17th century frog purse- done!

I finished something during my vacation! And a UFO of long standing too- namely the 17th century frog
purse. I fell in this frog purse five(!) years ago and decided I wanted to make one. Apparently, frog
purses were quite a thing in 17th century England, and there are several extant ones. You can see a
post about them here.

I almost finished mine, but then I realised the back legs were too heavy and long, and I balked at re-making them. Until now.

It’s not a perfect replica of the original one. For one I had very few construction details, so I had to
guess a lot. What I did know was the measurements of the body, and how the legs and arms were
made, as well as the stitched on the body and the eyes. I tried to follow that as close as possible.

The body was made in green silk taffeta covered with needlepoint stitches made from gilt silk twist.
It’s padded with felt.

The arms and legs are made of wire and very thin millinery wire, which was first covered with linen
thread to bulk them up, and then they were covered with gold thread.

The eyes were made of vintage glass beads.

I attached the arms and legs on the front, then lines both front and back with gold silk taffeta, before
sewing it together. I still need to find a suitable cord.

It’s very small- I guess I could fit a lipstick inside it. Maybe.

Embroidery and jacket update

After two weeks of sewing I need to attach the sleeves, basque and cuffs. I have the day off tomorrow when I plan to sew that, apart from the cuffs which will have to wait. I have also done quite a lot of the embroidery- so much fun! I think I may be finished in two weeks after all.

Meet Pandora, a fashion doll of 1600

Livrustkammaren 77 (56:15) 260

I posted a picture of her some years ago, but now she is finally going to be displayed again at Livrustkammaren, the Royal Armoury, at least for a time, so I take the opportunity to show my favourite doll ever. As a kid I wanted her much more than I wanted a Barbie! She is attributed to a daughter of Karl IX, princess Katarina, and may have been made by her, or perhaps just owned. It sems quite likely that she was a fashion doll, made to show of what was fashionable. She is dated to around 1600, which probably made Katarina a bit too old to play with her, as the princess was born in 1584. The doll is also in a very good condition, which makes it a bit unlikely that she was used as a toy. Adorable she is, nevertheless! And my friend Caroline who provided the gorgeous pictures in my last post, has kindly let me use more the following pictures of Pandora as she was unpacked.

She has a body and legs made of wire and skin-coloured silk tread. The gown is made from purple silk, decorated with gold lace. The sleeves are made of red (now faded) silk, embroidered with goldthread and pearls. The muff is also embroidered in red silk and gold- and silverthread.

 

The first petticoat  is in, now brownish, cut and uncut silk velvet decoarted with silver lace. The second is in pink silk taffeta decorated with gold lace. Gown and petticoats are lined. She is just 16 cm tall and wighs 91 gram.

 

 

Her face is in pale silk taffeta with eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth embroidered with silk thread.

 

The hair is real human hair in a darkish blond shade. The hairstyle is raised around the face, at the back it is pleated and pinned up decoratively. It is decoarted with a row a Pearls  at the hairline and a diadem of goldtread and Pearls at the hairstyle's highets Point.

 

Both dress and hairstyle are vey much in the style of the lats 16th-early 17th Century which makes me think that the hairstyle is quite authentic. This is very nice as one rarely get to see the back of heads on paintings and I have been wondering how there, sometimes quite high hairstyles, looked from behind. The only thing missing is a ruff, but she may have had one that has now disappeared.

A fashion plate from 1595. Apart from the headdress and missing ruff, the gown is very much in the same style as the doll's. There is even a muff!

 

Album Amicorum of a German Soldier, 1595

A range of hairstyle from the decades before and after 1600 which are quite similar to the doll's hair.

Jennet Parkinson by George Gower, 1580

Queen Elixabeth I by an anonymous painter, 1592

Unknown woman, previously thought to be Cecilia Vasa, princess of Sweden, early 17th Century

17th century embroidery at the Royal Armoury in Sweden

I have a little treat for you today, at least if you like embroidery. My friend Caroline is an intern at the museum Livrustkammaren right now and she, lucky girl, gets to handle things and also take photos of them. When I saw the gorgeous pictures I asked her to guest blog here, but she declined and said I could post them anyway. All the photos you see her are hers, though and I think you should pop over to her DevinatArt page. She is a very talented seamstress!

