Saturday 4 August 2007

Ingrid's blackworked collar and cuffs

Hello again. I finished the set of collar and cuffs that I was embroidering for my friend Ingrid, and I thought I should share the results here with you.

I am using a linen ground fabric which (by happy chance) is an even weave fabric. This is the best kind as it makes the geometric patterns nice and squared like they are supposed to be. The thread I've been using is Gütermans silk sewing thread, and each stitch is taken over two threads of my ground fabric. I am using Holbein stitch (also called double running stitch), which makes a single unbroken line in two passes of the running stitches. So the entire embroidery is reversible - save for a few less than perfect anchorings of my thread.

The pattern is one drafted by Viscountess Helwig Ulfsdotter from a photo in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd which I had saved from one of her classes. As always there are adjustments to be made at the edges of the embroidery and for the collar I closed the two rows of embroidery up in as seamless a way as possible at either edge. Since the cuffs are made up of a single row of my pattern I let those ends curl back in on itself to prevent too much white space happening.

Finally, here are photos of the finished embroidery. (Click for large versions)
16th C Blackwork embroidery for Ingrid, collar and cuffs (July 2007)16th C Blackwork embroidery for Ingrid, collar and cuffs (July 2007)16th C Blackwork embroidery for Ingrid, collar and cuffs (July 2007)

2 comments:

Racaire said...

Thanks for sharing your work (you know I love it)!

concerning your Gütermans silk sewing thread - are there different kinds of this special silk thread and did you made any special experiences with this thread? btw. do you work only with one thread or with more (because I know some threads that can be split and some threads that are so thin that I have to use more than only one thread)

...and once again: I love your work :)

Lia de Thornegge said...

The sewing silk comes on the blue rolls from Gütermann. They're just like regular sewing thread, only made from silk. I find it just thin enough to use singly for my embroidery. You can unravel the thread, but only with some effort. They've got loads of shades as well. You can check out the company webpage at http://www.guetermann.com