Tudor Embroidery Needles

While researching for my next blackwork embroidery project, I first wanted to find out what period embroidery needles were used (what size were they, what were they made out of, how were they made, etc).  Here is what I found so far: 

By Elizabethan times, needles could be found in steel, bone, brass, and bronze.  Bone needles were most likely used for other crafts such as nalbinding.  Steel was most likely used for making embroidery needles.  In the Viking era, needles were also made from iron.




Viking needles from Coppergate

http://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/eye-of-needle-revisited.html






Pictured above are medieval thimbles, needles, and shears from the National Museum in Copenhagen.

http://s389.photobucket.com/user/Haandkraft/media/Museer/Nationalmuseet/fingerbol_nale_saks_middelalder.jpg.html#sthash.D8rnQ6Op.qjtu









Enhanced portrait of Costanza Caetani (circa 1480-1490) with pins, thimble, and sewing needle.



http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/style-of-domenico-ghirlandaio-costanza-caetani






The Needlemaker (1583)
http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/75-Amb-2-279-58-r

Blackwork Embroidery Patterns

 

Portrait of Jane Seymour (third wife of King Henry VIII of England) painted by Hans Holbein the Younger (circa 1540)

Pattern for the cuffs on Jane Seymour's sleeves (pictured above)



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Another portrait of Jane Seymour's cuffs (circa 1636) by Hans Holbein



The blackwork embroidery pattern for the cuffs pictured above.



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Blackwork embroidery pattern from neck ruff of James Stewart, Earl of Moray (half-brother to Mary, Queen of Scots). 

http://www.geocities.ws/lynnaea_fairchild/designs.html