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Wednesday 27 September 2017

The strawberry pockets are done!

Way back in September of 2012 I started embroidering a pair of pockets inspired by a pair from the Met. I did a post on them a bit later, when they were 1/4 done, and worked on them a sporadically after that. And now, 5 years later, they're done!
I finished them a couple of weeks ago.
They're embroidered on plain white linen with 2 strands of embroidery floss. I laid down all the colour blocks like needlepoint.
Then I outlined it all with a couched white cotton yarn, and put gold split stitch down the middle of all the stems.
Here are the rest of my fabrics. Yellow linen for the binding, soft canvas for the back, and under the top 3 fabrics is the off white linen I used to back the embroidery on the front part.
I sewed the edges together with a backstitch.
And very carefully sewed the bias binding on with tiny stitches. I didn't have any yellow silk thread, and was too impatient to get some, so I used off white and it blended in pretty well.
The strips along the top are not bias because they don't need to stretch.
My longest standing unfinished sewing project is done!
Now I have yet another pair of ladies' pockets that I'm never going to wear. Oh well. I started them, and am glad I finished them. If nothing else, they were a good thing to work on while waiting for stuff.

Here's the original pair from the Met.
Silk Satin pocket, 1700-1750, British.
And a closeup of mine compared to the originals.
My pocket.
The gold thread in the originals is much thicker than mine, and I used linen because I didn't have silk satin, but that's ok. I thin overall they came our pretty good! (Though my more recent stitching is better than the bits I did 5 years ago.)
And the Met's pocket.
Now I can move on to other embroidery projects! Yay!

4 comments:

  1. I would say, yours are a lot nicer than the original. Such intricate embroidery...
    Hugs, Mamoo

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  2. the pockets are wonderful. and.... you could sell them if you do not wear them... *hinthint*
    caterina

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  3. I really like the pockets,your embroidery is lovely. Great job with the bias binding, mine always looks messy

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  4. As Julia says, as good as originals. I thought tge were the same pic. But ... those nails? Tell me they’re yours and I’ll sing your praises out loud. I might do anyway ... but, damn! They’re elegant. Was there ‘cross dressing’ in the period? I’m sure there was, but was it a thing for the gentleman ??? Beautiful work.

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