Dress in progress

I'm going to join the group Deventer Burgerscap, so now I finally have to finish the dress I started two years ago. I will never really like dressmaking, but with a little help, I think I can manage. My first pair of sleeves didn't fit (too bad I found that out when they were already firmly attached to the bodice..). I'm very glad my mother helped me make some new ones :-) All I have to do now is sew buttonholes and buttons for the sleeves. I'm not really happy with the buttonholes so far: each one seems to have a different size and shape. I hope the other sleeve will be better

Progress on a purse

A couple of months ago I posted about my new embroidery frame. In that post you could see a piece of embroidery that is now finally finished! I think I have started it back in January 2007 or so.

The piece is 9 by 18 cm. The ground is linen and the embroidery is done with spun silk. This piece is now ready to be lined and finished with tassels with turk's head knots (see photo below).
I'm still waiting for the lining silk to arrive and I need to make up my mind about the tassels and laces colours. The turk's head knots will be burgundy red. Should I go for purple or ochre tassels?

New project: Swedish frilled veil

Maria, Älgå, 2nd half of the 14th century

Soon I'll be starting on a new project: a custom order for a Swedish frilled veil for Maria from Albrechts Bösser.

The statue above will serve as example for the reconstrcution. The veil looks like it has a fretworked honeycomb frill consisting of only two layers. Mostly this type has at least three layers (however I'm nearly sure I've seen a two-layered version before, but I don't remember where).

First thing to do is order the right type of linnen.

In the mean time I'm translating my Ba-paper on frilled veils into English in order to get it published.

Essener Agraffen

Last week I was in Essen for a congress and I found some time to visit the Domschatz

The museum has a display with these gorgeous mantle brooches from Paris ca 1400-1410, called "agraffen". I guess they're about 4-5 cm each. I have never seen anything like this before and I think they're absolutely beautiful. I would love to have the one with the daisies, I'm sure it would look good on a crispy white blouse or a jeans jacket :-)

Take a look at them here.

Finally, the right type of linen :-)

I'm so happy! I've been searching for the right type of linen for the whitework tablecloth for almost a year, and finally I got it today :-)

I ordered it from naturtuche.de , and it's this type. As a basis for a whitework tablecloth, it's important that the linen has a thread count of about 18-20 threads per cm, so it's possible to do both counted stitches and "free" stitches. The cloth I ordered has about 19 threads per cm. For those of you who live in the Netherlands: this shop is incredibly cheap compared to Dutch shops. In the Netherlands, people will usually ask about 35 euro per meter for high quality linen, and only this costed 11 euro per meter. Do take a look at their wool too, they sent me some samples of it and it looks beautiful. I will use linen embroidery thread from the Mulberry Dyer.

It's strange that you can't find these materials in the Netherlands....

The cap of St. Birgitta: reconstructions

I have written before about the article on St. Birgitta's cap Camilla Luise Dahl and I wrote for Medieval Clothing and Textiles v. 4 (Ed. Robin Netherton & Gale R. Owen-Crocker).

It is so lovely to see people are using it to make their own versions of the coif:

Above: reconstruction done by Joanna L. from Finland. Read all about it here.
I love this reconstruction because she did all the embroidery in whitework and interlaced herringbone stitch as it was found on the original.

Viktoria Holmqvist also dit a wonderfull job on her reconstruction of the cap. She used a simpler version of the herringbone stitch on her cap. You can read her blogpost about it here.

Here you can find another reconstruction of the cap (text in Finnish), and yet another one here.

A paper on frilled head- and neckwear

This is a very interesting paper on the frilled head- and neckwear from the Monasterio Real de las Huelgas, Burgos, Spain, 12-14th century. It's got very clear color pictures and detailed descriptions of the textile analyses. The paper is in English

http://www.middelaldercentret.dk/pdf/burgosrapport.pdf