Wedding Renewal Bliaut

When Honorable Lady Lyneya de Grey and her husband Sir Lasguaard Aglanar the Red Fox decided to renew their vows, she asked me to make her a bliaut.

Here's the finished dress during the vow renewal ceremony. Lyneya made Lasguaard's tunic, and I gave her the pattern piece I used for her neckline so that she could customize a more decorative overlay for the occasion.

Unfortunately we had a camera related issue as I was working on this project, so additional images were lost. Luckily I had sent her three progress pictures, which were saved in our Facebook messages.

Hand-sewing the neckline with a contrasting white linen thread.

Contrasting rust eyelets, sewn using a corresponding thin linen weaving yarn.

Blue Wool Cotehardie

I have a few more pictures of this project than I want to include in the Gallery section, so please excuse the extremely belated post!

I hand-sewed this cotehardie in 2004, after getting the wool from a vendor at an outdoor shopping center in Leicester, England while I was studying in London. This project was a huge learning experience for me, as I didn't know many stitch types at the time and the running stitch seams were very weak and prone to ripping.

I no longer have the dress, as I sold it to another SCAdian in the Barony of Three Mountains before I moved back to Alaska for my first year of teaching in Togiak. The cotehardie was either a six or eight gore style, with significant inspiration taken from the Herjofsnes finds. It was faced in silk, and all the eyelets for the spiral-lacing were sewn by hand as well.

I still have the belt, which was my first successful inkle weaving project. My heraldry features a bee, which inspired the color choice and pattern. The hardware set is the Rose Buckle and Strap End (1250 - 1550 AD) from Fettered Cock Pewters, and fits the period of my original persona.

The veil is a linen oval, also sewn entirely by hand. At the time, I did not yet have access to linen thread. It was sewn using a quilter's cotton.

The circlet in the images above was made by my friend Deanna, who introduced me to the SCA at the Barony of Winter's Gate's Yule Celebration in 2000.

The Baroness' Heraldic Sideless Surcoat

Photo courtesy of Karyl Robbins Redmond, Steppes Warlord 2015.

This last fall during an Arts & Sciences evening, Baroness Katya asked me to make her a heraldic sideless surcoat. Now you may have noticed that this is the first appliqué project on my blog. There's a reason for that! I promised to step outside my comfort zone and do my best.

Of course, I didn't plan on breaking my foot before the deadline, so the best laid plans of mice became a little eschew. I still managed to complete it - and take on a new office - but I really should have allowed myself more time to rest and heal. She was great and understanding, but unfortunately I listened not to the sweet voice of reason, but to my own stubborn nature... and it kicked me in the tail again!

But on to the project!

This image is titled "Isabella before the Virgin and Child" and marked 1417-1418. She wanted something along the lines of this style, but without the ermine and using the heraldry of the Barony of the Steppes. She also asked me to - if at all possible - keep two parts of the device easily removable (the tree and the laurel wreath), so she could still wear the garment when she eventually steps down from office.

This was the initial plan, with a green top, black bottom, and a gold stepped sash across the body. The silver (oops!) wreath at top right and the Steppes' Oak on bottom left. I was supposed to do the trunk, roots, and branches of the tree and she would embroider the acorns later on.

I've seen some pretty poorly fitting sideless surcoats before, so I decided that my first task would be to shop for a pattern that I thought would be flattering, true to the form, and be something I'd enjoy trying out on my own project later on. I finally settled on Burda 7977.

Since I knew the sash was going to be a consistent element (and not removed later on), I went ahead and made it structural. For the life of me I couldn't convince it to lie straight and still leave room for the laurel wreath, so I allowed it to swoop just a little bit in order to get the full effect.

Tailor's chalk was totally my friend here, and it allowed me to measure like twenty times before the first cut.

I zig-zagged the edges to prevent any kind of raveling (it *really* wanted to ravel on me) and then pressed down the smallest seam allowance I could.

 After that, I used cotton jean thread (perfect color match, and cotton!) to sew down all the actual steps.

