Stitches Con't....

Muahahahaha.....I finally found the Wikipedia page the stitches came from! The Plaited Braid stitch is not listed with the others.

realm_of_venus got me thinking. (I know, scary, huh?)

Here's a break-down of some extant coifs collected from Elizabethan Costume --

I think this is the coif that is in PoF4 that has the funky vines.

(Click pic for larger web pic)

I do not know what stitch is used to make the vines, but it's not gold, and it's not plaited braid.....

(My crop and blow-up....Looks like it should be worn while viewing the Bayoux Tapestry, no?)

Blackworked coif, with the vines outlined, and the insides packed with spangles....(I can't seem to find the blackwork example that had buttonhole stitch filling the vines. bah.)

(Click pic for larger web pic)

I can't tell for absolutely sure, (I'm no embroidery expert) but it looks to me like these vines were done in a chain stitch with gold....(So maybe chain stitching w/gold is an option after all? Dunno...gold still might be cost prohibitive, and I am not sure my quality of work would stand up next to gold.)

(Click pic for larger web pic)


I do not know what the stitch is (anyone have any ideas??), but it's worked with gold.....

(Click pic for larger web pic)

But now onto the actual coif that is (mostly) the pattern I used.....They used chain stitch for filling (as I did) and used plaited braid for the vines. (Which I am probably not going to attempt) The stitching is very dense and fine. Mine is not so. ;) The original also uses silk, where I used wool.

(Click pic for larger web pic)

There are other techniques that were used on the original, such as detached needlelace (buttonhole??) for the textural and structural qualities of the pea pods, tudor roses, and butterflies. Some flowers were padded, I padded nothing. There are also lots and lots of spangles, which I fully intend to distribute liberally all over mine.

(My crop and blow-up....Spangles, chain stitch, and plaited braid stitch)

Depending on how sick I am with this project when I am finally done with it, I may go back and do the veins on the leaves like on the original...

(My crop and blow-up)

All in all, I'm still completely wiffle-waffled about the whole vine stitch/thread issue.