To honour those that inspire and teach

This posting is dedicated to the people that inspire and teach me new wonderful things or just the little tips and tricks that make everything simple and easy to manage.

I have for several years sewn a number of tight fitted dresses. I would never have been able to do this without the help from Felicitas Schwartzenbergin, who made the toille for me. That was the first time I saw toillemaking and it was a wonderful experience! OK, lots of pins in awkward places, tickles and giggles were involved. I have seen Felicitas making toilles for other people a number of times and it is a true art! She looks at a picture of a garment, looks at the person that wants to make it, grabs fabric and scissors and just creates magic. http://bippimalin.livejournal.com/

Another true inspiration for me is Åsa Vävare, professional handweaver and researcher in old techniques. I met her first in Gutars Bågskyttar, the medieval archer association of Gotland, where we worked together in aiming for the members to make better and more period garb. She is the main supplier for yarns and silks for embroidery and handsewing and a visit to her studio always get my juices flowing… She has taught me how to make woven edges on garments and purses, how to make a fabric covered box, shared her patterns for hoods and shirts with me, as well as gotten me the original patterns for the Herjolfsnes garments direct from the National Museum in Copenhagen. She tips me about new inspiring books and gets them for me and can tell how one decorated the home with textiles in medieval times, something I will try out at our next event. http://naama.textilverkstad.se/#home

My friend Tece is the most patient teacher ever. She is the one holding my hand and patting my back when I curse folded pleats or fabric that just won´t cooperate. She is the one that got me doing hats, taught me to do lucet-cords and the one I always turn to when having garb-related questions. And she got me to Finland for a class in 15^th century dress that was just awesome! http://tecedekaxtone.livejournal.com/

Last year I took a class in gold work that was a true eyeopener for the versatility and possibilities of these techniques for Fia-Li at the Battle of Wisby encampment. The first results are seen on top of this page and I love it. The 3D-effects are a new favourite. Lots of tips and tricks were involved. And the little leaf with pearls is now on the lid of my fabric-covered box I made at Åsas class. http://natrixfiali.blogspot.se/

At this year´s Double Wars I took the Opus Anglicanum-class for Petronilla. I have seen here work before but never seen her in action. What a teacher! So calm, prepared and inspiring. She answered all my needle techniques-questions and her handout is now my bible. I see now how to make my own backgrounds in my almony purse, just need to gather the courage for it first… http://elishevaskitchen.blogspot.se/

So these are people I love and that inspire me. I link to their blogs/journals/websites so that you can see for your self. Some of them are not that active at the moment, but I´m sure they will be back on track soon! Of course there are so many others that inspire and help me out, both in real life and over the web and I cannot mention them all. I hope you know who you are!

Toss it all and start anew?

It may sound a bit harsh and drastic, but I might just have to do that this winter, since I will probably go through some surgery that will definitely change my shape and appearance. And when I talked to some friends about it this summer, one of them asked the challenging question –Will you then make all new garb into one specific period and region?

I haven´t thought about it earlier, but this certainly is a great opportunity to do just that. To dig deep into one period and one place in time, as good as one can do with modern day goggles on, and explore it all. To make all dress details and accessories well documented and in good materials from the beginning. My chosen period is the late 1400-hundreds and the place northern Europe, mainly the Germanic areas. But now my wardrobe consists of that and viking age clothing, 14th century clothing and even some early 16th century clothing, apart from the things I mainly use nowadays.

Now you all wonder what is she going to do to herself? Well, with the risk of being a bit personal, I have applied for getting a breast reduction. This is not an easy decision to take, I have always been on the busty side and proud of it and taking that away will certainly change how both I and others perceive me. But it is motivated mainly by the fact that I suffer from carpal tunnel-syndrome and with the “dead weight” on the chest my shoulders simply don´t cut it. This makes my right arm to doze off every now and then, and I lose feeling of my fingers and all strength of the arm. Not a good feeling, I tell you! And to get it going again I pay ridiculous amounts of money every year for treatments that make my neck and shoulder hurt like hell for days. It is so bad I get noxious from the pain and no painkillers help.

So there’s my motivation.

Since the Swedish health care system always ask you to loose weight (if you are in any way overweight that is) before doing surgery I have already lost enough for my supportive tight-fitted dresses to hang loose but will of course not do any alterations or making new garb for now.