Once the steps were in place, the tailor's chalk came to the rescue again, and I was able to cut off the black fabric overlap while still maintain my seam allowance.

 A quick zip back through the machine and the two pieces were combined. To match the steps on the other side, I went over the bottom of the sash in the same manner.

 And here you have the combined front piece. There are some bits that need a little more cleaning up, but that will come soon!

Detail of the stitching behind the sash.

I have to admit, I was on some pretty nice painkillers for the broken foot while I was working on this section. I didn't realize that the laurel wreath was supposed to be silver instead of gold. Unfortunately, the baroness had to remove it and replace it with the correct color. But hey, we tried out the ease of removal and that feature seems to have worked fine!

And here's a detail of the (so I thought!) completed laurel wreath. I've learned more now about linen appliqué, but I'm not in a hurry to use it!

Detail of the (supposedly!) completed front, with top-stitching along the edges to maintain shape. I did fully line this sideless surcoat, so it has an excellent swish factor! It had been so long since I'd done a project like this that had forgotten some pretty salient points about making things lie flat. Baste, baste, baste! Cut to match! Luckily those were relatively minor things and easily corrected.

And the tree! It turned out a little smaller and higher than I'd like, and that's mostly due to the way I had to work on it while my foot was in the cast. On the ironing board (my working surface), it looked perfect, but there was no way for me to fully lay it out and look at it full scale. I've already made the offer to re-do it now that my foot has healed, but she seems happy with it, and that was the whole goal.

Besides, it may be a little tree, but it's a cute one, too!

This is what I thought would be the final image of the dress. I do again sincerely apologize about the color mix-up. I'm blaming it on the pain meds!

Finally, we have one more shot of Baroness Katya wearing it at court during Steppes Warlord, with the matching underdress that she made herself. Lovely!

Photo courtesy of Karyl Robbins Redmond, Steppes Warlord 2015.

Tablet Weaving... Also Known as Tablet Heaving

I like order. There! I admit it!

I took to rigid heddle weaving like a duck to water because it's so damn orderly. Everything perfectly in its place. There's a beauty to that.

But eventually, if you're going to leave your comfortable nest and stretch your wings into greater authenticity, things will get messy.

That's what my first attempt at tablet weaving has been. Messy. Now, I kept it as gloriously ordered as I could, but in the end I did spend some time screaming verbal... let's call it encouragement... at a rather stubborn section that did not want to cooperate.

Okay, I may have had to seriously restrain myself from heaving it out a window.

But I didn't start there. I actually started moving towards greater authenticity in my trim weaving by going to the local weaving store: White Rock Weaving. I wasn't sure what sizes/types I'd need, so I relied heavily on the staff recommendations. In addition to some 5/2 pearle cotton I wanted to play with, I bought three ounces of Hammersmith 100% virgin wool and two kinds of 100% flax linen by a brand called Fibra Natura.

Rigid Heddle Weaving with Wool

The first new fibre to test out was wool. To sum it up in three words: It breaks. Often.

It's possible that this was just a problem because of the specific wool type, but every foot or so the weft would break on me. That's not horrible, but when one of the warp threads actually broke I was more than a little verbally abusive to it. In the future, I'll try to get a more finely spun wool... if that's possible.

Dyeing and Rigid Heddle Weaving with Linen

After the frustration of the wool came the relief of the linen. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I wasn't able to get my hands on a natural blue dye. RIT to the rescue!

For another length of my white linen, I decided to try one of the natural dyes from the dyeing workshop I attended last January at Runs with Scissors, Plays with Fire.

I took a couple tablespoons of Jake's turmeric and put them into two disposable tea filters. I didn't want the actual spice to get out and gunk up my yarn, and I was very pleasantly surprised that they worked so well.

The weaving store only had a small selection of colors - I didn't realize that the blue I dyed (the remnant is shown in the middle of the wooden spool) was nearly the exact same color as the company's Regata (#103)!

