Blackwork embroidery research

I've been looking into blackwork lately, specifically the later period, freeform style, with a view to completing some as a sampler. I'll admit, when I first starting looking, freeform blackwork looked to me like a confusion of random shapes, but closer inspection, particularly of this cushion cover made from a woman's dress in the late 16th century, reveals a repeating pattern[1] of well known flowers that the those of the Tudor era would have been fond of. 

Row 1 top: Pansy

Row 1 bottom: Lily

Row 2 top: Daffodil

Row 2 bottom: Pomegranate

Row 3 top: Tudor Rose

Row 3 bottom: Carnation

These are my best guesses at what the flowers represent. Some of these, such as the rose and pomegranate are so often used they're easier to discern. 

Órlaith is dying some silk embroidery thread for me, in some of my favourite colours (namely purple, yes), and some day I'll have to pin her down to teach me how to dye things myself. I aquired some nice white linen recently, and though I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I'm going to have to do a sampler. I need to see how well I can actually do blackwork, given that it's a new skill, but I want to test the colourfastness of the dye for some other projects I have in mind.

[1] Just stop and think about that for a moment. A repeating pattern. Long before sewing machines were invented, embroidery of this nature was fully done by hand, with just a few vaiations in the filling stitches. Craftsperson of ages past, I tip my hat to you.

"Blackwork" embroidery

The victorian bodice is... continuing. There's a lot more hand sewing than I had accounted for, mostly thanks to my own choice of lace adornment, and it may yet come down to the wire whether I'll have a finished gown to wear on saturday. It'll be wearbale yes. Finished, perhaps not. 

 

In the mean time, have some other pretties.

One thing my feast gear is lacking, given how much medieval food encourages me to eat with my hands, is a place mat and napkin. I want something pretty to mark out my place at the table and something equally pretty to wipe my fingers with.

I designed the blackwork pattern on the right some months ago. It started in the best way of these designs, with random scribbling on some graph paper. So using this pattern, it was the perfect excuse to buy some of the yummy black linen from Ikea that I've covetted since a friend bought some for her own dress.

And this is how far I've gotten so far! I'm using the same gold thread that was used to embroider the cutwork sleeves of my court gown, and am working in the corner of the entire 1 metre piece, as I haven't decided just how large I want my place setting to be yet. For the napkin, I think I might just embroider selected pieces in the corners, so they tie together but I don't have to do quite so much repeat embroidery.

I had originally planned to do this in holbein stitch, a form of blackwork embroidery that looks identical from both sides of the fabric. But given that this isn't an evenweave fabric and requires a lightbox (or my phone) for every stitch, holbein would have been a madness too far.