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/