Commonplace Book - SCA Period Embroidery Stitches

SCA Period Embroidery

Embroidery is one of many possible ways to decorate your clothing and accessories in the SCA, and is one of my favorites. What was embroidered and how has changed through the years, but through much of SCA period, this technique is a handy one for personalizing your belongings.

There are many fantastic sites with overviews of what is period and what is not, and I will duplicate as little as possible of that here, but I will be linking to it extensively. If you've come across a resource you'd like me to share here, let me know!

What if I just want to get started with medieval embroidery right now?

If you can't wait and you just want to get something stitched, here's what you should do to create a motif like the one at left.

Skim the Eight Period Embroidery Stitches handout below to familiarize yourself with the stitches you'll need.
Plan your motif. Not sure what to stitch? Check out these drolleries, or look up a medieval bestiary (or this one). My preferred method is to go right to Nancy Spies excellent pattern books, which reference the time period and place of the art the pattern is drawn from. You can purchase the author authorized PDFs here: Here be Wyverns, Here be Drolleries, and Here be Griffins. More information about Spies work is at the bottom of the page.
Choose your ground fabric (what you'll embroider on). You'll want to use plain weave or even weave fabric, like plain linen, cotton, wool, or some other fabric with little or no pile and a smooth hand. A longer explanation is available here.
Draw your design directly on your ground fabric in pen or chalk. This method is documentable in period. If you worry about these things, like I do, you'll now use a running stitch to roughly outline your design so it can't be rubbed off.
Choose your thread. Silk and wool are both period options, and wool is pleasant to work with. DMC floss will work for our purposes, due to its ready availability and affordability. I usually use 2 strands of the DMC 6 strand floss, or purchase a roll like this and use it as is.
Use stem/outline stitch, split stitch, or chain stitch to outline your design.
Use split stitch, satin stitch, or laid and couched stitch to fill in the large areas on the design (if desired).
Use seed stitch, running stitch, split stitch, or french knots to add details and embellishments. (optional)
A neat back is not necessary, but loose threads can get caught. Line the finished embroidery if needed. Another option is to cut out the design and appliqué it onto the final product.

Hurray, you did medieval style embroidery!

Now read on and learn more so you can make even more awesome embroidery.

To learn more about embroidering on garb, see the bottom section of this page.

Variations of this technique were used throughout most of period and well after in various locations.

History of Embroidery

Compendium Caidis Embroidery Timeline

This page has a brief description of what you'd see when and where, with links to many other helpful resources!

La Cotte Simple- "Embroidery on Late Medieval Clothing and Accessories"

This website has may resources, but this page discusses embroidery in the late Medieval Period. It has lots of pictures, summarizes well, and has examples of each stitch at the end.

Practical Help with Stitches

8 Period Stitches.pdf

Eight Period Embroidery Stitches

Mistress Ealasaid nic Suibhne of the Kingdom of Atenveldt made this excellent handout detailing some of the common stitches you'll encounter in period embroidery. It includes a list of stitches with diagrams and descriptions, followed by a list of periods and places indicating which stitches, materials, and designs would be appropriate. This is an excellent place to begin.

A Stitch for Every Occasion

The same Mistress Ealasaid nic Suibhne of the Kingdom of Atenveldt also made this helpful handout, which gives an explanation of how several stitches can be used effectively to cover ground or outline figures. It includes an example for each stitch, and is helpful in planning how to fill your design.

Stitch for Every Occasion.pdf

Stitch Tutorial Videos & Classes on YouTube

YouTube is a treasure trove of tutorial videos. I've put together this playlist of tutorials for some common period stitches.

Most of the creators on this playlist have lots of additional embroidery content. Here's another playlist of SCA Embroidery resources from the account Lady Malina, including two entire classes taught through Zoom.

Motifs for your Embroidery & Types of Embroidery

16th Century Blackwork

Blackwork adorned cuffs, collars, coifs and other elements of 16th century clothing. This link has a compilation of blackwork charts with links to extant artifacts and images that inspired the charts.

More Blackwork

Check out the non-counted blackwork here!

Atlantian Embroiders Guild

The Atlantian Embroiders Guild has many useful pages, although be advised of some broken links. Nonetheless, here you can find charts to embroider the officers badges and populace badges of the kingdoms,

Bayeux Tapestry Embroidery

This famous tapestry uses laid and couched stitch, a style seen seldom enough that it is sometimes called Bayeux stitch. This is a quick and fun way to fill a large ground quickly.

A handout from a class taught by Delphine de Montallieu on how to do this embroidery is a great help in creating your own small scene.

A description of the story in the tapestry can be viewed and listened to here. You can scroll through the tapestry (sadly it's a bit small) here.

Some more historical information is available here and here.

Needle Lace, Pulled Thread, Drawn Thread

Lady Lucrezia Pastaccini put together this handout on Needle Lace, which in the bibliography includes several helpful links on pulled work. This is not exactly embroidery as most of us think of it, but it is period embellishment with thread, and looks fantastic.

Brick Stitch Pattern Hoard

Wymarc.com has an excellent collection of brick stitch patterns here, which are based on extant pieces and provide details on each piece and recommendations to recreate it.

