[Artemisia] Embordery Question

[Suzanne Semich]

Thank you!!
I am planning a smock and am having to use a linen cottan blend and from the 
pictures I was having a hard time figuring what thickness would be best. I 
was debating on a couple of strands of floss or a #8 or 12 type crochet type 
thread. I want to use silk or linen but am unsure if the pocket book will 
agree to that.
Annabella



> Hi, Annabella.  Depends strongly on the kind of embroidery, and the scale 
> of the design.  I saw a pretty wide variety at the V&A.  What kind of 
> embroidery where you thinking of?
> As a "fer instance," I'm currently working on a late-16th century Venetian 
> camicia, doing long vertical stripes of fairly complicated blackwork.  The 
> stitch count is about 20/inch, and I'm using a single strand of Soie 
> Crystal needlepoint silk (think sewing thread).  I really like this silk 
> floss, so for my next project, which will be more blackwork (quelle 
> surprise!), I'm planning on one strand for the filling patterns, and 
> probably 2 strands for the outlines (gonna re-create the sleeves from the 
> Pelican Portrait).  A third project, a little later down the line, is 
> going to be more in the realm of surface embroidery (from the portrait of 
> Helen Snackenburg, and I'm sure I just utterly butchered her name, but 
> she's got a partlet and sleeves embroidered with fairly realistic roses, 
> and I'm going to do the same thing, but use columbines, as a columbine 
> slipped and leaved is the main charge of my badge).  I imagine I'll be 
> using 3 or more strands for that, unless I luck into some japanese silk, 
> which isn't stranded/spun at all.
> --Maire