gold thread embroidery sampler

I have been taking an online class on gold thread embroidery for the last couple years. Tonight I have finished the sampler that was the main part of the class. I will admit the class ended a few months ago, but I am pretty happy with getting it done this quickly.

There are about 26 different gold thread patterns in the sampler. The colored parts are mostly done in queen stitch.

I also finished another piece of lace for the Elizabethan smock. I have been on a kick for finishing up projects the last couple of weeks. Sometimes I get slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of unfinished projects I have kicking around. There are so many other projects that I want to start, but I feel that I need to finish some once in a while. I am likely to start a project on the spur of the moment. I also am not afraid to start projects that I expect to take years to finish. So many people these days want something they can finish in one weekend. While that kind of project can be satisfying in a way, I really get a charge out of finishing something that has taken me months or years to complete.

Anyway to get back to the current state. The latest piece of lace is from Onder le Loep. I especially liked it because the pattern is very reminiscent of the kind used in the original smock.

So now I have to decide how close to finished I am. I could either do 3 more pieces like this one and then call the lace done, and start assembly, or I could do those 3 pieces and 3 more complex. The real question is how close to the original do I want to get. The collar of the 16th C smock is much more ornate than the lace I have made for it. My orginal plan was to make another piece and attach it to the points I alreay made. But... I will admit to getting a little tired of this project. I am getting to the point where I really want to be done with it. Adding those 3 more complex pieces with probably add another year to the project. I am going to make a small trial piece to see how difficult the new pieces would be. The have tallies in them. Up to this point I have been avoiding tallies. I have heard that they are the real test of a lace maker, and that makes me apprehensive. I will try the sample and then make a decision. This is piece number 34 for the A&S challenge.

Lace update

It has been a while since I last posted my progress on the bobbin lace for the 16th C smock. I have just finished the longest piece, the one which will go around the collar. At this point I have 11 pieces done out of the 20 that the project needs.

When I finished the 2 pieces which will run down the top of the arms, I determined I did not like that pattern all that much and wanted to do something else for the other pieces on the arms. The second and third pieces from the top are the ones that will go on the top of the arms. I decided to try making a piece of lace directly from one of the patterns in Le Pompe, the pattern book drawn in the 16th century. This is my first attempt at doing something that did not have a modern interpretation of the pattern. you can just see the pattern from the book under the threads. The piece on the left that is loose was my first attempt. I decided quite quickly that the threads were too thin. They were 90/2. The second piece uses 60/2 thread, which I think looks much better. The first one just looked too spidery and light. I am a little worried about how a piece of lace using such coarse thread will look next to the other pieces I have made for this project. They all use considerably finer thread.

Now I have also found a new book; Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns by Susan North and Jenny Tiramani. This book shows the bobbinlace from the original smock that I am trying to replicate in much higher magnification. They also have patterns for the bobbinlace. Though they are fairly simplistic. The one I looked at in detail did not seem to have quite enough lines to show the paths of all the bobbins, but I have not tried it yet so I may be wrong. Anyway, I should be able to replicate the pattern for the pieces of lace they have on the arms. I am very excited about this. I have been trying to find a pattern which had a similar overall appearance. Now I will be able to replicate the original much more accurately. The book also shows a pattern for the smock itself. I had not even started to think about how I was going to put this all together yet. The smock they show is the one which is also in Janet ARnold's book that has a chevron pattern on bobbinlace. When I started this project, I decided I wanted to make a smock with teh bobbinlace applied in a straight instead of slanted pattern. It is more a combination of the two laced smocks in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 4 on page 60. Now with the combination of the two books, it has become much easier.

More lace finally

I finally finished the next piece of lace for the Elizabethan Smock. This one took a long time to complete. It was 18 inches long and used 52 bobbins. While this is not a huge number, it is the most I have used so far.

The piece in the middle is the new one. This picture shows all the pieces I have completed so far. That is 6 out of 19. This is going to take me years to finish. Some of the pieces which I still have to do are quite small and will not take long, but there is also at least one more piece like the one I just finished. The original is on page 60 of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion IV. I have made a major change in the pattern. There are 2 smocks in this book. One has straight inserts of needlelace and the other has diagonal inserts of bobbinlace. I decided I liked the look of the straight inserts, but wanted to do them in bobbinlace. The two garments are so closely related, I feel secure in making that change. I have tried to stay with the same general type of lace patterns. The pictures of the lace in the book are not quite close enough for me to try to do a replication of the actual patterns of the original smock. anyway, 6 down 13 to go.

Smock Lace

This is just going to be a quick update. I have finished the forth piece of lace for the Elizabethan Smock. Four down, fifteen left to go. This is going to take a long time. The other problem is that the pictured smock both have one a couple patterns of lace in all the pieces inset into the bodice. I really don't want to make the same pattern over and over again, so I am going to introduce a couple other patterns. I believe I will make all the pieces for the sleeves with the same pattern. The two pieces on the outside will be around the cuffs, and the ones on the inside are placed along side the front opening. Next I want to start on the main pieces in the sleeves. There are six strips of lace on the sleeves. One long piece running down the top of the arm and smaller pieces on the front and back. At this point I plan on making the sleeves inserts all the same pattern, but they are also the longest. I may become bored with one pattern all that time, and make the smaller pieces something else. We will see how it goes.

There are a couple of things which I have not recorded since I have not written in a while. First the Elizabethan smock I am making is based on one pictured in Janet Arnold's Pattern's of Fashion 4. There are 2 smocks, one with bobbinlace inserts and one with reticella inserts. I liked the pattern of the second smock, but prefer to make bobbinlace. Therefore, I combined the 2 and am making a smock with bobbinlace. To make a representation of the piece in the book I will have to make 19 separated pieces of lace. So far I have finished 2 and am partway through a third. The 2 finished ones are the same pattern, and I posted a picture of one on Sept 2. The latest piece is the first time I have tried lace with points. I still have 2 inches left to finish, then I will clip the threads. I am pleased with the way this piece is coming out.

From the other extreme end of the time frame of the SCA, I just finished a embroidered celtic dog. I have been working on this piece for years. It is not that it is difficult. It is more that I just found that this style is not my favorite, and I kept putting it down for years. This is going to be incorporated into an emboidered band on the bottom edge of a tunic gown. I will surround it with a geometric pattern which will work up quicker than this part did.