14th century hood with roses for Elisenda de Luna,  14th century projects,  Embroidery,  Gold embroidery / gold work,  Gold Thread,  Materials,  Medieval Embroidery,  Projects,  Silk Thread,  Surface Couching

More about the rose embroidery for my friends hood .5.3 – some gold thread embellishment for the border of the rose leaf :)

The days are rushing by and another week is coming to its end. Yeah, the weekend is close and I know quite too well that I have less and less time left for my super secret embroidery project. But that’s fine as I am making really good progress. In fact I am just some days away from finishing the main part of the project – the embroidery – which normally takes the longest…

And I will need any day I can spare for the other project on my to do list before Gulf Wars. No, it’s not another sewing project for my husband or I for war. I promised to make a scroll for one of the tournaments at Gulf Wars and the design I chose will take it’s time. But, well, February just started and I should have plenty of time to get both projects done before the event. *knock on wood* 
However, there will be no time for more embroidery progress or any scroll work this weekend as my husband and I are going to attend the Meridian War College in Alabama held by the Barony of Iron Mountain. My sweetheart is tremendously excited that the rather mild winter weather allows us to travel south and the event to actually take place as this is normally the time when many events have to be cancelled due to snow and ice.

…and yes, I am planning to take my armor, my bow and my camera with me – let’s see how the mood strikes me this weekend. It might involve some fighting classes, archery and/or taking some pictures with my camera. Whatever it will be, I am very looking forward to having a splendid time and hanging out with some good friends… 🙂

But enough for now about my SCA life as well as my current and near future projects.
It is about time that I finally get to the topic of todays posting – the last part concerning the gold thread embellishment for the border of the rose leaf – enjoy! 😀

In my last posting I showed you how I worked the gold thread in surface couching along the border of the rose leaf and now it is time to take care of all the threads (the gold thread as well as the silk thread I used for the couching) and to secure them firmly to the backside.

As you might remember from my previous postings, I normally take the “gold thread” for my surface couching directly from the spool. Which simply means that I don’t cut my gold thread until I reach the end of the surface couching section I am working at. But as soon as I get to the end of the section, I cut the thread to a suitable length. This thread length is normally at least 1.5 x the length of the needle I am working with and allows me to thread a needle and handle it (with the thread) without any hassle. 

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As you can see on the picture above, I placed the needle with the end of the gold thread at the very end of the section I was working at and pulled the thread through as carefully as possible. And then I added the last couching stitches:

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After finishing my last couching stitch I turned the embroidery upside down and with some simple stitches I secured the first part of the end of the gold thread to the backside – simply using the border of my silk shading embroidery at the back:

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As you might remember, this is where I “parked” the beginning of my gold thread (see my last posting for more information and pictures) when I started my gold thread. After reaching the leaf point at the inside of the rose, I picked up the remaining parts of the end and the beginning of the gold thread, folded it at the corner and secured it with many small stitches to the backside of my silk shading embroidery:

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As you can see at the picture underneath, I applied several very small stitches at the end before I secured the silk thread by simply doing some criss-cross stitches through the backside of the silk shading embroidery:

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The very close set of stitches over the end of the gold thread will prevent the gold thread from unravelling and hold it in place once the rest of the thread is cut off. And several long criss-cross stitches through the backside of the silk shading are normally more than enough to keep the silk thread tight in place and secured.

And this is the backside of the little rose leaf after I cut off all the surplus thread:

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Now you might ask why I am securing the gold thread along the edge towards the inside of the rose rather than working it along the outside border. Well, that’s a very good question and the answer is rather easy too:
This roses will be cut out and applied as appliqué to another surface later – anything which I would work or secure along the border now, would add to all the fabric and bulk along the border later and could make the border of the appliqué unnecessary bulky which could make it difficult to work the appliqué properly. 🙂 [emember_protected not_for=3-4 do_not_show_restricted_msg=1]

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…and voilà – my finished rose leaf:

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Btw. please keep in mind that the rose leaf shown on the picture above is nearly twice as big as the actual embroidery. 🙂 

I hope you enjoyed todays posting and I wish you all a beautiful weekend! Well, maybe I get to see some of you at the Meridian War College in Alabama! 😀

Best regards Racaire

More postings about the rose embroidery for this 14th century hood project can be found here:

…and even more postings about this 14th century hood project for my friend, Elisenda de Luna can be found here: