With a Byzantine persona, she wears fairly large veils. I acquired some bright blue lightweight silk, tiny freshwater pearls, and similarly sized garnets and lobed trade silver beads.
I hand-rolled the hem of the silk. Folding over the edge about 1/4 inch, I secured thread in the fold, passing it through the material, and brought it down to just below the end of the folded portion. I caught a thread or two, then re-pierced the fold, bringing the needle out again about 3/8 inch away, repeating the process until I had several inches of "ladder rungs" across the edge of the veil. Then I pulled tight on the working end to zip the edge together.
It is surprisingly satisfying to hand-roll a hem. Zip!
Once the veil was hemmed, it was time to bead. Securing the thread inside the hem, I began stitching on the beads in the pattern I had chosen (pearl, trade silver, pearl, garnet, repeat), sliding the needle inside the hem between beads, and knotting at intervals to minimize damage in case of future accidents. Beading went rather quicker than hemming.
I had to go back and get finer beading needles; the first ones would NOT go through the pearls, at all. All beads are in the 2mm range, and the pearls had the smallest holes.
Though they were tiny, by the time I had somewhere between 450 and 500 beads attached to the silk, they provided a little weight and a really nice drape.
As I could not get off work for Bergental/BBM Yule, my husband carried the veil into the ceremony. He had made the chain for the medallion, and walked in the procession beside the person who made the medallion.
Mistress Eikaterine in all her regalia.
Photo by Jennifer Guyton-Bohlen/Mistress Cateline la Broderesse
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