Pennsic Mayor Hood

A commission piece I was recently asked to create. The mayor of this past Pennsic asked me to create a hood with the Pennsic Mayor coat of arms on it. I made a viking hood with the arms embroidered than appliqued onto the front. Its a nice open weave linen for hot pennsic weather.

Split stitch and stem stitch done in DMC cotton threads

Kyle was kind enough to model for me.

Dagmar wearing the gifted hood.

Heraldic Banner

Yesterday, My protege sister and her husband were invested as the new Baron and Baroness of Concordia of Snows in Scotia NY.  A few months prior, they asked me if I would make them a two sided banner with their coat of arms. She showed me one picture:

This is the coat of arms for the Duke of Savoy in the 14th century.  This standard only measures to be roughly 8" x 10". I decided, with consultation that theirs should be a tad bit bigger. She stated she wanted both of their arms created into a banner in the same fashion as this one.  So, I decided to do a bit of research (GASP!!!) and try to make it as accurate as possible.  Their coat of arms are these:

 I looked at many online to see what they were made of and their size.

15th C Banner of the Catholic Monarchs

Burgundy Flag 1474-76

1476-77 Burgundy Banner

Embroidered and Appliqued heraldic banner at the Museum Miltenburg, Germany

Though many of the banners I looked into were painted, there were a few that were appliqued and embroidered. Well..this is right up my alley.

The banner I made is constructed of black and white linen and silk embroidery and sewing thread.
I used a cardboard template that i traced off of their arms and cut out the elements of them. I used blanket stitch when attaching the flowers, porcupines and mountains to the base linen fabric. The details to the elements was hand embroidered with Splendor Silk threads.  I did use a machine to sew the four set of mini arms together to make each side of the banner. That is the only machine stitching used on the banner.

The final measurement of the banner is roughly 24" x 24". I am quite pleased with how it turned out as were my sister and her husband.

DING!!!

So, for the past few weeks I have been working on a peerage cloak for a friend of mine who was given her writ at Birka in January. Last night at East Kingdom 50 Year, she was elevated to the Order of the Laurel and I can safely post the finished pictures of the finished cloak now.  I am so very pleased with how it came out. Sadly, the heat from the day forced me to leave early and I was unable to present the cloak myself and see her face when she saw it.  I found this picture of her wearing it online this morning.

Materials:

• Cloak is constructed of navy blue wool and golden linen
• All embroidery was done by hand in split stitch, blanket stitch, stem stitch and satin stitch with Splendor Silk embroidery threads on linen and then hand appliqued onto the cloak. 
• There is tablet woven trim that was made by a friend of hers in her shire. 
• 90% of the cloak was hand sewn except for the joining seam of lining to outer wool fabric. 
• She chose the design and style to span her two persona's. 

Mistress Christina Jenevra de Carvalhal

Order of the Silver Crescent

Order of the Maunche

Her device

East Kingdom Tiger

Full shot of embroidered laurel wreath trim down front of cloak. 48" long

Scanning.....Scanning......Scanning...

So, while cleaning up my sewing/craft area in the basement, I came across my binder of documentation from projects that predate this blog and were saved on a computer that long ago died and was disposed of. So, I spent a good hour of my evening scanning them in and posting them on google docs.  Posting them here so I can save the links as well as share.

15th c Men's Goldwork hood:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n-BAgbhgNNJ18rBY7_HZSaikBNfSf8sz

Appliqued Heraldic Banner
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S225ntfHi4DU8o-ZEiO2n63mAFQ5YgD1

Blackwork Chalice Cover
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CDKxvwkrtcyFZYxfqKY2ke2nhXDmr66C

Blackwork Coif
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q0ZyDoxMX8AXQEfmqOMmVkTs_t6QGO1h

German Brickwork Pouch
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QaJucOp1O5WMa5mT_V7JmM0biWqkdy_9

Embroidered Men's 14th c Embroidered Hood
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KqjdRUfzc19GTEcwdo4TYKlyecqob3zM

Gothic era Outfit
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dWpT0ERh3HqhgaA9vEC7l8Zm-Hhg3U0M

Stumpwork Queen's Order of Courtesy Glove
https://drive.google.com/open?id=174vJklgTUjTeYfzx97g40pBrhxpDDg2I


I also taught a class on embroidered book bindings and I've uploaded the handout I made as well.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12rWETEXnwpBBgkmhPR4aLm2lOBZGcW2d/view?usp=sharing

And I have now freed up one square foot of space in my basement. I'm sure that extra space won't last long. LOL!

