A Most Peculiar Mademoiselle

Giveaway

2012-02-12T15:50:00.004+01:00

Last April I promised to give away my brick stitch embroidery that I would make into a pincushion. It took me ten months to actually start the sewing, but this past Friday I did, and I finished it yesterday.

It’s embroidered in wool on a linen fabric, and the design is a 14^th century German one, the pattern of which can be found on the Medieval Arts and Crafts blog. The mustard fabric is a wool blend with a cotton interlining, decorated with simple embroidery at the seams. The pincushion has a base (8,5x9,5 cm) of cloth covered cardboard to prevent pins and needles to go through. The colours are not “me” as I said before (which is why I’m giving it away in the first place), but I still think it has a certain what’s it.

The pincushion is not medieval. I’ve never seen one in pictures, so I’ve no idea if they even existed, or how they looked if they did (if anyone knows more than me about this, please tell me). It can however give a medievalish flavour to your modern day sewing table, box or basket.

If you would like the chance to receive this, please post a comment. The giveaway is open until midnight Sunday next (19 February), after which I will randomly pick a winner.

An Old Shift and a New Pair of Socks

2012-02-10T14:23:00.005+01:00

After finishing the pillow cases I posted about before, I decided to make nursing slits in one of my medieval shifts. You can sometimes see nursing slits in period art, situated on the dress in front of each breast, and as you have to be able to gain access through the shift as well, I decided to make some in mine. I put them slightly to the side, to prevent the breasts from poking through. I have heard of reenactors making one deep slit in front, or a neck opening wide enough to pull down, as well as nursing slits, but for me, this seems the most discreet and warm method – I wouldn’t want to risk blocked milk ducts…. (I had it last week, and it was unpleasant, I felt really ill, and it hurt!) As my dresses laces in front I think I’ll be able to wear them unaltered while nursing.

I made the nursing slits by simply cutting a slit where I wanted it (following the grain of the fabric exactly to prevent stretching), cutting a corresponding slit in a narrow strip of linen, folding each under three millimetres or so, and whipping them together. I then sewed the outer edges of the strip to the shift. I suppose you could just sew buttonhole or blanket stitches around the edges of the slits, or make simple hems, but this seemed the best method to make them strong as well as preventing them from gaping more than necessary. I’ll let you know how they work out in action.

Right side of nursing slit

Wrong side of nursing slit

This past week’s project has been a pair of needlebound (nålbundna) socks for Tobias. They’re made from wool yarn, bought at an outrageously low price at our local grocery store of all places. This is my second pair of needlebound socks, and I think these turned out better than the first pair. Not perfect though, the heel on one of them turned out a bit funny, but it won’t affect the fit that much. I think my needlebinding will improve with practice though, I felt I understood the technique much better this time. We have not yet decided if we will full them or not.

I love my wooden needle, it's a joy to work with :)

I have a long list of things I want to do now, but although I may have time to sew by hand or needlebind when little B is sleeping close to me, he sometimes find it hard to come to rest if not in my lap. That effectively prevents me from doing more advanced things, like drafting patterns, cutting out new dresses or machine sew, so we’ll see what the future may give me opportunity to work on.

Blue Pillows

2012-02-06T06:52:00.012+01:00

A couple of weeks ago or so I finished two pillow cases I’d been working on.

One of them is the patchwork one I wrote about earlier. I did a chain stitch embroidery with "Once upon a dream" in Swedish. Most of the fabrics used were once clothes belonging to me or one family member or other.

The second one has a simple strip of cotton plaid, appliquéd with spaced back stitches to a herringbone cotton fabric, with folded fabric strips between, like flat piping. Simple, but I like it very much. Again, the fabrics used to be clothes of mine. Waste not….

These little things I’ve been able to do when little B is sleeping in my lap or next to me on the sofa between feedings (so they’re all hand sewn). Sometimes it’s felt like I didn’t do anything but nurse, but here is clear proof that I do get to do other things :)

Jane Porter

2012-01-21T08:55:00.012+01:00

In December of 2008 I was going to a dress up party themed “Movie Characters”. For this some friends and I decided to dress up as various Disney girls. I made all the costumes; Belle (well, I’d made that one the year before), Briar Rose, Esmeralda, and Jane Porter. Now, at the time we didn’t take more than a few pictures that didn’t showed of the costumes very well at all, intending to take better ones later. That didn’t happen, and when I and two of the others married we moved away from the town we lived in, so I don’t have the possibility to make a photo shoot either. Ah well.

I did take some pictures of Jane’s dress the summer after. I have since planned to change a few details on the dress (add a better bustle and more petticoats for more poof, and altering the sleeves a bit) and take new pictures in a more interesting setting, but at first I couldn’t find the fabric, and then, what with being pregnant and now having little B, I haven’t been able to. So, since I don’t have much else to post about right now, I took some detail shots yesterday and am posting about it now, as it is.

The dress is the yellow bustle Jane wears when hacking through the jungle in Tarzan. I used 19^th century-inspired construction and sewing techniques, but deviated a bit from what is period correct, as this is just a dress up costume.

The main fabric is a cotton blend jacquard with a leafy pattern, which used to be curtains bought at a charity shop. The lining in the bodice is plain cotton, light linen lines the sleeves and the draped sections of the skirt, and another linen fabric (slightly padded) trims the overskirt in the back. The collar and tie are also made from linen. The embroidered edging peeking out from under the skirt was once part of another charity shop bought curtain. It’s trimming a petticoat attached to the skirt waistband. I’m afraid it’s got torn at some point, but I suppose I can blame the jungle undergrowth for that…

The bodice front has two darts on either side, and closes with self fabric covered buttons and hand sewn buttonholes. The collar should be tacked on, but since taking it of for starching once, I never got round to sewing it back, and it’s only pinned on at the moment.

The back has shaped seams, and the bodice is boned with cable ties. The “polonaise” is sewn to the back of the bodice.

The skirt is cut to lie smooth in front, is gauged in the back, and has a draped apron in front.

It closes with ties.

It has two sewn loops at the seam joining the skirt and waistband in front, which keeps the skirt and bodice from separating by two corresponding hooks on the inside of the bodice.

I also made boots for this costume. I bought a pair of second hand shoes, made the fake suede uppers and sewed them on at great pain and some bleeding. I also dyed a pair of tights lilac (hardly shows in this picture, though), as I couldn’t find any in that colour.

I wore the dress over a corset, a make-do bustle made from tulle (time and space limits in my suitcase prevented the making of a real one at the time), and a couple of petticoats. I had found short, white leather gloves to wear at the same charity shop that had the fabric and shoes.

The only thing I felt I really missed to complete the costume was a pith helmet…

One Month

2012-01-13T15:04:00.003+01:00

It’s been a month already since I had my baby. We have named him Birger (type it on Google Translate, choose Swedish, and you can listen to how it’s pronounced – it does not sound similar to burger…), an ancient Scandinavian name meaning something along the lines of “the one that helps” and “protector”; hopefully a fitting name for a future elder brother and, in the more distant future, husband and father. This first month he and I have mostly spent on the sofa, as he wants to breast feed pretty much all the time. Tobias has been wonderful, taking care of most of the cooking, washing up, laundry, taking B once in a while so I can get a nap, etc. He’s a brilliant husband and father. Now, slowly, B and I are getting into something of a routine, and I can get a few minutes here and there to do housework, or even a tiny bit of sewing.

For the time being, I keep to a very simple hand sewing project, which I can take up when I have a minute (usually when B takes a short nap in my lap before returning to his eating), and don’t need any thinking as to what I should do next. It’s a log house patchwork block, which will be made into a pillowcase. Traditionally, the middle square should be red or black. Mine is not traditional, and I use strips of fabric left over from another project, so I have to accept that I only have short strips of some fabrics, and so can’t always use them in the order I’d have preferred.

Not the most artistic piece of patchwork I’ve ever worked on, still, being able to sew again is a delight, even though I just manage to make a few stitches here and there. I use running stitches as decoration (there is no batting to quilt), which ads a nice finishing touch, I think. I’m thinking of adding some embroidery on the two light strips (which I don’t like) in the brown corner, to give the illusion of a darker shade that won’t stand out so much.

I do have a lot of time to plan future projects, though, so as soon as I have the time I’ll get cracking. I’ll need to make another 14th century shift for myself, a complete outfit for little B, some new things for Tobias, and I’d like to make some new summer dresses, fit for nursing.

Little Stranger

2011-12-20T21:24:00.001+01:00

This will just be a short post to announce that one week ago Tobias and I were blessed with a son. Baby and I stayed at the hospital for a couple of days, but our whole little family is happy to be together, and in our own quiet home rather than at the maternity ward (which was a nice enough place, but filled to capacity with parents and newborns, so quite noisy. Who knew December was such a popular month to be born in?). Now, we spend long hours holding him, learning to do things one handed, wondering at how perfect he is, working hard at making breastfeeding work, battling tiredness and trying to find a name that “is him”.

I suppose many of you would like to see a picture of him, but we have decided not to post private pictures of him on the internet; pictures taken in costume and/or at events an exception. This is to protect his privacy, and we consider costume and event pictures as being focused more on the costume or event than on him personally. So, my friends, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for pictures of him until he’s in costume….

Silver Linings

2011-12-10T22:13:00.006+01:00

Still no baby in sight. It has its upsides though, waiting. I managed to finish a new wool winter skirt a few days ago. I’ll mostly just show you teaser pictures and hardly any descriptions of the different projects right now, as I want proper pictures taken post baby.

After finishing the skirt, I found there’s no point in me starting any new projects right now, as I might not have time to finish them in a foreseeable future, so this past week I’ve been working on a couple of things from my “in progress-box”. I finally finished my corded petticoat, inspired by Sarah Jane making one recently. It took me long enough, though of course, I’ve had a lot of other projects in between. I’ll post about this separately and more in detail later.

I also finished an apron, for modern use, that’s been cut out ready to be sewn for a year or so. I have a regrettable tendency to spill or spatter when cooking, and rather an apron getting the worst of it than my clothes. The fabric was originally a couple of charity shop-bought cotton curtains, rather small but with deep hems and I made the most of them, so if you look closely, you can see the old stitch marks. Not that it matters in a working apron. As I wear skirts or dresses most of the time (when I’m not having a very lazy stay-at-home day and wear old sweat pants) I like my aprons slightly flared and long enough to cover them.

I cut the pocket and waistband/ties on the bias, for visual interest. To prevent the sewing thread in the ties breaking when the apron is being used, I had to keep them well stretched when sewing them, so the seams look a bit loose when not under stress. I was a bit unsure about having ties cut on the bias, but I’ll think it’ll work ok.

I made a decision recently to try and make peace with my sewing machine, and have since tried to sew more things on it rather than by hand than I did before. Thus, the apron is mostly machine sewn. I must say it is pleasant to be able to finish things so quickly, provided the machine behaves itself properly, and I think I’ll be able to learn not to mind the more clumsy hemming (on some things) that is one of the draw backs. I might even become good at sewing on the machine... I’ll try and reserve hand sewing to historical clothes that wouldn’t look right without it and other things that really does look better hand sewn. I believe my elderly self will thank me for it in future. Besides, depending on baby’s personality, I might not have very much time for sewing for a while, and must make as good a use of what time there is as possible. That being said, I’m spending the evening working on my regency stays – by hand.

Winter Coat

2011-12-06T20:36:00.007+01:00

Last time I mentioned I’d finished my winter coat, and today, I finally got some pictures of it.

