White 14th century XL hood for a friends Pelican elevation – working at the embroidery – appliqué work part .1

It seems like time flies at the moment. The due date for the white 14th century XL hood project for a friend of mine moves closer and closer. But there is no cause for worry yet. I did put the last days to very good use and was therefore able to achieve a lot of progress. 🙂

After completing the work at the main pattern framework of my 14th century pattern project worked in Surface Couching, I immediately continued with the work at the white 14th century XL hood for my friends Pelican elevation.

And the very first thing I had to do to continue with my new project was to finally face and overcame my inner struggle. Yes, I did it – I did make a decision and I did cut the lovely purple wool fabric for the appliqué work for the white 14th century XL hood! I can tell you – the immediate relief which I felt after cutting the fabric was just overwhelming. It really seems to be true that we are sometimes our own worst enemy… *lol*

However, as I write this posting, a good part of the lovely purple wool fabric is already pre-cut and pinned to the white wool fabric of the 14th century XL hood. Not only that – I also already managed to appliqué some of the patches. 😀

Apropos Appliqué and Surface Couching – would you like to know a detail that is kinda funny? Well, though both 14th century projects I am working at differ quite a lot, they still have something very similar in common – they both require a huge amount of tiny stitches… 🙂

And now let’s take a look at the new 14th century XL hood project and all the tiny stitches I made so far – enjoy! 😀

Sam, the friend for whom I am making this 14th century XL hood, requested to incorporate a part of the coat of arms he bears within the SCA in the pattern. And the purple squares, which you can see on the picture above, are representative for the “mascles” in his device and badge.

First I wanted them to interlace but as I also plan to put some more embroidery in their middle, I overthrew my first design and decided to go with a more simple look – the design which you can see on the picture above.

And now let’s take a close look at what I have done so far:

Above you can see three of the “mascles” which are just pinned down and are waiting for the next step.

You can unfortunately not see it due to the dark purple color of the used wool fabric but I arranged them in two layers. The “mascle” in the front of the hood (here on the left side) is part of the top layer – the next one is part of the back layer (the one in the middle) and the next one (on the right) is again part of the top layer. This arrangement will become much more obvious as soon as I add some more embellishment to the border of the “mascles”.

And here some pictures of the part which is already appliquéd:

And last but not least I also have a close up picture of how I appliquéd the purple wool fabric patches to the white wool fabric:

While connecting this two layers of fabric with the help of tiny stitches, I also took care of all the fraying borders. Sometimes I just cut them off and sometimes I push them to the backside or incorporate/catch them with my sewing thread until I get a nice and proper border like shown at the next picture:

When doing appliqué work I normally already incorporate the border embellishments while I appliqué the fabric patches. But because this purple wool fabric is very fine and thin, I decided to divide this process into two parts. This way I can make sure that the fabric patches are securely applied before I do any further embellishment work.

Well, sure, it takes about twice as long but I really wanted to make sure that the embroidery looks its best for a very long time. 🙂

…and btw. do you know what happens when you are taking pictures and turn your back for just a second? …well, to my surprise I found this here:

Sure, a successful embroidery project needs some cat hair and blood on it – though she is normally not allowed to lay on this project, we at least have the cat hair part covered now… 😉

Yes, she is absolute adorable and cute but I can assure you, she was promptly removed after I shot this pic! *lol* 

I hope you enjoyed the new progress pictures of the white 14th century XL hood for my friends Pelican elevation and I think I can show you more progress very soon! 😀