For the reign of Felix I and Eva I, I was asked by the Mistress of Wardrobe, Lady Ursula Von Memmingen, to embroider a blackwork collar and cuffs. The embroidery was for a shirt to be worn under a 16th century Saxon outfit by Queen Eva for her divestiture on 6-7 June 2013 in Mordenvale. I was delegated the task of designing a pattern for the collar and cuffs and completing the embroidery prior to her divestiture at Midwinter.
I was given brief guidelines for the pattern design as Queen Eva had requested that the design include:
- King Felix’s dividers/compass motif,
- squirrels (the primary charge on Her device), and
- bats (a personal favourite of Her Majesty).
There happened to be a Kingdom A&S competition on blackwork cuffs held at the Midwinter event, and so I wrote this project up to enter. I ended up placing first in the competition, which was very exciting! And, Eva was happy with the pieces. So, all in all a successful project.
The full documentation I entered can be downloaded here: Blackwork Collar and Cuffs for Queen Eva I.
The documentation outlines a brief history of blackwork, and how it is relevant to 16th century Saxon garb (which was the style of Queen Eva’s divestiture garb). I also link what I did to period examples. There are also links to pattern/model books for those interested in looking at 16th century embroidery (particularly German) patterns.
They say that pictures speak a thousand words… so, here are some pictures!
The pattern I created for the collar, based on 6 design elements (outlined in the full documentation). This is one of two repeats of the pattern.
The full cuff pattern, derived from simplifying the collar pattern.
A close up of some elements of the cuff.
The completed collar.
The completed collar and cuffs.
The collar and cuffs were attached to a shirt that Lady Ursula made for Eva.
Eva after divestiture court. You can see the collar in action 🙂
cearashionnach 
This was a wonderful entry Lady Ceara. I’ve kept back a copy of your documentation as a great example of good documentation, & to pass on to KMA&S.
This is amazing! I’ve just decided to look into a late period persona and thus, turn my embroidery skill towards the land of blackwork. I’m happy to see such a great example of taking a historical approach, yet also incorporating individual likes and preferences.
(I’m working with the East Kingdom TRM’s seamstress, so we’ve been adapting all sorts of things to have hedgehogs and flamingos, to the point where I see hedgehogs everywhere now)
Thank you for your comment – that’s nice of you to say.
Hedgehogs and flamingos sound fun!
Good luck with your patterns – you’ll have to share photos of your embroidery when you make them 🙂