The coat was made using herringbone wool in grey and off white, which I had in my stash. I didn’t have very much of it, just 150x180 cm (about 59x71”), which presented a problem. I like my coats to be long (usually longer than this), as I get cold easily, and prefer them to be wide at the hem as I wear skirts or dresses with a bit of width most of the time. The answer was to use a different fabric for the details (collar, placket, belt and sleeve ornaments). This fabric, gray wool, was also one I had in my stash, and as with the herringbone fabric, there was just enough to squeeze the pieces I wanted from it. In fact, I had so little of either fabric that I had to use a third woollen fabric for the facing on the front and the collar. It took quite some time to work out how to make a coat out of so little fabric, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I would have preferred a bit more width at the hem, but beggars cannot be choosers….

My poor fingers are so swollen that I can't wear my rings...

they have to be worn on a chain round my neck.

To make ultimate use of the main fabric, I cut it in as few pieces I could, which meant only two in front, two in back. From the little fabric left, I made a pleated gusset, inserted in the centre back from the waist down, to add a tiny bit of width. It’s very slim, which is my main regret with the coat, (so I won’t post a picture of it, though you can see a hint of it in the side shot below) but I really didn’t have any more fabric.

As I’m very pregnant right now, I didn’t make any darts at the waist, just from the shoulders. Instead I made a sort of belt, that can be adjusted to my hopefully soon slimmer figure, by moving the buttons in front. Hopefully it’ll work as planned, so I won’t have to look like a tent the whole winter.

The buttons in front are not functional, as I couldn’t think of a clever way to make them sit right on the contrasting placket while using buttonholes, and it would look silly if they were off centre. Instead I used rather big hooks and sewn bars, which so far have worked very well. The buttons just add visual interest. As you see, the lining is a vivid pink, just for fun.

More visual interest is found at the sleeves, where a band from the grey wool is decorated with a self fabric sewn bow and a button.

The other day a lady came up to me and asked where I’d bought my coat, which was flattering. She wanted one for her niece, who is also pregnant, and is having difficulty finding a coat that will close.

On Saturday the baby is due, but I doubt he or she will arrive in time, as I and all my siblings were more or less late. I’ll just have to practice patience a bit longer, and hope to scrape up enough energy to finish a skirt I’m working on, and looking forward to wearing when I have the resemblance of a waist again.

Amigurumi Bunny

2011-11-24T08:46:00.007+01:00

Well, my dear readers, it’s been a whole month since I last posted – time does fly. I don’t have much excuse to give but the fact that I’m very “big with child”, is tired most of the time (I usually take a one or two hour nap each day), and don’t get as much sewing, knitting and crocheting done as I’d like, if any. At the moment I’m having short periods of intense energy, followed by periods of exhaustion and sleepiness. Sigh. However, a couple of days ago I did finish my number one priority project, my coat (at long last), and hopefully I’ll get pictures of it shortly.

I have also made a little something for the baby; I crocheted a bunny to be hung over the pram. I had planned to make three, but then thought it would take up too much room – I prefer to be able to see the baby, and for the baby to be able to see its parents. Only the one rabbit would look a bit lonely, though, so Tobias suggested I made a couple of carrots as well. I liked the idea, and a bunny with one carrot on each side is what I made.

The bunny is made from this pattern (in Swedish, sorry), using cotton yarn. The eyes are special safety eyes for amigurumi, so baby won’t be able to pull them out and choke on them. The bunny faces into the pram on purpose – it’s supposed to be there for the baby’s sake after all. Not that it’ll care much the first weeks... I improvised the carrots, and am pretty pleased with how they turned out. The material for them is bamboo silk, from a set of six small balls of yarn, a present from a friend. Orange is not usually “my” colour, but for this it was perfect.

I have noticed most of my yarns and fabrics are in pretty muted colours, which I like, but might not be very interesting for a small child. Luckily it will have grandmothers, aunts and friends of its parents that will provide more interesting colours in toys and such.

I now have just little over two weeks until due date, so in theory, the baby could arrive at any time from between tonight and Christmas. I would much prefer tonight over Christmas, but it’ll come when it’s ready. I try to keep a balance between keeping busy with amusing things and taking enough time to just rest. It’s an interesting time, and one I try to savour as much as possible.

Baby Blanket and Penguins

2011-10-24T18:53:00.005+02:00

A long while ago (before Tobias and I started dating even) I began a baby blanket, as a sort of “when I don’t have the energy to do anything that requires much thinking” project. On Saturday I finally finished it, having worked on it more intently for a while. It is made from cotton yarn bought in a charity shop, in (what is directly translated from Swedish) double moss stitch – is that the right term in English as well, or can someone educate me?

Around this is moss stitch, and as a finishing touch is a crochet border. In the picture below the colour of the blanket is closest to what it is in real life.

The soft toy penguins are not made by me, but by a friend who will let you adopt one for 7$ (or more if anyone should feel particularly generous). This she does to raise enough money so that she and her husband will be able to afford to adopt a child. They have always wanted a big family, only to learn at age 24 and 29 that they couldn’t get biological children. Blessed as I am with no apparent problems in that department, my heart really goes out to those who have difficulties having biological children for any reason, and I’m very much impressed with how well my friends seem to cope with it. If you are at all interested in their project, go to their homepage (only in Swedish at the moment), or their Facebook page (in English as well). Future aunts, uncles and grandparents are also involved in the project "Lilla Längtan" (Little Longing), and are currently working on a CD with children’s songs, and the profits will go to the adoption of this much longed for child.

After a lot of rain, we’ve had a few sunny, but rather chilly days, though today was slightly more cloudy again. I love autumn when it is like this, the colours are amazing and the air clear and crisp. I’m so happy I live in a country with seasons!

Duchie Award

2011-10-23T07:34:00.003+02:00

I got another award – there seems to be a lot of them going around at the moment. This time it’s the Duchie Award, for “excellence in historical costuming and bloggery”.

It was given to me by Edyth at The Completely Dressed Anachronist. Thank you for very kind words about my blog!

So, when receiving the award you must post:

- Five things you love about historical costuming

- At least three blogs to pass the Duchie Award onto

- A link back to the blogger who awarded you the Duchie

I did the last one already, so for the other two; first why I love historical costuming, in no particular order:

- I feel much more comfortable in clothes from almost any other era than the present one – mostly I believe, because clothes were usually made to fit the individual, and therefore looked better (and still do) than the clothes you buy of the rack. Women’s clothing was also more feminine and elegant than is usually the case today. I make a good many of my every day clothes myself for those very reasons, better fit and more feminine/elegant. Another reason I love historic costuming may be that in some ways I feel more related to the women of the past than to the women of this time, especially when it comes to moral guidelines.

- I love history and I love sewing – historical clothing becomes a natural way to get closer to the people and conditions of times past. I’m not completely romantic though, I know very well history has had quite as many horrid sides as good ones, and small parts of both the good and the bad can also be experienced through costume.

- It is very meditative to sew stitch after stitch by hand (as long as you’re not on a fast approaching deadline); it keeps your hands and eyes occupied, but leaves your mind free to wander freely, meditating on the things in your life. It is also a nice occupation while watching a movie.

- The construction itself is beautiful to look at, and to create. Weather it’s the sewn down seam allowances on a medieval kirtle, the lining of an 18^th century shortgown, the finely pleated upper sleeve of a gown from the 1840’s or the deceptively simple elegant lines of a WWII dress.

- There is nothing like working with natural materials. Wool and linen are my favourite materials, but cotton and silk is nice to work with as well. And man made materials stand no chance compared to the natural ones, no matter if the weather is freezing cold or warm and humid – the natural materials will in my experience always be more comfortable.

And now the tricky part – I’ve seen this award go to many great bloggers and costumiers already, but so far not any Scandinavians. So today, two Swedes and one Finn.

- Neulakko – a Finnish woman, lost in the 14^th century, with interesting posts on costumes and events. She writes in English as well as Finnish, so check out her blog.

- Historisk dräkt och Hantverk – this is the blog of my friend Mikael, who makes very nice costumes, based on a lot of research, all well documented. His posts are both in Swedish and English, so if you’re interested in medieval-, Swedish folk- or the occasional other era costume, check out his blog.

- Idas Hantverk – only in Swedish, but if you ever saw a person skilled in many areas, she’s one of them. Making mostly medieval outfits, she doesn’t limit herself to sewing or weaving, but does various kinds of metal work as well to complete her outfits.

Hope you enjoy getting to know these bloggers and their lovely work!

Socks and Mittens

2011-10-10T13:51:00.004+02:00

Lately, I’ve been working on a pair of socks and mittens for the baby. I used free patterns on DROPS’ homepage as a base as I’m not very accomplished in knitting, but changed quite a few things. The design in purl stitches (the same on both socks and mittens), for example, is typical for spedetröjor, stockings and other things in Scanian folk costumes. A nice touch of local and ancestral history I think – and I like how it looks.

The yarn is soft, non-itchy, light grey merino wool. I made the socks knee high and the mittens elbow high, as they’re likely to fall off if I’d made them shorter. The mittens have no thumbs, as I think that is very impractical in newborns and tiny babies that will have their hands tightly closed most of the time anyway. Besides, it’s warmer not to separate the fingers and thumbs. I also made a safety cord (in lucet) so the mittens won’t get lost.

I’m afraid there might not be much historical content here for a while. Not that I don’t have a long list of projects my fingers itch to begin (or finish), but I need to make myself a winter coat, knit mittens and a cap as the frost is hiding just around the corner, and I still have a few things I want to make for the baby. Also, many of the historical things I’d like to sew require stays or corsets, and a non-pregnant figure, so it’ll have to wait. Sigh. Maybe I can make a cap or two…

The good thing is, from this week, I’m no longer working, so I can take a rest or a nap in between sewing/knitting/cooking/cleaning etc. Much needed, as I’m growing more tired again and have frequent (though harmless) contractions. The fact that I have time to rest also gives me the energy to actually do some sewing/knitting/cooking/cleaning, which have been down to a bare minimum before.

Baby Quilt

2011-10-01T11:33:00.007+02:00

A couple of years ago I started on these log house blocks, with the intention to make a quilt to snuggle up in on the sofa in winter. Then some months ago I changed my mind, and decided to make a baby quilt instead. I worked on it intently for a week or so, assembling the log houses, adding strips of fabric to the edges, and quilting it. Then I lay it aside, not wanting to finish the edges until the pregnancy was more certain. Now I’m so far gone that baby would most likely make it even if it would decide to come early, and so I started working on it again a few days ago, and finished it yesterday.

The quilt is assembled from 36 different fabrics, all but the back small scraps from my stash. I prefer quilts made from scraps, especially if they are from old clothes worn by family members. In this quilt, beside a few brand new scraps, there’re pieces from an old skirt my mother wore when I was little, skirts and blouses worn by me and a sister as children, and skirts I made and wore in high school, as well as some things bought in charity shops because I liked the fabrics. I like how the different pieces of fabric are in different stages of wear, some having marks from being tucked or sewn. It adds life to the finished quilt.

The quilt is hand sewn and hand quilted. The colours are some of my favourites, wine reds, blues, browns, and greens, all in muted shades.

The quilt is not perfect (a conscious effort not to try and do everything sewing related perfect for a change – very liberating I must say), some of the blocks being crooked and the quilting not following the blocks slavishly, but somehow it gives character. I really, really like this little quilt.

I think it will look very nice in the pram this winter.

Blog Award

2011-09-28T12:17:00.005+02:00

A few weeks back Brooke at Stitches of the Past gave me a blog award, but I’ve had so much to do and think about (not to mention how tired I am now) that I haven’t had time to thank her yet. Brooke – thank you, it’s nice to be appreciated!

