The garters are presented for category Hitting Below The Knee
Mistress katherine says:
I saw the trim at Pennsic and loved it as it has my tower, even if I had to settle for green, rather than white. But I knew the pattern was far too mundane to use visibly (I’m sure I’m not the only one who asks herself “What would Mistress Rowan say?”). So, having repurposed the lovely garters Catherine d’Arc made me into a travel coronet, I thought a pair of garters would let me use the trim in a hidden but useful fashion, and answer another VP challenge. I sewed petersham ribbon on the back for sturdiness and grip, added pewter buckles cast by Sir Sebastian, and whacked a grommet in for a hole. They keep the new hose (Mistress Ginevra’s creation) up nicely.
The Swaddling Clothes are presented for the category of Containment System, and Mistress katherine adds that this is for the baby, not their by-products!
Futher, she says: This is part of the Venetian swaddling band my mother wrapped me and my short-lived brothers in.
Swaddling bands appear in a number of Renaissance paintings , such as Laviania Fontana’s Newborn Baby in a Crib (1583)Extant Italian examples from the 1570-90s can be seen in the V&A and Met. Typically they are made of white linen doubled up and edged with a lace or embroidered band (including whitework, reticella, stem stich, interlacing); rectangular at the wider end (12-24cm) and tapering to a point along a 2-3-metre length. The shape is to allow a spiral band of the fancy work to show as the final layer of swaddling cloth is wrapped around the child. A V&A example can be found here.This one is made of a linen-like cotton from my scrap pile; with lace purchased on Burano, the lace-making island in the Venetian lagoon; and Spotlight trim whip-stiched on as an edge.
