Item: 14^th Century German Brick Stitch Pouch

Time Period : 14^th Century

Region : German [1]

 

Materials:

Embroidery:

• White Aida from stash
• Weaving wool in Red, Yellow and Black from my tablet weaving stash

Lining:

• Black silk dupioni

 Other:

• Black Linen thread for buttonholes
• Same weaving wool was used for the braiding
• Same silk was used to pad out the heads of the tassels
• Black sewing thread 

Tools

• Embroidery frame
• Embroidery needles
• Sewing needles
• Fabric scissors
• Thread snips
• Beeswax
• Awl
• Pins
• Iron and ironing board
• A smooth tea towel (I used a printed linen one)
• A good light as your eyes will get tired

 

Deciding on a design

I chose a simple design based on an extant piece of brickwork from a 14^th century embroidery [2] currently in the Cloisters in NYC - you can see the pattern  alongside the origional here [3]

As this was to be a practical piece made to be used as part of the everyday kit of a friend’s 14^th century outfit and I knew it needed to be big enough to fit a small torch,  a business card, some change and knowing our group, nutmegs, beans and whatever else is part of the game Master Ed is running at an event.

 I looked at a bunch of extant purses from Germany and  the low countries ad decided on a size that was slightly bigger my hand so that things in the bottom could be easily extracted without fuss, at this time I also decided on the tassel, braid and cord arrangments that I wanted -  I was not intending to make an exact replica of a particular item but rather I wanted something that was realistically feasible in period that would suit the purpose it was made for and the taste of the person it was a gift for.

[4] [5] [6]

As I have never done brickwork/satin stitch embroidery before and haven’t done any sort of embroidery except for cross stitch as a child I used a tutorial written by Racaire and can be found HERE  [7]you do have to buy a subscription to see the tutorial but I found it well worth it as Racaire’s instructions are clear and easy to follow.

I decided on my colours based on the material available to me and drew up an image of how I wanted the pouch to look when completed – this changed slightly when I added the decorative details but it gave me something to reference during the process.

  " src="http://ildhafn.lochac.sca.org/gallery?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=11097&g2_GALLERYSID=369484ca87197077f294f6c1001c0196" alt="plan
" width="150" height="114"> [8]

Working the embroidery

I recommend you check out the tutorial linked above or google search other brick stitch tutorials as I am not good enough to acutally explain it myself, I can only describe my experience.

The exact size was dictated by the pattern as I did not want to cut it off at the edges and I wanted to have a clean edge so just filled in the edge in red.

I initially started working in rows but quickly discovered that it was a LOT easier to count out the pattern if I worked each fret as a whole before moving onto the next.

Using a temporary line of stitching in a contrasting colour helped ensure I didn’t make (too many) counting mistakes.

The pouch is not made from two panels of embroidery stitched together on three sides – it is made from one panel of embroidery that is folded over and stitched on the two long sizes.  To make the fold more definite I left a row between the front and back and then stitched down a decorative braid made using these  [9]instructions… I probably wouldn’t do this again, it was slow and annoying to do and I would probably just stitch a length of fingerloop braid down in the future for the sake of my sanity.

 Constructing the pouch

I decided to line my pouch in silk so I cut the embroidery off the frame leaving 1 cm along the sides and  2.5CM at each end for the lacing section, I cut the silk to the same dimension, pinned the lining and embroidery right sides together and stitched the long edges together.

I then turned the pouch panel in the right way and pressed it gently with the iron – I did not iron directly onto the embroidery but I dampened the tea towel and laid that over the embroidery before I ironed it so that it flattened the embroidery stitches but did not cause them to become too flat and smooth/shiney.  This helped the stitches to fill in the gaps between them more.

I then cut out two pieces of silk about 7cm long and the same width as the pouch and stitched them onto the lacing ends of the pouch.

I made the eyelet holes with the awl and then worked them in waxed lined – they are worked in 8 pairs.

 Then I whip stitched the sides together and then attached a long fingerloop braid for the belt loop along the sides.

 

Braids

The braids are worked in yellow and black wool and are made using a variation of a 5 bowe braid that allows you to braid two braids at once – or one long braid.  I used braid no. 3 from this page [10]

 

Tassels

The tassels are simple are are made using this tutorial [11]

I used small offcut strips of the black silk to padd them out and then simply covered them in black wool as if I was covering a simple button.

 

Historical accuracy

This type of pouch would have likely been worked in silk thread and lined in linen, I had initially intended to work it in silk but was very sick when I started and it wasn’t until I was a couple of frets in that I realised it was wool and not silk but as it was a first attempt I decided to go with it.

As mentioned above this was not made to be a reproduction of a specific item but rather was made in a style of extant pouches.

 

Final thoughts and photographs

I’m very happy with this item and I can’t wait to make a pouch for myself -it's one of the prettiest things I've ever made so I'm looking forward to making one for myself in colours that are more suitable for my garb wardrobe.

  [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Useful Links

My purse pintrest board [17] (I use pintrest as a way to keep bookmarks so most of the pins are not repinned but are pinned recently by myself so should work ) This is an ongoing board so additions will be made from time to time as I refind my reference images (which are saved on my computer and I won't upload - I will slowly add the original links to the pintrest board)

• http://larsdatter.com/pouches-drawstring.htm [18]
• http://www.racaire.com [19]
• http://medievalthreads.blogspot.co.nz/p/embroidery-resources.html [20]
• http://medievalpurses.blogspot.co.nz/ [21]

 

 

ADDITIONS:

It occured to me that I should include images of MEN wearing this type of purse as it's more common for men to wear a kidney shaped pouch on their hip and for women to wear a suspended pouch - however there is pictorial images of men wearing alms purses suspended from their belts - eg 

This image of a man giving alms to a pauper from the Luttrell Psalter (English 1320-1340)

And this image from the Romance of Alexander (French, 1338-1344)

 

And I can't forget this image from the Manesse Codex (German 1304-1340)