This bag was one of my first “big” embroidery projects. I was inspired by a bag that a friend had created, and wanted to create my own, featuring my heraldry. Materials used are cotton thread on muslin, nothing fancy. I would love to re-create this piece using more period-correct materials.
At first, I got my outline done for the wolf and started slowly filling the silver, using a single strand and split stitch. I started out using a round hoop, because the detail was so small and difficult to get in all the little corners.
At this point, I stopped working for a while because I needed to get a different frame – you can see on the forepaw that the stitches were getting crushed by the hoop. 🙁 I hoped they’ll fluff back up after a little use.
Fresh in the scroll frame I bought specifically to use for this piece!Just starting to put on the first background stitching… At this point, I was very uncertain as to how well this was going to look, so I started on the short side.Using a single thread of silk for the split stitch inside the wolf, while the background is done in one of the more archaic stitches – what is known as the klosterstich. There’s VERY little about this stitch available online, and it took me having to track someone down in person to learn how to do it because it’s so heavily ‘guarded’, which is weird but… whatever.One of the things that many people in the SCA enjoy is seeing the back of your work. As you can see, the klosterstich isn’t quite as neat as the split… But, this is the first time I’ve used it so I’m not beating myself up too bad about it.About 1/4th of the entire “canvas” is covered at this s point.By this point, I think it’s just a bit over halfway finished. Thank goodness laying the background couching goes quick. If I had decided to do the full think in split stitch I think I’d probably have lost it by now.By this time, the event I want to have this piece done for is just over a week away. I’m not sure if I’m going to have it done in time. 🙁 Again, the back, so you can see my progress…
And the embroidery is done! All that’s left is to get it sorted and pieced together!
