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Unstitched Coif

Part of Toni Buckby's PHD, a collaboration of over 100 hand embroidered coifs.

As part of Toni Buckby's PHD project I was one of over 100 people who stitched a blackwork embroidered coif based on coif acquisition No. T.844-1974 from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Coifs were worn on the head and date from the 10th-17th century and could be plain or adorned with embroidery. Everyone stitched their individual version of the coif. The cumulative effort was around 45,000 hours of stitching representing on average of 300 hours per coif. I timed my coif to be exactly 100 hours worth of stitching.

The Unstitched Coif was never finished so it was exciting to be able to stitch my own interpretation on something so historical, I felt connected to the piece and I loved finishing it.

Blackwork embroidery is one of my favourite embroidery techniques because of the use of patterns. I love how you can get so many different effects and shading from building up different stitches and patterns.

Stitching the coif also made me truly appreciate historical embroidery and patience. The coif took many hours and I had good lighting to do the project. Years ago embroidery was done by candlelight and that must have been challenging and made the stitching hard.