Embroidered Purse

The purse is of white linen with a white silk lining. The embroidery is counted cross-stitch in black silk after a pattern published in a French pattern book in 1533.

Pattern

The eyelets are bound in white silk thread. Purses were commonly made with drawstrings running through eyelets, rather than casings. Examples can been seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum.

The purse strings are fingerloop braids of black and white silk embroidery floss. The pattern is "To make this purstringe" from a 17th century manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum:

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.

Bibliography

Sensuyuent les Patrons de messire Antoine Belin, Lyons: Claude Nourry and Pierre de Saincte Louie, 1533. Reprinted in Patterns. Embroidery: Early 16th Century. Berkeley, CA: Lacis Publications, 1999

Swales, Lois and Williams, Zoe Kuhn "Fingerloop Braids", The Complete Anachronist #108, 2000.