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The Online Froissart

"Jean Froissart’s Chroniques cover the period from around 1326 to around 1400 and are the single most important medieval prose narrative about the first part of the Hundred Years’ War. "

Visit the online froissart and examine the Miniature Commentaries for many nice depictions of people of the 14th century - great for research!

Take a look here:

http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/apparatus.jsp?type=context&context=miniature_commentaries

1340s France Man Carting with Dogs - DOCUMENTATION! YAH!

I have two big dogs.  I want them to cart for me, as they are stronger than I am, and sometimes events are quite a haul to unload.  Carting dogs - hmmm.....

Voila!  Dog carting!  This illumination originates from the British Museum manuscript, Royal 10 E IV, commonly called "Decretals of Gregory." (Folio 110v) circa 1340 AD
The entire manuscript can be found here:
http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/record.asp?MSID=6549&CollID=16&NStart=100504

And here is the link for the photo above:

http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=32756

How cool is that!

More great manuscripts can be found at the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.
Take a look!

http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/introduction.asp

Fantastic Embroidery Reference Sites!

I am finding so many great embroidery blogs and reference pages from members of the SCA and other medieval living history groups from around the world, I decided to make a blog entry to keep track of them all!  While I will post blogs about specific crafts as I dabble in them, this list below should be useful for almost any medieval textile research and examples you might be interested in researching.  I will continually update this list as I go, so these will be easier to find.

Enjoy!

Sabrina de la Bere:
http://www.bayrose.org/AandS/Ventures.html

Historic Needlework Resources
http://medieval.webcon.net.au/index.html

Best Blog for Medieval Textiles

I have been following Medieval Silkwork for several years, and they always seem to have all the answers to questions I have regarding my medieval projects.  Quite a resource - it will take you days to go through it all!

See it here:

http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/

Racaire is My Hero!

Racaire is a fabulous seamstress/embroiderer that participates in the SCA in Europe.  She is one of the most prolific and talented people I have run across while searching for high level fiber medieval craft online, and I drool over her photos every day.  I would like to say I'm her #1 fan, but she has so many fans across the web I don't think I would make it on the top ten. ;)

Here are a few links to view her work:

Flickr acct:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/racaire/

Her Blog:  http://embroidery.racaire.at/

Her Homepage:  http://www.racaire.at/cms/home.html

How to Make Gimp Cord with a Drill

Found this deep in a forum, but it seems like handy instructions for making gimp cord quickly.

Here are the instructions:

First, in order to use a drill, you need someone else to hold the drill, or you need to only work with very small lengths.

Start with short lengths- a drill isn't ideal and takes some getting used to.

Get a cuphook - the type you can screw into shelves - put this into the drill instead of the drill bit, to hold your thread.

cut a piece of string, tie it into a loop, and put this loop onto a fixed point (such as a clamp on a table)

This acts as a swivel, taking up some of the excess twist. Or you can get a swivel from a fishing supply shop.

Cut your length of core material - you'll need at least two lengths of the same so that they can twist together. Fasten one end to the loop, the other to the hook on the drill.

Your covering thread should be fine and free flowing. By this, I mean if you can use say three spools of covering thread, and have those spools on a spool rack on the floor it works pretty well.

Fasten your covering thread to the hook on the drill.

Have you helper stand so that the core thread is taught, but not too tight. That person will have to slaken the tension when required, or the core thread will snap eventually. (Another reason why shorter lengths are better ).

You stand to the side of this core thread, holding the covering threads loosely at a right angle to it. As the drill spins, the covering threads will be taken over the core thread - you need to guide them and slowly move along the length of the core thread, holding the covering threads out evenly.

You are effectively guideing the covering threads - but the twisting of the core threads is what is doing the work of covering, not you.

This method does use the basic principles of the traditional equipment, and can work quite well with practice. The fishing swivel and tension on the core thread is where the biggest difficulty lies, getting it right seems to be more of a practice thing then a technique secret!

