ewing nitting  mbroidery

This project is a reproduction of a small embroidered bag or purse from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The original was from Germany, ca. 15th century, and made from linen and silk.

Materials and Supplies

Construction

This project was a great pleasure to make. The pattern could be quickly memorized, so that I didn't need to refer to the chart very often. Instead of being worked in cross-stitch, as is common today, this pattern was worked in tent stitch: parallel vertical stitches.

Because the pattern covers the entire surface, the number of stitches is very large, and the project took a long time to complete. This was my first flirtation with repetitive-motion injury--I lost feeling in half my right thumb while working on this project (which was when I was only 14) and have had intermittent problems ever since. I suppose you could say that at least I learned my lesson early.

Results

This is one project that took so long that I am essentially afraid to touch it. I finished making it about fifteen years ago, and it has been sitting carefully wrapped up in my sewing basket ever since.

I had trouble figuring out how to finish the bag once I finished the embroidered pattern. You can see in the photos below that I simply used some undecorated even-weave fabric at the edge of the project to make the tunnel for the drawstrings, which isn't terribly attractive.

When I made this project, I didn't have access to historically-accurate materials such as silk floss. If I were to do it again, I would invest the money and effort in obtaining more suitable materials.