Middle Kingdom Gifts

I created embroidered covers for two blank books that were to be gifted to the visiting royals of the Mid Realm on Saturday as they attended the Coronation of Ioannes and Honig.

My original plan was to hand bind the books as well, but as these are intended to be used over their coming reign (which means through Pennsic War) my hand bound book would not have withstood the rigors of that type of use. So I opted for a commercially made blank journal, which has the integrity to take months of constant use they will get.

The cover fabrics were dupioni silk and the ground fabric for the shield embroideries was white linen.  The threads used were Splendor Silk twisted embroidery threads.  While I embroidered the arms on white linen as a base, the spine embroideries were directly on the ground silk fabric.  Obviously, the shield embroidery is Middle Kingdom arms of the King and Queen. Though they were Prince and Princess when given yesterday, their Coronation is to happen in the next couple weeks so I opted to do the full Royal Arms for King and Queen.  On the spines, I took facets of their personal arms to decorate them. Her highness has dandelions and their leaves on hers while the Prince has three white stars, a tigers head and the Augmentation symbol of a golden sun.

I enjoyed making these covers very much and hope their Highness's will get much use from them.

Edit: Found a picture of the books being given out:

Making the Elevation book

Last night I spent a couple hours cutting book board and parchment paper pages for the Laurel Elevation book. Tonight I will stitch the pages together and then assemble the book. I have to make a quick run to the craft store for some end papers (and I was really hoping to avoid going to a retail store during the month of December, oh well).

Here are a few pictures I took:

All the supplies laid out

Cutting the book board

Pages cut and folded and setting in the press for flattening

Press set. Will remove and stitch pages this evening

Things of note:
1. This book board was easier to cut with a hearty pair of scissors than the exacto blade method. I did cut it with the box cutter, but had to trim it more due to rough edges. I grabbed a pair of scissors and found they performed much better.  Pictures of the cover cut out later when i get to book assembly.

2. I am wishing i had a paper cutter for cutting the pages. Would have sped up the process of cutting the parchment.

3. I am grateful for my friend MJ who gave me the book press on long term loan as it is an immense help. Its actually a flower press but works great for this purpose as well.

Tonight...page stitching, book assembly...and, of course, more photographs!

Cheers!

Pennsic Gift Basket

Sometime ago I was asked if I could make two embroidered book covers for the Pennsic Gift Baskets.  Here is the first one. I embroidered the arms and covered an existing commercial journal that I found at the local office supply store.

 

Materials used:

 

Red linen

Gold pallions

Splendor silk embroidery thread

Red coats and clark sewing thread

Commercial lined journal measuring 3x5

 

 

Birthday Apron Dress

 

Another project off my to do list for others! My good friend's birthday was about two weeks ago and as a present, because I miss her so much, I promised her I'd make her an apron dress for her Viking garb.  I used red linen (the second picture shows the true red. The first picture has it really orange for some reason) and silk embroidery thread by Splendor.  I did running stitches in white silk to tack down the seams and did a split stitch over the seams itself for strength and beauty. 

 

It was mailed to her this morning so after she receives it, Ill get a picture of her wearing it.  I'm very pleased with it. I put my own jewelry on it so you can see how it will look once embellished with jewelry. 

 

 

 

(close up of split stitch and running stitch on seams)

(sorry for the mess on my table..was prepping for an event)

16th C German Brickwork Pouch

So, now that its been given away, I can post about this!! :)    It took me three months (and I blew my self imposed deadline) to embroider this german embroidered pouch.  It was an elevation gift for a friend being inducted into the order of the laurel.
(picture was taken on the dashboard of my van where I finished it en-route to Mudthaw).

The embroidery is done in brick stitch. The cording on the edges is lucet cording as well as the strings. Tassels are silk as well.

Materials include:

Splendor Silk Thread in black, white and red (her arms colors)
cotton canvas base fabric
Silk dupioni fabric for lining

Laurel Cloak

It has now been presented so I can freely post about it.  This weekend a friend was elevated to the Order of the Laurel. I was contacted to create the cloak for her.  I was given a design to create and the base fabric of the cloak.

Materials were:

Wool blend green fabric
Antique satin in gold
gold silk embroidery twisted thread
green Coats & Clark sewing thread.
fusible webbing

The design was given to me as it was appropriate for her persona so I went along with it. I adhered the leaves with the webbing for a more secure hold and then did a blanket stitch along each leaf for both durability and texture. I lined the cloak with the same fabric to hide all the stitching.

I felt it needed a bit more so I added the running stitching along the hem line. It made it pop that much better in my opinion.