I've been doing some research on helm decorations (torse, mantle, and crest) so I thought I'd start testing and drafting patterns before I haul out the nice fabric. This pattern was drafted from a torse and mantle that was loaned to me a while back. I grabbed some scrap fabric out of the hoard and gave it a try. Big shout out to the folks over at Armour Archive who posted their stuff and got me moving quickly on sewing and research!
I got the dagging just the way I liked it with a serious iron and copious amounts of starch. This wouldn't work well for more delicate fabrics, so I'm thinking that I will probably need to hand finish for silks and such. There are a lot of different patters than can be used for the dagging and I'd love to play around with that a little bit. Some of the dagging patterns have to be hand finished because of their intricacy and I've even seen some examples that have multiple layers for the mantle. If you want to get fancy, you can go with fur and tassles!
I've started a Pinterest board to keep things organized, so you can check it out and see what's on my mind here. The torse shown above is from Sweden and you can see what got me all giddy about helm decorations - Goldwork embroidery! This torse is one of a pair that were given as victory wreaths to tournament winners by Queen Maria Eleonaora of Sweden. They are on display at the Historiska Museet in Stockholm. The exhibit flier has a picture of both of the wreaths.
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