Dressing Henry

Carrying on the tradition of my designs called Echoes of Elizabeth, here is my new design called Dressing Henry.

Notes on Dressing Henry

Ever since I stitched a portrait of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth 1,  people have asked me to do a Portrait of Henry VIII. I have never seen a reason to spend my stitching time working on the portrait of the man who beheaded several of the women in his life, but I have always loved the patterns of Henry's clothes in the various paintings by Holbein et al.

Then along came the pandemic. I stitched the sampler during the first year of the pandemic but I didn't start writing the instructions until 2023. Now finished, proofed by Jan, and kitted, here is my Dressing Henry. Please notice, out of respect for several of his wives, my sampler of Henry is headless.

My Dressing Henry is a composite of patterns I adapted from paintings of Henry VIII by Holbein et al. I collected a surprising number of portraits, ones in the time of Henry, some modern renditions and everything inbetween, The portrait of Henry on the right shows the intricate Celtic pattern it took me hours and hours to graph. Surprisingly it is easy to stitch: Back Stitch or Double-Running Stitch outline, stitcher's choice and then a Tent Stitch filling.

The design is an intricate 9.25" x 11.5" on 14.5 x 16.5 white congress cloth. Note: on these big projects of mine, I cut the canvas 1/2" bigger as I don't like tape; I turn under the edges 1/4" and hem the canvas with #12 pearl cotton.

Description of Dressing  Henry kit

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Above and Below:  One of many portraits I used to adapt patterns for Dressing Henry. This one shows the intricate Celtic pattern .

Henry's instructions: 53 pages plus a title page, a color copy and 16 Oversize Graphs. The design is composed of a series of layers which took a surprising amount of time to write.

The threads: 9 colors of Soie d'Alger, 1 overdyed red silk, 12 spools of Kreinik braid, 3 skeins of Burmilana and 2 balls of pearl cotton.

The beads: 10 little baggies of beads, including some most unusual ones, a number of vintage and from my waning and irreplaceable collection, some real pearls. They include a rectangle pearl, large and hard to find button pearls and smaller almost round pearls.

In short, the most robust kit I have made since my queens.

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For outside U.S.: www.shipito.com