The turmeric yellow is shown here on the end of the wooden spool, and is so bright it's nearly neon!

And, finally, here are the three lengths I've woven with a rigid heddle. The left two are what remains after I finished my last apron dress project. The turmeric-dyed yellow and white looks like an albino python!

I thought there would be a little more contrast between the two, but if I remember correctly, turmeric is one of those dyes that fades with light exposure.

Card/Tablet Weaving with Cotton and Linen

And, finally, we come to the pieces I wove today as I experimented with tablet weaving. The pattern I used came from "Forward Into the Past: Beginning Tablet Weaving."

The green and white piece came first, while I figured out how to set up the loom and move the cards. I chose a 3/2 pearle cotton because I'm trying to phase it out of my collection. I've been really gravitating towards the finer yarns lately, so I figured it would do well for a potentially throw-away piece.

The design I chose was a repeating chevron pattern that used six cards at a time, for a total number of 24 threads. I cut them to only two yards, because that length allows me to get a feel for a project but isn't long enough to feel terribly wasteful if things don't go terribly well.

I learned a lot of things from this project: 1) How the threads at the end will wrap around each other as you weave, 2) That as cool as the diamonds are, the "X" designs are just as necessary, and 3) Counting things is very, very important.

I tried to put those lessons to their best use with the blue and white piece. Instead of letting my design go straight to the edge, I added a single color card to both sides. I was also very careful to count the numbers of chevrons between each element, in order to keep things balanced, even, and not to wound up at the back.

Since I figured this piece would eventually be attached to a neckline, I decided to go ahead and make it like I meant it: Enough length to be used in a garment and with an authentic fibre content. I decided to go with the linen.

I had no idea at all what I was in for. In case you don't know, the movement of the turning cards is a whole heck of a lot more intense on your threads than a nice, simple rigid heddle. I generated a small flurry with all the linen fibers coming off this project! Let's just say it's not good for those of us with allergies and leave it there.

When I switched from 3/2 pearle cotton to linen, I was expecting a much thinner profile. With all the threads turning and moving through the project, the band itself is about twice as thick as what I'd make on a rigid heddle. I figured the thinner fibers of the linen would keep it a little less bulky, but it' still pretty thick. I think I'll have to find an even finer linen if I'm going to make something that can go around the neckline of an undertunic or underdress.

But that being said, I'm still pretty proud of myself. I taught myself how to do a simple tablet-weaving pattern - and completed two small projects - less than 24 hours after receiving my cards in the mail!

The last project I did used a period method, with period fibres, and period colors. It's the most authentic trim I've ever made, and while it was incredibly frustrating at times, I do look forward to making garb that is even more authentic.

I still love my rigid heddle, and while I am not going to be putting it aside, I do see myself adding projects like this one to my future queue... especially with Steppes Artisan coming up!

Bibliography:

Ewing, Thor. Viking Clothing. Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, Inc. 2006.

Glæsel, Nille. Viking Dress Garment Clothing. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2010.

Schweitzer, Robert. “Beginning Tablet Weaving.” Forward into the Past. 2 April 2011. <http://www.fitp.ca/articles/FITPXXI/beginning_tablet_weaving.pdf>

Medieval Necklines - Green Wool Dress

I made this dress recently to repay a local lady for her incredible kindness in caring for our kitties while we were at Gulf War. She has a tremendous love of Pendleton Wool, so Mom swung by their outlet in Washington and sent a care package my way.

The cut and construction is a straightforward long tunic, which I've seen classified as Nockert Type 1. The lady I'm sewing this for wanted it nice and simple, so it could do double duty as Viking or Medieval, depending on her layering and accessories.

After cutting everything out, I usually sew the neckline first. They always turn out so much better for me when I do them flat. I used a bowl to help me create a pattern for a perfect circle and my measuring tape to center it up and put the correct ratio in place. Her preferred placement is three quarters of the circle in front, with the remaining quarter in back.

