I made a pocket! I have made a few before, but this is my first super pretty decorated pocket, made of linen and (gasp!) silk for the embroidery and for the binding. It’s also geeky, and that makes me happy.
I started out with an idea, and did a quick drawing.
I flipped through my copy of Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 4 to look for embroidery inspiration. I decided on this pretty number:
It looked simple enough, some stem stitch, satin stitch, and buttonhole.
I used a sort of false satin stitch for the Assassin’s Creed symbol. Instead of looping around to make stitches with thread all facing the same direction, I went back and forth, covering the white linen on top, but using very little of the red silk thread on the backside.
I used some black thread to mark where the eventual binding will cover, so I did not accidentally embroider past that point. I really should have come up with a better plan for the bottom embroidery pattern, it ends sort of inelegantly.
The close up of the center front binding shows a bit of wrinkling at the bottom of the opening, but it’s not too bad.
I believe I used a strip of straight grain silk for the binding since I thought bias to be more wasteful, and therefore less common in period. Since then, I have noticed several instances of bias cut strips (mental note, link to examples) and I would probably use bias if I were to make something like this again.
Here’s more straight grain binding around the outer edge, combining the embroidered front and a plain back, forming a pocket!
I entered the baronial A&S Championship here in Madrone, and didn’t win, but did ok. The pocket, and Reynier’s shirt is what I entered. They only require one entry here to go for champion! I swear it is usually a lot more than that. I really didn’t expect to win, but I figured it would be a good way to announce my presence and start making friends in the barony.
On a sort of related note, I finally got around to finishing a pair of rather modernish stays that I started working on about 18 months ago. I don’t think I am going to do a diary post on them, but I did take lots of progress pictures, and have them available on a Flickr set.
In a way, I am very happy with them, I think they look nifty, and they are pretty comfortable, considering the goofy steel boning. I would never enter this into a competition, and I really don’t have any dresses that would benefit from stays (actually, I think I’d like to correct myself on that). But I guess I have them now, so maybe they’ll come in handy at some point.
Very simple pattern.
Pretty flossing! Way to early to be doing that on boning channels, but no one can see it when I am wearing it, right?
Continuing the red and white (and sort of AS2) theme, I am making a wool and silk short cloak, based off of the Pattern of Fashion pattern, the one with the hood. I searched online, using all of the terms I could think of, but I didn’t see anyone that had made that hooded short cloak pattern. I was hoping to get some information on how it looks when worn, especially the hood and funny tabs hanging from the hood. Reynier is making the same pattern but with dark brown wool, and a different type of decoration pattern. I was jealous of his project until I found a few pictures in the Frauen Trachtenbuch that showed ladies wearing short cloaks too, like this one.
It’s funny how many times I had looked at this picture before, mainly because I was trying to make her hat, but I never really payed attention to her short cloak before. It’s nifty, and the shoulder treatment seems familiar… the lines and buttons on the side look like they are purely decorative, and I feel like I have seen vaguely similar things on loose over gowns?
UPDATE: I finished my version of this cloak! Check it out.