The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

So, the five bloggers I choose are (in alphabetical order):

dressingthe1840s.blogspot.com

haandkraft.blogspot.com

idashantverk.blogspot.com

myaustendreamworld.com

zipzipinkspot.blogspot.com

There are many more bloggers I like, but many of them have already been awarded, some have more than the maximum 200 followers, and some I’m just not sure would care very much about a virtual award :)

First Try at Amigurumi

2011-09-17T21:29:00.005+02:00

I have long been impressed with the lovely Japanese crocheted soft toys, called amigurumi. They are so cute, charming or fun, and admittedly, sometimes plain odd or weird. I have been thinking of trying it at some point, but I’m not very good at crocheting, so I never really dared. Then, last night, I was at a baby shower for a friend, and her mother had made the most darling little turtles in this technique, to be hung on a mobile for baby’s crib.

This afternoon I decided I would try. I don’t have the pattern for the turtles, so I browsed the internet to see if I could find something cute and simple as a first project. There are a lot of patterns for turtles, but I fell in love with the ones I saw at the baby shower, and will hope to get the pattern for those. I found this duckling instead, and it wasn’t as hard to make as I’d thought.

It’s not perfect, it has a few flaws here and there, but for a first time project I’m happy with it. The colours, though I like them, are perhaps not the most interesting, especially not for a baby, for witch this is intended, but it was all I had (or was willing to sacrifice on this trial run) in my stash.

This was perfect occupation for me this afternoon, as I’m having a severe cold again, and tiresome contractions. I believe there will be more amigurumi in my future.

Baby Shoes

2011-09-14T20:49:00.004+02:00

In the beginning of 2009 I made a couple of pairs of baby shoes, just for fun. I made the pattern myself, and the shoes were made from scrap pieces of wool, with a linen or cotton lining. Now, it seems I’ll finally be able to put them to use.

The green pair is made from wool felt, with a flowery cotton fabric as lining, sewn together with embroidery floss, and with ties braided from the same floss. Though lined with flowery fabric, they can work for both a boy and a girl – the flowers won’t show when the shoes are worn anyway, as Tobias said.

The purple pair are made from a thinner wool fabric, lined with lilac lightweight linen, and embroidered with embroidery floss, organza ribbon and glass beads. They, too are sewn together with embroidery floss, have braided ties from the same floss, but are decorated with a bead at each end. Not baby-proof, but the shoes are so tiny, that a baby is not likely to have found her feet yet when they are worn.

These would not work for a boy, at least not in our day and age.

Since we don’t know (and don’t want to find out until it’s born) if our baby will be a boy or a girl, last week I decided to make a pair that would suit a boy. This pair is made from medium weight greyish brown wool, lined with plaid cotton shirting; again, they are sewn together with, and have braided ties from embroidery floss. They also have simple embroidery from that same floss. They could work just fine on a girl as well.

I really like these little shoes, and will very likely make more, in different sizes. I think the next pairs I make will have every piece edged with a bias strip of the lining fabric, or a matching one, before being sewn together. That could look nice.

Medieval Festival at Borgeby Castle

2011-09-12T16:41:00.013+02:00

So, as promised, here comes my account of the event the weekend before last. It went very well for the most part, but I was in various degrees of pain for much of the time, most of it in my lower back, caused by the pregnancy. Luckily it didn’t lessen my enjoyment in the weekend all that much, though it was a relief to come home again.

The location for the event was perfect, with beautiful buildings and big grassy grounds. As I said before, it had rained quite a bit during the week, so the grass was wet and the ground very soft when we pitched our tents in the dark late Friday night. We then had some pizza, stuffed our straw mattresses with, well, straw, and went to sleep.

I must say I really like our straw mattress; it is such a difference from just folding a blanket around a bunch of straw, which slides away as you sleep. It also has the additional advantage of not getting straw in all your things. My sleeping badly and waking up with pains in my back and hips had more to do with the fact that I’m pregnant and generally uncomfortable right now when trying to sleep, than with any deficiency in the sleeping arrangements.

As we woke up Saturday morning, we gradually changed into our 14^th century clothes as we made and ate breakfast; porridge with apple sauce, milk, bread, butter, cheese and sausage. Some of us also had a second breakfast of leftover pizza.

Picture by Elin

As the event opened, we were all fully dressed for the Middle Ages, all our 20^th century items hidden away in baskets, carry sacks or in the cars, and occupied with some period craft, cooking or fighting practice.

I, who could not help with some of the heavier chores due to contractions, spent my time hemming and marking a new towel for the company. They always seem to disappear, or getting worn out….

As I’ve said before, the aim of our group is to educate the public (as well as having a splendid time ourselves), and we had a couple of short lectures each day. One was on medieval wrestling and close contact fighting, with or without daggers or other things that could be used as weapons, like hoods and ladles. That one was a blast, even for me who don’t really care about that sort of thing.

The other lecture we had was on late 14^th century clothing. I was one of the lecturers on Sunday, and we used most of the present group members outfits as examples of typical and varied details of dress. Fun, but didn’t draw quite as many people as the fight – no surprise there…. A few people were genuinely interested though, and came up to us and talked afterwards and got a closer look at materials, stitches, cut and colours.

Picture by Elin

There were two memorable events during the weekend, both involving hand guns. The first happened the first morning; the program stated quite clearly that we’d fire guns at 11 am. Somehow, the knights had missed this, and also missed the calls made of shots going to be fired. Let me just say, that those guns are loud. The result was a horse getting loose, and running wild over the field. Ooops… Luckily, neither the horse, nor any person or property was damaged. The second was at another shooting exhibition. The recoil on the guns are apparently very strong – one of the guys was shooting, next second he’s looking down into his empty hands, with a puff of smoke hanging in front of him, and the gun lying on the ground a couple of meters behind him. Someone managed to get pictures of this, but regrettably I don’t have them. I did see it happen, though, and it was hilarious. A good lesson to everyone not to stay too close to fire arms… Of course, hand guns in the 14^th century looked and worked slightly differently than in later centuries, or this would not have been possible…

Picture by Elin

The rest of the festival was as you might expect a “medieval” festival to be, with nothing interesting for sale for the serious reenactor. However, if you were a five year old interested in polyester princess gowns and sequin maille, you were in the right place. We did, however, have a very good time, having set up our camp at a little distance from the rest, and having really nerdy discussions about the wages of hand gunners in the 14^th century, period clothing, sewing techniques, food, armour and weapons. We made a lot of period food, which visitors were miffed not to be allowed to taste for insurance seasons.

Picture by Elin

My sister in law made herself useful, and liked, by helping with preparing the food, and looking after the four year old daughter of one of the group members. She had a good time, and she looked lovely in 14^th century clothes. It was fun to have her with us.

Picture by Elin

Now we don't have any more events to attend this year - well, there will be a feast in December, but it'll be about the same time as baby is due, so we're not very likely to attend that.

Our Late 14th Century Outfits

2011-09-05T09:09:00.007+02:00

I’m working on a post of our last event, and am hoping to borrow a picture or two from some of the other members of the group. In the meanwhile, here’s a description of mine and Tobias’ outfits, all of it hand sewn. Peter, one of the group members, said we looked the part of a lesser bugher couple, which I guess has some truth to it. Tobias is wearing his blue, front laced cotehardie, green hose and a grey bag hat. I’m wearing my yellow kirtle, and over that the reddish maroon, short sleeved dress I've been working on lately, also front laced. I’m wearing a wimple and a veil as well.

The lacing on Tobias’ wool cotehardie. There are 50 eyelets, and the cord is made from finger looped wool yarn.

Eight cloth buttons on each sleeve, and buttonholes. I had some help in making the buttons from Mikael, at the event in Varberg two months ago, as I was running out of time, and he had nothing to do at the moment. Let’s just say his buttons are much nicer than mine…

The lacing on my over kirtle. It has 42 eyelets on it. Since making the cord for Tobias’ cotehardie, I learned how to make lucet cords, and this is what I use to lace my kirtle, again made from wool yarn. Tobias thought it was fun to take the picture at this angle, as it showed of the baby bump...

I was thinking long and hard on what kind of sleeves I wanted on this dress. One part of me wanted full length sleeves, but wasn’t sure how that’d look worn over the buttons on my yellow kirtle. When I looked at pictures, shorter sleeves usually had some sort of tippets on them, and that’s just not very practical for a soldiers wife working around camp. I’d seen a lot of reenactors with short sleeved kirtles worn over full length sleeves of the kirtle beneath, but you can’t use other interpreters as source material. When asking for advice, Maria pointed out that there are examples of shorter sleeves without tippets in the Herjolfsnes finds. Yes of course... I knew that. Finally some proof – I went for that.

A while back I wrote about us ordering new shoes for both of us, and pins for me, and this was our first time using our new purchases. I used my pins to secure the wimple and veil – I don’t have any proof for this, but I secured the wimple to my dress as well, to keep it in place.

Wimples are far from mandatory on married women in the late 14^th century, but you can still see them on some married and widowed women of all ages even in the 15^th, so I consider it safe to use. I think it looks nice, and I also find it strangely comfortable (especially on a cold, windy day...). Not that I don’t think it a relief to take it all of after an event, but in this setting, I like it.

Pre Event Sewing

2011-09-01T14:21:00.005+02:00

I’ve had/have quite a bit of sewing to finish this week before our event on Friday. Well, it’s not been that much, I know of a few people who could pull of a whole lot more, but I haven’t really been feeling my best lately, as you know, and don’t do too good under pressure at the moment, so it’s been quite enough as it is. I had to finish my over kirtle (I finished the sleeves a couple of days ago, and as I write I’m half way through hemming it – Tobias helped me cut the hem to length last night), and then I got a little late extra sewing.

Tobias’ little sister will be coming with us, and we have had to quickly improvise an outfit for her. She has the same size in shoes as I do, so she’ll be able to use my old ones, and luckily she’s tall enough that she can wear one of my old wool cottes without alteration; it’ll do very well when tucked up over a belt, and possibly with the sleeves folded back a bit. I’m sure that must have been a common enough practice for growing children back in the days. The linen smock she’ll be borrowing however (one that is presently too tight for me…) had to have quite a deep hem put in it to prevent it dragging and being completely black after the weekend. A quick, functional, easy to take out again hemming was done two days ago.

Since autumn is coming, it’s beginning to grow cold. Some days are still very warm, but in the evenings you want something warm to wear, not to mention if it rains, and considering how the weather’s been the past week, it might. I only have one pair of women’s hose, but am trying to finish another pair in time. I made the pattern (trying to reach my foot and place pins where I wanted them proved difficult, as the baby bump was in the way), and cut out the pieces yesterday, and have started making them up today. It looks like I might get them done in time, and worst case, I was told that “there’ll be ten of us down there” and that with a joined effort, they could be done quickly on site.

As for headwear, she’s just a girl and don’t need anything for proprieties sake, but she might want something to keep her hair in order or keep warm – or just because it’s fun. I’ll bring an extra kerchief and she might borrow mine or Tobias’ hoods.

The one area where I feel a bit worried is when it comes to outerwear. None of us have anything at the moment – I have fabric in my stash waiting to be made into a coat-kind-of-thing for Tobias, but there’s no chance of getting it done before this weekend. I guess we’ll have to be pretty much stuck in one of the tents if it rains. The best we can do is to hope and pray for it not to rain, or at least not rain very much.

So, a bit busy, but very exited for the weekend! Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of us this time, so you'll get a good look at our outfits.

Weaknesses

2011-08-25T19:14:00.003+02:00

An event is coming up on Friday eight days, and I’m really looking forward to it. Tobias’ cotehardie is done, and my over kirtle is slowly getting there as well. I have the sleeves and the hemming left, and the cord for the lacing, but the dress itself and all of the eyelets are done. I have even made a straw mattress for us – I cheated and used the sewing machine on the non-visible seams.

