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This project is a blue linen dress. It is a reconstruction of 7th Century Persian Noblewomen’s dress. The sleeves are embellished with embroidery. The entire dress is hand sewn using undyed linen thread. See below for more details on the embroidery. The cut of the sleeves is based on two 7th Century sleeves I have studies at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum’s Textile Study Room. One sleeve is listed as Persian or Egyptian, (see all the way at the bottom), the other sleeve is listed as Egyptian.
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| The embroidery, for the above blue dress, is based on a 7th Century Persian sleeve and a 5/6th C piece of embroidery that I have been studying at theVictoria and Albert Museum. The border wave design is taken directly from
the extant embroidery (see below). The original piece is only 1 1/4“ tall. However, I have made each of the three sections 1” tall to make it easier to embroider. I have changed the colors, from yellow, re, green. to Red, green and
yellow. I have also changed the elements on which each color is used. This piece uses wool chain stitch, as in the original.
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| The original piece is listed as Egyptian or Meospotamian from the 5th or 6th Century. It can be found in Frame number 29 at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Textile Study Room. I chose this piece, because it is older than the time period I recreate. Due to the fact that the Egyptian/Mesopotamian tapestry weaving is so similar to the Persian tapestry weaving, I thought it likely that they would use the same embroidery stitches. Egypt and Mesopotamia were also a part of the Sasanian Empire, my personas homeland. When reading descriptions of 7th C Persian/Sasanian women’s clothing. The noble women are often noted as having embroidered and jeweled cuffs on their dresses. I am not yet done with any of my tapestry weaving and I am much better at embroidery. Therefore when I looked to embellishing this dress, and the yellow linen below, I looked to the skill at which I was already proficient.
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7th Century Persian Sleeve from V&A
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| Both sleeves, the blue (above) and yellow (below), are cut in the same shape and proportioned to fit my hand and arm. The sleeve closes around the wrist with a cloth button, made from the same material. Both dresses are completely hand stitched. The sleeves are finished with a double fold hem as the extant example. It is unclear if the V&A sleeve was finished by conservators or not, but it is the best evidence I have to go on at this time.
As you can see they are cut straight down then at an angle. There is another 7th C Egyptian sleeve that still has a cloth button intact at the end. I will use two different interpretations of this sleeve in my reconstructions. The yellow linen dress will be left open and will have the button closure. the gold linen sleeve will be sewn together all the way down. This is for two reasons. First of all the documentation on this sleeve does not state if it was completely sewn up when it was found or if it was found as is, so I want to try both methods to see the result. Secondly having one sleeve button, will allow me to more easily wear both dresses together and adjust the sleeves so that both pieces of embroidery show.
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| The gold linen dress (seen below) I am working on is very similar in cut to the blue line dress above, except I did not add the gores to the side, or the front. The gold material was much wider than the blue and it may not be necessary to add gores at all, greatly saving on the time spent sewing ti together. As you can see in the picture I have finished the first sleeve embroidery and finished the edge of that sleeve.
The design of this embroidery is purely my own and is based on my newly proposed heraldry ( a green field with purple lotus blossoms within gold roundels). I will be further decorating my heraldry with the gold ivy vines you see here. The lotus blossom design (which I have used purple amethyst stones for here) is based on many 7th C Persian designs I have seen in various silver works. The ivy shape is based off 7th C persian tapestry held at the V&A Textile Study Room.
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 | Reversible Green & Gold Cloak
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This cloak is green wool, lined with gold wool/cashmere blend. It is based on several stone carvings and silver works the depict women wearing short cloaks with long flowing ties. The ties are made of purple silk dupioni (though it is not at all “slubby” the way lesser quality dupioni is) and are hand sewn together then turned inside out and finished. The Cloak it self is completely sewn and all the seams have been finished. I only need to finish the bottom edge. My current plan is the do a normal hand sewn hem (that is to say fold the fabric over twice and straight stitch it together). This finishing technique can been seen on the two 7th Century Persian sleeves held at the V&A. Although there is not comment in the museum documentation as to whether this was done during conservation or is original. The thread used for finishing these sleeves, seems to show the same wear as the extant sleeve, therefore I have assumed this is the original finishing technique. I will be finishing each edge separately to ensure that the layers hang properly and to allow me to add further embellishments in the future.
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| This project came about after reading an article on various different silver works and stone carvings that depicts dress in the Sasanian Era. Looking back, I should have done a better interpretation of a cowl, but I let the idea that Persian is different from European and the fact that the depiction does not include a hood actually on the woman's head fool me. I still have no proof that such cowls had attached hoods, but it seems more reasonable to me now that it would have an attached hood that was not up than it not having a hood. It does however look lovely with a turban and veil head covering.
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 | Gold Linen Dress, Cowl and Turban with Veil Ensemble
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This is HE Siubhan and myself in a permanent yert at St. Ethelberga Calthedral in London after a lovely feast. HE Siubhan is wearing her new 14th C. Persian garb and baronial coronet. I am wearing the above mentioned cowl and gold linen dress with embroidered sleeves, along with a turban and veil head dress. As you can see the turban and veil stay in place better when you have something to weigh it down with. I have been thinking about making a beaded diadem to wear, like the many that are shown in silver works and stone carvings of the period.
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