Can a girl have too many?

People talk about women collecting shoes, handbags and the like. And yes, I have to admit that I love shoes, but since the garb-fitting-ones are so hard to find online and even harder to make, I have filled my closet with other accessories. But really? I think I have to find another obsession than sleeves. Or at least aim for more elaborate ones next...

Time to actually make those new shoes and finish off a number of pouches, I guess.

Pinned and ready

Yesterday I suddenly got a whole lot of time all to myself, and got lots of stuff done, and inspired by a friend that is trying hard to finish off embroidery projects, I finished my first piece of patterned darning. It is really small, 5 times 5 centimetres or so, and I thought it would make a lovely pincushion. I saw the Attack Laurel wearing small pincushions in blackwork pinned to her skirt and thought it was a great idea when sewing. No need to put pins in your sleeves and then forget about them, as I tend to do.

Said and done, I found a piece of dark purple wool fabric that matches the outerline perfectly and got going.

However, the embroidered fabric is a loose weave and I thought pins would easily escape, so I decided to line it with a little tighter woven linen fabric. I cut out a square and stitched it onto the backside. Then I cut a piece of the back fabric, turned the pieces outside in and pinned the together along three edges and stitched them together. Turning it inside out was a bit tricky but manageble. I stuffed it with scraps of wool fabric and then stitched the last edge, first putting in a cord loop in one corner for fastening.

I finished it off with a chain stitch edge and some small tassels. And it turned out rather pretty!

Frills!

Head is spinning still after an awesome Double Wars, so many classes and so much inspiration! I was especially happy for the frilled veil-class, the starch-class and of course the one on Opus Anglicanum. And today I got Lias pretty picture of me wearing the frilled veil that I now can starch properly with barley starch. That will keep it in shape so much better than the spray starch.

Sadly the Dürer-inspired hat didn´t get done so I´m saving tha for another blog post soon...

Better late than never

I started on a new hemd in January. It didn´t get done in time for the Carnevale in February. Ah well, I thought and brought the pieces on my journey to Finland, thinking that hours and hours of dreary ferry-travel would do the trick. But alas, no.

Now it is finally done and I´m pretty pleased with myself.

It is sewn in a rather heavy nettle fabric, a bit golden white, and is mainly inspired by the german-swiss embroidered smocked hemds seen on both men and women in the late 15th and early 16th century.



Dürers portraits is the main inspiration for the undergarment




This is the result, however it will look a lot less bulky with the tight overdress

 I wanted to try the techniques with letters and fancy patterns in white on white but had to give it up. The fabric is too heavy and the pleats in the inserted front panel is just to coarse. So I settled on a more easier counted geometric pattern in golden silk and some rows of white stitches to keep it all together. The back and side panels are flat so that they do not take too much room under a tight fitted bodice. The front is made of a panel out of the full width of the fabric (150 cm) folded in the top and then pleated it in rather big pleats (1 cm). This will show in a rather deep V-neckline.



I haven´t given up on the idea of a more elaborate embroidered smock but then I need a finer linen and time and patience that I do not have at the moment. This is however a lot more elaborate than my first attempt as seen on my profile picture, so with time I will get there for sure.

It´s all in the details

This Easter I got an offer I couldn´t refuse... Me and my friend Tece got invited to hold classes in 15th century clothing for the Hollola medieval society in Finland. All expenses paid and a possibility to hang out with really nice people.


So, we took the ferry to Turku were we got picked up by Saara and Temmu who drove us to Lahti, where we stayed at Mervi and Riku in their "sensual house". Just look at the sight of the kitchen when we arrived! Full of nice people having coffee, laughing and weaving.
Mervi was anxious to get started and soon we had three lovely ladies started on making their pleated swiss veils and getting fitted for their 15th-century dresses.

Mervi was real quick and soon had a number of pleats done and then we started experimenting with veils and folds and whatever fabrics we could get a hold of. Since I´ve shown in an old handout that there´s no way you can do wrong with a 15th century veil style, we tried with kitchen towels on top and even got a very elaborate look from a smocked apron.

