Somewhat unrelated things I found while researching the Sweete Bag

Ok, so, on the off-chance I don't have quite enough on my to-do wish list, I really, really like the look of Or Nue, and I really want to learn how to do it. Alas, chances of it being accurate to either R or my periods are pretty much nil. I do need to find any references to pre-300 BCE embroidery, but, alas, they're fairly scant so far. It really does look like it was mostly woven-in decoration, or printed on, probably with block prints.

However, I found some ideas for cheating. One is the Turkish variation of double running stitch that I saw at Festival - it's essentially just worked as a background, usually offset slightly, so it looks like a twill weave. If I can be bothered, I might come back and put a picture here.

Second is pattern darning, as is described by How To History, with an awesome video tutorial.

But back to the pretty shiny goldwork.

There's a nice, short article by a fellow SCAdian on the matter, which recommends strongly only using one strand of silk as the couching thread.

This article is in an annoying format, but suggests that any goldwork project be worked on two layers of fabric - an upper of silk or similar, and a bottom one to reinforce it. I presume, however, that linen canvas will be sturdy enough by itself, but I should double-check.

Mary Corbet links to this article: while she hasn't yet gone into Or Nue, she does have awesome tutorials on couching goldwork, which this is just a variant of. While the linked article has some very pretty pictures, it's a bit useless for the how-to bit.

On a side note, if my fairy godmother is out there, I've been very good and I'd like this for whichever holiday you feel like celebrating.

The local Worshipful Company of Broiders recommends getting silk thread from here, and goldwork supplies from here. However, I'd take this with a grain of salt as their webpage is so out of date - I'm more tempted to just get my thread from wherever Mary says is good, because she, obviously, is the Goddess of Needlework.

Oh, and to finish off my brain-dump, here's an idea for this year's generic Mandatory Fun Happy Gift-giving Season present:

It's a bread-basket liner. If I could work out how to hem it single-sided, I would, because it'd be awesome to show off blackwork.

Otherwise, blackwork bookmarks might be the way to go for Mother's Day.

Useful resources

Here are some useful links I've found for Indian garb:

The SCA_India yahoo group photo gallery.

This blog has some pretty Indian garb, and I'm hoping for a reply to some questions on one of her outfits.

http://www.craftster.org/ is always awesome.

MKV is the best saree place I've found so far - it's actually based in India, not the US or UK.


Irayari Vairavi's website has a lot of useful stuff on it.

I'd do more research, but my housemates used up all our bandwidth, despite me warning them that we were dangerously close to our limit. Grr.

Indian Persona stuff:

On religion in India. Includes the useful idea that people have a family and a personal god, and when a woman marries, her family god changes to that of her husband's.

Oh, what great plans!

So, dusting off the old lab book to record some ideas.

I've decided on an Indian persona, more details to follow. With that in mind, I made a choli using this pattern, with this tutorial. The verdict: mixed success - the pattern had to be altered a lot, and the very front where all the seams come together was messy, but I think it's worth using again, and making more. They're great in warm weather.

But, alas, it's autumn, and I need something warm to wear to College War (you should go to College War!). I'm thinking of something along these lines:

I especially like the green dress with yellow over-dress, and the brown and pattered dress. No clue what they're called, but I should be able to find out. I also need to find out how they're fastened.

I really like the red short-sleeved dress on the left, and the pink dress with stripey pants on the right. And look, shoes! (On the girl in the front with yellow pants.) Alas, despite a back view of the garment, still no idea how it does up. I read a theory about the waist having a drawstring in it on the SCA_India list, but I don't think that'd look right. I love how the skirt flares, though.

That's all Mughal garb, which is rather late period, though. Ideally, I'd prefer earlier stuff. This blog post has some lovely stuff, and I think it's an example of the stuff above.

That's about it for now, stay tuned for a later post on male Greek garb.