Brick Stitch Heraldic Cushion Writeup

German Brick Stitch Embroidery

Lady Margaret of Hollingford
Barony of Sternfeld, Middle Kingdom
hollihartman@gmail.com

Begun May 30, 2018. Completed January 3, 2021.

Description

My cushion is decorated with German Brick Stitch embroidery shields representing the arms of the Middle Kingdom and Barony of Sternfeld. The focus of this project was to recreate the overall design of the extant embroidery and adapt it for these two SCA entities. As this is intended to be usable piece of regalia for the barony, certain modern substitutions were made in the construction of the cushion itself for ease of cleaning, durability, cost, and availability of materials.

Extant pieces are generally found in the area of Germany in the 14^th to 15^th centuries. According to Master Richard Wymarc’s article, “A Stitch Out of Time,” most of the examples are on an evenweave linen, using mostly silk embroidery threads (occassionally linen), and consist of vertical stitches over 2, 4 or 6 threads. Occasionally, other length stitches are seen depending on the pattern.

This cushion is based on three 14^th to 15^th century bench cushions which are located in Kloster Isenhagen, Hankensbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany. The cushions are mentioned in a blog post of the St. Thomas Guild and are also included in the guidebook for Kloster Isenhagen. A photo of part of one of the cushions is on the back cover. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a photo of an entire cushion, and I have not been able to find information on the scale of the embroidery on the cushions.

(Bilder aus Kloster Isenhagen)

The description in the book roughly translates as:

Back cover: Section of three bench cushions, embroidered with colored silk in offset gobelin stitching on linen, h. 36 cm, length together 4.5 m, backside formerly red goat leather, 14th or 15th century, rediscovered in 1966. In five lines, six coats of arms are repeated so regularly that they produce a maximum of decorative effect in obliquely rising rows as an endless rapport.
(Bilder aus Kloster Isenhagen)

(Bilder aus Kloster Isenhagen)

Another interesting example of a brick stitch covered cushion is described by Joyce Miller on her webpage. This cushion is also from the 14^th to 15^th century and is located in Westphalia, Germany. The ground fabric is also linen and the embroidery thread is also silk.

(Miller)

Material

• Evenweave fabric, 28 count, linen
• Splendour embroidery floss for embroidery, silk, used 3 strands
• White fabric for embroidery backing, linen
• Upholstery fabric for back panel of cushion
• Grandeur size 3 pearl for edging, silk
• White sewing thread for edging, linen
• Polyfill stuffing

Skills & Methods

German brick stitch is a counted stitch that is worked vertically on the fabric. It sometimes referred to as upright gobelin stitch. There are two different ways of sizing the stitches. Either the stitch is taken over 2, 4 or 6 threads or the stitches are all of one length, usually over 4-threads. Stitches of 1 or 3 threads or other sizes can be used depending on the need of the pattern or at the edges to make the pattern fit.

My first task was to chart out the extant pattern to see how the motifs were spaced out and what size stitches were used. Since I don’t know the scale of the photos I was working from, I had to guess at the size of the shields and the length of the stitches. Using Excel, I originally charted it out using 2 thread stitches, but that did not give the right look and proportion to the shields. I then charted it out using 4-thread stitches and that looked much more like the original.

The extant pattern charted over 2 threads.

The extant pattern charted over 4-threads on the left, 2 threads on the right

With the original pattern finished, I could begin charting out the new pattern, an alternating grid of Sternfeld and Midrealm shields. The Midrealm dragon was a challenge, trying to make an animal out of little rectangles, but I eventually got one that I really liked and looks good. I did two different versions of the Sternfeld arms, trying to get the stars to look right, but also to keep in the 4-thread stitch theme. I stitched up two different versions, one with 4-thread stitches and one with some 2 thread stitches. The 4-thread stitch version looked more like diamonds, so I decided to go with the other version which looked much better.

Comparison of the four thread stitch stars on bottom, and the 2 thread stitch stars on top

I originally started stitching on 32-count linen evenweave, but that proved to be quite difficult and too small for me to see, so I switched to 28-count which worked much better. On the 28-count fabric, I used 3 strands of embroidery floss, which seemed to fill in the fabric nicely. I started by stitch out the green outline around all of the shields so that I would have the complete layout from the start. Taking this step first really helped the process of filling in the shields, flowers, and background much more quickly.

Outlining of the shield grid

I generally tried to work on one color at a time, sometimes switching to other colors if I ran out and needed to restock. At one point when I was feeling discouraged and like the project would never be finished, I filled in one corner completely to see what it would look like when completed. That served as a great reminder of what I was working towards and helped when I started to get discouraged or frustrated with the long completion time of the project.

One small corner completed

Assembly was fairly simple. I basted a piece of white linen to the back of the embroidery for extra strength and protection and used a piece of patterned black upholstery fabric for the cushion back. Since the focus of the project was on recreating and adapting the embroidery rather than every aspect of the cushion, and since this is meant to be a usable piece of regalia, the cushion was finished with materials that I either had on hand that worked well with it or which would be cost effective. They would also be easy to replace or fix if any damage occurred. I machine sewed the two sides together then covered the edges with a period braided edging such as demonstrated in Isis Sturtewagen’s blog Medieval Silkwork and in the video “Embroidered Braid Tutorial Part 1” on YouTube by Rachel C.. I have not yet seen any examples of this type of edging on a cushion like this, but it seems like a plausible finishing technique and gives the edges a nice, finished look.

The stuffing was modern polyfill. In Joyce Miller’s description of the cushion from Westphalia, she notes that the stuffing on that pillow, which was still the original, was a fine hay or similar material. I could not find any information on what these extant cushions were filled with. Again, since this is definitely meant to be used and will be passed down to different barons and baronesses, I wanted to use something that would not be too expensive to find or replace and that would not cause any potential allergy issues.

Bibliography

C., Rachel. "Embroidered Braid Tutorial Part 1." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Mar. 2010. Web. 4 Jul. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlZ3FbwgfDQ>.

Kloster Isenhagen. Bilder aus Kloster Isenhagen (Pictures of Isenhagen Abbey).

Miller, Joyce. “A 14^th – 15^th Century Embroidered Cushion from Westphalia (Germany)”. Web. 4/21/2022. <http://www.doctorbeer.com/joyce/emb/westcush/westcush.htm>.

Mitchell, Timothy J. (Master Richard Wymarc). “A Stitch Out of Time”.Jul. 1996. Web. 4 Jul. 2016. <http://wymarc.com/asoot/german/stitch_article/stitchArticle.php>.

Saint Thomas Guild. “Some Embroidered Cloth from Kloster Isenhagen”. Web. 4/21/2022. <https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2012/08/some-embroidered-cloth-from-kloster.html>.

Sturtewagen, Isis. “Finishing the seams of 14^th/15^th century pouches”. Medieval Silkwork. 29 Apr. 2007. Web. 4 Jul. 2016. <http://www.medievalsilkwork.com/2007/04/finishing-seams-of-14th15th-century_29.html>.