It might not seem like much, but I have been very tired, both physically and mentally, and I’m proud of myself for even getting this little done. For most of the past two weeks I’ve been home from work on sick leave, sleeping a lot, as it all became too much for me, and all I could do in the end was to sit by my desk at work and cry because I was so tired and didn’t know where to start that day’s work – and it wasn’t even that busy a day. Some of you may know I had a little sister who died six years ago after fighting cancer for seven years. I never really confronted the feelings and experiences I had during those years and final days, and my pregnancy related over sensitiveness combined with a demanding work (which includes situations reminiscent of my sisters treatments and hospital stays), just made it impossible for me to keep them away any longer. So I’ve been at home, and what a relief it has been! I have started to slowly look at and analyze my feelings concerning everything with regards to my sisters’ illness, and though painful at times, I’m sure I’ll feel much better in the end. I would really like to have most of this done by the time baby comes, so it can have a strong, healthy and happy mother.

"Sisters" by Morgan Westling

I am not really surprised at my reacting on this – it’s well known through lots of studies that siblings are usually the ones suffering most when a child has cancer, more so than both the ill child and its parents, but it still feels a bit embarrassing to feel so week and frail… Luckily I have a loving and supporting husband and family, who comforts me and encourage me to talk about it. So even though I’m going through a bit of a rough spot, I feel that I am blessed and still a lot better of than many others in the world.

I would eventually like to use my experiences for good. I have long wanted to work with siblings of children with cancer, but realized it was still a bit too close to home. But some day in the future, when my children are growing up, it’s something I’d like to do. I’ll be home next week as well, and after that I’ll go back to working, but just part time to start with.

So, you’ll have to excuse my lack of posts recently, and take my promise that I’ll post soon enough, and then there will be pictures and descriptions of my latest projects.

Illnesses

2011-08-05T14:15:00.005+02:00

For the two weeks before this one I’ve been home from work, with a fever and a cough. Last Monday, feeling a bit better, I went back to work, and was there for two and a half days before I was sent home on Wednesday, this time with probable tonsillitis. No one at work was surprised at this, as most new employees at the paediatric ward get ill frequently the first year or so, catching everything the children have. After a time, the paediatric nurses hardly ever take ill, no matter how many children cough, sneeze, and are sick or otherwise on them. I went to see a doctor today, who confirmed tonsillitis, and told me to stay home from work until my symptoms are gone. As tests showed it's likely caused by virus, antibiotics wouldn't help.

Now, there’re so many things I’d have liked to have worked on when I was home for so long, but for most of the two weeks I felt too poorly to do anything but sleep and play solitaire on the laptop. This time round, I feel pretty well, with a moderately sore throat and tiredness being my only problems so far. Baby seems to be doing just fine though, kicking and doing summersaults when I’m still for too long.

I did design and begin a maternity dress a week ago, but unfortunately the needle on the sewing machine snapped, and it was the last one I had. I still haven’t gotten myself to a place where I can buy new ones, and with all the period hand sewing, I don’t feel like making this one by hand as well. It’s on hold for the time being. The dress will be made from the plaid fabric, and in the design to the right, if you can see it in the picture.

One happy thing though: when coming home from his night shift yesterday, Tobias had picked up a parcel with re-enacting things we’d ordered! New 14^th century shoes for both of us, ten brass pins for my veils and wimples, as well as a few things we had offered to order for a couple of friends.

The first weekend of September will take us to our second and possibly last event this summer. Not that much, but when you don’t have the funds, or get time off of work, you have to be grateful for the events you can attend. We’d have loved to go to the Battle of Wisby that begins this weekend and goes on for the whole of next week, but I have to work. Sigh. Anyway, as I still haven’t finished the lacing and buttons/buttonholes of Tobias’ tunic, and my over kirtle is just half done, that’s what I’ll be focusing on as far as sewing goes in the near future – if my health allows.

Varberg 2011

2011-07-10T06:58:00.006+02:00

Last weekend Tobias and I joined Albrecht’s Gunners at Varberg castle for an event. As I forgot to take any pictures, I’ve borrowed a few from others. Excuse the jumbled telling of the event, but I’ve been ill and tired most of the week, and unable to make it any better.

It was the same event I went to last year, and though I say it myself, our group was the most period correct thing there. Still, it was very, very nice, with pleasant people, and fun activities on our program. We had been asked to have lectures on medieval costumes, and as we do late 14^th century, our main focus was on that. I held the lecture on Saturday, and asked six members of our group to be models. For my first time trying anything like this I think it went pretty well, though I can improve quite a bit with practice.

Albrecht’s also had a class in medieval dancing, and since most of us knew little or nothing of the matter, the girls who would host this class taught us first, which was great fun. I’ve always liked dancing, and dancing with your husband is especially pleasant. Now, dancing in the Middle Ages was a group business, with everyone holding hands in a line or circle. Not one boy dared try it when we held the class and not many girls either. I guess that kind of dancing is strange to them in this day and age when dancing mostly means you stand opposite someone else and jump around looking like a fool….

I had been in such a hurry to finish Tobias’s clothes, and when we finally went, the cotehardie still wasn’t done. It lacked some eyelets, and had no buttons or buttonholes at all, and the hem was not even half finished. I worked hard on it before everyone had arrived so we could put our camp up, and again the next morning. I got all the hemming done, but decided to leave out the buttoned sleeves for now, and sew them shut, as was done previously in the 14^th century. I didn’t get all the eyelets I wanted done either, but enough to make the garment wearable. Tobias helped, in hemming his shirt, so I wouldn’t have to stress over that. I’m a bit biased, but I thought he looked so handsome. Sadly, as I didn’t take any pictures myself, I never got a good picture of him. We hadn’t had time to get him any shoes, but another member of the group brought a reserve pair that he could use, which was very kind.

The kitchen, always the heart of the home/camp. The tent of the jousters, our closest neighbours, in the background. Picture by Mikael.

I didn’t finish my over dress either, and had to make do with the sad excuse for shoes I wore last year. I did however wear a wimple for the first time in public, and I really liked it. My dress from last year still laced shut, but was tighter than when I made it. With the lacing open, I think it might work all season.

We were 13 people in our camp, and had five tents with us. The smallest was used to put all the food in, the two couples that were there each got one of the smaller tents, and the remaining men slept in one of the big tents, and the women in the other. I realized that I want to make a straw mattress for our next event – it looks more comfortable than just putting a blanket over the straw and hoping it will stay put, you won’t get straw on all your things, and it’s much tidier when you leave camp.

Food, of vital importance for a happy camp. Picture by Mikael.

I couldn’t help much in raising the tents, as it involves some heavy work, and in my present condition, it hurts when I over exert myself. So I was standing on the sidelines, feeling like I was avoiding work – at least I had a friend in feeling like a looser as one of the others is expecting as well. It was a tiny bit depressing though, I who love to work in camp. Ah well. Everyone was making jokes about ours being the fattest camp they’d ever seen (just wait until September – that will be a big camp, with us being two and three months from delivery), and making fun of us eating, sleeping and running to the bathroom all the time – in a kind way. I believe quite a few think it might be fun with a couple of babies in camp next summer.

The weather turned out better than we’d hoped. The night between Friday and Saturday it rained (but luckily not until we’d set up the tents), and the rain persisted a few hours into the morning. After that it was sunny and warm, except for a quick and heavy rain on Saturday evening, but due to the heat, it dried up quick enough. On Sunday it was very warm, and several of us women soaked our wimples and veils, to get some coo

lness. Most of the men rolled down their hose to knee level, and almost most of us rolled up our sleeves at some point. To tell the truth, we all looked pretty sloppy. A few had straw hats, and I borrowed one from one of the girls. I liked the shade it provided, but I’m not sure about the look…. It doesn’t give the feeling of a 14^th century Swedish woman to me, though I might be wrong. There is mention of straw hats on women in Norwegian sources; I’ve just not seen any pictures of them from Scandinavia.

Warm and dressed down people of the camp, and a guest in red. Picture nicked from the homepage of the event organizer.

There being so many of us, we had enough people to play a few medieval games after dinner one night. Most of them included some risk of injury, but luckily, no one got seriously hurt. A few might have walked away with a couple of bruises though. I’m not very fond of playing games myself, but I like to watch others play. On this occasion, it was so funny that I literally cried with laughter, and got such a cramp in my stomach.

Our next event will be in September, as we’ll miss the Battle of Wisby in August due to not getting time of from work. I’ll try to finish our outfits until then, but I have so many other things I’d like to sew and knit, like maternity dresses, baby clothes and blankets, and clothes from other periods. I think I should wait with the period clothes for a while though, if I want them to fit my post baby figure.

Too Much to Sew

2011-06-26T09:31:00.010+02:00

I have had very much to sew recently, and so far have had no time to take pictures or blog about it. Tobias and I are going to an event next weekend, and I still have to finish his tunic/doublet/cotehardie (what on earth should I call it?). So far I’ve only made the side and back seams, so I’m way behind. I also would like to have my over dress finished in time, but it’s looking dark so far. What with work taking up so much of my time, me being very tired when I get home, and having felt sick every day for more than eight weeks, my sewing has been irregular at best.

I also have a lot of other things I need to sew. If all goes well, we’ll receive an addition to our little family in December and hardly any of my usual skirts and dresses fits anymore. Most of them have been made to my measurements, and it didn’t take much for me to outgrow them. Sigh. At least I don’t feel sick that often anymore.

A couple of years ago I made a summer dress for casual wear, and now I remade it a bit. I raised the waistline, and added a flounce at the hem, as I wanted it longer now than when I first made it. The shoulder straps are the ties of the casing of the neckline (very adjustable, and should make it possible to nurse in as well, come that time), and there’s a drawstring at the waist, tying in the back. The skirt is a half circle, so there should be plenty of room for an expanding belly.

Yesterday we went to a friends wedding, and took the opportunity to get a few pictures of the dress. The surroundings were beautiful, one of the many small castles in this part of Sweden (mostly built by nobles in the 16^th and 17^th centuries).

The wedding reception was located in one of the old storage buildings, which was perfect. When I looked at the pictures just after Tobias had taken them I said something about looking so big, and he replied with a twinkle in his eye that it looked becoming on me. That made me laugh, but I’m grateful he like me even when I’m loosing my figure. Oh, how I’m looking forward to receive this little one! I pray that all will go well.

There were no toilet facilities in the old storage building, so we had to walk up to the castle for that. Now, Tobias and his family (as well as many others at the wedding) know the lady that runs things there, I know that there’s no one living in the castle anymore, and that it’s run mostly as a conference and kick of centre these days, so it shouldn’t have felt so intimidating, but I still felt weird walking up to the front door. It would have felt more natural to take the kitchen entrance. That being the case, I just had to have a picture of myself hesitating by the doors.

I guess that shows where I place myself on the social scale, huh? ;)

National Day

2011-06-06T18:57:00.007+02:00

Today Sweden celebrated its national day, and the local open air museum hosted a celebration with a multi cultural theme. It was very nice, with food, music, etc. from many different countries. I, who love national dress of every description, thought it was nice, though there could have been a greater variety in cultures represented.

I wanted to wear my folk costume (in public for the first time), and Tobias asked his dad if he could borrow his, and that was all right. My father in law’s folk costume is from an area (Vemmenhög) just next to where mine’s from (Oxie), so Tobias and I matched each other well. I thought he looked very handsome in it. It consists of a cotton shirt, a wool waistcoat, breeches, wool stockings, a wool coat, a silk neck kerchief, tasselled garters and a felt hat. He left the coat at home, it being such a sunny, hot day, 26 degrees C (almost 79 degrees F).

