Embroidered Edging

Embroidered edging.

Doing some embroidery on a linen gown.

This is the sleeve edge. Heavy gold silk and fine sewing weight green silk. Straight stitch next to the edge then a band of stem stitch outlining a line of long-arm cross stitch. Obviously, I'm not county thread on the cross stitch like I should be. It's the firs time I've tried this particular stitch, so it looks uneven and messy. Probably will improve as I practice on the rest of the garment. (I could tear it out & try again, but too lazy.)

I originally pinned a piece of 1/8 inch ribbon to the edge of the sleeve to measure the width between the rows of stem stitch. Unpinned the ribbon & worked the long arm cross stitch between the stem stitching.

This is one of my tatting shuttles & a circular motif I've tatted in heavy gold silk. I tatted a bunch of them in the same size.

Here you can see how the tatting is appliqued in a row around the neckline. You can see the centers of the tatted motifs have not yet been stitched in place. More stem stitch circles in green and gold outlining the tatting,  

I'm outlining the area where I want to do couched & laid work. A single strand of green silk thread marks the area. I just eye-balled the triangular shapes. 

You can see the area filled in & outlined with more gold stem stitch. I've also added glass beads in the centers of the tatting..

Closer view. You can get a little better look at the couched & laid work. This patch is pretty much finished. 

Making a leather 'penner'

 A 'penner' is a small leather box hung from your belt and used to carry your quill pens. They were a common part of scribal equipment in the middle ages. Thought I'd have a fling at making some. I'm using vegetable-tanned leather as it will be fairly hard and stiff once I've shaped it & let it dry. I'll also finish it with a water resistant coating which will harden it a bit more.

Dampen a strip of leather & wrap it around a wooden form to get the basic shape.

The long strip of leather on the left is 8 inches wide and several feet long. 8 inches will be the total height of the finished penner. The 1" x 2" pieces of wood are poplar. A strip of white cotton fabric wrapped around the damp leather holds the leather tightly around the wooden form.

Drying the leather around a wooden form will leave marks where the corners will be. Using a leather 'groover' pare away a tiny strip of leather on the inside of each corner. (the 'flesh' side of the leather) These grooves will help make the corners square.

The nearly-dry leather has already had shallow grooves cut on the flesh side. (inside of the penner box)
Removing this tiny strip of leather form the inside will give the corners room to bend into a square shape. The tool on the right is the 'groover' 

I then measured 2 inches from the top & cut straight across the width of the leather. The 2 inch piece will be the lid.

Here you can see the penner and lid dampened and wrapped around the wooden form again. I've cut 2 tiny slits on the narrow sides of both the penner and lid. These slits will form the channels for the cords which will eventually hold the penner together & hang it from a belt.

 I used a bamboo skewer to form the channels for the cords, but a small diameter knitting needle or something similar would also work.

A bamboo skewer passed through the slits to stretch the leather making a space large enough for the cords to pass through. The object to the right is a 'bone folder'. The folder is used to press the leather around the skewer and help stretch it into the proper shape.

This closer view shows how I used the bone folder to define the edges around the cord channels. This is part of the beauty of using vegetable tanned leather - it forms very nicely while damp and retains it's shape once it is dry.

Once the leather is totally dry, I can take it off the wooden form. Stitching the pieces together comes next. I'll be using an awl to pierce the stitching holes, linen thread, and a curved needle. The curved needle really helps reach into the tiny corners and tight spots of these shapes.

Comments Welcome!

More next week!