Have you ever had a hankering to make your own Bayeux Tapestry? Yes, this is rather a light post – it fits well with the animated Bayeux Tapestry post of last year, although you might have a little more creative fun with this one!
Here’s your chance to take your place in needlework history by making your own Bayeux Tapestry!
The Historic Tale Construction Cit is a drag-and-drop, make-your-own virtual tapestry website. It’s hilarious, and really clever!
You can choose from a variety of folc, brave (people, horses), beasts, buildings, and miscellaneous items, drop them on your tapestry, re-arrange them, and add text as you go, until you have a whole historical tapestry account of whatever Important Event you want to record!
The characters and images are diverse – from a kid with a sheep, to the fallen and slain, to the cook, the dogs, the donkey, birds, kings, buildings, ships, and trees – and you can add scenes as you go (because of course you’ve got to use every possible image on your tapestry!)
Your masterpiece can be as clever as you want it to be, or as mindless…
When you’re finished with your masterpiece (it won’t take nearly as long as the original took, I’m pretty sure!) you can save it to the gallery or e-mail to a friend.
If you’re a fan of historic needlework (with a sense of humor), check out the Historic Tale Construction Cit!
And have fun with it!
Thanks, Margaret, for the fun link! (…where I’ve whiled away how much time now??!) (Update, Aug 2011: website no longer exists – but it was fun while it lasted!)
What fun! How clever! And thanks for the link to the animated Bayeux Tapestry post. I enjoyed that a lot. – Jeannine
I always wished to be able to do something like the Bayeux Tapestry since I learned about it in history at school. Think this might be the closest I’ll get!
Hi Mary, in 1984 I travelled back to England to visit relatives. While I was there, one of my Dad’s sisters (he has 5) and her husband took me to Hastings Castle to view a handstitched, full length copy of the Bayeaux Tapestry. Made by embroiders in Hastings to commemorate an anniversary, it is an exact copy, stitch for stitch, of the real Bayeaux which is in France.
I visited Hsting Castle as a child, but of course the duplicate tapestry wasn’t there at that time. I have a guide book at home and will come back tomorrow to tell more about the history of the duplicate.
Thanks, Marian! It would be good to hear about it! I love the Bayeux Tapestry – looking at it up close is a great pleasure. There are some magnificent books that give you really up-up-close photos, so that you can see the individual stitches very clearly. It’s a great piece of historical needlework!
that site is fun ! most of the stitching seems to be done in a couching stitch, do you know which one?
thanks !
As of today (Jan 26/22), the same or similar site is active here