Tablet-woven neckline on blue woolly

One side of the front opening is done.  I love how it looks.  Here's a progress shot:

That band is actually rolled around the cut edge of the wool - which wasn't my intention, but as I was only weaving from right to left, stitching at the end of the pick, then passing the weft across the back to enclose the cut edge, the whole thing naturally rolled.  I've decided I like it anyway.  For future reference, if one really wanted a flat band, it'd be best to weave in both directions.

Where you can see the purple showing through the gold warp, that's where the cards changed direction.  I tried to keep this consistent - here, at the beginning of the work, you can find a couple places where I miscounted (eggnog), but by the time this half was done (~36"), I'd gotten the feel of the right spacing without counting.

The rest of the handwork on this gown is long-short running stitch on all the seam allowances and the hem, done in that royal purple yarn.  I'm thinking about some embroidery using the gold on the sleeve cuff also, which I've left long and open, but I haven't decided what yet.  Both yarns are stranded cotton.

I don't have a picture of the whole thing yet - but it's your standard t-tunic with 2-piece gores on four sides.  The neckline is one of those vertical slit sorts, and it extends 4" down my back in order to part widely enough.  The slit extends another 4" into the center front gore, which is about crotch level - I have gotten tired of having to struggle out of clothes at the end of a long day. 

The blue color resulted from washing a light camel coating fabric with a full bottle of Rit in Royal Blue.  Some people think the blue is actually green.  It matches my veins rather well, whatever color it is.

Here are the brooches I'm going to use to close the dress.  I ordered 3 today from Raymond's Quiet Press:

 

Technically I'm going to need another pair of brooches to close the cuffs, but I haven't settled on those yet.

There's still another side of the neck to go, and the fringes of the band to ply, but then it's wearable, and just in time...I haven't quite started swearing at this one yet, so perhaps I'll use this technique again someday.

--------------

Background:

Based on Saxon 6thC finds at Mill Hill, as described in Owen-Crocker.

Comments

[Gwen]

Pretty!