Temair ingen Muiredaich — 14th Century Reliquary Bag

• Name & Title: Maistreas Temair ingen Muiredaich, OP
• Project Title: 14 th Century Reliquary Bag
• Local Group: Barony of Dragonship Haven
• EK Wiki: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/wiki/Temair_ingen_Muiredaich
• Blog: https://diverseartsdabbler.blogspot.com/
• Category: Textiles — Embroidery

This was a stretch project to earn my first competency for the Keeper’s of Athena’s Thimble. The project is based off of the research of Richard Wymarc, OL and started with Pattern Y-011: An Embroidered Bag. The full links are in the documentation and on my blog. The original bag is located in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England, with the descriptor: “Bag, German, late 14th century. Plied white linen thread and colored silks in satin stitch on linen.” I used linen, silk threads and Japanese gold for the goldwork on the front of the bag.

This bag had several stretches for me. I learned a little more about adding a lining to a bag. Don’t be afraid to cut it bigger than you think you need. I learned to do a basic 5 strand square fingerloop braid. I do not recommend using thin silk for your first attempt and gave up on up trying to recreate the 2 wide and 2 narrow brads at the ends of each pull. Also, the pull strings are too short because I had no idea how much length would be eaten up by the braiding The most upsetting part was putting the unreinforced holes in with an awl to remain true to the original bag. The other stretch was the handle for the bag. While it conjectured to be circular tablet weaving, I wanted to try circular inkle weaving first. While my handle colors do “spin”, they do not have the noticeable “V” where the direction of weaving was reversed that you would get from card weaving. I also ran out of silk and decided to just fringe the ends of the handle.
Link to the blog page about the bag:
https://diverseartsdabbler.blogspot.com/2025/07/brick-stitch-bag.html

Link to the documentation for Period Competency in Athena’s Thimble:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpvuAtqhqjG3tm1OqBZwTjiGWXdy5EyT/view?usp=sha
ring

A small write-up with the examples of the edgings I tried for the sides:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nNH1MSXoa_Wu7AnLt4zhcTt4kvm2MJQQ/view?us
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