I, who planned to have some detail pictures taken of my costume, didn’t want to leave out the knitted sweater, but decided to wear it anyway. It was quite warm, but not unmanageable. Several people told us we looked nice and (on the way home, a lady even stopped her car to compliment us), some asked if they could take a picture of us, which was fun.

And now a couple of close up pictures of my costume.

Tomorrow I'll start working full time. More money for us to live on, but less time to be together. The modern way of life is odd; couples and families seem to spend most of their time apart… I can live with it temporarily, but how can those who live like this all their working lives manage?

A Pair of Hose, Revisited

2011-06-05T22:04:00.003+02:00

A short post to say that I (re-)finished the foot parts of the hose yesterday, and am very much pleased with them. They look several times better than before. As I said before, I really can't make the ankles any tighter, as Tobias can just get his feet through them now.

I didn’t bother with using the same kind of seam as the first time round, I just wanted them finished and done with now. I used strong, waxed linen thread for attaching the sole, and then folded both seam allowances up (having trimmed the “inner” one down to half), and secured by hemming stitches in wool. The hose are now done.

The next projects I have planned will be an over kirtle for me, made from the fabric Tobias is standing on in the above picture, and a tunic for him.

A Pair of Hose

2011-05-31T17:59:00.009+02:00

The fabrics I ordered arrived a weak ago, and I’ve since made a pair of separate hose for Tobias.

I first made a toile using plain cotton, and when that looked good, I used it as a pattern for the hose. They are cut on the bias, of course, to be as tight as possible without being restraining. The seams running up the back of the leg are sewn with unbleached linen thread, split and sewn down, with the same thread.

Though they don’t look that tight, I’ve had to make the seams extra strong a few centimetres' above the ankles, as they have both been split when trying them on while being sewn, so I really can’t make them any tighter, or the feet won't go in.

The upper of the foot part is also sewn on with linen thread, but I was running out of it, and wanting something left for the cotehardie, I decided to use wool from here. I split the seam as before, but used wool yarn to tack the seams down instead.

The sole was sewn using another kind of seam. Wanting this seam to be as flat and unnoticeable as possible, I simply overlapped the fabric pieces about one centimetre, and then sewn it on, using hemming stitches on both fabric edges. This makes a double seam, which is flat (and hopefully comfortable if the hose shift to the side, and the seam ends up under the foot), secure and neat. We’ll see how it works out.

I’ll have to redo both the soles though. When he tried the hose on today, we discovered I’d sewn them on the wrong way, so he has a right leg hose with a left foot sole and vice versa. You can see it in the first picture. How. Annoying. Is. That? I can’t imagine how I could have made a mistake like that. There’s nothing for it, but to unpick the stitches and do it all over again. Bleeh……

The top of the hose was again finished with wool. I used a finishing technique used in some of the Herjolfsnes finds. The hem is folded over once, and a strand (or more?) of wool yarn is laid on top of it and secured with the hemming stitches, also done in wool. This is a technique I’ve wanted to try for some time, and now I had a good opportunity. I don’t know if this technique was used at the top of hose, but it works and looks good (not that anyone will see it after all the clothes is put on).

The eyelets for the cord attaching the hose to a belt are made in the same wool yarn, and I had sewn a piece of linen fabric to the inside, to reinforce the eyelets. It’s only secured by the hemming and the eyelets; the bottom of it is unattached. The cord is made from the same wool yarn as I used for the sewing, and is made using the simplest finger looping imaginable. Nothing elegant at all at this point, but made just to be functional.

Tobias decided that using a belt for securing the hose was more comfortable than attaching them to the braies, and after seeing how they tugged at the braies-string, I can see his point. I never wore this kind of hose (prefering women's clothes ;) ), so I never knew, or thought about that. Now it seems the obvious choise as far as comfort is concerned. It looks pretty good, I think.

This picture is also the one that is most true to the real colour of the hose.

Wardrobe Plans

2011-05-21T09:49:00.007+02:00

For the past month and a half or so I’ve been planning and begun to sew a 14^th century outfit for Tobias. I’ve shown you the shirt already, but I’ve also made linen braies, a grey wool bag hat and am now working on a wool mustard hood with grey woollen lining. I’m still thinking on how to do the tablet woven edge on that one. I didn’t bother to iron anything now, so excuse the wrinkles. All the clothes have been hand sewn with waxed linen thread.

I used the Medieval Tailors Assistant as a guide in making the braies. I’m not sure how accurate they are, but they will only be glimpsed when worn under the rest of the clothes, so I think it will be ok.

They have a drawstring at the waist, and a slit on either side, to the front, so as to secure the hose to the drawstring.

The bag hat is of a kind seen in late 14^th century pictures. The construction is extremely simple, a deep pouch with the edge folded or rolled. The colour is not very exciting, but it’s what I had at hand, and will have to do for now. I worked with scrap pieces, so I had to sew a band to the bottom of the hat to make it deep enough. It won’t be seen when worn though.

The hood is inspired by finds from London and Herjolfsnes on Greenland. It’s made from what was left after I’d made my mustard kirtle last year. The lining is cut from another old kirtle, so there are a few seams in odd places, but that should be period acceptable, I think. I still haven’t cut the bottom of the cape properly.

So far I’ve been able to make everything from fabrics in my stash (which is good, since finances won’t allow us too much extravagance), but it will do no more. Yesterday I ordered some olive green wool for a pair of hose and some light blue wool for a cotehardie-kind of garment. With some luck and a bit of skill there might be enough of the blue left to make me a new pair of hose. Isn’t blue the most wonderful colour?

I also have to make an over kirtle for myself. The mustard one is all right on its own in daytime, while working, but in the evenings when it’s cooler, or for fancier events, I’d like to wear another kirtle on top of it. I have some dark red wool with a hint of brown in my stash which I plan to use. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather for a while, so I haven’t been doing as much sewing as I would have liked, but now we have our first event of the summer in little more than a month, so I really have to get a move on.

Tablet Woven Edge

2011-05-03T06:52:00.005+02:00

In many extant clothes from the middle ages (ex. from Herjolfsnes and London) some of the edges have been finished by a narrow tablet woven ribbon, sewn to the garment (using the weft) at the same time as it’s woven. I have long wanted to try this, but haven’t been able to work up the energy until last night. I’m making my husband a 14^th century liripipe hood soon, and I want to use this technique on it. Not to mess up on the real thing, I thought I’d better be a good girl and actually make a trial run first (I’m often way too impatient for that…). I plan to use thin-ish, easy fraying wool for his hood, and line it with another thin wool fabric, so I used fabric pieces of about the same quality in this experiment.

I won’t go into the basics of tablet weaving now – if you don’t know how it works, google it or look it up on youtube. I used three tablets, all four holes threaded with fine, three strand wool yarn that i had in my stash, folded in the edges of the fabrics a little, and then started weaving. Every time I had pulled the yarn through the warp threads, I made a tiny stitch through both the layers of fabric, so the weft thread really made a sort of circle: through the warp, stitch through the fabrics, turn the tablets, through the warp etc.

If this is how it was really done, and if I used the right number of tablets or warp threads, I don’t know, as I haven’t read any book about it yet (I must see if they have one at the local library), but it worked and looked very nice, I thought. Well, parts of it did not look nice, as I was experimenting with different ways of doing it, and some looked better than others. The above mentioned way was the one I liked the best for attaching outer fabric and lining. I know of a few things I might have done differently to give a better result, so I’ll do that next time. As you can see it’s not perfect, like the tablet weaving being done too tight for the fabric, but for a first try I’m pleased.

I also tried to just take a tiny stitch in one layer of fabric, so that every time the weft thread went through the warp, I also took a tiny stitch on that side: through the weft, tiny stitch in one layer, turn the tablets, through the warp, tiny stitch on the layer on that side, turn the tablets, etc. This made the two fabrics attach to the woven strand, but not to each other, and you could fold the two sides out from each other. Would work very well to attach the two sides of a purse, I think.

This way of finishing a garment looks pretty, and is very fun to do – even T. followed the process with interest. Now that I know that I can do it, I have to do some research on how to do it right. There are several different ways, from what I hear, but I’m not sure mine is one of them….

Garden Work

2011-04-24T20:45:00.006+02:00

For the past few days we’ve been visiting my parents. Spring has finally arrived for real, and for the past few days it’s been uncommonly hot, like summer. Perfect weather to work outside! Tobias and I helped with a few things.

One was fixing a constant (and free) water supply to the garden. My Dad had asked the owner of the woods just behind their house if he could put a hose in the tiny brook that runs through it, and it was fine. The hose runs from the brook, through the woods and into the garden, filling up big water tanks there. It’s a very good complement to the collected rain water.

Not to make the hose too obvious to idle passers by (in Sweden you’re permitted by law to walk anywhere you want, and pitch a tent for one night, even if the land belongs to someone else, as long as you don’t intrude on privacy, like getting too close to some ones house, or destroy anything, like cutting down living trees or letting livestock escape), we covered it with stones in the brook, and in the following days my siblings will help with putting it just under the undergrowth of the forest floor. Looks much better as well, who’d like a random hose running through the woods. The first day we worked together with Dad and little sister I, but yesterday Tobias and I worked by ourselves. While splashing around in the shallow water I caught a toad.

I caught a frog too, after a wild and dangerous chase at a very steep and slippery part of the brook. I didn’t get a picture of it though, it was much quicker than the toad, and jumped, slithered and swam to freedom while I tried to get my camera out.

In the garden, my parents have many places where they grow vegetables, fruits, berries, potatoes, etc. Several of them are neatly hedged in with wattle-work. A new fence was planned, and Tobias and I (who want that kind of fences in our future garden) were glad to try our skills at it. It was so much fun!

My Mum wanted an arch between two of the kitchen gardens, and on the evening of Good Friday I assisted Tobias and my brother A in making one. The plan is that it’ll be a base for hops to climb, and I think it’ll look very pretty.

After two days of working in the sun after being mostly indoors for the past half year, I now have the nice beginning of a farmers tan (which is usually the only kind of tan I ever get, as I normally stay out of the sun as much as I can). I so long for a house in the country with a big garden, where I can keep chickens and have a lot of room to grow things! It’ll have to wait some years though. But sometime….

Primary Coloured Brick Stitch

2011-04-05T09:40:00.004+02:00

Last week I started on a new embroidery. It’s in brick stitch, a technique seen in several 14th century German textiles. I began it mostly to see how it turned out (having bought the loose weave linen used as a base that day), first having some vague ideas to make a purse from it. The colours aren’t really “me” though, so after just a little while, I decided it’ll be a pincushion, to be given away at some future date. Stay tuned for that :)

The yarn is wool, and the pattern is really addictive to embroider. It’s simple, so once you have made a couple of repeats, you don’t need the pattern anymore.

Edited to add that I found the pattern on this excellent blog.

The Event of the Summer

2011-03-24T15:36:00.004+01:00

In 1361, Danish king Valdemar invaded Sweden’s biggest island, Gotland. The people tried to defend themselves, but lost to the professional soldiers of the Danish army. Thousands died. This piece of history has been the base for a yearly event since 1984, called Medeltidsveckan (the Medieval Week). The event is from what I’ve heard – never participated myself, a mixture of the good (lectures by historians and archeologists) and the not so good (fire-eaters and acrobats in jarringly inaccurate costumes, mostly bad markets, and tourists in crushed velvet dresses or sack cloth tunics). The main redeeming quality of it has been the case that Visby, the town where the event takes place, has the right “air”, because of its many medieval buildings, and so, every year, a few serious re-enactors and living historians participate.

