The Pourpoint Commission: Setbacks and Re-Orientation

here's me

With my usual timing, I came down ill last Wednesday and, for the following several days, wasn't up to anything but laying on the couch moaning.  Today I'm much more myself, but of course I am lacking an iron, which is, as project managers say, a blocker.  (Fun fact: you cannot get any iron at all with the "Get it Today!" button on Amazon.)  This will be rectified tomorrow, but I'm more than somewhat annoyed by losing most of a week of work.

On the bright side!  Things that have arrived include my 5lbs of raw cotton, and my ILL of Janet Arnold's article on the Black Prince's jupon!  Which is a downloadable PDF!  I NEVER HAVE TO GIVE IT BACK!  MOO HOO HA HA!

ahem

I haven't un-vacuum-sealed the cotton yet because I don't want to start getting fibers everywhere before I'm ready to address them, but I've torn into the article like a kid on Christmas morning.  Here are our takeaways (with the disclaimers that Saint Janet had to examine the garment through the conservation net, with the possible inaccuracies this introduces):

• It has a linen lining, cotton wadding for padding, and the silk velvet (linen weft) fashion fabric (already appliquéd, as previously noted).
• The fleurs-de-lis were done in the "part-of-the-ground-fabric" style of semy, rather than all as complete charges.  On the other hand, the leopards of the English arms were carefully sized for the space available in order to be entirely complete charges. Not relevant to today's project, but interesting to note for future reference.  
• What is not clear to me is whether the silver label of cadency was just appliquéd on top of the ground devices. Seems like a hell of a waste of goldwork if it was, and a bunch of extra work if it wasn't.
• As I'd theorized from looking at it, the quilting happened after the layers were assembled.
• There's fragmentary linen binding around the neckline, with a few remaining thread bits to suggest there was velvet there too (but it's not clear from the article if, like the garment itself, this is the remaining linen warp of the velvet, or whether there was a linen layer and then a velvet layer over top of it).
• The quilting seems to've been done with silk thread.
• There was twisted red-and-blue silk cord lain over the seams joining the heraldic quarters.  Quaere: is this purely to ease the visual transition, or would it be something fun to do to ornament any seam?
• She does talk about Red Charlie and Gold Charlie[1], but not at the comparison level I need, namely on the padding differences.  Though she does kindly include the quilting lines on each of them.

This is all very cool, though for the most part not immediately helpful on the how-to front, but for some reason I feel a greater level of confidence for having it in my pocket.  On the down side, I feel the chances of having the test linen garment done in two weeks are vanishingly small; so I expect my entry may end up being more about explorations on the padding/quilting front.  And that's OK too.

[1] this is how we are officially designating Charles VI's and Charles de Blois' pourpoints respectively.  Please take note for future correspondence.

Banner Project I: Mission Accomplished

Working As Designed

After a frenzied amount of work Thursday and Friday evenings, there was no more time to whiten the sepulchre, and so the banner was launched on Saturday morning.  In the photo above, you can see it hanging in front of the vigil tent.  

It bugs me that you can see a tiny bit of the lining hanging down--I wanted to hang it overnight to get the fabric weights worked out, and then tack the lower edge of the lining out of sight.  However, we had a bunch of emergency sewing to do for the ceremony itself, and therefore I downgraded this requirement from "important" to "nice to have", whereupon it fell right off the back of the project truck.

Anyways, the recipient expressed her great happiness with the banner, and that's the important thing.  (You can read her account of the whole day here.  In fact, just read her blog.  You need more 16th century French in your life.)

Lessons learned:

• Always apply some form of fray-checking.
• With multi-layer motifs like the daisies, attach the center before basting the outer parts.  Ended up with a lot of pooched daisy petals.
• ...but still baste before going over the outer edges of a motif.
• I need to pad my time estimates even more than I have been.  -_-;;;;
• It's as helpful to have an embroidery frame for something this scale as it does for fine work.  (Though, you couldn't use a traditional hoop because it would mark the velvet; so it'd have to be the thing where you baste it to backing fabric and lace THAT to a frame.  What a *$@& pain.)

Next up: making an 1840s ball gown for me, and a Napoleonic-era 95th Rifles uniform for my lovin' man, for a Halloween wedding we are attending.  D:

Banner Project I: Down To The Wire

All heraldic elements in place, woo.  OKAY SOME ARE PINNED ON STILL SHUT UP

It's been a little while since I've joined you, Gentle Readers, because I've been on the hop.  I went away for the weekend for an Intense Sewing Experience...which yes, happened to be at the beach...but I'm happy to say that much work was done; not only on this here project, but other elements of this coming weekend's festivities.

