Embroidered Forepart and Over Sleeves

I have begun the next phase! Here is a portrait of Jane Seymour (1537) that shows the forepart and sleeves decorated with black outline embroidery and silver oes (sequins). This is going to be an amazing project! :D

I plan to recreate these elements as closely as I possibly can. I have a curtain I picked up at a goodwill a couple years ago that looks very similar to the pattern on J.S.'s forepart and sleeves. And while it's not a voided velvet, it does come close.

I have a couple spools of black silk thread I will use doubled up to embroider with and I purchased a bag of about 14,000 flat silver sequins. Since I cannot possibly afford to punch oes from a sheet of flattened silver, the plastic sequins will just have to do. :P

March 14, 2008

It took me a couple days, but I finally got the pattern for the forepart to look half-way decent. I kept it pinned to the dressform for a couple days to make sure I liked the look of it. I made it nice and wide incase of flip-backs caused by the wind lifting my divided over-skirts. The overskirt won't show a whole lot of the forepart while at rest. So a lot of the embroidery won't be seen unless the wind takes my skirts! :( such a lot of work...

I drafted up the pattern for the sleeves, but forgot to take pictures. :( I used the patterns found in the Tudor Tailor and drafted both variations onto my butcher paper. Neither one gave me the right size and shape for the J.S. sleeve I'm going for so I drafted another pattern right in between the two from the book. My pattern works great! Now I get to finally use that beautiful curtain I rescued! (I only wish they'd had 2 of them!) :D

Time for this project: 3 hours

March 24, 2008

Here I am cutting out the forepart. When I took the pattern off the dressform it was quite curved. It really didn't want to lay out flat, but I managed to press it out carefully with my hands so I could get the whole pattern on the fabric. I moved it around a couple times to place the pattern of the fabric where I wanted it. There is no discernable repeat so I didn't have to center it. Which is good because I still had sleeves to cut out!

Here I am cutting out the sleeves. Instead of folding the fabric and cutting on the fold, I wanted total control of the pattern. So I pinned it in place and then placed pins along the pattern edge to mark it onto the fabric. After cutting that half I carefully unpinned and flipped the pattern over to finish the "fold cut". The second sleeve was much harder to cut out because I just had to fussy cut it. I couldn't just slap it on the fabric and cut away. I wanted the sleeves to have some sort of similarity when folded in front of me, so I had to make sure to reverse the pattern on the fabric to get the same look. This proved even more difficult because I couldn't match the layout exactly - the fabric pattern always ended up on the wrong side of the sleeve. So I had to compromise and pick a place in the fabric that would give the two sleeves a similar pattern even though they didn't exactly match. It'll do I guess.

I spent 1.75 hours on this which brings the total to 4hs 45min

March 26, 2008

Here they are! The two sleeves are now nicely hemmed. I debated whether I should do that, but the fabric unravelled so easily I was afraid to touch it! So in the end I decided to hem the edges. I turned them under where I'd marked them with the pins so they are the same size as the pattern. Once I get them embroidered and all the oes stitched in place, then I will line them with something...probably linen. Depending on how stiff they become after all the stitching, I might need to add some canvas to give them a bit more body. This top fabric is exceptionally soft and flimsy.

I spent 1.5 hours hemming the sleeves.

Project total= 6hrs 15min

Sleeve #1 Completed April 3, 2008

Here it is modeled with the cuff and pinned to the kirtle to see how it would hang. I've not added the oes yet and I'm not sure I will just yet. I'm still thinking about that decision.

Sleeve #1 took 16.5 hours to complete.
Sleeve #2 took 15hrs 15min to complete (completed 4/19/08)

Project total= 38 hrs.

FOREPART started 4/19/08

This is the forepart as of 9/6/08 at 52 hrs 35 min of embroidery. It's taking longer for me to finish this than I thought as I get really tired of stitching the same design over and over. As I get toward the center of the panel it's getting harder to hold the fabric while I stitch. I tend to work on it a couple times a week for an hour or so at a time. I'm really fighting the boredom with this project. The sad part is, I still have another cuff to embroider yet! ugh.

Total project hours= 90 hrs 35 min

February 8, 2009 FINISHED!

Another 72 hours of back-breaking, eye-straining, finger-pricking embroidery and it's all done! I was originally thinking I'd also add the silver oes as well, but now I'm thinking about being lazy :P Who knows, I may give in... on to the next project!

Total project time= 163hrs 35min

Blackworked Cuffs

December 10, 2007

Today I decided to get started on the cuffs for my gown. I am making a reproduction of Lady Jane Seymour's cuffs. I am so very thankful to have found a website with the pattern already redacted! Saves me a whole lot of time. I did print off some graph paper in various sizes and I've been redrawing the pattern in different sizes to get a feel for how it's going to go together. I've probably spent about 5 hours drawing this pattern over and over!

I pulled out my even-weave linen and threw it in the wash thinking today was the day. But later as I stood over the ironing board pressing out said piece of linen I realized that maybe I should make a little sample first. Turns out I actually had a good idea there for a second.

The sample is on a scrap of the linen I plan to use but I used some leftover black DMC floss I had from an earlier project. Turns out the pattern for this cuff is relatively easy to do. I expected a lot of problems with trying to find a way through that would result in no repeated stitches, but it worked out without any mishaps at all!

Here is my handy work for the afternoon. Not to shabby, eh?

Now if only the real deal should go so smoothly, right? This sample took 2 hours to complete. It measures 2 3/4" from diamond tip to tip. I'm thinking I may work a second sample and try bumping up the stitch size a bit. I don't know. It looks like a good size, but I may keep stitching and make the sample a bit longer so I can see the pattern draped over my arm and pleated up a bit. Sounds like a lot of work just for a sample, I know. But it'll be worth it to make these cuffs a resounding success! Plus...I'm just crazy that way. :D

Project time: 5 hours drawing + 2 hours stitching = 7 hrs.

December 11, 2007

After looking at that cuff for several months, and drawing and re-drawing that pattern on graph paper, you'd think I'd realize that I missed an entire line when I embroidered it! D'oh!

I wondered why it looked so open when the painting shows it to be quite compacted. So now I have to do another test patch. This time I'm also going to reduce the stitch size as well and see what I get.

December 13, 2007



Here is the second attempt shown next to the first. This time I got the correct number of lines and I reduced the stitch. The pattern is larger than the first yet comes out 1/4" smaller, and it took 6 hours to get this far (the other only took 2). But it's much more compacted like the portrait and I really really like it this way. :D So I do believe this project will consume a considerable number of hours, but most definitely worth it!

I'm taking this project along when we head north for the holidays. I hope to have one cuff completed by the time we get back! I'll have to pick up more linen for the other cuff anyway. :D

Project time = 13 hrs.

January 21, 2008

Beginning Dec 15, 2007 I started stitching on this sleeve. And today it is finished. Sort of. I still have to finish the edge with either french knots or some really tiny beads.

I have 38 hrs 10 min of embroidery into this cuff.

I don't even know how many times I had to pull out stitches and back up. I can't count the number of times I found myself cross-eyed trying to follow the pattern!

But I did it! I did it and now I have to do it again. You need 2 cuffs, ya know!

Project total = 51 hrs. 10 min.