Gloves, thought to have belonged to Maria Eleonora, Gustaf II Adolf’s queen, dated 1620-1632. Made in golden brown goat skin. The collar is stiffened and covered with brown and purple silk. Embroidered with goldwork, red and white silk, spangles, pearls and gold lace.

 

 

 I don’t know much about these gloves, but they are to be exhibited with the ones above, so probably date to the same period. Multi-coloured silk embroidery and goldwork.

 

 

 

 

The oddly modern looking red and white thing is something that decorated a horse at a tournament. I haven’t the slightest idea what to call it. Anyway, it is made of white taffeta with appliqués in silk, with some additional gold and silverwork. The fringed is made of silver and brown silk and it is lined with black linen. The colours are Maria Eleonora’s and it was made for her wedding to Gustaf II Adolf in 1620. It was made by the court tailor Baltzar Dinet and a man called Anders Pärlstickare (Pearl-stitcher). I don’t know why there are French lilies on it; Maria Eleonora was a German princess.

A never finished jacket in chamois leather, embroidered with brown silk and unspun blue silk. I think it’s a men’s jacket that was meant for Gustaf II Adolf.

 

 

17th century frog purses

I was idly looking through a book I have on embroidery, when I stubled on this deligtful little frog.

Asmolean Museum

Another view.

It is dated to the 17th century and is made of needlepoint stitches in silk and metal threads on green silk over a stiffer foundation, probably leather and decoated with coiled gold wire and glass beades. The legs are made out of wire and silk thread. It has an inner bag made of cream silk. It is small, 7.5X6 cm and was probably used for carrying around a scented satchet. I found it completely adorable and after a quick search on the Net I realised that it isn't the only around. It seems to have been quite a trend to carry around a decorative froggy. Sadly there are no pictures of the underside, but it looks mottled due to green silk floss in patches.

Another 17th century frog ingold thread and yellow taffeta with a cord drawstring 

 

Royal Collection Trust

A back view

A sweetmeat purse, dated 1601-1630, made in yellow, lime green, pink, tan silk thread and gold metallic thread. 



Source

This one is padded and covered with silver gilt thread in a detached button hole stitch. The wire legs are padded and covered with embroidery as well.

Museum of London

Neddle case frog in silk and metallic thread.

LACMA

Another view

As you can see the museums gives the bags different purposes, for scented bags, candy of needles. All of tehse may apply, I think the main purpose was really to wear it as a kind of jewelry. regardless, I felt a strong and urgent need to have a frog purse on my own and as I have long wanted to try goldwork, I thinka frog purse would be the ideal thing to make.

Embroidered 1910's blouse

This is probably my oldest project and I'm very pleased to have it out of my way. The blouse with its embroideries were bought as a kit for about 15 years ago! It is a reproduction, so cut and embroidery are based on an actual blouse from the 1910's. I worked on it on and off for a couple of years until the embroideries were done, but for the last ten years, or so, it has been waiting to be sewn together. I thank The Historically Sew Fortnightly project for giving me a nudge to finally finish it.

 

The blouse is in linen and the embroideries in whitework in linen thread. Both back and front have embroideries as well as the collar and the cuffs. The shape is rather simple, though the side seams are curved to give the blouse some shape.

As I started this project such a long time ago I found that the blouse was now a bit too small over the bust. In my stash I found some linen lace that my grandmother had made, so I mounted that on a piece of leftover linen and inserted that at the front. That probably made the blouse a bit more un-correct for the time as that made the blouse so wide that it is now possible to pull it over my head. As I wanted to finish it I decided to leave the buttons out. However, the insert that made the bust part in the right size, also made it too wide above it.

 

When I was finishing it yesterday I felt at loss on how to cope with that without destroying the embroideries as my mind only came up with darts. For this photo I solved it by fold the surplus and hold it together. Now when I look at the pictures I realise that I can, of course, unpick the neck and cut away some fabric at the centre front before re-attaching it to the lace. Oh well, it is wearable as it is now, so for now I will call it a day.