Costuming year in review - New appreciation

The last year I've really started to like embroidery, in particular goldwork and in some regards blackwork. I have not been a fan previously, but now I'm starting to get really interested and I am planning some blackwork and goldwork for the coming year.

This is one of the few extant garments, the wedding outfit of Maria of Habsburg from 1520. I'm hoping to be able to do something similar when I start working on embroidery over a pleated shift. I have started a shift, but it's still a long way to go until it's time to start with the embroidery.

I've also found that a lot of patterns for 16th century German embroidery are avaiable online through German archives. Here is a link to a patternbook from 1526.