Queen's Tea Favor

I was asked by my friend, Baroness Viennet de la Mar, to create a blackwork embroidery Queen's Tea Favor for Her Majesty Marguerite of the East for Pennsic XXXIX.

Materials:

100% silk satin (clearance from JoAnn Fabrics samples)
100% silk thread, black.

Size 11 sharp needle.

Some observations:
I waxed the thread because I wanted a very smooth finish, especially pulling through the tightly woven silk-satin. The images are taken from Richard Shorleyker's "A Schole-house for the Needle", 1632 edition, available at http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home.

Although the book edition is "out of period", the images are very similar to "in-period" examples available on extant shifts and shirts, so I felt comfortable using them.

I used a steel needle because I'm concerned about the width of the eye on punched bronze needles. I use tightly woven or very finely woven materials, and I'm concerned the eye will leave a hole too big for the material to "heal itself".


This picture is of the finished embroidery, but not the finished tissue packet. It was lined with black linen, and closed with a whip stitch.