Interlaced Vine Partlet

This is a partlet that I made for a prize auction tourney in 2010. The embroidery was done in double running stitch with black linen thread. The ground fabric was also linen.

The interlaced design is taken from one of my reproduction modelbooks.(I love looking through my collection of modelbooks in the initial stages of a project!) I did not alter the pattern. In the sixteenth century, the embroiderer would probably have traced or drawn the design onto the base fabric with ink. I taped the linen to a window and traced the design on in water soluble pen. I find that water soluble ink is much more forgiving of any errors! I did a tacking stitch to mark out the edges of where the partlet collar piece should be cut.

The partlet was hand sewn. I sharpened a couple of strong decorative jewellery headpins to make pins to hold the partlet in place when being worn.

High-necked Partlet Silk Embroidered Panel

Recently I finished another collar panel. It was originally intended as a gift, but I made too many mistakes in the stitching to be content to give it away. It will probably end up going on a high necked Elizabethan partlet for me.

The piece is sewn in Guterman silk on white linen. The non-counted blackwork is worked in two strands of silk in a double-running (Holbein) stitch.

The design comes from Modelbuch Aller Art.I traced the original design onto tracing paper and then modified it to fit the panel size that I needed. Then I taped the design to a window and traced it out in dissolvable fabric marker pen. I worked the piece in a hoop.

I am considering whether to add seeding stitches to the insides of the motifs so that the embroidery has more effect.

Partlet neck pieces

I have been laid up in bed over the last couple of weeks and haven't had much opportunity to do anything much. I have been picking away at a couple of simple partlet neck bands for my planned Elizabethan partlets. I plan to make two, with the cut away front, and trim them with the blue and white bobbin-style laces that I picked up on Etsy and posted about recently.

The bands aren't finished or even rinsed properly. I plan to add some extra supplementary decoration when the main embroidery is done (although I haven't worked out what yet.) The designs are both period designs that I have used in the past; simple and easy. They are done in chain stitch because I like the raised effect.

I went for a subtle effect with the blue flower pattern. The stems are done in a sort of 'junior navy' colour cotton and the flowers are done in navy. But the difference is so subtle that you really can't see it except in bright daylight, which is disappointing.

Still spangling...

Here is a work in progress that was started somewhere between four and seven years ago! I have been dragging it around to tourneys and only recently finished the embroidery and started spangling. It will be a high necked Elizabethan partlet. Eventually.