the cleves hat

After years and years of searching I agree, yes, stickelchen does refer to headgear. It’s been harder to confirm than might be thought, however dictionaries of the region during the time frame that the term was used are rare. But one has been found. A copy and a transcription.

*faints*

“sticksel” seems to be the original term. But it still may refer to the band at the front, not the bulk of it.

Why is is so difficult?

A “stuck” is a piece and “stick” can refer to a pointed stick, literally, or embroidery.

And “chen” is a diminuitive. Also “gin.”

So little embroidery just doesn’t seem correct for a rather large hat.

And at the time “perlen” was most frequently used to describe pearled pieces.

Many of the headpieces were pearled, or made from gold fabric, or covered in netted work. Rarely do they seem to be embroidered in a general sense.

The front piece more regularly is decorated in pearls or jewels.

 

Clothing is also tough. There are lots of garments, but very little in the way of definition. Rock might be a gown or it may be a skirt alone. And the lovely huge inventory I have is full of spanish styles!

I’ll just have to take time to read the full texts not just skim! 😉

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stickelchen progress

 

My Mr Boo tribute fits in really nicely. He will need to be unpicked to put the embroidered body in place but I really wanted to test the shapes and embossing depth and get used to it first 🙂 he will have a little fat belly. He’ll have his ears and nose partly etched so his heart nose is really

obvious.

But the rest of the leaves and pearls have been stitched down too 🙂

The front piece will need leaves to have holes stamped out of the end. So not doing that past 9pm as it is now though!

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what was that about not handsewing

Yeah, well I tried by machine. It was actually much harder and the result was just not okay. I either had really obvious stitches or had to break out my craft blade to unpick very carefully.

The light heat n bond is kind of perfect though. It is too light to work on its own but works really well to stabilise the brocade. It both retains the curve I managed to pressed it into as well as stick to the silk. But the fabric is much too heavy, so it absorbs the stuff!

Also if anyone has been watching my instagram they’ll have seen the progress of the centrepiece of my stickelchen. My Boo, he is made from embossed copper with silver leaf so is quite fragile. I was going to make his body from pearls but I think I may want to preserve the feeling of softness by either embroidery or more embossing. I have silver thread but nothing to couch.

And yes, I still need to tidy the couched braid as it is a bit wobbly from stretching.

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more cleves progress

Stickelchen is now tidy enough to line and to add more leaves and sequins 🙂

The back is slightly longer than the original I made so there is a bit of a gap. Currently binding the individual cords in gold thread. It is taking a few goes as my needles keep bending.

Brocade trim progress:

The double border after the dye was removed, being cut into usable strips.

Then one of those strips being pressed for use. Hopefully enough to do what I want. There may have to be creative use of scraps if not!

The bodice! So proud. I’m using a few actual tailoring methods here 🙂 Heavy thread to baste the layers and to ease the armscye. Yes. the thread is slightly tight which draws the fabric closer into the shoulder and arm. You can seen the deep clipping used to fit the armhole too, it was really distorting the fit so it had to be done sooner rather than later.

What’s this? Yes, stay tape around the neckline (including deep front opening. I wanted a round neck but all those images of Anne show her nckline really scooting right up to form an inverted V at the front so it makes most sense to make a V in the back.

But a V is on the diagonal so stretches out. The tape is to prevent that.

Is it telling that I really want to make the matching belt? Like really really really want to. I feel it’s going to tie the whole ensemble together well 🙂

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anne of cleves stickelchen

Okay, this has taken forever and I was trying to get this ready for.. tomorrow. AHAHAHAHAHHAAH!!!

But I decided to not take any shortcuts (except to stabilise layers before hand working.)

So this meant stretching the velvet and pearls over the base. Loose over handing of the back, then the front with tinier over handing.

Okay it’s not Anne’s because I do like a little room for interpretation and originality.

And this work? Well I had to carefully remove it all as a few branches were just off enough that I was not happy.

Rare back view as it doesn’t show that well on the form. Well it does but it doesn’t sit in the right place 🙂

And on top of the saree I picked up just tonight. It is vintage style and is very similar in hand to the saree I partially gave away a while back. This should decolour but it will be a little tougher than the recent saree.

There are a few larger gaps than intended in the stickelchen so there will be tidying tomorrow as well as tiny twigs like seen almost in the centre of the image below.

With all this, and with the news about the new schnittbuch it’s reinvigorated my desire to get The Frazzled Frau (boards under my name- all right at the top 🙂 ) back up and running. If there are pins from trusted sources I repin, if I have tracked down through image searches I pin anew and smile when it turns out others have pinned from the source too 🙂

But ah well currently using a mix of apps that are better than notepad but not as flash as I’d really like. But that’s xml documents for you. But essentially finding all the for public posts and making them public again 🙂 I’ve been blogging since 2001 so it’s an old habit and it’s not always been easy finding the balance 🙂

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