14th century hood for a friend – 3rd rose finished & already working at the 4th rose! :)

I know, it’s about time for another update concerning the 14th century hood project with rose embroidery for my friend Elisenda.

Well, what a great coincidence as I just managed to finish the third rose for her hood! …and not only that, I already started working on the fourth rose! 😀

Despite the small set-back due to the work on my arming coat and a knighting scroll for a friend, I never ceased to dedicate every spare minute to the embroidery for my friends 14th century hood project.

Though the embroidery progress is still quite slow because of all the small stitches and details involved, it is great to see how my stubbornness finally paid off once again. Just one little stitch after another and the roses finally come together – one rose after another…

And now let’s take a look at the third finished rose – enjoy! 😀

Yes, I know, this rose looks just like the rose I made before. Though I am not really a fan of embroidering the same design over and over again as it can get quite boring over time, a certain consistency in the rose embroidery is intended to keep a balance in the overall design.

And to prove that I didn’t simply take another picture of my second rose, I took a picture of my embroidery frame with all three roses for you:

…and one stitch after another my little rose garden is finally growing… 😉

I have nearly all step-by-step pictures together for a posting concerning how I created these roses. However, I didn’t manage to document some of my steps yet and therefore decided to wait with writing one (or more) how-to posting until I have all the pictures I need. In the meantime I thought that you might enjoy some progress pictures of how I started my embroidery for the fourth rose: [emember_protected not_for=3-4 do_not_show_restricted_msg=1]

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As you can see on the picture above, I work with a small patch of white silk fabric which is just a little bit bigger than the design. To achieve a more three-dimensional effect as well as to give the silk fabric a little bit more “body”, I decided to add a thin layer of felt padding in between the silk layer on the top and the fine cotton fabric layer at the bottom.

To keep the silk fabric as well as the felt padding in place, my first step always involves some very simple sewing stitches along the outline at the outside. And to keep the silk fabric from shifting while I apply my first couching stitches for the gold embroidery in the middle section, I also add some very simple sewing stitches around the middle outline.

And here a picture of my set up while I work at my gold embroidery:

To keep the spool with the artificial gold thread from tangling or applying any unwanted tension, I simply put some sewing thread through the middle of my spool and tied the ends together. This simple thread loop enables me to position my spool where ever I need it. Furthermore it also helps if I want to remove the spool or attach it to the frame quite quickly! 🙂

And here a picture of the gold embroidery for the middle section in progress:

Though it is possible to use two gold threads at once to speed up the process, I think that the usage of just a single thread improves the look of the finished embroidery significantly.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of my third embroidered rose as well as the sneak peek at how I started the embroidery on the fourth rose. More to come soon… 🙂