SINISTER STITCHES
CURRENT PROJECTS - ETERNAL
DMITRIY'S RUSSIAN KNIGHT'S BELT

This belt is being done for Viscount Dmitiry as a surprise thank-you gift for coming to my rescue in an interpersonal matter that occurred during January 2005. In real life he started as a student at Berkeley who moved there from Russia, playing with the fine kids of St. Katherine’s, and like me, he has brought his blood roots into his SCA persona. After receiving his assistance, I was inspired to do some research into period Russian embroidery in order to make something for him as a token of my gratitude. There really isn’t that much out there that Google could find (ah yes, the modern day researcher strikes again) – all I found was Calontiran Sofya la Rus’ medieval Russian website which has a link to Easterner Kat'ryna Neblaga Volchkova’s page on period Russian embroidery. Included on that page are numerous links to period Russian embroidery patterns taken from books on the subject, and design #3 from figure 14 caught my eye. The picture below is about a quarter’s worth of that page, but gives a taste of the rather Kufic-looking designs that are represented.

I liked pattern #3 the best because it resembles a pattern on the black and white coat Dmitriy wore for his knighting ceremony. I thought if I could make a white belt with matching black embroidery, he would wear it and look all the more spiff for it. He is wearing the coat in the picture to the right, which is from his knighting ceremony at October Crown 2003.

Interestingly enough, some of my embroidery has already made it into this shot – the knight on the right whose face is hidden by the herald’s book is my first fighter, Viscount Gaius Auklandus, and I made the favor at his belt as a dress favor and gave it to him as a birthday present at this very event. That was a fun favor to make, and it was my first time playing with the lighting properties of silk in satin stitch. But I digress.

I played with my chosen design until my mathematician’s daughter’s tastes were satisfied, which I then inked in preparation for transferring. Now, the fabric is a tricky issue, and I have yet to see if my grand plan is going to work. I wanted to do the embroidery on linen, but also wanted a backing for stability. I went with hanky-weight white linen and white cotton broadcloth for backing. Eventually, I will secure this whole mess around some 2” wide elastic belting material I got at Beverly’s so that the belt won’t collapse in on itself and hide the embroidery. As I’ve not done this before, I anticipate seeing if it actually works. I will be really sad if it doesn’t!

I sewed blue lines of thread down the linen to mark the 2” width point then transferred the design onto it using my light box. That took a good two hours or so to do, as I want the belt to be long enough to go around his waist and down the front a bit. I then sewed the linen to the cotton with red threads on either side of the blue. Then I hemmed both sides with red to create something to hook the stretching threads on, and finally popped it into my scroll frame, stuck in some ribbon like I did for Sophia’s German blackwork trim, and rolled away. However, rolling the ribbon in the entire length of the belt made for a very bulky bulge which actually warped the pattern. So I played with it and am actually satisfied not rolling in the ribbon. This difference between Sophia’s project and this one might be because of both the length and thickness change; Sophia’s was wider and shorter. But that’s fine – as long as I can get a straight pattern, I’m happy.

Katryna’s site indicated that couched silk was used in period, so I decided to couch four strands of black Splendor silk under one strand of the same. My goal here is to create something that Dmitriy will want to wear, not something that will be so delicate he’ll never want to touch it. Tightly spaced couching seems the best choice for my goal within the realm of period possibility. I am even waxing the couching thread, as it’s taking a bit of a beating now, and I want it to be super sturdy after it’s done. I am also doing just the outline of the shapes and not filling them is, as a knight’s belt should be mostly white. I think it also emphasizes the shapes in the pattern this way. And really, the thought of filling all those shapes in makes me want to cry.

The picture below was taken on April 17, 2006, after I don’t know how many hours of work.  I was not that far into the project – this is definitely an in-between project-project that I can return to over the year(s?). As far as I know, he doesn’t know I’m doing this for him, so I’m under no pressure to finish on a deadline. However, this information is online, so who knows whether or not he’ll find out or not. It's no big deal. Once done, I plan on hooking one end of the cloth around a D-ring so he can use it as a typical knight’s belt. Hopefully the linen and coarse stitching will help the belt knot stay in place. Again, I’ve not done anything like this before, so this is one giant experiment. What fun!

By the way, don’t expect any more pictures of this thing until it’s done. Because honestly, what you see in this picture is all there is to it, over and over and over again.

The scan on this page was taken from Katryna's Russian Embroidery Page, http://tulgey.browser.net/~kate/sca/rus/. The scan on her website was taken from the book Drevniaia Rus': Byt i kul'tura. Moscow, 1997.

The picture on this page from October Crown 2003 was taken by Artus Quintus (Josh Thaylor) and contributed to the West Kingdom History Site by Saeunn Egilsdottir (Sarah Thaylor).

The picture on this page of the embroideyr was taken by myself on 4/17/2006.