Once my circle was cut out, I pinned down my hem. I didn't cut the front "v" open yet, though, because the wool was misbehaving. It was a blend, and a little thinner than I'm used to. Usually wool doesn't really ravel on you, but this fabric was certainly trying its hardest!

I used a hem stitch to go around the neckline and waited until the absolute last moment to cut the "v".

Once cut to the six inches she wanted, I turned it and continued to use hem stitch. At the very tip of the "v" I switched to a couple small stitches of button-hole/blanket stitch and then continued the rest of the way around. (See Notes on Necklines, below)

And the finished neckline! Now on to the rest of the garment!

And that means on to the dreaded underarm gores. They're period for the era I like to costume in, but I hold a chilly hatred for them. I decided to try to tackle them with the same technique I used for the gray wool apron dress. Østergård's illustration and notes about figure 67 on pg. 99 directly mention them: "Gussets on sleeves and hoods are inserted to lie under the cloth..." so I pinned it open in order to sew it down that way.

And this is what it looks like. It wasn't terribly fun, but I made it happen!

I actually don't remember what part this was, but isn't it a pretty picture? It's probably one of the bottom gores, and it shows the stitch I used pretty much throughout, plus the technique I mentioned earlier of getting the gores and gussets to lay flat.

All together, the hand sewing on this project took around 40 hours. What can I say? We love our kitties and she took wonderful care of them!

I actually finished this garment at an event, and sent it home with her that day. She's promised to send me a picture of the finished dress, so I'll post an update when that happens.

Notes on Necklines:

The "v" neck with button-hole stitching at the point is a style I distinctly remember going over during a hand-sewing class at an event - I think it was Gulf Wars 2014 - but for the life of me I cannot find the handout, which forces me to do my research backwards. That's never a good thing.

As the lady I'm making this dress for intends to use it for both Viking and Medieval styles, (hence its simplicity) it's opened up a couple more resources than I typically use for my Viking garb.

The only necklines that Østergård mentions in Woven into the Earth are turned, but no mention is made as to how the small "v"s were finished, despite the fact that they appeared on several garments.

"On the costumes from Herjolfsnes we see seams that are almost invisible from the right side and seams that are visible and decorative as well as reinforcing....A cut-off edge, folded towards the wrong side, can also have a decorative element, as can be seen along the front edge of most hoods, where the tight overcasting of one or more extra (filler) threads, placed along the cut-off edge, marks the termination of the fold. A similar edging is found around the neck openings of garments, and it is likely that this or the extra threads helped to preserve the neck edge from curling. The inlaid threads lie there, apparently unaffected by the thread from the overcasting, and could therefore be tightened so that the edge was held in against the neck," (Østergård 97-98).

Caption for figures 62 and 63: "A turned back border (hem), with overcast stitches sewn on the top of one or several (filler) threads that cover the raw edge, was prevalent in Norse Greenland. This type of needlework can be found along face openings on hoods and in neck openings; almost always seen together with one or two rows of stab stitches placed some few millimeters from the outermost edge," (Østergård 97).

In Wild's Textiles in Archeology, only hems are mentioned and that's a simple, concise caption form (pg. 54).

Ewing's Viking Clothing spends a little more time on stitching, and while he doesn't mention necklines in the Seams and Sewing section (pg. 158-9), he does have a men's Neckhole section on pg. 90 where he mentions other kinds of necklines but not their construction.

I had much more luck in The Museum of London: Textiles and Clothing. No mention is made of necklines in the Hems section, but a couple are referenced in the Bindings and Facings section.

"Where a single or double hem was an inappropriate finishing for an edge, and particularly where some additional strength was required, strips of material could be applied as facings or bindings. All surviving facings and bindings are of a fine tabby silk on the straight grain of the fabrics; no bias strip is know to have been used for this purpose on bias-cut or curving edges," (158).

Figure 132: "Neckline of a wool garment with a narrow silk facing, No 50, shown from the reverse, from a deposit dating to the second quarter of the 14th century," (160).

