And Now for Something Completely Different!

OK, my fingers are toast! I am not a hand sewer, I love my sewing machine, it’s so much faster than I am, and I’m not (usually) left bleeding at the end of making something. But this is for all the glory, so hand sewing it is. With that said, I decided to work on something not heavy on hand sewing, the circlet. Many of the crowns seen on the figures of the Chartres Cathedral Royal Portal are very simple.

Some of the crowns seen on figures from the Royal Portal of the Chartres Cathedral

In a bizarre bit of serendipity while looking online for some furniture repair supplies, I ran across rolls decorative metal trim, one of which had a design very similar to the crowns worn by the two kings in the upper picture. With a roll of that and some other scrap bits of this and that I had around, my circlet was a piece of cake!

Because the veil is a very snaggy bit of silk, I would wreck it if I used just the metal trim which has a lot of rough and sharp edges. Therefore I decided to create a soft core piece to protect the silk and also to give some support to the metal trim which was surprisingly bendy (the stuff I remember from years ago was much more substantial). I started out with a core of very stiff decorbond interfacing. I covered this in iron on fleece for some padding, and then covered the whole of it in a small scrap of black linen. I then proceeded to sew a strip of the metal trim to the base to create the circlet.

If I decide to get really fancy, I could always sew in pearls or other gemstones into the ovals, but I kinda like it plain. Maybe I’ll make a second one for special occasions….

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