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.