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 .

Sir Christopher Hatton's Shirt

Being the story of how Sir Christopher Hatton's shirt came to be in my closet.....
Long ago and far away, before the invention of the internet, I found a super bargain on Brooks Brothers' clearance rack- a very fine Irish Linen shirt.   I took the shirt home and carefully tucked it away.  I had plans for it, but it took 7 more years for events to take place making it possible for my plans to come to pass....


It had all started ( even further ago and longer away) with a book.  Blackwork by Mary Gostelow.  In this book is a very faded picture of a portrait of Sir Christopher Hatton, painted in 1589.   I've included a much clearer pic here, from the National Portrait Gallery in London.  Hatton is wearing a smock with pomegranates and flowers embroidered on the cuffs and collar.  I fell in love with the design but it was nearly impossible to get a feel for the entire design from the copy in Gostelow's book because it was so faded.
 I was also working under the misunderstanding that all linear blackwork is reversible and counted.  So I was trying to chart a reversible, counted version of the design, and failing miserably because it needed to be done in surface embroidery to get the smoothly curving lines.  In 2002 I took a class from Catherine Jordan that opened my eyes to the fact that all linear blackwork isn't necessarily counted or reversible.   


Then a few years later, the internet had progressed enough that museums began to include "zoomable" versions of portraits on the internet. 


At last  I had all the knowledge and tools I needed to create my shirt.


Embroidery worked in DMC 6 stranded cotton, using one strand.  Stitch used is Outline.

Pomegranates & Peas Purse - Speckling Stitch

***Please Note:  A kit to make this purse is available on my etsy shop, Baroque Embellishments.***

I designed this purse for a class I taught for a Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting of the Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA) few years ago.



The inspiration came partly from a jacket at the V&A museum in London, Accession # T.4-1935,  (click here to go to jacket at v&a)  which features the pomegranate (I've seen the same pomegranate on another Elizabethan piece, I think a coif) and partly from the engravings published by Peter Stent in the 17th century.  I loved the pea pods in his engravings, which looked a bit Tim Burton-ish to me.  The book is out of print, but available used from Amazon.  The title:  A Book of Flowers, Fruits, Beasts, Birds, and Flies: Seventeenth-Century Patterns for Embroiderers Printed and Sold by Peter Stent  

Here's a picture of the Peter Stent engraving that inspired me.  Check out the wicked looking strawberries.


By the way - the Met museum has a copy of this book that you may look thru in their prints and rare books room.

 I used Kingston 50 ct cream linen, and black silk threads in various thicknesses, from Mulberry Silks in England.  Motifs outlined in Outline stitch, and shading done in speckling technique.  Paillettes (the gold sequins) are from Access Commodities and are real gold.

The vine is Plaited Braid Stitch done in #7 Tambour thread (a non-tarnish metal wire that's very pliable).  I typically use #4 Gold Passing thread (real gold), but the Guild requested that I use imitation gold to keep the cost down.  Here's a close up of the vine.











I outlined the entire purse in Heavy Broad stitch, which is nice for hiding the seams on the purse construction, as you can see here.

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.

Blue & White Rose Scarf in Elizabethan Speckling Technique

"The summer's flower is to the summer sweet"  Shakespeare Sonnet 94

 From plate to scarf - the story.
(Project begun 5/25/11, completed 7/9/11.  Approx. 60 hours)

In the 16th century, Speckling stitch technique evolved because embroiderers wanted to imitate the new engravings that were being published (much more detailed than the woodcut illustrations embroiderers had been using for design).  I've been in love with speckling stitching for several years.  But, I'd always worked it in dark colors, and have only ever seen it worked by others in dark threads.  

 I collect English transferware china, which also has pictures of engravings on it.  It occurred to me that I could embroider one of the roses from my favorite china using one of my favorite embroidery techniques!  The question was, would I get the depth necessary to pull off this technique working in a lighter thread?

Here is typical blue & white transferware china, which is where I took my rose motif from.  The rose was an element in an overall design.  So, I pulled the rose from the design and added leaves to get the overall shape I wanted for my design.

 For the Speckling technique, the motif is outlined in Stem stitch and the "shading" is done by making tiny, tiny Seed stitches and "hash" marks.

 I used  DMC #25 Coton a broder thread to outline my motif and DMC 6 stranded floss for the shading (1 strand).  DMC color 799, with a very few touches of shading in deeper blue 798.

I'm very pleased with the effect and can now answer- Yes, you can use lighter thread!

  Another way I like to wear these scarves is very casually with washed out jeans and a white sweater.  Ready for a morning walk on the beach!

Here's a photo of the back of my embroidery.  A curious thing happened while I was working on this piece.  I set my embroidery frame on my stitching chair and the next day when I looked at it, I thought  "Jeez! How did I overdo the shading so much without realizing it? " I was looking at the back.  Never look at your embroidery until you've put your reading glasses on!

Anyone collect flow blue china?  I think that's what the back looks like!









The remainder of this post is for anyone interested in how I hem my scarves:

Hemming the scarf....

 I'm hemming the edges - using an antique hem stitch from Therese deDilmont's book on Needlework.  It's a rolled hem.  I used a regular white sewing thread, dual duty, fine. 

 I thought I'd describe first how I prepare the linen to hem my scarves (works well for table linens, too).

I usually leave 3/8" between the cut edge of my linen to where I pull threads to make the somewhat open look of the hem.  Here you see the scarf, after it's been removed from my slate frame (an embroidery frame similar to a scroll frame).  I'm trimming the 1/2" of excess linen off the edge.  That was the area I used to lace my material onto the frame.

You can see here that 3/8" in from the edge of the linen, I've pulled 2 threads.  This is 60 ct linen.  If it were 36 ct or courser, I would only have pulled one thread. 

Starting at one long edge, knot your thread and weave the thread thru an inch or so of the linen so that the knot will be hidden within the rolled edge of the linen as you hem. Roll your linen as shown at left (click on photos to enlarge).  Bring the needle up thru the linen as shown and then pick up a group of threads in the pulled thread area as shown.  Pull your needle thru (see right photo)

Now, bring the needle up thru the linen again and repeat the above process. 

Here you can see I turned a corner and am working along one short edge of the scarf.  Notice I'm not at the very bottom of my scarf and that I'm not creating a "rolled hem" here.  That's because this is the short edge of the scarf and I want to add a fringe.   I left 3" below the bottom hem to fray it out to make my scarf fringe.





...the end of scarf with horizontal threads removed, ready to make my twisted fringe.

The next four photos show the process of making a twisted fringe.


Select 2 groups of fringe.





Twist each one clockwise (keeping hold of the first group as you separately twist the 2nd group).  You won't need to use scotch tape - I used it here to hold the twist while I photographed it.







Now hold them together and twist counter-clockwise.  They will want to twist together, which is what you want.








Knot off the end and trim it so it has a nice even edge.

I signed my name on the end of the scarf that doesn't have the flower on it.  It falls behind the flower when I wear the scarf and can't be seen, but it's there for posterity.

Done!

A Scarf in the French Monogram Style

This is my latest piece of hand embroidery.  I used cambric weight linen and DMC Floche thread.  

The hem technique, shown below, is an antique hem used during the Renaissance period (see Therese de Dillmont's Encyclopedia of Needlework).  Top pic is the back of scarf, bottom pic is the front.

  

Photo below is my original drawing that I transferred to the linen. I created the font of the letters since I couldn't find anything I liked to match the bow.  The bow holding a circle which contains the monogram is typical of monograms found on  antique French linens.