Category Archives: Embroidery

…some nailbinding again – my finished nailbinded and embroidered hat :D

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2018-03-23 - Racaire - my favorite nailbinded and embroidered hat - SCA - nailbinding - hand embroidery - old craft - old technique - A&S - SCA arts and scienceMy nailbinded and embroidered hat is finally finished! *happydance* And you can tell that it is my absolute favorite as I am wearing my new nailbinded and embroidered hat nearly every day for several hours. 😀

And before you ask – no, my sweetheart doesn’t object to it as he knows that I am always at least a little bit cold. Everyone who has met me during cold weather can tell that staying warm is definitely one of the main objectives of my life. But that’s not only because the cold makes me feel uncomfortable. No, it’s far more than that. Being cold is normally followed by being ill and I really don’t enjoy being ill. Therefore I rather stay warm and cosy and healthy! 🙂 Continue reading →

…my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – the embroidery .1

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Yes, I know, I was quite silent recently. But I had a very good reason for my break as I’ve been working like crazy on a fitted 12th century silk bliaut (dress) for the future Queen of the Kingdom of Meridies.

…and like always – when it comes to special projects like these – the time frame for completion is very limited. The bliaut has to be finished before the upcoming coronation event – preferably sooner than later. However, you find me relatively relaxed as I already made some great progress. Her silk underdress is already finished as well as a good part of the bliaut. I am quite optimistic that I can get nearly everything finished for her second and last fitting at MGT – the Meridian Grand Tournament. Where I hopefully only have to adjust the bottom line of the skirt part. And this is only possible thanks to a dear friend of mine – Mistress Catelin The Wanderer. Catelin was so kind to embroider the embellishment parts of the dress.

Now you might wonder why I am using the embroidery of someone else and don’t do it myself. Well, I am quite fast when it comes to sewing or embroidery. However, a rather complex project like this – a closely fitted 12th century silk bliaut & underdress and elaborate embroidery is just more than one person on their own can handle in such a short time frame. 

Apropos embroidery – I still owe you the last pictures of my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project. We will take a look at them today… – enjoy! 😀 Continue reading →

…my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – the embroidery

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And today I am going to show you more pictures of my medieval islamic inspired embroidery for Gloria’s OvO pouch.

Due to the time restraints of this project I didn’t get to take many pictures. However, I did my best to capture some of the more interesting parts for you. Therefore I hope that you’ll enjoy my progress pictures as much as I enjoyed working on this project.

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…my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – from the medieval inspiration to an actual pattern or “an interesting journey” .3

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2017-06 Racaire - medieval islamic inspired embroidery project - SCA - hand embroidery - Order of the Velvet Owl - Kingdom of Meridies - Islamic embroidery - medieval Arabic inscription - medieval embroidery

And once again a posting about my most recent embroidery project – my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project for my dear mother-in-law, Gloria.
I can’t tell you how great it feels to find some time and peace to post about this project again. It is a very special project which is very close to my heart.

I intended to write my next posting about it earlier but then life happened. Yeah, the last two weeks were quite rough on me. I twisted my ankle quite badly and if that wasn’t already enough, I also got a really bad stomach bug. However, there is no cause for concern – my ankle as well as my digestive system are fortunately healing steady. I should be soon my bouncy, normal self again. *giggle*

…and now back to my never ending attempt to catch up with posting about all of my projects. Well, I know, that’s wishful thinking but at least I don’t give up on trying… 😉

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…my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – from the medieval inspiration to an actual pattern or “an interesting journey” .2

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And today we are taking another close look at my very first medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – the OvO pouch for Gloria, my dear mother-in-law.

My last posting was about the problems I had to solve concerning the Arabic inscription of the extant medieval islamic embroidery before I could even think about starting with the actual embroidery. But once this initial problem was resolved, I could continue with exploring the embroidery technique which was used for the extant medieval islamic piece which inspired me.

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…my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – from the medieval inspiration to an actual pattern or “an interesting journey” .1

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Today we’re taking another close look at my very first medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – the OvO pouch for Gloria, my dear mother-in-law.

The path which starts with the initial inspiration and finally leads to the finished project is not always easy. Sometimes one has to follow a quite difficult way and get rid of one obstacle after another. And yes, this project was one of those not quite so easy ones and sent me on an interesting journey…

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Gloria’s OvO pouch with medieval islamic inspired embroidery – my period inspiration :D

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2017-05 - Racaire - Glorias ovo bag - medieval islamic inspired embroidery - SCA - Order of the velvet owl pouch - ovo pouch - islamic laid and couched work - bayeux stitch - refilsaum - hand embroidery - medieval embroidery - islamic embroidery - arabic inscriptionMy previous posting, “super secret project revealed: OvO pouch with medieval islamic inspired embroidery“, already contained a sneak peek at this very special embroidery project. And today I am going to show you the period inspiration for my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project. 🙂

But let’s talk about the project first. When I took on this project, I was already aware that it wouldn’t be a simple task for me. Being so close to the recipient – Gloria, my beloved mother-in-law – made this embroidery project easier but also much more difficult at the same time.

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my super secret project revealed: OvO pouch with medieval islamic inspired embroidery

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2017-05 - Racaire - Glorias ovo bag - medieval islamic inspired embroidery - SCA - Order of the velvet owl pouch - ovo pouch - islamic laid and couched work - bayeux stitch - refilsaumAnd finally a picture of the OvO pouch with the medieval islamic inspired embroidery which I put together for Gloria, my awesome mother-in-law.
(OvO -> Order of the velvet Owl, Kingdom of Meridies, SCA)

Yeah, this quite special piece of medieval islamic inspired embroidery was the super secret project on which I was working on from the first day of January until our favorite SCA event – Gulf Wars – in March. And at Gulf Wars Gloria finally got introduced into the Order of the velvet Owl. Just right before the knighting ceremony of her son, my dear husband. And not a moment too soon as keeping this project secret was killing me… 😉

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

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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*  Continue reading →

More about the rose embroidery for my friends hood .5.2 – some gold thread embellishment for the border of the rose leaf :)

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2016-12 - Racaire - Talinas 14th century hood - roses - leaves - rose leaf - hand embroidery - medieval embroidery - SCA - gold thread

Woohoo! I am working on a super secret project at the moment! 😀

…and though I can’t really share any information or progress pictures concerning the new project until it’s finished and the recipient got it, you really don’t need to worry that I might take a break from posting until the project is finished. On the contrary! I took so many pictures of my recent embroidery and sewing projects that I can keep you quite busy until I can finally reveal my new, super secret project. 🙂

Which brings me right to the topic of todays posting. In my last two postings I showed you my two work steps concerning the silk shading embroidery for the rose leaves for my friends 14th century hood (rose leaf silk shading step 1 & rose leaf silk shading step 2).

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