Back to the challenge! I will and can of course keep hats and headgear, stockings, shoes and the like, but almost all dresses will be hard if not impossible to alter. So I will start with challenging myself in this fashion:

Making a new toile for a tight fitted dress

New short-sleeved 15^th century dresses

New sleeve-less 15^th century dress

A pleated panel-Housebook-dress

A plain overdress with long loose sleeves

A schaube

A partlet if I find documentation for it in my chosen region

New pointy black leather shoes with a wrist strap

New purses after finds and paintings

The list will of course expand by time.

And for those of you that gasp for breath right now, no, I will not toss all my garb away. I will sell it, trade it and give it away. It is all handsewn in good materials and models so I think it will find its use with someone else.

The pillow-case hat (a Mad Hatters production)

As some of you know my friend Tece and I started out making 16th century german hats some years ago. We held classes, lectures and made patterns for many of the different kinds of hats you´ll find among the early 16th century german paintings. (Tece made a whole lot more than me, I tell you!) And we called our selves the Mad Hatters after the character from Alice in Wonderland... Oh how much fun!

Since my eldest son has a hat his younger brother of course got envious this summer and wanted one for himself.

Alvins hat in red and brown wool

So I made one of the easiest, but since I haven´t made one myself before I had to check out how. Tece of course made an easy to follow-description (http://tecedekaxtone.livejournal.com/5599.html). And as you can see, this hat is also used by both men and women, but here it seems to be a bit more accepted since high status portraits are depicted with them. So, no need for me to rant any more, here´s the result:

Viktors hat in blue wool

Is that a tarantula on your head or just a fashionable hat?

During the late 15^th and early 16^th century begins a trend in the Germanic countries, where hats and headgear not necessarily differs between men and women anymore as in earlier centuries. In paintings and drawings both men and women are depicted with the same type of hats. One particular form only seen there and then is what I call “the squashed tarantula-tophat” or simply the spaghettihat. It is basically a cap with a large tassel on top. Here seen on a young woman drawed by Master of the Housbook, a German master working approximately 1475-1495.

I wanted to make a striped version, as seen in one of the *oh my god I could just faint*-pretty selfportraits of the German painter Albrecht Dürer. This selfportrait was painted in 1498. I´m guessing that his hat is made in silk since it is just so thin and delicate in the tassels and fabric.

As you can see, his hat is worn and a bit torn in the seams, but being young, arrogant and good looking, that just is his style I guess. I made mine in wool, and choose to do it in dark green and white instead of black and white. So instead of looking like a football referee I now resemble a football supporter.

In the Dürer portrait the tassels are gathered together with a piece of string, so I made mine the same. Other pictorial examples show hats where the tassels have just been cut and hang straight down without being gathered at all, as in this one:

One question that arises during this little project is whether this hat actually is a gender-neutral hat from the beginning or if it just became a trend among young people where the men gave their hats to girlfriends thus creating a new fashion? Food for thought. I have no clue but find it fascinating. And in the pictorial examples I´ve seen so far it is young people that wear this kind of hat. Older people seem to prefer more conservative headgear, as white linen head-cloths in different versions for the women and hats for the men.

I´m being framed...

Since my qoute of sleeves is filled, I decided to get started on a framed purse, 15th-century style. My main inspiration is this: http://weavingandcooking.blogspot.se/2010/08/late-medieval-burgundian-framed-purse.html. Beatiful! I did find a frame on the market at last year´s Medieval week here in Visby so I can´t blame lack of materials.

My aim is making it in wool instead of thin suede, but I´m a bit worried that it will be too thick and bulky. Need to scan my piles and boxes and see what I can come up with.

Meanwhile I´m making a toile in cotton just to sort out the size, where to fold and how to attach it to the hoop frame. Starting out with a strip 1,5 meters long and almost 40 cm wide gives a decent result but there´s room for improvement. I´ve folded it so that it makes two pockets and some extra material to put in a tightening cord in the middle of the hoop. Put some pins in so that I can get  hint of how it works. I think the width is just enough but the purse is a bit to big lengthwise.

So tomorrow I will try shortening it a bit and see how that looks. I´ll keep you posted!

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!