Embroidery for an SCA sash

This is a project I held off on sharing until it was presented.  A friend of mine, Baroness Diana, asked me if I would like to help prepare a sash for the Barony of al-Barran to use for their A&S champion.  I was the al-Barran A&S champion a number of years ago and there was a sash then.  However, it has disappeared sometime in the past and a new one was needed.  I was so excited to help with this project, every year I am in awe of the work the champions do and was so excited to help make something for them to wear.  Baroness Diana is an awesome seamstress and wanted to do the final construction. She also has experience with creating sashes, which I lack, so she masterminded the design, the size and the shape of the piece.  My job was to prepare 2 embroidered roundels 3.5 inches across that could be appliqued to the sash.

Each roundel was silk and metal thread embroidery on a white linen ground. The first roundel was the A&S symbol.  I did the border in stem stitch and the background in basket weave in blue silk.  The arch and the candle were outlined in black silk using stem stitch.  The arch is filled with silver chain stitch using a thin silver passing thread.  The candle is done in couchwork using heavy metal threads couched with cotton sewing thread. 

The second roundel was the Baronial scorpion symbol.  The roundel is outlined in stem stitch, the background is filled with split stitch.  The chevron is filled with a couched silver twisted thread to give it some texture and set it apart from the scorpion.  The scorpion is outlined in heavy gold thread couched with cotton thread. The fill in the scorpion is satin stitch done in gold passing thread. 

The roundels were then cut out and hand sewn to the black linen for the sash.  The roundel were first stitched down with cotton thread and then the white linen edge was hidden under couched gold and silver heavy metal thread. 

Finally here is an image of the 2 roundels together on the black linen for the sash.  At this point, I handed this piece back to Baroness Diana to do all the construction and final details.

Unfortunately, I could not attend the event where this was presented, but Baroness Diana was able to deliver it in time.  I am so happy to have helped with this project. I will say I completely underestimated the amount of time I needed for these roundels, they took months longer than I expected but I am still happy with how they turned out!