Embroidered Tunic

A friend contacted me and asked if I could embroider a tunic for him. I assumed he wanted me to construct one and embroider it but he sent me a blue linen tunic via SCA courier.  I thought adding black embroidered linen to the blue tunic would be more dressy.  Also, in period, embroidery was done on separate pieces of linen then appliqued onto the garment so that when the garment deteriorated beyond wearing, they could remove the embroidery and attach it to a new garment. Materials used were black linen fabric and Splendor silk embroidery thread.  Stitches used were double herringbone stitch and split stitch. 

The knotwork embroidery was executed in split stitch.

Adding herringbone stitch to hide the mundane machine stitches used to attach the piece.

Completed embroidery for sleeves and hem of the tunic. 

Knotwork dogs on center of neckline.

Completed tunic. 

I am very pleased with how it came out.

Limoncello!!!!

Life has been crazy but good. There have been job changes, lots of projects and fun.  This will be the first of a couple posts, just so as not to make them so long.

I had a job with the Postal Service that kept me from getting to events because my hours were every Saturday and Sunday. I made it to Coronation here in the East Kingdom and that was the last event until this past weekend with 12th Night.  In between then, my wonderful and beautiful sister in law treated me to my dream trip of going to Italy. We did a whirlwind tour of all the great places to see in 9 days.  My favorite place to see and eat at was the Almafi Coast and Positano.  I had my first limoncello there and fell madly in love with it. I brought home a bottle of it and it included a recipe.  I thought I would give it a whirl when we got home and the bottle was quickly emptied between my husband and I. So, I got the supplies and followed the very simple recipe with one change. The italian's use grain alcohol like Everclear, which is very strong in flavor and expensive. After consulting with a friend who also makes it, she said to use Vodka.

Recipe:
Skins of 10 lemons
Large bottle of Vodka (not an expensive brand)
Biggest mason Jars I could find

Friends were visiting and they all joined in the fun.

Zested lemons on left, peeled on right. 

Once the vodka lemon skins mix has sat for minimum 8 days, you make a simple syrup solution of six cups of water and six cups of white sugar. Pour the syrup into the vodka/skins mix and swirl around. Because the jars were full to the top with vodka, we had to split the jars off into an empty one to be able to add the syrup. Once done, you strain out the skins and bottle.  Here is the final results.

Lessons learned in making this: in our first attempt we zested some of the lemons and peeled the others. I would stick with peeling the lemons with a potato peeler from now on as the zested bits didnt all completely strain out even with a piece of linen. 

Still tasted fabulous though!  On New Years Eve, we toasted at midnight to glasses of Verde with limoncello mixed in! It was sooooooo good!!!!

Got more "cooking" as we speak! 

A Pennsic We Will Go...at least my projects do!

It was a busy few weeks leading up to Pennsic.  I was making items to be delivered to people there. I had a request for four Queen's Order of Courtesy roses for gloves by his Majesty.  I embroidered them using stranded silk on linen fabric. They are pictured below:

Her highness requested a stouter surcoat for herself to wear while she did combat archery in the battles.  I created one based off the shape of one of the Prince surcoat that is in the regalia.  It is constructed of linen with appliqued roses and the crown on both front and back. I used a modern iron on adhesive to adhere it to the linen and then used a blanket stitch on the edges to embellish it and aid in fraying prevention

Here are a couple pictures of her Highness Matilde wearing it into battle.

Another project that went to war as a surprise for their Highness's of the East were two pilgrim bags for their retainers to carry their daily necessary items in.  They are constructed of navy blue wool and embroidered with a variation of their arms on the flaps. 

I also sent two linen viking hoods with embroidered edges to a friend, but I neglected to get pictures of them before they were packed. At 1am, my mind wasn't function on all cylinders, LOL. 

While I am sad I was unable to attend war this year due to real life issues I was glad to have sent a little things to different people and make them happy.

I think Ill work on a couple of modern cross stitches for a relative and maybe knit a pair of socks or two...for now.

Pelicans....again!!

I was asked to do some knitting and embroidery by a friend for a mutual friend. How could I say no??!! It's two of my favorite things to do!  But...there is a twist! :D My friend Mary Jo asked me to knit socks for our friend Patricia. One pair in her favorite colors, purple and green and one pair in the colors of the Order of the Pelican: red and ermine.  I asked my dyer to dye me up some pelican colored yarn and then I got to work.  Here are pictures of the socks..pretty self explanatory. They are superwash merino and nylon.

Afterwards, I started on the medallion embroidery she wanted me to do.  I used silk embroidery threads on white linen base.  She wanted it small, so I made it small. I am fairly certain this is the smalled Pelican I have ever made in any medium.

Since her favorite colors are purple and green, I incorporated them into the medallion. It was turned into a pin by Mary Jo and given to her this past weekend, along with the socks, when Patricia was elevated. 

