of dissipation and less of enjoyment.  Pleasure has expanded into a broader, but a shallower stream, and has forsaken many of those deep and quiet channels where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic life.

It may surprise you to find that the previous paragraph was written by Washington Irving in 1820.   The concept that previous eras were simpler and therefore enjoyed more fully isn't a new one.  In fact, it goes all the way back to Homer and probably beyond.  The excerpt above is from one of Irving's Christmas stories in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, which tell of Geoffrey's Christmas holiday spent in a quaint old English manor house, where Squire Bracebridge has brought back the customs of Merry Olde England.  It's a fun Christmas read for anyone interested in old English traditions, not scholarly though, since Irving has romanticized them.  But, all the more fun for it!

 Christmas stockings are my theme today -  not an element of the Elizabethan's Christmas celebrations -  and mine are admittedly very Dickensian.  However, the embroidery on them is Elizabethan.

The main pattern on the first two stockings is taken from a portrait, circa 1540, titled Portrait of a Lady in White by Moretto da Breccia and housed at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.  I have also seen this blackwork motif on an English sampler, dated 1661, included in Louisa Pesel's book Double Running or Back Stitch.   At the time of publication, the sampler was in the private collection of Mrs. Clement Williams.

I worked the blackwork bands using one strand of Soie d'alger silk thread on 35 ct. linen.  The motif is mirror imaged on the burgundy stocking, giving it a very different look from the gold.

After the embroidery was completed and I had selected rich fabrics to go with them, I drew a very elongated stocking pattern because I felt it would go with the Dickensian look of the velvet, cording and tassels. 

The decorative rolled hem - the same used on some of my scarves - is the antique hem stitch from Therese deDilmon'ts book on Needlework.  However,  I added an additional pulled thread detail from the same book.  No instructions were given on how to do it, but a clear photo of the technique 'in process', on page 465, is enough for the experienced embroiderer to work it out.

For the last stocking, I decided to use one of my samplers for its original purpose.  The sampler is a reproduction available from the The Scarlet Letter.  The original was worked circa 1625, and probably intended as a record of patterns.  You can read about the dating and history of the sampler in the Sept / Oct 1993 issue of Piecework Magazine.




For the stocking, I used the same reversible stitches as the original sampler, with Soie d'alger threads on 35 ct. linen.

I simply took a section of the sampler and used it for the stocking band, adding the holly leaves, from another band, at both the top and bottom.  These stockings, stitched over 15 years ago, were my first attempt at adapting old patterns for my own use.

Elizabethan Embroidered Elements for Christmas

Saint Francis, and Saint Benedight, 

Blesse this house from wicked wight, 

From the Night mare and the Goblin, 

That is hight good fellow Robin. 

Keep it from all evill Spirits, 

Fayries, weezels, Rats and Ferrets, 

     From Curfew time 

     To the next prime. 

William Cartwright ( c. 1635)

I simply adore Christmas.  My holiday traditions hark back to other eras - Victorian, Edwardian and Elizabethan.   Whilst I know that Elizabethans did not have Christmas trees or stockings, I simply can't do without Elizabethan touches in my Christmas decorating.  Over the years, I've embroidered Elizabethan borders for velvet Christmas stockings that I designed, and stitched many Elizabethan themed tree ornaments.  Each year, I try to embroider a new ornament for the tree.   (Ok, the truth is that the ornament is embroidered in time for Christmas, but I don't usually assemble it until well into the next year! Ah well, the fun part is done in time, anyway).   

This Christmas Season, I'd like to invite you in to my home to see my Elizabethan themed decorations.  I'll post a few times each week, featuring a different ornament or Christmas stocking.  Before we get started, for anyone who would like to read about how the Elizabethans actually kept Christmas, here's an erudite site that my Virginian friend, Sharon, passed on to me:  click here to go to Elizabethan.org  It's a great website and has given me some ideas for future decorations.  You'll have to visit my blog next Christmas to see them!  For now, on to my Dickensian-Elizabethan Christmas....

The photo shown above is of my tree, tucked in to a corner of my kitchen overlooking the back garden.  Several years ago I decided to down-size my Christmas tree, which allowed me to use only my Elizabethan inspired ornaments.  Many of my ornaments are mini-pillows.  Often the motif highlights a technique or design I'm experimenting with for a larger piece.  

The motif on the ornament shown here probably represents a pomegranate - my favorite motif.  It's a detail I took from a panel design included in The New Carolingian Modelbook - Counted Embroidery Patterns from Before 1600 by Kim Brody Salazer  According to Kim, the original panel design was published in 3 design model books:  the first printed in Italy circa 1530-1540 by Domenico da Sera, titled Convivio Delle Belle Donne.  He published it again in 1546.  The third book was published in Venice in 1561 by Giovanni Ostaus in La Vera Perfezione del Disegno.  All 3 books were printed using woodblocks.  I've looked through the online copy of La Vera Perfezione del Disegno and can't find the pattern.  Perhaps it's in another copy.  It's a great resource for period patterns, and the online copy is free.

For this ornament, I used an overdyed cranberry floss and worked it in Italian Cross Stitch so it would be reversible - a bit obsessive since you can't see the back!  This design would look fine done in cross stitch.  The fabric is 40 ct. Italian linen in a tawny gold color.  To assemble it, I backed it with a piece of cranberry cotton damask from my stash.  Next, I attached a beaded cord around the edge, simply looping it at the top to create an ornament hanger.