I had a friend offer to teach me how to make a resist-dyed silk banner with my personal arms (as registered with the College of Heralds in the Society for Creative Anachronism, for any non-SCA followers), but our schedules never quite got together. But as the fall camping season approaches, I really wanted to go ahead and get one finished. So, I decided to stitch one together out of what I had laying around.
I registered my device only a few months after joining the SCA. In heraldry-speak, it is:
Argent, in pale a peacock azure perched on a threaded needle fesswise point to sinister sable within a bordure azure.
It's made of linen. I appliqued the needle and peacock onto the white background by hand. I basically just folded the edges under and whip stitched it down. Then I stitched the blue border around the white field, and attached the back lining and the top loops by machine. The feet were especially tricky, but I think it turned out well.
All the detail on the peacock is hand embroidered, with black perle cotton that I had laying around.
The wing details, the peacock's eye and crest, and the feather eyes are outlined with a stem stitch.
For the tail feathers, the shaft was outlined with a chain stitch, and the feathers were edged with a singe feather stitch (which seemed appropriate).
For the thread going through the eye of the needle, I simply couched down a braided cord.
Right now I have my banner hanging on the wall of my sewing room, but when I go camping, I plan to display it outside my pavilion. Maybe I'll still make a dyed silk banner some day, but for now, I'm perfectly happy with this one.
