14th century drawstring purse

14th century drawstring purse:

• purse 8x8 cm
• large tassels 6 cm, small tassels 3 cm
• lining in dark blue linen
  
• embroidery: au ver a soie silk
• tassels and drawstring: aurora fine 2 ply silk
• gold thread: Japanese thread K4
  

Toturials

• embroidery pattern: Wymarc
• finishing of the seams: embroidered braids
• embroidered tassels
  

Border in interlacing stitch: work in progress

This is how I tried to transfer the design of the interlacing stitch border onto the fabric. It works, but I'm not really happy with it. There might be better ways to transfer a design, and maybe I should not work with a soft pencil :-) If you have any feedback/suggestions, I'd love to hear it!

First, I made a sketch of the border, using:

• an enlarged photocopy of the original border
• this tutorial for sketching interlacing stich designs
• a geometrical square
  

Next, I tried to transfer the design onto the fabric. I outlined the design with a dark marker and put the fabric on top of it. This way, you can see the lines through the fabric. I traced the lines of the design with a soft pencil. Next, time I might use one of those erasable pens, because I made some errors and now I probably have to wash it.

The final step is marking traces were the stitches should be. Mine are about 6x6 mm. Once more, maybe I should use an erasable pen here.

Whitework: interlacing stitch, first try

After some false starts, this is my first attempt at a horizontal interlacing stitch. It's about 1 cm. If you want to google it or look it up in a book, there are a lot of different names for this stitch:

• English: interlacing stitch, and sometimes also known as German, Maltese or Armenian interlacing stitch
• German: orientalischer flechtstich
• Dutch: oosterse vlechtsteek

In my seventies stitch dictionary, I saw that you can also use this stitch in more complicated patterns, such as blocks or crosses. In fact, in the tablecloth and wallhanging, the interlacing stitch is used in zig zag patterns and in angles. For a picture of the zig zag border of the tablecloth, click here and scroll down.

I came across a very fascinating website about Armenian embroidery, which uses the interlacing stitch as basic stitch in different patterns. This website explaines how you can draw your own charts for interlacing stitch patterns:

Drawing charts for interlacing stitch

So, the next thing I'll do will be drawing a chart for the zig zag pattern, using this website as a tutorial.

Whitework: interlacing stitch tutorial (basic stitch, horizontal line)

I was trying to work out a chart for interlacing stitch myself, when I found this wonderful step-by-step tutorial by Linda Fontenot:

Interlacing stitch tutorial

This stitch was used to embroider borders in 14th century whitework. Some examples are the borders of the Feldbach tablecloth and the borders of a "Chase of the unicorn" wallhanging. For pictures, see these books:

Pesel, L. , Newberry, N. (1921), A book of old embroidery, with articles by A. F. Kendrick. London: Geoffrey Holme, “The Studio”, plate 58

Schuette, M., Müller-Christensen. S. (1963), Das Stickereiwerk, Tübingen: Wasmuth

Now I can start with the next part of my sampler :-)

Whitework through the ages

The Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles published a beautiful online slide show and catalogue (in pfd) about whitework embroidery through the ages.

They don't offer any information about technical data, styles, period etcetera of the work that is shown, but the pictures are breathtaking! I'd love to be able to do this type of embroidery one day...

Gimp thread tutorial

Another great tutorial by Isis! This one is about making your own silk gimp thread (used e.g. in turk's head knots). Check it out here:

http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-gimp.html

13th-mid 14th century tassels

Set of tassels for an early 14th century drawstring purse.

• silk and gold thread
• large tassels 6 cm
• small tassels 3 cm
• for a detailed description and tutorial, click here