This summer, though, a really good event will be located there. It’s 650 years since the battle in 1361, and this will be commemorated by a brilliant re-enactment, The Battle of Wisby. The standards for participation in the battles and staying in the living history camp are high, and since the organizers are all avid reenactors (including a few members of Albrechts Bössor, the group I’m with), I know it will be a really good event. Most Europeans with an interest in medieval living history and re-enactment probably know about this event already, but I still wanted to mention it.

Varberg, 2010. Picture by Elin.

Just looking at the pictures from the one event I managed to attend last year have me longing for this summer. Tobias and I really hope to be able to go to BoW, but it’s dependant on us getting time off from work.

So Passes a Great Hunter

2011-03-24T11:40:00.004+01:00

Anyone remember my cat Nils, that moved to my parents in the country when I started school last year? He’s lived there in happy freedom, coming and going as he pleased, with good hunting grounds, lots of people to pet him if he wanted, plenty of soft, warm places to take a nap in (preferrably a bed, armchair or sofa with a fuzzy blanket in it) and food to eat. He was a tiny little thing when I got him, but after running around outside for a year, he was a big, strong happy cat, and a very skilled hunter.

Nils, when he was a little cat living with me.

Last night a neighbour came by to tell my parents that Nils had been killed by a car. He is now mourned in various degrees by the whole family (from the sober “who’ll get rid of the mice and moles now?”, to much crying by my youngest sisters and brother). I didn't see him very often since he moved away, but I still feel a bit sad. At least I hope his death was a quick and painless one after a year of complete freedom.

Regency Stays - Eyelets

2011-03-20T18:56:00.004+01:00

We had lovely spring weather today, it was almost warm. I didn’t feel very well, so I had stayed behind from church, and for a little while I sat in the sun just inside the open balcony door, with a shawl over my shoulders, and a blanket over my knees, looking through “Nineteenth century fashion in detail”, which I borrowed on the library the other day. The sun made my head ache, but part from that it was lovely.

This week I have had a lot of school to do, and I’ve had a headache for four days. Still, I’ve managed to get some knitting and sewing done. I have sewn slanting boning channels on the back panels of my regency stays (the stays I’m mostly inspired by had them), and made the 32 eyelets. They are not the prettiest eyelets I’ve ever made, but they’ll do. The stays will be spiral laced, as that was most common. As you see, the eyelets are set far from the top, since I intend to cut it lower than it is now.

I hope I’ll get started on the bust gussets next week, but we’ll see. I start working tomorrow, on a paediatric ward. I’m really looking forward to it, but I’m a bit nervous as well. The ironic thing is that I’ve been a patient at that same ward almost 24 years ago, as my family lived in this town for a year or so back then. Some of my new colleagues (from what I’ve heard) may well have worked there at the time.

Even though I appreciate the opportunity to be working with what I’ve studied for, I can’t help feeling a slight regret that I won’t be a “housewife” anymore. This past month has been very precious to me. My irregular work hours mean that some days (like tomorrow) Tobias and I will hardly meet at all, and that feels very, very sad. I look forward to the time (somewhere in the unknown future) when I can be a stay-at-home Mum. But, since I also have the last course on my specialist nurse education to finish, and I’ll be doing that parallel with working, I’ll only work three days a week for a couple of months. I’ll hopefully be able to be at home some of the rest of the days of the week. And that possibility feels good :)

Birthday

2011-03-15T09:39:00.004+01:00

A couple of days ago it was my birthday. Tobias made me a surprise breakfast consisting of chocolate fondue with fresh apple, pear, raspberries and strawberries. That was such a nice way to start the day.

We had a pleasant, quiet day, both of us working on different projects. I made a pattern and mock up for an 18^th century shortgown. I had wanted to make the pattern for a couple of weeks, but couldn’t face putting on the stays. Now I did, and the fitting went very well, but when I took out the fabric I had thought to use for it (leftover from my 14^th century mustard kirtle), it wasn’t enough. Bleh. Well, at least I’ll have a pattern that fits perfectly when I do get a good fabric. I’ll use the other fabric for something else instead, most likely something 14^th century for Tobias. I don’t really want us to be wearing the same colours, but if I make something smallish, it might do.

That day we also made cinnamon rolls, vanilla rolls and apple/almond paste rolls. They were very tasty and very many. We brought some over to my in-laws, where we were invited to dinner yesterday, and we’ve put a lot in the freezer.

I made a “wedding shelf” in a cabinet in our living room. The Willow Tree figurine was a wedding present from my parents, and I’ve put my bouquet and wreath, and Tobias’ boutonniere on leftover scraps from my veil (not wanting to risk damage to the real thing). It looks nice, I think, and since we haven’t ordered any wedding pictures yet, this is our only visible memory of the day for now.

More interesting sewing posts will come, I hope; school will intensify the coming couple of months, and with luck, I’ll start work very soon.

Looking Forward to Spring

2011-03-06T18:46:00.004+01:00

The first two weeks of marriage has gone by fast, and we’re both adjusting to it very well. It hasn’t felt strange at all – the strange thing has been that it’s felt so natural.

I’ve started working on our wardrobes for the summer. I’m sewing a 14th century shirt for Tobias, in bleached linen. I only have a little hemming left on it.

I also finished a wimple I started on years ago - it’s made from the same half bleached linen the veil I wrote about last summer, and like that one, I’ve hung it up in the window to bleach a bit more (I would prefer it if they match). I’m a bit excited to be wearing a veil, like a proper married woman.

Both Tobias and I would like a garden eventually, but in the meanwhile, we’ll try to grow some herbs and veggies in our windows, and when it gets warmer, on the balcony. This week we sowed tomatoes, parsley, dill, and a few other things, and (after being from home since yesterday and nothing was visible) several little seedlings had come up this afternoon.

The tomatoes especially seem to grow quickly, they're an inch tall already. Interesting how thrilling such a simple thing can be.

Our Wedding

2011-02-23T08:57:00.012+01:00

So, dear friends and readers, I will give you a short and not so detailed account of the wedding. The pictures have been taken by my Mum, my good friend M, and my father in law. Since I don't like to post pictures of people who haven't given informed consent (whew, did I just sound like a nurse...), I'll only post a few pictures of Tobias and I.

As you already know, the wedding dress (with petticoat and corset) and veil where made by me. I finished the dress the day before the wedding, with a little help from Mum. Well, finished is a loose term in this case. According to Swedish superstition the bride is thought to cry as many tears in her marriage as she’s sewn stitches in her wedding dress - those of us who make our own dresses claim that tears can be of joy as well as grief. If, however, you do make your own dress, it must not be finished on your wedding day, and that was easily solved by not finishing the seams on the inside of the dress. Saved me a lot of time too, which was good.

My sister L made the wedding bouquet and the boutonniere for Tobias, while I made the myrtle wreath, and put some baby’s breath (which in Swedish is called brudslöja, bridal veil) in it. I made my own hair. Since my hair, while long, is not very thick, I used a hair piece to add volume to it in the back. I had braided my own hair when wet the night before, to give it some body, and with a lot of teasing, hair pins and spray, it actually stayed in place all day. Wow.

I was horribly nervous before the wedding, but that passed as soon as it began, and it was nothing but beautiful; we all cried and laughed a bit. In the LDS church we believe marriage can last eternally, not just "until death do you part", and looking at Tobias, knowing he could be mine forever made me so happy I couldn't stop crying, which made me quite a sight. He cried a bit too. Luckily we had limited the number of people attending to our parents and my sister L, and as they where as emotional as Tobias and I, it didn't matter. After the ceremony we had a photo shoot on the temple grounds, and as it was below freezing it was cold.

We had a simple lunch with our families (including all of our siblings and our grandparents), with a delicious mushroom soup made by a friend of our families (who acted as waiter with the help of his wife – thank you both so very much!), different kinds of pies made by our mothers, and then the most wonderful chocolate cakes made by my grandmother, who was regrettably ill, and couldn’t come. Our fathers gave short speeches, and when the tables where cleared away before the open house began, we had an improvised first dance to the music that were playing in the background.

Well, to tell the truth, after the soup and pies, everyone where so full they couldn’t eat cake just then, so we took a short break, and went to have more pictures taken. Did I mention it was cold that day??

We had decided to have an open house, rather than a real reception. That way everyone could come and go when they wanted, without feeling rude to be late or having to leave early. It also made it unnecessary to have a fixed program, and made the question of refreshments much easier. So the only thing we provided where music and semlor (a kind of pastry consisting of a sweet wheat bun, cut in two, with almond paste and whipped cream in between and powdered sugar on top - google it to see pictures), that is traditionally eaten during this time of year. We served the buns, almond paste and cream on separate dishes, and let everyone make their own semlor, since most people have their own preference as to how much they want of almond paste and whipped cream. We also had a couple of rooms with games, movies and snacks for those children that might be bored with the wedding. It was amazing how many people came. We don’t have an exact number, but it was something around 200 people! Luckily we had enough semlor and lemonade to go round. Everyone appeared to have a good time, and didn’t seem to have any problem entertaining themselves – that most of them knew each other previously helped, of course.

And that was pretty much it – simple and delightful. I’m now married and looking forward to a long and happy life with my Tobias. So, even though I won’t change the blog name, I’m a Most Peculiar Mademoiselle no more – I’m a most peculiar Madame, with an equally peculiar husband (considering both our fathers brought this fact up in their speeches, it must be true).

Happy :)

The Day Before the Wedding

2011-02-17T07:50:00.001+01:00

Last weekend, I came down with a cold, and was pretty much floored by it for a few days. I managed to sew a little, sitting in bed. So now, after a week of intensive sewing, and watching way too many episodes of The Nanny on Youtube (btw, the Jiddish words and expressions are contagious, they’re so good), I’m almost finished with the dress, only has to cut the skirt to the right length and hem it. My Mum will help me with that, as I won’t risk making a mistake, and cutting hems is a tricky business. After being dissatisfied with how it looked, I decided to wear the dress over a corset, and the fitting went so much easier after that. Problem is, the corset is unfinished, so that’s one more thing on the to-do list. I’ll be wearing the dress over a cotton petticoat I made years and years ago – I just have to make a new waistband, or it’ll look clumsy under the dress. I tried on the dress and veil yesterday morning, and it’ll look pretty. I didn’t have time to do any embroidery, but I like it how it turned out anyway. The look is a little pre-raphaelite, just like I wanted it too. Sorry, don’t have time to take any detailed pictures right now, I have so many things to do today, as my family will arrive, I’ll have to help with decorating the tables for tomorrow, finish the petticoat and corset, make sure someone pick up the flowers, and other stuff we’ll need to make the bouquet, boutonniere and myrtle wreath. My family will be staying in our apartment, and the combination of me having been ill, sewing intensely, and still haven’t cleared the last mess from moving in, the place is a disaster. I also have to pack what I’ll need for the wedding, and since we’re going over to Denmark for the ceremony, I can’t afford to forget anything. Then I’ll need to pack for the wedding night. No flimsy little nightgown for me, though – it’d feel weird, and we’re both too down to earth to care for such things. And, it would be good to find a little time to relax and calm down before tomorrow. Stress, stress, stress – but of a good kind.

Tobias have been wonderful, working hard with the decorations, devoted hours and hours planning, measuring, putting up wires and twinkle lights and so on. Most people thing I’m the brain behind our decorations, but I believe he’s have as many good ideas as I have.

Since you didn’t get any dress pictures, here’s a sneak peak of the decorations:

Now to hurry of again – the list of things to do is endless.

