I made this purse for my apprentice, Lady Agnes Edith Godolphin, as a sign that she is in my service. I don't like the SCA traditional green apprentice belt and I thought a purse would be more useful and attractive.

This purse is not a reconstruction of any particular item, but done in several compatable 16th century styles and techniques.

The style of purse is based on some extant pieces at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The examples are on average 4 inches by 5. This one is 5 by 6. Each purse has two drawstrings running through eyelets and a hanging cord. The V & A purses are embroidered linen, but I decided to applique an embroidered slip onto velvet, as was often done with cushion covers and bed hangings.

The body of the purse is made of silk velvet which was dyed green by Lakshmi Amman. I thought it was quite appropriate as it was a remnant from my Laurel gown. The lining is cream colored linen.

The design of the mermaid in her vanity, my emblem, is not taken from a historical source, although the mermaid can be found in various forms in the 16th century, including embroidery and even political cartoons of the time. I added a laurel wreath to her hair to symbolize my rank.

The mermaid was embroidered on linen in cross-stitch with silk and metalic threads as a slip. Slips are embroidered motifs that would be cut from the background fabric, usually linen, and appliqued to a richer fabric, such as velvet. Both cross-stitch and tent stitch were popular for slips in the 16th century. I used cross-stich as was used on the Oxburgh embroideries.

After embroidering, I cut out the mermaid (with much fear and trepidation) then fastened it to the velvet with two rows of couched embroidery floss. At this point I switched to cotton floss, as I had run out of silk in the appropriate colors.

The eyelets are created by poking a hole through the velvet and linen with an awl and whipping the edges with cotton sewing thread (I would have prefered to use silk, but the cotton was the right color).

The drawstrings are finger-looped braids of embroidery floss. The pattern is from a 17th century manuscript in the V&A: "To make this purstringe place 3 bos of reed one the one hand and 2 bos of white on the other hand and then worke through duble and take all under." This creates a square cord with a chevron pattern of two colors (red and white in the instructions).

The tassels are also cotton embroidery floss. In following the model of the original purses, there are 3 tassels on the bottom of the purse and one on each end of the drawstring.

King, Donald & Levy, Santina. The Victoria & Albert Museum's Textile Collection: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750. London: V&A Publications, 1993.
Swales, Lois and Williams, Zoe Kuhn "Fingerloop Braids", The Complete Anachronist #108, 2000.

copyright 2004 Abigail Weiner