An Independent Scholar

That is what Mistress Ose calls herself when contacting museums for information.  Now that I have finished my first letter to a museum requesting information about one of their items, I suppose I may use the same title.  The letter is now in the hands of someone who will translate it into French for me.

The museum, Musee-Alfred-Bonno is in Chelles, France, what looks like a small town east of Paris.  As such, I'm not going to assume their curator speaks/reads English, hence having my letter translated.  I will mail them both versions just in case I'm mistaken.

A copy of the letter follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am an independent scholar who is interested in one of the items in your collection.  I am hoping you are able to tell me more about it.

I am curious about the embroidered purse pictured below.

My only information about it is what is included with the photo:

Date: 1170-1190

Material: Silk threads on linen

Size: 10 cm x 13 cm

There is much I would like to learn about it as I am interested in trying to recreate it in order to learn more about embroidery techniques of the Middle Ages.  I am hoping you will be able to provide answers to the following questions:

- First and foremost, is it possible that you could email me high-definition photographs of the front, back, and inside of the purse?

- Is the stitching truly worked with silk threads and the base material actually linen?

- Is the purse lined?  With what type of material?

- From the photo I found online, I have been unable to determine what embroidery stitches were used.  Do you have any information about this?

- The buttons on the side and the drawstrings seem to be a type of weaving over a solid disk.  Do you know the material of the disk? The type of thread used for the covering?

- Do you know what type of threads were used for the drawstrings and the carrying strap?

I thank you for your time,

To regular readers of this blog the photo of the bag will look familiar.  This is the next step in being able to reproduce the bag.

Keep your fingers crossed the letter doesn't get lost in the mail when I send it, probably in January (janvier) to avoid the Christmas zaniness in the postal system.

~ Marjorie (said with a French accent this time)

My new mantra

...is "Fraycheck is your friend."*

This became part of my life when I decided to put my device on my cloak.

Vert, in saltire two needles threaded argent, and on a chief invected Or, three crosses bottony vert.

My cloak was a half-circle for the first two years, but I've wanted to enlarge it to a 3/4 cloak from almost the first time I wore it. I just lacked the incentive to clear the space to mark it out.  Being an apprentice has motivated me to finish my backlog of projects so this one became the next thing to do.

I added the two quarter triangles to the cloak and took it to dance practice, where I was able to spread it out on the floor and pin along the edge for trimming.  At this point it looked remarkably like a green Millennium Falcon:

I began the next phase at the A&S Solar in Nordenhal where I traced out the shape for the gold chief onto iron-on interfacing.  This was prior to adopting my new mantra, when I rather stubbornly used what I considered an ingenious modern method to turn the curves on the chief that would also prevent the edges from unraveling.  Yeah, I'm not doing that again.  The curves came out looking smooth and awesome, but it's not a process I can claim as Period.

The crosses, needles, and "thread" were all fraychecked, though.  I sewed the crosses onto the chief and couched them before sewing the chief onto the cloak.

The thread I couched down in all instances was DMC Pearl Cotton #3.  On the crosses and needles I used two strands, four strands on the chief, and one on the thread passing through the needles.  It was my intention to use Elegance fine twisted silk perle (#8) to hold down all the couching, but I ordered the wrong shade of green.  You might be able to notice the lighter stitches on the picture above.  I didn't like the effect of the light stitching on the Pearl Cotton, so switched to Pearl Cotton #5 for the crosses as I had it already and wouldn't have to delay the project while waiting for the correct color of silk to arrive. (Not to mention paying again for shipping.)

I finished the applique part of the cloak in time to wear it at Bjorn's Ceilidh.  I still need to line it, and even have the linen cut and pinned, ready for sewing, but didn't worry about pushing myself to completely finish it for the event.

Here is the unlined cloak:

The gold chief wraps around to the front.  I hope to make a separate hood out of the leftover green wool and line it with the gold linen, once I figure out what style of hood is appropriate for my time and place (1190's, England).

~ Marjorie

* Thank you Lady Ruth for teaching me this mantra.