I had a slight setback when I sewed the first daisy on, discovering that it doesn't matter how tidy and fine your blanket stitch is, it's not going to stand up to the fraying power of poly-cotton brocade, let alone a thick pile cotton velvet.  So, I had to stop production and prepare strange unguents which I then brushed along every. edge. of. every. daisy. and daisy. center. with the tip of my finger; and then set them all to dry.

Meantime, I worked on the needle.  I cut it out of a really lovely blue silk taffeta, but wanted it to have a bit more dimensionality, so padded it with two layers of a fairly close blue linen (cut off an old dress I'm never going to remake) (and the skirt of which is going to be the banner backing, thank you).  I couched silver cord around it and then--I'm rather smug about this--used a thick twist of embroidery floss as the "thread" inside the needle.  

There's still a little trimming to do, too.

The main challenge here was trying to get it all to lie flat, while simultaneously having to bunch the work up so I could actually reach the part I was sewing (naturally right at the middle of the piece).  A big-ass frame would have helped a lot here.  The result is that the silk is visibly pooched in places, which does not delight me.

Artistically, I think it would have looked better to have the needle lying at the same angle as the bend; but that's not what the heraldry says, so there you go.  Take the lesson when registering your arms, people.

Once that was complete, the daisies were dry and I started stitching them down.  This was mostly just a tacking job to keep the petals from curling around, because a) the stitching of the daisy centers would be more than enough to keep the flower itself in place, and b) ideally I will go back and either blanket-stitch or couch a shiny around the petals.  This is the point at which I also realized I had somehow failed to fray-check two of the daisies.  -_-;;;  I left those for the moment, not having more Elmer's unguents to hand, and continued on with the daisy centers.

SHINY i like the shiny

These are, as previously noted, cut out of a tawny gold-colored velvet that is a veteran of another banner.  I couched around the edge of each one with a doubled gold cord, for a bit of that extra sparkly richness.  As of last night, I had completed about half of them; the rest I can do tonight, and that leaves tomorrow (before leaving for the three-hour drive, wah) to attach the banner backing and create the pole pocket.  I'm calling that Minimum Viable Product.

Once the fun is over, I'll take the thing back, do a proper job on the daisy petals, and get a nice cord to attach along the sides of the banner.

Then I can start on the big project that's due by Halloween.  ora pro me

Banner Project I And Also Some Embroidery: Everything's Coming Up Daisies

""You can't put it together again unless you've torn it apart first."  --Vallista proverb

The part several days have not been productive on the sewing front for a concatenation of reasons, which culminated in a disintegrated bookshelf, piles of books stacked everywhere, piles of cables in all directions, and less organization of my fabric & notions than when I'd started.  Still, I had opportunity for a little bit of portable handwork on Friday, where I began my piece of a project related to the banner--to wit, embroidered daisies for the Laurel cloak (or coat, in this case).  

"Marguerite" page from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany, c. 1505

The reference image given for this project is from Les Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, illuminated between 1503 and 1508.  As you see, it's not exactly the basic daisy we know from field and roadside; there's a purple-burgundy-ish rim around the outside of the petals that fades into a hint of pink, rather than just plain white.  This seems like a job for needle-painting, which is a very common 14th-century (and later) embroidery Thing, and I really needed to learn it therefore, so why not start now?

Needle-Painting loves me, it loves me not...

The usual stitch for needle-painting is long-and-short stitch.  This looks like it ought to be tolerably simple--make some stitches long and some stitches short, and change colors so the long bits of color 2 run into the short bits of color 1, thus giving you the shading you want--but I am finding it challenging, to say the least.  I expect that, as usual, the way to succeed is the same way you get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.  In the meantime, though, three hours of painstaking labor ended me up with two petals, looking rather as if they were colored by an eight-year-old child.  Fortunately (?), with so many petals on a single motif, there's a decent chance that by the time I get to the last two, I may have developed some small skill in this field. 

It looks strangely like my wireframe diagram.  I'm so confused.

After this diversion, I went on to make some advances in the banner department; finished stitching the bend down, cut out the daisy shapes, and placed & pinned them onto the ground.  I had intended to cut out the daisy centers and appliquéing them to anchor the main daisy part before stitching all the petal details; but after the last round of hilarity, I wonder if I didn't ought to baste the daisies down first.  

