Blue Wool Dress and blackwork project
A few months ago I picked up some blue and pink wool on sale at Fabricland. The blue is a twill and probably a blend of some sort but its a nice colour and it was cheap. cat_cetera helped me pattern a bodice with a square neck and a front closure. It was a bit of a process since I am pretty curvey. I have cut out two sets of the bodice pattern in white linen. One will be sewn directly onto the wool as a stiffener and one will be used as lining. I zagged the edges on the linen and will be hand sewing them all up. I might use this as my other entry for Montengarde A&S in January.... guess I should find some documentation.
The Anna Meyer Blackwork Project
I have finished my documentation on the blackwork project. Thank you to everyone for their input and information! The summary of the documentation is as follows:
Background
I am re-creating the blackwork trim bands on the dress of Anna Meyer from the Hans Holbein the Younger's painting: "Darmstadt Madonna". This painting was started in approx. 1526 prior to Holbeins visit to the court of Henry VIII and finished after his return in 1528. The Meyer family portrayed in the painting are from Basil in Switzerland The Art of English Embroidery, Jane D Zimmerman. Black silk line embroidery on a white background was very common in 16th century Europe and can commonly be seen in paintings and on extant cuffs, collars, partlets, nightshirts, smocks, and coifs from England, Italy and Germany. Worked in a single colour The roots of blackwork embroidery (will the real blackwork please stand up?), Christian de Holacombe published in the Filum Aurzem AS 2008. It seems that all classes of people decorated garments in blackwork, both women and men. Herbert Norris speculates in Tudor Costume and Fashion that blackwork may have been used as a cheap alternative to lace. He also states that blackwork seems to appear on costumes of the day rather then everyday wear.
Materials
I have some medium weight 100% linen fabric, counted at 44 threads per inch that will be used for the bands themselves and black silk embroidery floss ordered from a UK company off ebay:
The linen is cut at a 5 inch width in order to get a 3 inch band of finished product. Because modern made linen fabric is a looser weave then hand woven linen in the 16th century, the edges of the band is zigzagged on a machine to prevent fraying. Both the linen and the silk are pre-washed in hot water to pre-shrink and bleed any unset dye out of the materials.
I hand drew the pattern on graph paper from close ups of the painting. It is a blocky style of blackwork, done in short perpendicular stitches rather then smooth angled or curved stitches. Janet Arnolds' Patterns of Fashion 4 shows embroidery patterns drawn directly onto the ground fabric before stitching so I will draw the pattern onto the fabric to scale to be stitched over.
The Anna Meyer Blackwork Project
I have finished my documentation on the blackwork project. Thank you to everyone for their input and information! The summary of the documentation is as follows:
Background
I am re-creating the blackwork trim bands on the dress of Anna Meyer from the Hans Holbein the Younger's painting: "Darmstadt Madonna". This painting was started in approx. 1526 prior to Holbeins visit to the court of Henry VIII and finished after his return in 1528. The Meyer family portrayed in the painting are from Basil in Switzerland The Art of English Embroidery, Jane D Zimmerman. Black silk line embroidery on a white background was very common in 16th century Europe and can commonly be seen in paintings and on extant cuffs, collars, partlets, nightshirts, smocks, and coifs from England, Italy and Germany. Worked in a single colour The roots of blackwork embroidery (will the real blackwork please stand up?), Christian de Holacombe published in the Filum Aurzem AS 2008. It seems that all classes of people decorated garments in blackwork, both women and men. Herbert Norris speculates in Tudor Costume and Fashion that blackwork may have been used as a cheap alternative to lace. He also states that blackwork seems to appear on costumes of the day rather then everyday wear.
Materials
I have some medium weight 100% linen fabric, counted at 44 threads per inch that will be used for the bands themselves and black silk embroidery floss ordered from a UK company off ebay:
The linen is cut at a 5 inch width in order to get a 3 inch band of finished product. Because modern made linen fabric is a looser weave then hand woven linen in the 16th century, the edges of the band is zigzagged on a machine to prevent fraying. Both the linen and the silk are pre-washed in hot water to pre-shrink and bleed any unset dye out of the materials.
I hand drew the pattern on graph paper from close ups of the painting. It is a blocky style of blackwork, done in short perpendicular stitches rather then smooth angled or curved stitches. Janet Arnolds' Patterns of Fashion 4 shows embroidery patterns drawn directly onto the ground fabric before stitching so I will draw the pattern onto the fabric to scale to be stitched over.