The Secret Revealed

 I was reminded when I posted about the Camp Pants project that I owe you a post about that secret, pretty item I made for a friend.  Here it is.

I was asked if I could embroider a pelican for a friend's elevation to the peerage.  I was overwhelmed, to say the least, and hesitated to accept.  My embroidery is not that advanced, and I have no mastery of the split stitch, which is the most used stitch to fill in designs of this type.  But, I can applique, so once that was suggested I readily agreed.  My part of the whole project is contained on the blue material.

Material List (all linens from Fabrics-store.com):

- White of pelicans: IL019 Optic White Fs Signature Finish linen

- Brown Nest: IL019 Potting Soil Softened linen

- Blue Background: IC64 Strong Blue (a color that is sold out)

- Outline stitching of babies and nest, black on mama pelican: DMC cotton embroidery floss, 1-2 strands

- Gold thread: High quality thread gold thread from Japan (don't have the brand name at my fingertips)

- Glass beads

The goldwork was done using two different techniques.  The outline of mama pelican was couched using two strands of gold thread and her beak filled in with lines of four strands couched down.  For the definition of her plumage, I used one strand of gold in a double-running stitch (aka Holbein stitch).  I found out when I paneled the completed item that the double-running stitch is an unusual way to use gold thread, though not unheard of.  The gold thread had a tendency to kink up, so I can understand why it's not often used that way.

The embroidery on the babies and their nest was the stem stitch.  The drops of blood are actually two glass beads tacked down only at the top, so they shift with movement or hang in the direction gravity pulls them.

This was my first time doing gold work.  Having been awarded a competency rating for this, I suspect it is also the last time I work with it.  It's a bear to use!  I will also have to stock more tightly-woven material than the white linen I used for the pelicans.  The sharp details of the outline had a tendency to unravel, even with using fray-check on them.  I'm thinking a fine silk would be better.  Or a very light iron-on interfacing might do the job.  Having a larger color selection of silk embroidery thread on hand would also be a good idea.  Given the time-frame for the project, I didn't have opportunity to order higher-grade supplies, none of which can be found locally.

I'm thankful for being given the opportunity to work on this.

~ Marjorie

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.