the mary dress

I've finished sewing together the linen dress which I will sew the embroidered panels onto.

The linen came from parna linen, http://www.parna.co.uk/

a beautiful old linen sheet, which I imagine would be similar in quality to the kind of home produced fabrics my Mary might have had access to. It's very heavy for a dress, but my Mary is a woman working in the fields and keeping home, and a tough heavy fabric is what she would wear. The roughness of the linen also frames the detail and delicacy of the embroidery, which is there to celebrate this Mary of the field.