Fiddeling with small scale embroidery

I had my mind set on making a blogpost of my new pink hose or the new little black 16th century dress with the wretched pleats. But once the last embroidery project was finished, I suddenly felt that now is the time for getting started on that dream project I have planned for so long. An almony purse, 14th century-style, covered with fine silk embroidery. The perfect way to find use for all the different colours of fine sewing silk I have collected over the years. So, said and done, I cut my self a nice piece of hemp and looked for a motif. This little fellow, playing the fiddle or something similar, spoke to me from an old book and wanted to be done. I´m not all satisfied with the turnout so far, but it might get better over time. And since the backsides of embroidery is up for debate, I have to show off mine because this time (and so far) I haven´t messed up as I usually do...

The whole piece is not bigger than ten by ten centimetres and it´s easier than I expected to work in tiny details. And it´s a good thing that it is so tiny since I have to cover it completely and also make one more.

Blinged and ready to travel

This is as far as I will go... The den is now filled with jewels and some precious artefacts, just visible as outlines in gold thread. I just couldn't cover too much of the beatiful golden silk.

The dragon´s den

My contribution for the Dragon´s Needles new challenge is soon done and ready for shipping. This is how I do to get it as pretty as possible after taking it from the frame.


First I need to take the fastening stiches between top and bottom fabric away. Then the bottom fabric needs to be cut down.

This is how the back looks once the bottom fabric has been cut down.

Then the whole thing needs to be pressed in order to look nice and flat. Use a damp cotton or linen cloth and a really hot iron.

And this is how it looks all done. Now I'm just going to sew some glass beads and some gold thread to it and it will be done.

Let there be frills!

As said earlier, I´ve yearned for a frilled veil ever since I listened to Isis Sturtewegens lecture on frilled veils this August, but other things came inbetween. But the forthcoming weekend I´m going to lecture on details in medieval dress at Drachenwald Kingdom University and I just had to have one done for that.


Said and done, I found my really fine linen and started by cutting out a semicircular veil and the a thin band to make the frills. Then I hemmed the band along one side as well as the veil itself (tiresome work).


I then folded the band on the middle, sew it together in the loose end and then started marking out the seams to create small channels. Sewing them took some time as well since I made them rather small (two centimetres wide).


Then I had to find out what to use to shape frills out of these channels. Making wooden plugs like Isis has was not an option, since I´m a bit short of time. But I found a cheap and rather quick solution. Earplugs! Just the right size, easily accessible at the nearest pharmacist and easy to get in place since they can be squeezed together and then reshape on their own.


So, just pin the band of frills to the veil and stitch them together!




Then I bought a large can of spray starch and got the frills soaking wet before getting the earplugs in place. The whole thing was then left to dry over night.



And this is how it looks once the earplugs has been removed. Now I just need to carefully press the veil and I´m done.

Of course this is not at all as lasting as the starched frills of Isis http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2010/05/finished-swedish-frilled-veil.html and Elina http://www.neulakko.net/?page_id=743, but for a quick project I´m really happy with the result.

Embroidery contributions for Gift Basket

Every year my SCA kingdom, Drachenwald, swops gift with another kingdom at this well-heard-of event called Pennsic. I have never visited Pennsic myself, partly because it takes place at the same time as my baronys biggest event, Medieval week, and partly because it takes a lot of money traveling to the States.

However, I like to contribute to the gift basket, since it is a way to show how many fantastic artisans we have here in Drachenwald. This summer I got the possibility, together with lady Lunetta, to emborider badges for the king and queen of Ealdormere, the kingdom with whom we swopped baskets this year.

I made the kings badge, a red wolf on white. and Lunetta made the queens, a rose.

This years basket has been mentioned on SCA today: http://www.scatoday.net/node/21260 where you also se the finished bags with badges as well as all the other contributions.

Drachenwald rocks in so many ways and I am proud to be a small part of it.

We have dragons!

Just yesterday I was remembered about the closing deadline for the Guild challenge, 1st of October, so I have better get going! Since the gold work-experience during the Medieval week in August, I have fiddled with the idea of some appliqué in order to get a 3D-effect. I even got the very useful tip of just putting it on some small parts that really should stand out. So, diving into a basket full of small cloth scraps I found some more of the cherry red that I used for the heart appliqué. It was a bit tricky to get the pieces cut out right since the outline was fixed already, but well worth the effort. The head is all done, appliqué covered in red silk in split stitch and some bright green edged with thin gold thread for the eye.

And since I´m working with silk of different qualities the eye sinks in a bit deeper than the surrounding skin since the red silk is thicker. It is so much fun playing around with the materials like this! Now I just need to fill out the entire dragon with split stitch and then start on the hoard of treasures. I´m really looking forward to this since I´ve stocked up on jewel glass beads and goldthread.

Pouch progress

My first attempt at goldwork is now slowly turning into a small pouch with a 3D embroidery in red and gold. The embroidery consists of cloth appliqué in multiple layers, with edgings in gold and silk. I learned the trick of only fastening the supporting fabric in the embroidery frame and then stitching the top fabric onto this, thus avoiding tension and wear of the top fabric by the frame. I have mixed thicker gold thread (the center cross and the outer edge) and thinner gold thread (edging the heart-shaped appliqués).

This is how the back looks now, after the excess support fabric has been cut down. I will of course line the entire pouch in a steady linnen fabric so that the back won´t be worn by objects carried in it.

For finishing the pouch, I will either do a woven edge all around or a passpoal-edging in red cloth.