So for right now it looks like I messed up in one of two ways: Not using a running stitch for stability OR not using a silk facing. But that's only on the round part of the neckline. I still have yet to locate anything about the stitching used on the small "v".

We did have an interesting discussion about it on the Viking Clothing Facebook group, but no one else was able to find explicit pre-15th century documentation.

I was able to find one website that mentioned this technique (scroll down to the very bottom), but there was no documentation for it, which always makes me wary. I'll keep searching, because I love the look of this style but also want to be able to thoroughly document it.

Bibliography:

Baker, Jennifer. "Stitches and Seam Techniques Seen on Dark Age/Medieval Garments in Various Museum Collections." 2009. <http://nvg.org.au/documents/other/stitches.pdf> 11 June 2014.

Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. Museum of London: Textiles and Clothing c1150-1450. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge: 2002. Page 150-7.

Østergård, Else. Woven into the Earth: Textile Finds from North Greenland. Denmark: Aarhus University Press. 2004. Page 98-99.

Wild, John Peter. Shire Archaeology: Textiles in Archaeology. Shire Publications LTD. Great Britain, 2003. Page 54.

Linen Underdress with Handwoven Trim

Detail of hand-sewn neckline, sleeves, and hand-woven trim.

I've been playing with a rigid heddle box loom for a couple of months now, and figured it was well passed time to start putting some of the trim I made on my garb.

I finished this underdress before the Gulf Wars event, but things got kind of crazy afterwards, with our school announcing that it would be moving. It's been a little bit of an adjustment, but a productive one. It's also meant that my workload has precluded as much writing and sewing as I would like.

The (Saturday!) training I had to attend this morning let us out early, so while the wool for another project (a bartered apron dress) is drying I thought it would be a good time to put some thoughts down about a couple previous projects.

Lately, I've been having sour luck with underdresses. It's the strangest thing, but I keep messing them up in one way or another. Probably too much experimenting. But on to the underdress! I used a linen blend from JoAnn and used a simple long tunic pattern with slightly inset sleeves.

I didn't take pictures while I was weaving the trim for this underdress, so here's a picture of another project on my loom. I have fallen in love with this pattern generator, and it has really been helping me design different patterns for my trim.

Before I started cutting the pattern I was played with fabric dye again, but unfortunately I strayed from the RIT that has treated me so well to something that had a pretty pine cone on it that looked just perfect. It didn't turn out that way, so I tried to undo the damage with some dye remover. That's what led to the interesting shade that my underdress now sports.

Another pre-cursor to scissors actually hitting the linen! This is the finished trim, shown on top of the fabric I was using to make my sleeve patterns. I experimented with a couple different trim patterns, but I seem to have become obsessed with little chains... especially in 5/2 cotton pearle copper! 

I have also developed a hatred of underarm sleeve gores that is so intense it is nearly a living thing, so I decided to revise my sleeve pattern for inset sleeves. I spent a lot of quality time with both sleeves and safety-pins. By making a false seam with the safety pins, I could pull the sleeves on and off as needed, adjusting the positions of the safety pins until the fit was perfect.

You can't tell from this picture, but I cheated a little. I wanted a tight-fitting rolled hem, so I actually used my sewing machine to zig-zag the neckline's edges. That allowed me to keep the roll teeny-tiny without worrying about unraveling. I absolutely love the effect!

And finally, just in case you're interested, this is the pattern I used to weave the trim. I've already made two different lengths of it - the initial project was three yards long, and then I made another five yards for the bartered apron dress project. I love how simple and yet how nice it looks. At some point I will work up my nerve to start tablet-weaving, but for now I just adore how straightforward it is to have a simple back and forth project like this one.

The final result, finished just in time for Gulf Wars! The outfit camped really well, although I will make a couple changes to the other pieces. I am sad that one of the chains you see here - with the Viking needle case from Raymond's Quiet Press - went walkabout during the event. Hopefully it has a nice, caring new home and didn't end up in a ditch or something.