Russian Invasion

2011-02-10T17:17:00.005+01:00

Most young men (and many young women as well) in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints serve two year missions (though the women only serve for 18 months). They get sent somewhere in the world where they are needed, and very often they have to learn a new language and culture. Tobias served in Ukraine, and learned Russian. After speaking mainly Russian for two years, you may guess that the language has become dear to him, and he’s taking Russian classes at the university, to get academic points (since knowledge is often considered invalid these days, unless you have it on paper), and also to develop it. When over there, he also got a fair few souvenirs, and so, it looks like a small Russian invasion here.

Our apartment is filled with textbooks on Russian, Russian books (religious and other; one that I guess are Russian folk tales, with pretty pictures in it). There are military badges from old Soviet as well as Ukraine, a Russian babushka doll, a carved wooden morning star with the Ukrainian coat of arms on it, two fur hats (one which he wore for our engagement pictures, and one which is absolutely, insanely HUGE), the Ukrainian flag, little gifts from people he met while there, and a lot of other things. Here’s a sample:

Some of the things I like, some of them I don’t mind. The rest I can live with because I know they mean a lot to Tobias. It’s only fair, considering I have occupied a lot of cupboard and drawer space for fabrics, yarn, sewing related equipment and a lot of period clothes. Besides, I’m sure I have quite a few things he’d never have displayed if it wasn’t for the fact that I like them.

The other day he gave me a small wooden bottle, with a tiny glass vial in it, containing rose oil. He’d bought it in Bulgaria (which is apparently one of the big producers of rose oil), where he’d spent a week to renew his Ukrainian visa. He said he’d bought it with his future wife in mind, though of course he didn’t know it would be me at the time.

Some of my friends had organized a hen night for me last week. I didn’t know of it, until the last minute. I had dreaded a hen night (which in Sweden often include dressing the bride-to-be in extremely silly clothes and making her do even sillier things, like selling kisses to strangers), but it was kept very casual and proper. A dinner of pasta salad and “how we got engaged” stories from me, and the married women there, and then chocolate fondue with fresh fruits and innocent games. It was a very pleasant evening. Thanks to those who organized it, and those who attended!

In eight days we marry. I still have a lot to do on the dress. I cut the veil out a few days ago, but I haven’t attached it to the comb yet. And as always, schoolwork is a shadow of stress clouding everything, and right now I’m not exactly motivated. Nothing to do but get it done anyway, huh?

Eyelets Finished

2011-02-02T15:16:00.003+01:00

Last night I moved into our apartment. It felt odd… and as always on the first night of me living in a new place, I didn’t sleep very well. Until I have made it my home, I have a sort of uneasiness that is close to fright. New sounds, new smells; all of it makes me a bit skittish, and so I had a night lamp on. It felt a bit silly, but better silly than scared… It felt much better this morning.

This afternoon I finished the eyelets.

There are 38 of them, and as I’ve said before, they’re sewn with silk, which by the way is a delight to work with. I timed it, and every eyelet took two minutes to sew, and then there is time added for cutting threads, threading the needle, etc.

I also made a couple of tests on embroidery, just in case I’ll have time to embelish the dress. This is the one I liked best:

I think it could look pretty, and not too intrusive. The real embroidery would be continuous round the neck and wrists – this was just to see if the colour and thickness of the thread would look nice. What do you think? Opinions are welcome, though I’ll follow my own taste in the end :)

Two Eyelets

2011-01-28T23:55:00.002+01:00

I really don’t like school. Or, at least I don’t like assignments. I’ve been really stressed out by a couple of them lately, and the stress is by no way gone yet. But that is not interesting to anyone, so I’ll leave of there.

Yesterday, when I was close to screaming and crying from being so frustrated by school, Tobias, who was going to our apartment to do some more cleaning, took me along, so I could get some change (I still stay at his parent’s, but will likely move next week). I decided to work on my wedding dress. So, yesterday I managed to sew the back panels together, and, as I will lace the dress up the back, I got a placket sewn in. It did me a lot of good, like sewing always does.

Today, we went there for a couple of hours, Tobias to study, and me (being frustrated with school again) to sew. I had a hard time getting the position for the eyelets right for some reason. I’ve never had much trouble with spiral lacing before, but this was a pain. In the end I think I got it right, and had two eyelets sewn, in silk buttonhole twist.

And that’s all there is to tell right now. It’s progressing, but slowly.

Wedding Dress Begun

2011-01-25T22:59:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I finally started on my wedding dress. About time, I’ll need it in less than four weeks…. I tried on my embroidered blue wool dress, and it fit almost perfectly (except for the sleeves, which I removed a while ago to remake), so I used that to trace a new pattern. The blue dress consisted of a front and two back panels – the wedding dress will have one front-, two side- and two back panels. I think the width of the skirt will be more evenly distributed that way. Also, the blue dress got most of its width from triangular gores sewn into the side and back seams. The wedding dress will not have any gores, as it’s not supposed to be medieval. Instead I have used the full breadth of the fabric for the hem of each panel, so the skirt will have a circumference of about 4.5 meters (177”), most of which will be in the back.

Yesterday I also cut out the fashion fabric (cream coloured velvet), and basted all but the front and one back panel to the lining fabric. I did those today. I plan to treat the velvet and lining as one, and don’t want them to shift before I get them sewn.

I had planned, and looked forward to start sewing today, but found that I had some schoolwork that was to be handed in much sooner than I’d expected. Ooops…

Work on the apartment is slowly progressing. Tobias proved to have some hidden decorating skills (they where new to me, anyway), and quickly organized a “tranquil corner” for us to rest our eyes on, when trying to fix the rest of the mess.

Further down the top shelf, there is now a few of our books and movies, with antique irons as book supports.

Unfortunately this picture is rather dark… It’s slowly beginning to feel like home – most of my belongings agree with most of his belongings, if that makes sense. They look comfortable together, not like intruders on each others space. It does feel a little bit weird that we are both going to live there, though… nice, but weird.

One Month Left

2011-01-18T08:40:00.001+01:00

Last Saturday Tobias and his parents came up to my place, and we moved all of my things to what will be our home when we marry, one month from today. It was an exhausting day, with a lot of work, and little rest, but we got it done. My brother A and few friends helped out with carrying, so my mother in law and I could mostly concentrate on packing the last things and cleaning out the apartment. My Mum would have been there too, but she was ill, and had to stay home and rest. She did make us some brownies though, which was much appreciated.

I’ll be living in our apartment as soon as it’s finished, and Tobias will move in after the wedding, but there’s a lot of cleaning (the former tenants left the place in a mess…) and organizing that needs to get done first, so I stay at his parents’ at the moment. He has moved a lot of his things in already, and deciding what things will go where is fun, but a bit tricky. Right now it is a complete chaos of boxes, furniture in the wrong places, and some furniture that’s not been put together yet. In the hurry to get everything packed, I have lost track on where some of my sewing stuff has gone, which annoys me a little, since I really must get started on my wedding dress soon. Tobias said it’s a motivation for me to get unpacked quickly, and I suppose he had a point.

His Christmas present finally arrived last Friday. I’d ordered him a book on Russian wood architecture, which he’d mentioned to me some months ago. It’s out of print, so it took a little work to find a second hand copy. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d ordered the right book, but judging by the “Yes!” when he opened it, apparently I had. Whew. Another addition to our already large, and ever growing library. Let’s just say that a lot of our furniture consists of bookshelves…. On our wish list is a library, but that will have to be sometime way in the future.

And now, another day of cleaning and organizing :)

Embrace Life

2011-01-10T22:13:00.003+01:00

A while ago I saw this beautiful British reminder of wearing safety belts. I’m sure a lot of you have seen it, but it’s worth watching again.

Keep yourselves and your families safe from harm in the traffic, and from the pain of loosing a loved one. I know, tragedies can happen anyway, but it’s silly not to try and prevent them if possible.

That’s it from safety conscious Nurse Sarah.

A Tranquil Corner

2011-01-04T10:14:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I started to go through my things, throwing away a lot, and packing the rest. Interesting to be preparing to move out, when I’ve no idea where I’ll be moving in… we don’t have a flat yet. My home looks like a complete mess, with garbage bags in one corner, ready packed boxes in another, and many of my belongings scattered over the rest of the floors, tables, sofa and nearly every other surface. Amidst the chaos I try to keep one corner free from clutter. Having that one neat place to rest my eyes on helps me to deal with the rest of it.

The antique sewing machine (which does work) has been in my family since it was new, and was a gift from my paternal Grandmother. I bought the menorah some months ago – I’ve always loved how they look, and it has a calming effect on me. The pumpkins (no idea what they are called) came from my Mum, who grew them last summer.

I had planned on doing my veil yesterday, but started packing instead… ah well, that is important too….

Christmas, New Years Eve and Other Things

2011-01-02T00:55:00.004+01:00

Not much to report – life is busy, but not much of it is fun to read about. Christmas was good, I spent it with Tobias’ family. I admit I felt a bit homesick though. I didn’t spend last Christmas with my family either, since I was working then. The homesickness had passed by Christmas Day, though (for those of you who don’t know, Christmas Eve is the big celebration day here). Tobias and I had some very nice presents, witch clearly had our marriage in mind; covers, toolbox, drill/screwdriver etc. Very much appreciated.

I was more than a bit nervous about his gift to me – I knew he was sure I’d like it, which made me even more nervous, since he’d never made me a present before. Not a real, wrapped up one, anyway. When I opened it, it was a book I had seen last spring, and mentioned to him once (not that I have a memory about mentioning it to him), a book about chickens. Different kinds of chickens, their care, food, and housing, everything you’d like to know about them, filled with beautiful pictures. I want to live in the country eventually, and I’ve always wanted chickens, so this was a perfect gift, and proved he knows me very well. I got tears in my eyes when I saw it.

Unfortunately, my gift to him got stuck somewhere (stupid, snowy, coldest-in-a-century Scandinavian winter….), and still has not arrived, which had me greatly disappointed. Ah well, it’ll have to be a New Years gift instead, I suppose. I got him a little something for Christmas instead.

On Boxing Day we, Tobias, I, his parents and siblings all went up to visit my family. They all went home again after a couple of days, but I’m still here. We had more wonderful presents, again with our future lives in mind. I got a food processor (yay, I’ve wanted one for years!), and Tobias got John Seymors book on self-sufficiency. Being almost as interested as me in a life in the country, and likewise as big a bookworm as I am, he’s spent quite a bit of time reading in it, and building castles in the air. Some of them will hopefully be realized in future.

My family and I spent a quiet New Years Eve at home, with good food, snacks and movies. My brother A and I were up way too late, watching a movie, and yesterday I didn’t go up until it was almost 11 am. I missed Tobias a great deal, and even more so after he called me at midnight. Just a few more days though, and he’ll come to visit my family again.

In regards to the wedding, we’re spending a lot of time planning the open house. We have to work to a tight budget, but we’re sure it can still be nice. It just takes a bit more consideration. The plans for the wedding dress are progressing. I’ve bought a lot of cream cotton velvet for it, and the other day I bought the material for the veil. That was a special experience, even more so than buying the fabric for the dress. I’ve made so many dresses, so in a way this one doesn’t feel that much different – not yet anyway. The veil on the other hand is such a unique thing for brides. When my Mum and my brother J’s girlfriend helped me drape it over my head in the shop, to try out how it’d look, it was a very exciting moment. I had to try it again when we came back home. I pinned my hair up in the kind of style I want for the wedding, and quickly sewed the light tulle to a comb and tried it on. It looked almost exactly like I’ve pictured it in my mind. I’m beginning to be exited for this sewing project – and I haven’t been that about any sewing, knitting or embroidering for months, because of the wretched tiredness. Except for the giveaway pincushion some time ago, I haven’t done any sewing, knitting or embroidery at all for months…. It’s about time I return to my normal sewing routine.