You can find a good tutorial to get you started on brick stitch here.

This class handout from Lady Elena Jardiniz may also be of use.

Alms Purses & Brick Stitch Pouches

These are an excellent opportunity to embroider a complex scene or to practice your brick stitch.

Find a detailed description of this accessory with many illuminations and extant examples here.

A project page for a 14th century, brick stitch pouch is here. You can find a good tutorial to get you started on brick stitch here.

A project page for a stunning pouch done in the style described at the top of the page is here.

Using embroidered braids to finish the edges of 14th/15th century pouches is discussed here, with links that suggest the finishing technique could be used on clothing as well.

In this picture, I'm wearing two long sleeve dresses, a short sleeve dress, a viking apron overdress, and a wool and silk coat. It was cold. The black dress has embroidery like that documented to the 10th century Norse, using stem and split stitch to form two wyverns facing off on roundels and a thin chain stitch along the edge.

The loosely woven orange-red wool my overdress is made of stretches, so in the picture above I've used ladder stitch (which I've not seen documentation for) to stabilize the straps and a thick chain stitch to limit the stretch along the top. The embellishments are plausible, but not documentable (as far as I've seen).

A close up of the chain and ladder stitch on the overdress

Norse Seam Treatments

If you are going a viking, you may have seen some lovely seam treatments that spice up Norse linen and wool garb. This page from Baroness Aldgytha of Ashwood shows some of the stitches that would have been used. In period, these stitches would often be on the inside of the garment, protecting the seams, but this is the Society for *Creative* Anachronism, so experiment with these on the inside or outside! I certainly do, as you can see from the herringbone and blanket stitch embellishments on the wool overdress pictured below.

This article details how later (10th century) Vikings did embroider their garments (using some of the same stitches discussed above).

For more on how to finish seams, check out this handout. For further discussion of period seams and extant examples of seam decoration, look here and at the same author's 3 part series on Norse embellishments: Part 1 (cords and braids), Part 2 (silk bands & some embroidery), Part 3 (a longer discussion of how embroidery was used by the Norse and why they probably did not embroider seams).

Nancy Spies Pattern Books

Mistress Ingvild Josefsdatter (MKA Nancy Spies) has created a number of books of patterns ranging from drolleries to borders. These are drawn from period sources and include a short description of the original object, location, and time period. They are now principally available in PDF, but you can view some samples here. Amazon link here and link to very reasonably price, author authorized PDFs here: Here be Wyverns, Here be Drolleries, and Here be Griffins. These books are an amazing reference for the casual embroiderer, enabling you to add period flair to your work with a minimum of fuss. Her website, where you can view additional patterns, is here. You can see some work I've done from her book below.

The ground is based off a 13th century illumination in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, charted on page 111 of Here be Wyverns.

This design is adapted from a drollery from an illumination in the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux charted on page 17 of Here be Wyverns.

This crowned Greenman is based off a figure of a man on a shield on page 82 of Here be Drolleries, depicting a German embroidery from the 13th or 14th century.

One more Nancy Spies design...

This ridiculous little goblin-Yoda Creature is from page 120 in Here be Drolleries. The chart was based off of "Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons," a French thirteenth century manuscript.

My Embroidered Garments

Here you can see the short sleeve dress from the picture in the Norse seam treatment section after I've added my heraldry and herringbone to keep the sleeve hems in place. I've also edged the neck using this technique since it had begun to show wear. This decoration will also help protect the edge of the fabric. These decorations are similar to period practice in intention and placement, but are not documented.

This is one of my very early embroideries, needs improvement in technique. It is worked in split, stem, chain, and running stitch. The concept for this embroidery is based off this article.

It could fit with 10th century clothing styles in Northwestern Europe.

This shows embellishments on another Viking overdress. The strap uses two rows of blanket stitch with the brown thread twining around them. This is attractive and technically plausible, but modern. Big stitches like those could get caught on things, tearing fabric and undoing embroidery, so while I enjoy the look of them, they are neither period nor practical.

In contrast, the woven band is documentable decoration for the top of the dress.

Cuffs and necklines are a frequent location for trim or embroidery. When embroidering on an edge I often find it helpful to complete a line of double running stitch to help me space my design properly.

Chain stitch makes a thicker line on this neckline design. As you can see, this dress from 2005 or so is starting to show wear. In period, embroidery would be cut off worn out clothing and applied to new clothing.

Designs on hemmed or lined edges can help to hold the extra fabric in place and extend the life of the garment while reducing the mending you have to do.

Simple designs can still be effective and functional. They can also provide the basis for more complex embroidery, as you can add on to your design between wearings.

Simple embellishments like these rabbits and scrollwork help this edging sit flat and enhance the look of this chemise. You can see some discussion of embroidery on camica (chemises) here. Parlets, which I ought to be wearing with this, can be embroidered as well, as seen here.

I wear this under my 15th century Italian dress. It also helps to clarify the front and back of the voluminous garment.

I have bleached it many times with little effect on the color of the DMC floss.