More Bayeux Stitching

This is the final creature on the set of cuffs previously posted.    They are ready to sew on the new gown!  They will be machine washable due to using superwash wool, which will be a nice convenience.  The yarn is very thin so it took quite a while to embroider the two cuffs, with only 3 creatures on each cuff.  Imagine how pleased I was with my speed when my next two projects seem to speed along, despite one of them being a some what larger design!


                                                                          



Yes, this one is larger than the blue horse.  However when I thought about it, the decrease in embroidery time wasn't really that much.  First my threads are a tad thicker, so better coverage but I also forgot to track a couple of days time, so who knows, it may have taken more hours, although I doubt it.   The little green linen bag has a handspun, wool  lucet cord drawstring, is lined with an oatmeal coloured linen and is mainly stitched with linen thread.

For some reason I keep thinking of these creatures as dogs although I think they may actually be lions.  There are a couple of different maned creatures/cats on the Bayeux Tapestry borders.  One set of them looks an awful lot like real male lions, with full manes.  These are perhaps representative of lions, although I keep saying dogs when I look at them!  The first one I stitched is green and the second will be dark blue.   The linen I used here is coarser.  I won't do that again.  The stitches pull against the linen more easily, so you have to be much more careful when stitching. 

The next step in this project will be to spin and dye some wool yarns for a future tapestry / wall hanging for our Longhouse.  Of course it won't live there, but I can bring it out when we go to play.

Bayeux Stitch

I'm making a pair of cuffs for a new gown.  Normally I tend to wear working woman's clothing because I like to play around with dye pots, bread making, cooking fires, spinning and weaving.  If I get a stain on a washable kitchen tunic, I don't tend to care. This gown will be a little bit nicer, yet not by any means high status.  It's a madder pink colour and will have grey/buff linen embroidered cuffs.  Possibly an embroidered neckline too, but I may get distracted by then so I'm only focusing on the cuffs, mainly because cuffs will show whereas if I'm wearing a veil, the embroidered neckline probably won't.

I'm using the Bayeux stitch for the embroidery.   I like the Bayeux stitch, which is my main reasoning for this, although it is a good, Anglo-Saxon embroidery stitch.  There isn't a lot of evidence it was used on clothing but 68 metres or so of evidence that it was at least used..    The threads are wools.  I didn't dye or spin these.  They are commercial yarns that are pure wool but machine washable for convenience.  The centre beasts are not only reversed but the colours will be reversed as well, with one being black with white and the second being white with black.  I might actually get this dress done in time for an in kit day sometime this coming spring or summer.