12th century belt for my 12th century wedding dress – metal embellishment – bezants .1

I am very excited about the great progress I made during the last days concerning my very first 12th century belt project. 😀

And it makes me even happier that the new charger for my tablet arrived just in time to charge my tablet again and to take pictures of my next steps for this project.

Sure, I still have plenty pictures of my husbands christmas gift left – the 12th century tunic with the blue dalmatica inspired neckline – which I haven’t posted yet. But I just can’t hide my happiness about my new 12th century belt project and simply have to share the new progress concerning my actual project with you. However, I promise that I will soon post about the remaining steps of the 12th century tunic project and how I made the neckline.

But for now back to my new 12th century belt project – it took me some time to figure out how I wanted to embellish my very first 12th century belt until one morning I just knew what I wanted to do. I guess you know this feeling – that you know something but just can’t get hold of the whole picture until one day you actually wake up and the whole picture comes together – well, I recently had such a moment.

Sometimes it just takes some time until inspiration knocks down the door on which it was just gently knocking before. But when it does, there is no escape anymore and you are overwhelmed and simply start working. Well, what shall I say – I really love this unique moments of pure inspiration and I cherish every little bit of it… *lol*

And since the inspiration hit me like a big, cold wave, I am working like crazy at the new embellishments for my very first 12th century belt. Just taking some time off for some housework or cooking from time to time, as crafting on an empty stomach would be not that exciting… 😉

However intense my urge to create this belt is at the moment, I decided to take a short break and to show you the very first step of the embellishment process for my new 12th century belt and to furthermore show you – step by step – how my inspiration slowly turns into another finished project… And though it’s not finished yet, I can already imagine the finished project before my inner eye – I just need to keep on working until I make it a reality… 😉

And now, just let’s take a look at the very first actual embellishment step for my very first 12th century belt project – enjoy! 😀

When I first started working at my 12th century blue silk wedding dress, I got some beautiful hand made “bezants” – like the one on the picture above – made by my talented friend and sister Mistress Ezabella and other kind ladies who wanted to contribute to my wedding dress. But as beautiful as this “bezants” are, I was very reluctant to add this lovely “bezants” to the neckline of my 12th century blue silk wedding dress as they were unfortunately not fit to be washed in the machine and I was not sure how to even hand-wash my dress with the “bezants” on it…

So, well, it took me a lot of thought and personal struggle until I finally had the idea that instead of applying the “bezants” directly on my dress, I could actually apply them to something that goes with the dress and doesn’t need to get washed – like this 12th century belt project and maybe even a matching fillet or a pouch?

As soon as this thought arose inside of me, I knew that it might be the answer for all of my problems. It was even more – it was also the spark for my initial inspiration for the further embellishment for my belt project. But I was not totally sure at this moment if it would really work as the solution seemed just to easy and convenient. However, I decided to give it a try.

And I didn’t waste much time – I centered the very first “bezant” in the middle of the belt – just kept it in place with two simple pins – added one more “bezant” at both ends of the belt and added some more in the middle – all “bezants” kept in place with the help of some simple pins. Then I tried the belt on and was completely stunned – it worked and it looked right!

At this moment I immediately knew that I could take my 12th century belt project much further than I initially thought – this lovely “bezants” and some well placed pearls would make a great difference….

And I didn’t need any further convincing – I just threaded a needle and started sewing:

At the picture above you can still see one of the bezants in the background which is just hold in place with two simple pins, as I mentioned before. The “bezant” at the bottom is already sewn in place with some simple stitches. I used yellow “Nylbond – extra strong” 6349 thread from Coats for the sewing.

And now a sneak peek at my 12th century belt project after all “bezants” were sewn into place:

Well, my 12th century belt looks already quite promising at this point, doesn’t it… But I can tell you that it will get even better when I start adding some pearls around the “bezants” , which will be the main subject of my next posting. 😀

Btw. if you are interested into how to make this lovely “bezants” yourself, I can unfortunately not be of much help as I have never created one myself yet. But my dear friend and sister, Mistress Ezabella, who made some of of this beautiful “bezants”, put a collection of helpful links about “bezants” together, which can be found at her pinterest page here: “bezants“ 

I hope you enjoyed todays 12th century belt project update. The next posting will show you how the addition of some simple pearl embroidery can elevate such beautiful bezants even more. What shall I say, I simply love the 12th century and all its awesome embellishment opportunities…