Medieval Embroidery: The Story of Irma

What started as an internship at Radboud Castle grew into a real passion for old embroidery techniques, a self-built embroidery frame and museum wall hangings. Below, Irma tells in her own words how that adventure began, and she shows some of her most beautiful stitches.

Since 2019, I've been doing Medieval embroidery. As the modern person would say: a real grandma hobby! But how did I get into it?

I did my spatial design internship at the Radboud Castle foundation, where I was ''exposed'' to a whole new world full of crafts that were new to me. The castle had the idea to start a project where 5 Medieval wall hangings would be embroidered that would represent the family tree of Count Floris V. This was the count who commissioned the castle to be built.

Since I've always been open to yet another new hobby, I of course wanted to join in. I've always loved crafting with textiles, so this would be a great addition to my skill set.

I made these cushions with fabric I found on the castle's attic. Decorated with little embroideries and stitched together with good intentions. What a cozy picture, I'm really proud of it.

At first, it was of course intimidating. The perfectionist drive that always kicks in when you're starting something new had me in its grip again. We all got to ''audition'' to participate in the project. This took the form of a test swatch where we had to demonstrate the Medieval embroidery stitches we'd learned. Luckily, I got to join!

This resulted in a deep rabbit hole dive where I wanted to know as much as possible about embroidery. How was it done? What materials were used? Then came the most important question: how can I do it myself the Medieval way? That's when the idea came that I should also build a Medieval embroidery frame. Because why wouldn't I do that?!

That ended up being an unwieldy projectile over a meter long that sometimes fell apart. But it did allow me to show visitors how it was done back then. Yay for unbridled enthusiasm. During this project, I learned different stitches. This of course also resulted in me starting my own projects. It started with buying some wool yarn, then came meters of linen, then embroidery hoops and needle sets. Eventually, a beautiful Medieval chest full of supplies.

Thanks to this craft, I got to participate in a wall hanging project that is now a museum piece and thus new cultural heritage. How cool is that! In 2024, I stood at a Medieval fair to sell my work. I was able to make various interior pieces for Radboud Castle. My creations have found homes in the lives of strangers to me. But I find it nice to think that people use my creations to make their world more beautiful. That's also the thought that makes it possible to let go of my creations. Because sometimes I'd love to hang them all on my wall at home.

Now I'd like to show you some Medieval embroidery stitches:

This lion is made with a monastery stitch (red and light blue thread) and a simple running stitch. With the monastery stitch, a thread is pulled that you later secure with small stitches. This is really handy for creating, for example, a curved thread direction.

This creation is part of one of the Medieval wall hangings. Here the yellow bricks are made with the Bayeux stitch. yes! That one from that French tapestry. This is a stitch that's mainly used to fill large areas. Threads are stitched between the outer lines. Neatly next to each other. Then threads are stitched crosswise that are secured with small stitches. It was also really important for those Medieval people to have as little thread as possible on the back of the fabric. Materials were expensive and precious. Most stitches were therefore designed to prevent thread wastage. The brown thread is in a chain stitch. You could best describe this as making a loop and catching a new loop in it. This stitch was often used for outlining.

Here you see a clearer example of the Bayeux stitch (white thread) and the chain stitch (green thread). This object is a cute Medieval little bag.