Oh, and if you get fed up - here's a supplier of rayon gimp in lots and lots of colours! -http://www.silkenstrands.co.uk/catalogue_other_gimp.htm

The original post can be found here:

http://www.et-tu.com/soper/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=forum&board=tassels&op=display&num=178&start=0#2

The Antique Pattern Library

What a fabulous resource for the fiber arts enthusiast!  Plenty of wonderful patterns and books, many from the Guttenburg Project.  These books were scanned in by volunteers, and some date back to the 1840s!  All these books are downloadable, so you can print them out to enjoy. 

Check it out:

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/catalog.htm

Also, ther is another great resource for vintage textile crafts.  All these books and magazines can be downloaded for free! 

Look here:

http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html#E

So You Want to Learn to Sew?

If you have been following along in my blog, by now you probably have figured out that this is also a way for me to placemark reference material in a way to make it useful to others.  Sometimes, refering to my blog saves time for those who are interested in my little treasures of knowlege.  Some people think I am crazy for spending so much time looking up this stuff.  For me, it's a hobby. ;)

The following is an incredibly thorough guide to every kind of decorative embroidery stitch.  The book is called ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEEDLEWORK  By Thérèse de Dillmont.

Published in 1884, this fantastic reference is invaluable anyone interested in decorative stitchwork.

Find it here:

http://encyclopediaofneedlework.com/index.htm

Sewing in the 14th Century

While researching period sewing tecniques for 14th century Europe, I ran across this wonderful and imformative website which describes in great detail anything and everything you might want to know when constructing your 14th century clothing by hand:

http://www.damehelen.com/sewing/index.html

Fantastic site, and worth a look.

Medieval Pouch Construction Tecniques

I have been working on making a perfect medieval bag for my 14th century persona.  I ran across this tutorial, which describes how to bind the edges of the bag.  It is wonderfully instructive, and I will be using this method on my own bag.  You can see the demo at:

http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2007/04/finishing-seams-of-14th15th-century_29.html

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry Musée Condé, Chantilly

Book of Hours are a rich source of knowledge and information.  Since my persona in the SCA harkens from the region of France, I turn to Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry  Musée Condé, Chantilly.  You may be familiar with the series of Calendar photos such as the one below:

But this book has so much more than the 12 months we are familiar with - and I found a website which has all of them available to view.  The images can be blown up to see detail on the garments, and there is so much to see!  This website is definitely worth a browse.

Fantastic Persian Embroidery Resource

 

While doing some medieval persian research, I ran across this fantastic site which has tons of documented pieces of real medieval embroidery.  I particularly love the colors of this piece.  Information on this wall hanging is as follows:

:Embroidered Hanging; Eastern Iran or Afghanistan, 14th century; Polychrome embroidery;

This photograph appeared in a note about a textile gallery exhibit posted at the website for HALI, a publication devoted to oriental carpets and textiles.:

Enjoy!

12th Century House Built By Reenactment Group in Europe

 A little off topic, but a post off yet another of my favorite blogs.  This reenactment group built a medieval house!  I posted a picture of it below, along with the link:

http://stolte.wordpress.com/

A Beautiful Swedish Frilled Veil

 Medieval Silkwork is one of my favorite blogs.  It covers an impressive array of articles and finished photos regarding many finished period projects.  They made the fantastic frilled veil pictured below:

Finished: Swedish frilled veil

Red and White Wool and Linen Medieval Hood

This hood is a fantastic hand-sewn example of a medieval wool hood from the 13th-14th century.  The buttons were hand cast pewter, with the lining made from linen.  What a great inspiration piece!

Blue and White Wool and Linen Medieval Hood

I found this photo on flickr of a pretty blue wool hood with cloth buttons done in the period style, hand sewn facings and a linen lining.  I would love to know where I can source documentation regarding the use of contrasting colored cloth buttons on 13th - 14th century clothing.  I have seen painting documentation of the top stitching done in contrasting colors, and will post the painting when I run across it again.

Lovely Wool Brown Handsewn Cotehardie

Love the hand finishing on this garment.