The extant 15th c. embroidery that I know about is mostly German and in the V&A museum. The gentleman who produced the following site has spent quite a bit of time studying these pieces and charting the patterns. http://home.flash.net/~wymarc/

The following is a good article on the differences in metal threads: http://www.needlearts.com/articles/article_10/article_10.html

Try the following links for thread sources: http://crossstitch.about.com/hobbies/crossstitch/cs/threadsfibers/index.htm http://www.5rivers.org/estore/

As for wool, try Timeless Textiles. Do a web search, as they have a website but I don't have the address to hand.

I tried to look at your link but it wouldn't load. Would you recheck the address please?

Thanks-

is the url: www.thefabricstore.com ? I tried variations on the link given and this is the only one that yielded a result.

P.S.-- Being scottish, and making kilts, I found a great place if anyone ever needs tartans Fraser and Kirkbright their URL is http://westcoastwoollenmills.com they weave tartan in Canada from Australian wool. Current price is $36/Canandian per yard with only a 5yd minimum (10.5 oz / 58"-60"). The last stuff I ordered from Scotland cost $40+/yd.(US without VAT)

Definitely above the station of a man-at-arms, possibly above that of a knight. You'd have embroidered livery, and maybe your sweetie would do some embroidery (or the appropriate type) on your shirt, but definitely not more than that.

I think livery badges should be done with silk- if the guy has enough money to pay your wages, he's going to have enough to pay for good embroidery materials.

Embroidery on shirts in the 15th C. really is more of a decorative stitch around the seams than full blown flowers and whatnot. If I can think of the painting that shows this in good detail I'll post it. Christ is on the cross and has his shirt tied around his hips instead of a loincloth. You can see very clearly that all the seams are faggotted*.

Gwen

Sounds like great fabric.

I can't recommend making smallclothing out if it, as to the very best of my knowledge all smallclothes are plain white. If the blue in your linen fabric was dyed with a natural dyestuff (indigo or woad), and you washed it frequently and put it out in the sun to dry, the "natural" color would bleach to white and sooner or later so would the blue. I think this is one reason all smallclothes are white.

I don't know of any patterned *linings*, usually the records say fabrics provided for lining are a cheap black or grey, and the grey can be interpreted as "natural" or dyed grey. (That's why I use "natural" linen for all of my garment linings, BTW). I can't rule it out entirely, but mostly the trend is to show off a fabric that takes more work to produce, not hide it on the inside of a garment.

It it's a small pattern, I'd cautiously recommend making a doublet out of it, as we certainly can document woven patterns in use in extant garments. IMHO, I don't think there are enough "medley" cloths being used for period garments. Based on the archaeological record, mixed color cloths account for the lion's share of finds. I therefore deduce that they were used regularly, and would like to see reenactors use them more.

Of course this last bit is my own personal opinion.