This embroidery piece, for a blue linen dress, is based on a 7th Century Persian sleeve and a 5/6th C piece of embroidery that I have been studying at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The border wave design is taken directly from the extant embroidery (see below). The original piece is only 1 1/4“ tall. However, I have made each of the three sections 1” tall to make it easier to embroider. I have changed the colors, from yellow, red, purple, pink, and green. to just red, green and yellow. I have also changed the elements on which each color is used. This piece uses wool chain stitch, as in the original.
I also loosely based this second piece (right) of embroidery on the same piece (below). It is mainly based on what I use as my "heraldry". I put that in quotes, because heraldry does not technically begin until much later in the Medieval period.
I used purple Amethyst beads on this to create the lotus blossom in my heraldry, because there are several extant accounts that describe precious and semi-precious stones being used with embroidery to decorate sleeves during this period. This dress is now complete and in use.
This embroider is listed as 5th/6th C Egyptian or Mesopotamian. I feel confident using this piece as an example of what would also have been done in 7th C. Persian, as the Persians controlled much of Egypt and Mesopotamia through the 5th-7th Centuries.