Usually, when I find myself debating whether to do a thing or not, the right choice is whichever one I have the most resistance to.  And I'm waiting on the gold velvet for the daisy centers anyways.  

Grump.

The other task available right now is doing the needle charge on the bend; which involves spelunking in ye boxe of scrappes (i.e., making even more mess in the office/workroom).  Though, this has the advantage of forcing me to re-examine the scrap box...of which there are actually two...and come to a conclusion of how much scrap one can sensibly accommodate in a 1-BR apartment.

Bonus Link: an astonishingly fine needle-painted portrait of Charles I of England.  You'd think it was painted with actual brushes.  

Banner Project I: Why We Baste

No, not that kind.  Though it's equally important.

It's not particularly usual for me to come home from work & be ready to sew without a fair amount of dithering, futzing, yak-shaving and other avoidance; so to have had that situation, work steadily for two hours (with a break for delicious caldo verde brought to me on the couch by my loving and nurturing sweetie), only to have to unpick everything that I did, is particularly galling.

As is often the case, this lamentable state of affairs is nobody's fault but mine.  I have been slowly growing a visceral understanding of how important (and how much easier it makes your life) to baste when you are making clothing; and I knew that it's critical to have pieces on a banner lie flat, or it will be stupidly obvious; and I even knew that the materials + technique I was working with were not forgiving in this category.  But I was worried about time, and I thought "oh, if I get it all flat on the ironing board and pin carefully it will be fine".

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA no.

It is, I am coming to believe, axiomatic that any time I cut a corner to save myself time or trouble, I am in fact shooting myself in the foot and will end up worse off than had I just done it properly in the first place.  Indeed, in this case I am particularly desirous to smack Past Me upside the head because, after unpicking the work, re-flattening it, and pinning it again, it took me less than ten minutes to baste it down.  And lo! everything lies flat as I attach it!  Quelle surprise!  :-/

Lesson learned.  Back to production.  

Anyways, it's probably a judgment on me for watching Starship Troopers while sewing.

"Recruit-Trainee Rico, you are sentenced to ten lashes for being a damfool.  Everyone else, beefcake for dinner tonight." 

Banner Project I: Actual Production Begins

I HELPZ MOTIVATE

It was something of an uphill battle to get motivated to work last night; partially because it's hot, sticky, and disagreeable in NYC right now, but also because I tend to block hard when it's time to actually kick off production.  However, after several rounds of yak-shaving in order to get the entertainment of choice on the magic picture box, I slowly set into motion.

I measured out the desired real estate of the ground fabric (which is 3' by 4'), turned the remaining vertical amount over to make the top pole loop, and pinned it down.  Then I cut the gold brocade for the bend, placed & spaced it on the ground fabric, and pinned that down, which is not minor work when you are dealing with velvet; wrinkles and puckers become super-obvious, super-fast.  The next stage was to lay the cord that would both decoratively border the brocade, and also in its attachment attach said brocade to the ground fabric.

One of these things is not like the other.

Whereupon I realized that a cord that seems very heavy and ornate on a small embroidery motif is microscopic at banner scale.

Resolutely determined not to panic, I dug around in the Box O' Trim and came across a thick twisted cord of gold, blue, and black; and, mirabile dictu, there was enough of it to do both sides of the brocade strip.  So let it be done!

...Not that it got done; I'm not the fastest worker ever, and I have to go even more slowly than is my wont to make sure that everything is lying flat and tidy-like; this task is probably at about 15% completion.  But, as the saying goes, "well begun is half done"--and I will be able to just pick it up and work without being covered in bees.

At least, until I have to start cutting out the daisies.

Banner Project I: The Devil In The Details

"Perhaps you'd consider changing your arms slightly?"

Here are the topics I'm currently chewing on:

