Countess Onora's Rose Cloak

When I was made a Countess, and awarded the Rose, Duchess Mary Grace of Gatland made me the most beautiful cloak. So, when it was time for Onora to become a Rose, I wanted to do something similar for her.

Onora wears early to mid-12th Century clothing from the British Isles, so I wanted to make a very nice piece, but not have it overly flashy. We picked out a really pretty coat/cloak-weight wool in a dark gray and black herringbone. I chose a simple, A-line cloak pattern, and sewed the seams with black wool thread, using running stitch and overcast-felling.

I prepped the piece by tacking a piece of black cotton batiste on the back of where the rose would go. This added stability to the work area. After chalking out the rose design on the front of the cloak, I used sewing thread and running stitch to outline the picture. Now I didn't have to worry about the chalk lines rubbing off.

For the embroidery, I used red, green, white, and yellow wool yarn from my stash. I'm not sure of the brand or weight, but I figure that string is string, and it worked very nicely. I used a "double chain stitch" that was made up by Mistress Alyssia. This is becoming one of my favorite filling stitches. It fills densely and quickly, with very little thread on the underside of the piece, and a very pleasing braid-like texture on the top. Mistress Alyssia doesn't have any documentation on this stitch, other than we know that they used chain stitch. This is really an easy variant of that, and if she could futz around and come up with it, she figures an embroideress in the Middle Ages could too. I like this logic! I used back stitch for the outlining and detail work.

The actual rose and diamond motif is quite large. The diamond is 18 inches top to bottom, and the rose is 7 inches across.

Because the cloak itself is not lined, I did take a bit of black batiste and covered the back of the embroidery work.

I don't have any full-length pictures of the Countess Onora wearing the cloak yet, but I'm hoping to get one soon. I will certainly post it when I get one.

Blue Silk Ceinture

This is one of my most favorite recent pieces. I was looking through a friend's book, searching for documentation on the Palermo Tunicella and found this picture:

Wow. It's so simple and elegant and gorgeous! I decided to make as close to a reproduction as I could. This piece actually went through several incarnations before I reached the end design:

Here are some detail pictures that are not included in my documentation for this piece, which can be found here.


So, here is this ceinture's competition lineage:

• September, 2007: Showcased in the "Timelines of Fashion" fashion show at Gleann Abhann Arts and Sciences.



• May, 2008: Entered into the Barony of Grey Niche's Acanthus (Art's Champion) competition. Won, with a score of 17. My documentation needed to be tweaked, and I was docked for choice of materials in some places. I replaced the gold cording that I had used to edge and tie the belt with the black and gold tablet weaving on the edges, and the black wool/silk braided cords.



• September, 2008: Gleann Abhann A&S. Entered into Dress Accessories category. Received a 19 (perfect is a 20). Documentation received a perfect score. I only lost a point in Authenticity because I chose to use glass beads instead of real pearls, and I used cotton thread in the tablet weaving instead of silk. The way our rubric is written, I'm very happy with this score.



• November, 2008: Autumn Melees (Bordermarch, Ansteorra) Open A&S. Populace choice with documentation displayed. Won. Yay!

A pretty picture of me wearing the ceinture, courtesy of Miranda Jordan. This shows the old, gold cording. And yes, my braids are caught in my brooch! Oops!