Pattern darning my new shift, don't look too close

So it was time to do the smocking, and this time I wanted to try something new. I wanted to try pattern darning, instead of the honeycomb smocking that I have done on the aprons. Pattern darning is related to darning, meaning that you weave the thread over and through the pleats created by the gathering, you don't see the sewing thread on the backside. Germanrenaissance.net has a great tutorial about smocking that also has illustrations on how to do pattern darning.

The main inspiration for using pattern darning is the shift of Maria von Habsburg, which has really impressive pattern darning in silver thread.

I didn't want to go for the exact embroidery of the shift, to be honest it's quite well known and would be easily recognizable for most 16th century costumers.

Thankfully though there are a lot of pattern books from the 16th century available online through Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur. I found the  Ein new Modelbuch auff außnehen vnd borten wircken ... Anno Domini 1526 and F(urm oder modelbüchlein. Augsburg zwischen 1527 und 1529), I especially liked this page with patterns

I set out to try the middle pattern, with the hears-like patterns. I used four threads of linen thread, since I wanted the thread to be about the same size as a pleat, to make it the pattern be built up from squares. It was a disasters, after one set there was no chance that it would look like the pattern. I ripped it up. I also realised that I needed a pattern that was more even between black and white. So I tried out the top pattern, but the result was the same. I ripped it up. Then I went for the pattern under the heart pattern, it was more even, and there would be no stitches that were very long over the pleats. It started out well, but it was too hard to count, since the pleats weren't as even as I thought. I ripped it up.

This was when I tried to free-hand a pattern, thinking that I could make up a simple chevron shape by myself. I couldn't so I ripped it up and went back to looking at simpler patterns. By now I had started to realise that patterns built up around small bars were probably the easiest patterns.

I decided to go for the bottom pattern. On the fifth try with pattern darning I decided to go through with it, no matter how disappointed I was with the result. Pattern darning turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought. The pleats are not totally even, and they shift while you are working. It's also important to remember that for a round neck you need to keep the stitches tighter at the top, and then relax them as you work further down. This also adds to the uneven stitches.

This was the final result. I'm quite happy with it from a distance. While working on it I had to put it away and look at it from time to time, because I was not happy with the result when I looked at it closer. To me it just looks like a mess of uneven stitches. Also single stitches, meaning going over just one pleat, definitly had a tendency to disappear totally. 

The pattern darning stitch is a fairly loose stitch, it doesn't lock the pleats together, so on top and under the pattern darning I have made a row of stem stitches, that hold everything together. 

Even if I'm not happy, but content, with the final result I think it has been a very important project. I realised both that I should not do pattern darning on my planned fancy shift, but more importanty while working on the shift and looking around for more inspiration when I ripped up the embroidery and started over I realised that this is not at all the kind of shift that  want to have. I want to make a shift that has a lot less fabrid, so it isn't too bulky, and most painting seems to have the embroidery on a separate ribbon and not on the main shift fabric. I definitely think that for my fancy shift the easiest thing would be to find a particular painting that I want to copy so that I will know what the result should be.

I also took the time to digitize the embroidery patterns, which was a great way of learning the pattern and thinking about it. I simply used a spreadsheet to mark out the stitches. I have marked out one single repitition of the pattern. I have the pattern in PDF as well.

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