Regency: A Green Recticule

 While I loved my pink reticule, it is really too small to do me any good.  I mean, not that I have anywhere to wear all this Regency stuff, but if I ever did, I'd want a purse big enough to carry my things; and the pink reticule wasn't.  

So I made a new one, from stash fabric scraps: 

This one is about 10" tall, plus the ruffle around the top, and is big enough to carry my phone, wallt, keys and whatever else I put in there.  It's a poly-taffeta lined with blue linen, with a poly satin ribbon to close it, and tassels made from cotton embroidery floss. 

There's nothing here for scale, sadly, but this is on my ironing board - it covers the entire width, and I can fit my outstretched hand inside the wide part of the pieces.  PLENTY big enough.  

Fun fact:  making tassels is for the birds.  

The Case of the Red Satin Pomegranate

I'm so excited about this I don't even know where to start.

I MADE A POMEGRANATE.  This purse was inspired first by this modern pomegranate-shaped box, made by  Michael Michaud ("I could make myself a pomegranate to wear and keep things in", I thought), and later by this gorgeous petal pouch made by Janet Granger, after an example in the book Elizabethan Needlework Accessories  Sheila Marshall ("OOH!!!")

pattern shaping and some of the embroidery

 All the of the embroidery, and most of the sewing, was done by hand.  It went fairly quickly - about four days from start to finish - since I did most of the embroidery on the red pieces during my day at the event in the Shadowlands last weekend.

The green lining and red satin outside are married with a
satin stich all the way around the top.  It took. Forever.

The green cord that laces the bag was made by me and my
friend Simona at the Shadowlands event, at a Viking whip-
cording workshop, which was REALLY fun.  The cord was
fast and easy to make, and both Simona and I plan to
continue doing this craft. 

Possibly the nicest buttonhole I've ever made by hand.
Which means it's a good example of how badly I suck
at making buttonholes by hand.  I'm getting better. 

"Leaves"

To compare to the first picture, in which the bag was
stuffed with paper towels to fill it out for the photos,
this is the bag completely empty.

And this is my very favorite thing about the bag:  the six-
rayed star on the bottom.  So pretty!