Practical Matters – Plaited Braid Stitch Part III

Now for some fun!

Some uses of PBS other than in Scrolling Vines

Jeanne of the Just String blog shows her pea pods calyxes worked in PBS


The image below is from book The Embroidery at the Burrell Collection, page 106
(Sorry it’s not clearer – the original image is tiny). I’m pretty sure that the outline of the marigolds is done in PBS.



The following photos are courtesy of Kimberley Mitchell :









The Original Embroiderers Weren’t Perfect

Have a look at the following photo :



Look on the left hand side.(Click on it for a bigger image). The left hand ‘chain stitchy’ side is out of whack with the right hand ‘loopy’ side.

Also, on the right hand side at the bottom, the braid crowds in on itself as it goes around the curve to approach the top of that pale leaf.

And the Layton Jacket!


The legs of the PBS are showing on the underside of the top right vine. On the vine below it, the PBS braid rather stretches out as it approaches the edge. Maybe the embroiderer was in a hurry to finish? :-)

The Elizabethan embroiderers churned out miles and miles of PBS braid, but they were human too.
You can also see in the photo there was a a braid finished at the jacket edge with a single stitch over the last pretzel

Miscellaneous Tips

I found keeping a finger on the back of the pulled through thread helped check that I wasn’t leaving loose thread on the back, which would later work through the linen and loosen the pretzels.

I think that if you can use your needle to unpick several pretzels, you understand how the stitch is being done.

Other tips  
Yvette Stanton’s Left/Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion Books contain important tips on 

: thread thickness: working two lines of PBS to join at a point
: working two lines of PBS to join at an angle

Conclusion
I think that the key to learning this stitch is learning how to do the very first pretzel. Then learning the mechanism of doing a full pretzel.  I was so scared of Plaited Braid Stitch, but now I’m just fine with it. I need to work on my tension, but I think I have a handle on it now.

I think that the next thing for me to do is to go back and look at heaps of historical embroidery and really examine  PBS, using what I’ve learnt. Particularly where it comes to width and ‘nesting’ of pretzels of the braid.

BUT I know where to go from here, and improve my PBS. I have the resources to hand - all that information I've researched for this post. :-)

Talking about braid width and intricate details of the threads used has stretched me a bit, given that I’ve only just learnt the stitch. I am absolutely indebted both to Kimberley for her help and allowing the use of her private photographs in writing this blog entry, and to Melinda for letting me borrow her brain as well as asking me to be involved with her Sampler Instructions. - this is the post I recently wrote about Melinda's sampler

Any mistakes are on my part. Do let me know in the comments if you don’t agree on any point or have something to add. I can add it into the final article with an acknowledgement if that's ok.

My blog template occasionally won’t let people make comments. You can mail me at elmsley_rose@yahoo.com.au if you have problems, and I’ll post your comment.

Finally, I hope that these tips help you learn the Dreaded Plaited Braid Stitch as well! :-)