German Embroidered Bag

One of my most recent projects was to recreate a German embroidered bag.  The original bag is from the 15th-16th century, done in brick stitch with linen and silk threads on linen evenweave fabric.  My documentation of the project follows.

Finished bag

This embroidered bag is my first recreation of an extant object.  The original bag is in the textiles department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  The museum describes the bag as “Small square linen bag embroidered overall with a geometric lattice design in plied white linen thread and green, blue and red coloured silks in satin stitch. Three tassels along bottom in yellow, green and red silk.”

Bag on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum

 For the embroidery, I used German brick stitch, a counted thread technique, to recreate the pattern.  This technique completely covers the background fabric with parallel stitches.  I chose to use threads that I had on hand, which were orange linen and white, yellow, and blue silk.  Since the original used both linen and silk threads on a linen fabric, this is a fairly close recreation.  

 

Embroidery in progress

The bag appears to be a single piece of fabric that is folded and sewn down one side and across the bottom.  It is approximately 3 3/8” square.  It has a plain cloth strip across the top of the bag, which appears to have eyelets.  To recreate it, I left a section of the background fabric unembroidered, and folded it over twice before tacking it down with a whip stitch, which is what the stitching appears to be on the original.  

 

Finished embroidery, prior to sewing the bag

Since there were eyelets, I concluded that there must have been a drawstring on the original, though it is no longer present.  One method used to create drawstrings is fingerloop braiding.  Fingerloop braiding was particularly popular in Europe from the 13^th to 17^th century, so it is reasonable to conclude that a German bag from the 14^th-15^th century would use such a braid as a drawstring.  I made an 8-strand braid with the same blue silk that was used for the embroidery on the bag.  

Closeup of finished bag

It is unclear from the photo whether the bag was lined, but I chose to line it in blue silk.  Finally, I added tassels on the bottom.  I chose to use the orange linen thread for all three tassels, since I had the most of that thread available.

I'm pleased to share that this bag won the Shire of Quintavia's first A&S champions.  I competed against some awesome entries, which included pewter castings, handspun yarn, a display of fingerloop braids, and a beautiful dress.