A smock or shirt with blackworked collar and cuffs, based on the one worn in Holbein's miniature portrait of Mrs Pemberton, ca 1540. The original painting is only about 2" in diameter.
I began this smock in 2001 and completed it in 2002. I used it as one of my pentathlon entries in Ealdormere's Kingdom A&S fair in 2002, and won the championship. My documentation from that competition is available here (in PDF format).
My first step was to sew the body of the smock. The smock is made of fine white handkerchief linen, hand-sewn with flat-felled seams.
Next I had to figure out the pattern of the blackwork on the collar and cuffs. I did this by squinting at a fairly large scan of the picture, and entered the pattern into some graphics software I had handy (dia, if anyone cares).
Here's the collar design I came up with:
And here's the cuff design:
The embroidery was done with Splendour brand silk embroidery floss, which I found at a local embroidery store. I found it a little fluffy to work with, so I lightly waxed each strand by drawing it across a block of beeswax before using it.
Here's a scan of the collar when it was partially complete:
As Kingdom A&S approached I had to work harder on the embroidery. I had it done about a week before the competition, and sewed the collar and cuffs onto the finished smock. My final step was to make little cords to tie the collar and cuffs closed. I couldn't quite see what was used in the original, but they looked to me like black and white twisted cords. I made my cords by plying together black and white Splendour embroidery floss. To do this I took a length of each colour, tied them to a safety pin, pinned them to the arm of my sofa, and twisted both threads in the same direction until they started to crinkle up and try to turn back on themselves. Then, holding both threads together, I let them twist in the opposite direction so they formed a two-ply cord.
The smock came out very nicely, and I think the little twisted cords really set it off. The entry helped me win the pentathlon, and was later judged to be "Master" level by the masters of the Worshipful Company of Broiderers of Lochac.
Here are some pictures of the finished smock:
