I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do all the embroidery in Ezio’s outfit by hand. I’ve seen some quite good interpretations that used machine embroidery, and certainly that’s the sane and sensible way to tackle a large repeating motif like this project demands, but I’m a resolved Luddite where sewing machines are concerned and have never wished to own anything but a plain mechanical. Between that and the feeling that hand embroidery was more in the spirit of this historically-flavored costume, my fate was sealed.