1. Initial digging indicates that most banners of this ilk were appliquéd by laying a cord along the edge where the charge meets the ground fabric, and couching that down to attach the layers (rather than using blanket stitch or the like).  Shall I use gold cord for the whole thing, or a plain-colored cord for some parts of the motif? Gold would sure be shiny, though I'm not sure I have enough for all those gorram daisy petals.
2. Semy (semée), the powdering of charges across a field, can be depicted in one of two ways: either pretending as if the charges are part of the ground fabric, so that if the spacing means that you're cutting a charge in half, then you only put half the charge there; or by treating them as whole charges so that if one would get cut off based on the pattern + the edge of the ground, you just don't put anything there.  Both styles are found in period (here's an article, if you're curious to know more).  I feel as if the part-of-ground-fabric method is more Frenchified--classically, the old arms of France which are a semée-de-lis (rather than the three fleur-de-lis we're used to now) are usually depicted in that style--but I'm a little worried about my capability to make that work neatly along the edges of the fabric, so I'm presently inclined to stick to full charges only.
3. The threaded needle looks awfully lonely on the central bend.  A charge, if not blazoned otherwise, is depicted "proper", which in the case of a needle is "straight up and down".  I can increase its visual impact by giving it more of a thread tail artistically dangling, and I will, but I am flagging it as a concern.
4. I wonder if I oughtn't put some kind of weight (another rod pocket, or a strip of heavy canvas as interfacing, or something) along the bottom of the banner to help keep it hanging straight?



The arms of France until 1376

5. Dear OmniGraffle: your documentation for how to evenly space objects across a canvas is shit.  This is a basic function.  Get with it.

Today's docket is chiefly full of housekeeping chores (read: put a whole bunch of crap we never use into tubs and shift it into the building's shared storage space; also get a jump on the week's food production) so I don't know if I shall make any production headway today, but ideally I'd like to at least position and start attaching the bend.

Banner Project I: A Field of Daisies

I could say that I swear all heraldic art I do will be done cheerfully, but I would be a horrible liar.

As usually happens, we come back from Pennsic and are immediately plunged head-over-heels into another project.  This year, it is one of our nearest & dearest being inducted into the Order of the Laurel, and I have committed to make a banner of her coat-of-arms for this grand occasion.  

Banners are awesome.
(Pennsic 44 opening ceremonies; photo by Simon Pride)

I haven't made a banner before, though I have helped with the execution of several (like a certain muckin' big red one with a muckin' big white escarbuncle on it, ahem).  Banner-making has been on my list for some time, as it's a wonderful opportunity for Proper Medieval Display, but it's kept getting pushed to the bottom of the queue by other projects.  (Also, in my youthful exuberance I registered stupidly complicated arms.  Great job, Past Me.)

To return to the current task--the arms to be displayed are Azure, semy of marguerites argent seeded, on a bend Or a needle threaded azure.  For those of you who do not speak herald, that means a blue background with a wide gold diagonal bar across it; a blue threaded needle on that gold bar; and the rest of the blue background is sprinkled with white daisies that have gold centers.

Speaking of complicated.

Appliquéd trumpet banner, Charles II of England, 1660

Since the lady being honored is of early 16th-century France and specializes in the courtly garments of that time and place, and since this is a high ceremonial occasion, I am making a sumptuous banner for indoor display.   That means I'm choosing rich, heavy fabrics--were it a banner for outside use, like the ones in the photo above, I'd make it of painted silk instead so it could be all fluttery-in-the-breeze-ish.  I have lined up a sapphire-blue cotton velvet for the ground fabric, yellow-gold cotton brocade for the bar, and gold cotton velvet for the daisy centers.  (Cotton isn't exactly rich, no, but we are none of us so wealthy we can afford silk velvet or damask.)  I have some white brocade I could use for the daisy petals, but I have to haul it out of the stash and see what I think of the look of it with the other materials.  I have to decide what to use for the blue needle (quaere: would it be acceptable to embroider the needle onto the bend?) and choose something appropriate to back the banner with once the devices have been attached.  

I'll do a sketch using Visio or OmniGraffle to get a good layout of all the design elements.  Then the construction steps run something like this:

1. Trim the ground fabric to the right size plus seam allowance, making sure there's enough room at the top to loop over to hold a banner pole!
2. Chalk the designs onto the ground fabric.
3. Cut out the gold bend, appliqué it to the ground fabric
4. Cut out the blue threaded needle, appliqué it to the gold bend
5. Cut out the daisies, appliqué them to the ground fabric 
6. Use a contrasting thread to outline and delineate the daisy petals.  (Heraldic daisies have a lot of petals, so I'm not cutting them out individually.)
7. Cut out the yellow daisy centers, appliqué them to the daisies
8. Attach the backing fabric
9. Make the pole loop along the top of the banner
10. Make or acquire a pole and cord to use to hang the banner.  

If I have time, I'll couch gold cord to outline the gold bend and possibly the daisy centers in between steps 7 and 8.   If I have lots of time, I'll find some way to stick some pearls in...

Oh, and this has to be done by Labor Day weekend.  aheheheheh.