We also got fed extremly well and really enjoyed this long friday in Mervis kitchen. After a while we realised we had spent 8 hours there just fooling around.

Kitchen towels may sound really quirky but there are images that really looks like they grabbed a bunch of whatever they found in the linen cabinet and pinned it on top. Fabric with red or blue stripes are common and they do look like classic kitchen towels.

The smocked apron made a very nice look as well, similar to the variations that look like the missing link between swiss veil and the vulsthaube. Frills can be seen in some depictions as well.

However we got real tired and went to bed in order to be in full working order the next morning when the real challenge started. In a day and a half we had to get 20 women fitted and inspired to do all kinds of accessories for 15th century fashion. We learned that one of the women had the idea that they should all do 15th century clothing for their yearly festival in Hollola, since the church was 15th century.

Me and Tece has held the show "It´s all in the details" a couple of times already, where we show how you can manage any number of styles with just one little black shortsleeved and frontlaced dress. We started the powerpoint and then dressed Tece from hemd to the kitchen maid and all the way to court garb just changing the accessories.

After the show we started everybody on making their own veils and soon the room was filled with sewing women of all ages. This turned out to be the saviour of the day, now everybody had something to begin with while waiting for their turn to get fitted. We forced them to first try either mine or Tece´s dress in order to see what pattern to start out with. They all then copied either mine or Tece´s bodice pattern, adding a number of centimeters of width for fitting. Then the fitting frenzy began! I would never have imagined that it was possible to do that many fittings in such a short time. Fifteen fittings done on saturday and the remaining five on sunday.

My blue dress soon got popular and it sometimes fitted like a glove!

The room filled with action and creativity, everywere women where trying out clothes, cutting fabric and looking in books and the powerpoint with hundred or more images of 15th century paintings.

We did manage a short break and took a walk around the beutiful 15th century church.

When it was time to leave on sunday afternoon we had managed to fit 22 lovely ladies into tight fitting bodices. And they where in the age span between 20 and 70! I really look forward to seeing pictures of their dresses progressing.

And for those interested, read Mervis blog Hibeernatiopesäke as well!

Embroidery for the masses!

This weekend has been a joyful and inspiring one. My home barony of Styringheim hosted an embroidery event for all interested in historical embroidery. We were 12 people that gathered on saturday morning, shared some breakfast and then the four teachers each gave a short introduction to their embroidery techniques before the actual workshops begun.

First out was Helwigs blackwork, and for the likes of me that hates counted embroidery this was an epiphany! It suddenly got comprehensable and I actually got quite far on a small acorn border on rather coarse linen with easily visible thread count and some lovely orange hand dyed silk that I bought a couple of years ago.

After this I did my bayeux stitch introduction and the ladies seemed to enjoy the fact that it is an easy way to fill surfaces with colour and texture.

Lia got us all to appreciate the fine elisabethan couched embroidery and we saw acorns, seashells and flowers take shape. It reminded a lot of naalbinding but with a very fine needle and silk thread.

We had lunch and dinner as well in splendid company and continued on sunday with patterned darning embroidery that Åsa has made wonders with on pillows after originals now stored at the County Museum of Gotland.

So now I have, on top of all old projects, three new embroidery projects and a bunch of ideas for stuff I want to make for my self.

Carnevale

Event season has begun! First out this year was my own barony´s Gourmet feast, this year themed Carnevale. And this of course raises the expectations a lot, both on the food and the dress.

Since I had finished that wretched dress with the darned rolled pleats (and yes, I was frustrated a lot during the process of pleating! Not my mothers back yard, I tell you) I thought this a superb opportunity to break it in, so to speak. The new hemd that I started on two weeks ago sadly didn´t get finished, but I made an orange gefrens to match the mask, borrowed from my sister in law. She has a collection of venetian masks since she studied Commedia dellárte there.

It´s a good thing that we have so many talented photographers at events that generously let me use pictures. This is not a posing picture but used taken while I was in conversation with others. Thanks Danel!