The twist to this is, Mary Jo didn't know she was being elevated to the Order of the Pelican as well. So I made her a pair of the red/ermine colored socks as well. It was a tearful wonderfully happy time and I am glad to see two friends honored and could...wait for it.... SOCK IT TO EM!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!  I slay myself!

Well, onto the next project!!!

Commissioned Tunic

This tunic is one of two that I was commissioned to make for a friend. This one will be for fighting in.  It is black linen with herringbone embroidery on the collar, cuffs and hem.  The seams have split stitch on them to hide the machine stitching (I'm not crazy!) and on the sleeves is the boar from his device.  I am very pleased with how this turned out.

The next tunic is blue and is a court or non fighting tunic. As the embroidery progresses I will post pictures of that.

Three! Three Projects Done! AH! AH! AH!

I love to art, but today shall be about recuperation. Achy wrists, sore fingers joints and tender finger pads are the reason. I came about these pains doing what I love and I will do it all again too.Yesterday, by end of day I had completed three projects off my list: two embroidered, one knit.

A few weeks ago I was asked to embellish two white fighting tunics for the Prince and Princess of the Mists, Antonii and Helga (http://mists.westkingdom.org/). The tunic was provided for me. I appliqued the Principality of the Mists arms on the center of the chest and then did seam embellishments.

Double herringbone stitch in green and blue with white accent

Shot of tunic from above

Hem seam treatments

whole tunic (thank you hubby)

Close up of the appliqued & embroidered arms

I am very pleased with how they came out. Id like to have put the roses on the Princess's arms but time constraints didn't allow it. It is my hope they will be added, perhaps via fabric paint, later. I handed them off at 7:45 to a friend who was delivering them for me yesterday.  *WHEW*

Edit: Two pictures of the Prince and Princess wearing the tunics (Photo by Samantha Raven):

On Facebook, I am part of several knitting themed pages. Some sell gloriously dyed indie yarns (someday I must learn how to do this for myself) as well as link patterns and ideas and offer help.  One page decided to do a Secret Santa type gift exchange.  The recipient I was assigned liked the color yellow so I found a cowl pattern I liked and made that up for her. (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/afrato).  Here is a picture of it knitted up and my friend modeling it for me.

The fiber is a merino wool and nylon. It was actually sock yarn but I adored the feel and weight so I bought it for this project. I am mailing it to the recipient tomorrow. I really hope she likes it.

Last night as well, I cast on some lovely green hand spun sparkly yarn a friend made me and I am making a dragon wing cowl with it. I think it is perfect for this project. (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dragon-wing-cowl). Ill post pictures when its complete.

Well, time to make coffee and start the day. Today will entail more knitting, Thanksgiving menu shopping and watching some movies. Oh, and Ibuprofen...lots of ibuprofen.  Ciao!

Latest Finished Project: "LaBroder-dress"

Viking ensemble for a friend. Took me some time what with moving and other life things going on but its finally done. Black linen gown with embroidery and seam treatments and blue linen apron dress with seam treatments. The same treatments on the cuffs of the black gown are on the hem of it as well, which I didn't get a picture of.  Very happy with how it came out and the recipient sent me a wonderful shocked face picture that made me smile.  Here are the images of it.

Close up of the arm embroidery

Seam treatments on apron dress

Apron Dress laid on the gown

Viking tunic..yes another one

 

I just completed this Viking tunic for a friend.  We talked about me making it months back and was FINALLY able to get measurements (by stealing a tunic he was wearing that day!) and able to get working on it. He chose the color linen and had it mailed to me directly. I washed and dried it prior to cutting it out and then used the "stolen" tunic as a pattern for it.  His request was to have Viking runes on the sleeve that when translated say "It begins in the beginning as all things do."  He provided the translation.  The hem and collar are a double herringbone stitch done in blue, white and green thread. The wolves heads are the symbols on his coat of arms and I copied them onto the tunic for further personalization.  I used cotton thread instead of silk thread because honestly, cotton is a bit tougher. I have found that men tend to be a bit tougher on their garb then women.  Also, The gold and green colors I was out of in my silk thread collection and funds being on the snug side, I chose for the lesser pricey threads that I had in my collection already. 

 

As with my other Viking type tunics, my inspiration for the embroidery comes mostly from the Mammen embroideries found on extant pieces.  Paired beasts were often used, though not in the fashion I used it on his tunic.  Below is a fragment of embroidery showing the paired beasts. I placed the wolves heads on either side of the neckline to personalize it more for the recipient, as they are on his coat of arms.

 

I'm so very happy with how it came out and his reaction when I sent him pictures was even better.  I'm still cracking up laughing over it! I promise to add a picture of him wearing it when I see him in it.

 

The materials I used were as follows: 

DMC Cotton thread

Coats and Clark sewing thread

Linen fabric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit 06/18/15:

Two photos of the recipient wearing the tunic