Plans

2010-12-15T18:31:00.009+01:00

My family and other close friends know that it takes quite a bit of time for me to decide on things. This is not least true when it comes to sewing; more often than not I have changed my mind about the design somewhere between three and eleven times before starting on a dress, coat, skirt, etc. The bigger the occasion the more difficult it is to decide on what to make. Now, with the dress of my life to sew, I’m having some major indecision issues. Last Monday in school, I changed my mind three times in as many hours…. The only thing that is absolutely certain is that it’ll be in some shade of white. Sigh.

Right now, however, I’m leaning towards something like this (an old picture, and the dress is woefully wrinkled in it….):

This hand sewn wool dress was made quite a few years ago, and worn on the premiere of The Return of the King, and at a New Years ball the same year. The style is inspired my medieval gowns, but is by no means period. It’s embroidered at neckline and wrists, and laces up in the back with hand sewn eyelets. The embroidery was inspired by medieval illuminations.

I’m pretty clear on how I want my hair and veil. I’ll wear my hair up, hopefully with some volume, low in the back, with the veil simply dropped on my head, no gathers or anything. I also know that I want a myrtle wreath securing the veil. I’ve wanted that since I first saw this bride in high school:

Detail of the painting “Bruden smykkes av sin veninde” (The bride is dressed by her friend),

by 19th century Danish painter Henrik Olrik.

Mine might be set more to the front than in the picture though. Think Marias wedding outfit in Sound of Music, and you come pretty close to the look, or air, I want, though I’ll change the details to fit my taste.

However, I have to manoeuvre in a much smaller space, so no cathedral length trains or veils for me :)

Now, I have concentrated much more on finding a place for us to live (though Tobias have spent more time on that than I), and a job for me, than I have on the wedding itself. There is also the whole bureaucracy involved, with booking a date in the temple, a location for the open house, contacts with the government concerning me changing my name, and there being no legal hindrance for us to marry. But since that is not very interesting to read about, I won’t say anything more about it until I actually have something to report.

And speaking of that – the date is set for the 18th of February. Just a little over two months away – yay!

Why I am a Very Lucky Woman

2010-12-03T22:48:00.003+01:00

I have many reasons for this, of course, and here are a few of them:

I have a loving family, that’s always been there for me. We’ve shared a lot together; joy, grief, loss, laughter, poverty, relative plenty, work, play, learning opportunities, etc. What would I be without them, my Mum, Dad, brothers and sisters?? I also have a lot of good friends and relatives that’s been there for me when I’ve needed them, including my future in-laws. Love you all!

I have been blessed with tolerably good health. I’ve had my trips to doctors and hospitals, I’ve had horrible accidents and suffer pains from time to time, but all things considered, I’ve been healthy. I’m also blessed with living in a country with good medical possibilities and a good social security system.

I live in a country where I’m free to express my opinions freely (even the ones that may not be political correct or popular at the moment), and where I have religious freedom. That is a lot to be grateful for, right there. I hope I extend the same courtesy to others.

I have a good education, that make me pretty sure of being able to always have a job I like when I need one. I might not like studying, but I appreciate the opportunities it gives me.

I’ve been blessed with talents that keep me amused forever, and can be used to help others from time to time.

The country I live in is beautiful! I love every season – the cold, snowy winter we have now (unusually cold and snowy, I must say), the slow, creeping spring with timid flowers, which suddenly bursts into summer, so lush and bountiful it’s almost unbelievable, which in turn develops into crisp days of reds and yellows. There are many beautiful places on this earth, but to me, Sweden is the most beautiful of all. I may be just a little bit biased, of course ;)

Today we got our engagement rings

And last, but certainly not least on my mind, I have a fiancé that I love, and that, incredibly, loves me too, not despite my oddities and nerdiness, but because of them. A man who has all the must-have qualities I’ve looked for; he loves and obeys the Lord, served a mission, works hard, have a sound opinion on economy and family, and a good sense of humour. And as if that was not enough, he also possesses something that I’ve always thought would be impossible for me to find in my future husband (icing on the cake if you will); a peculiarity very similar to my own. I feel so blessed to have him in my life; it brings tears to my eyes just to think of it.

Am I not a very lucky woman?

Engaged :)

2010-11-29T22:24:00.002+01:00

Last night my boyfriend Tobias proposed, and this morning I said yes. Not that I had any plan of refusing him, I just had to get used to the idea of saying yes. (I think he was glad there was a snow storm last night though – he just might have been a little worried that I’d run away during the night, haha.) So, there it is; I’m engaged. Wow. How did that happen?? A month ago I didn’t even have a boyfriend (we’ve been dating for almost four weeks), and for the first time I was happy being single, and had no plans on a relationship for a while. And yeah, this might be a good time to think “those crazy mormons” ;)

It’s not as bad as it sounds though – we’ve both known of each other and each others families since we were children (one of my first memories are of his parents visiting me in the hospital as a little girl), we just never thought of the other in this way before now. I'm not very good at expressing my feelings, so let it be enough to say that as surprised as I am, I’m also very, very happy.

Marrying early is the pattern we’ve got from our parents; my Dad proposed to my Mum a little less then a month after they first met, and three months later they were married. My fiancés parents’ story is similar. Actually, marrying early is very common in the church. I can’t see a problem with it – most people nowadays seem get intimate and some move in together much sooner than we got engaged, which from where I’m standing is much more odd. Because of our faith, chastity is important to us, so we choose to marry.

This afternoon we went ring shopping. In Sweden the couple exchange rings when getting engaged, and so, it’s as common to buy rings together as being presented with one at the proposal. I must say I prefer to have had the chance to choose – I wanted to make sure I got a ring I liked, one that “felt like me”. The one I chose is very simple, an unadorned gold band (again in keeping with Swedish tradition), just like I’ve always wanted. It will take a few days for us to get them engraved, but when we do get them I will, of course, post pictures.

And you all know what this means: I must design and make a wedding dress for myself! How I’ll manage that with my still present tiredness (and school), I’m not sure, but it’ll work out somehow. My biggest problem right now is how I want it to look (Tobias laughed when I said that)….. I’ve got two or three ideas that I can’t really choose between….. I must say, that it’s a very pleasant problem to have :)

Happy!

Giveaway Winner

2010-11-22T00:01:00.002+01:00

I’m very tired, so this will be a short post. (Some of you might be interested to know that my constant tiredness have been found to be the result of a pretty bad imbalance in my vitamins, which I take supplements for now. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon.) It’s also a little bit late (going by Swedish time here), the batteries in my camera died.

Thank you all who commented on my last post and wrote something about yourselves! It was very interesting for me to learn a little about who reads my blog – the internet is usually very anonymous, and you have no idea about who reads, and what they find interesting. Please keep telling me, I really appreciate it!

Now for the giveaway winner: the slip of paper that came up had Kajsa’s name on it. Congratulations :) If you’d be so kind and post a comment with your name and address (which of course I won’t publish), I’ll send it on to you. I hope you’ll like it.

This was fun, I think I’ll host more giveaways in future.

100th Post Giveaway

2010-11-13T21:32:00.002+01:00

This is my 100th post. Wow. I’ve been very interested in seeing where you, my dear readers, are all located. I’ve had visitors from the USA, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Canada, Poland, Israel, Egypt, the Netherlands, South Korea, China, Pakistan, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Latvia, France, Kenya and Austria, amongst others.

Some of you are my real life friends, others have become my friends over the internet, and some are complete strangers, but you’re all equally welcome and appreciated. To show my appreciation I will have a giveaway. Today I’ve made a wool embroidery, which will be made into a pincushion similar to the one I made a few weeks ago.

It’s free hand embroidered on black wool, in blue, yellow, olive green, and two shades of red. The embroidered square is 7x7 cm. If you are interested, post a comment (if you’d like to say a few words about yourselves that’d be nice), and I will draw a winner next Sunday.

Actually, the reason I’ve not posted for a while is that I wanted to host a giveaway, but didn’t have time to make something suitable until now. A lot is going on in my life, and the past week I haven’t got any sewing done – however, my corded petti is getting close to finished, so I’ll post about that shortly. Then I have a lot of other things I’m working on or planning – so much I want to do, so little time :)

Halloween

2010-10-31T22:00:00.004+01:00

As many of you might have realized by now, I like dressing up, and so, naturally, I love Halloween. This year though, I didn’t plan to go to the church-hosted YSA party in Gothenburgh (more than two hours away), as I’m so tired, and it would be a Friday to Sunday thing – way too long for me right now. But a day or two before the Saturday dress up dance, some of my friends told me they’d only go for the one evening, and then home again, and asked me if I’d care to come. Well, that changed things, and I had to try to find a costume in a hurry.

In the end, I brought my 14th century white linen shift, and dressed up as a ghost, with a nasty looking “vampire bite” (made from fake blood paste from the toy shop, eye-liner, blush, eye shadow, powder and water paint) on my throat. Everyone who asked was told that I had been on a date that went bad some 700 years earlier.

Picture by the talented Daniel Nilsson.

The neat thing about dressing up like a ghost when you’ve been exhausted for weeks is that it’s actually an advantage if you look gaunt and tired...

Picture by D.B.

I guess it was my being in character most of the time (if you can call it that when you’re actually just lacking the energy to keep a smile on your face and a look of interest in your eyes for more than a few minutes at a time...) that nominated me to the prize for scariest costume. I even won (first time in my life I've ever won anything, I think), though I think it was really a tie between me and my friend J. W., the crazy professor.

Mind you – it’s a strange thing, that when I’ve spent weeks on a costume, making sure every detail is right, hardly anyone has noticed it. When I improvise with a days notice, on the other hand, I win. It’s an odd world... But as I plan to make a really nice costume for next year, this will most likely be the only prize I will ever win, but that's all right. I make them for my own pleasure anyway, and that's the important thing :D

1840's Cap

2010-10-19T22:20:00.007+02:00

Last week I made 60 inches of hem stitching on a thin white cotton fabric. The plan is to use it as frills on an 1840’s cap, but I felt I needed to make a trial run first, so as not to waste all that work on something that wouldn’t look right. For this cap I used fabric cut from an old, worn out blouse. Recycling is nice.

There are a few caps in museums, but they are all fancy caps, made from silk ribbons and blonde lace, and that doesn’t fit my social position. The case is the same if you look at fashion plates of the time. Most paintings and photographs show the frills of the cap framing the face, but I managed to get a couple of side view pictures. Also, they showed women of my class, servants and upper lower/lower middle class women.

Detail of The Bottle, plate II by George Cruikshank, 1847.

Servants Gossiping, 1849.

This is what I came up with. The pattern needs some tweaking before I’m completely satisfied with it, but for a trial run it’s good enough, and perfectly wearable. I might add ties to it though, pretty ones that will be decorative when hanging loose.

The fabric is thin cotton, woven in stripes. The cap is constructed in four pieces, the front, crown, and flounces folded lengthwise to make them double on each side. Piping is sewn in between the front and crown, as it is pretty and also prevents the cap from stretching out of shape.

Drawstrings beginning at the same place as the top of the frills and tying at the nape of the neck makes the cap fit properly. Of course it’s hand sewn – sewing machines wasn’t common in the 1840’s, and even if they were, a cap is too delicate to look good with clumsy machine sewing.

Belle's Blue Dress in Detail

2010-10-14T11:50:00.015+02:00

I’ve had a few people asking me how I constructed Belle’s blue provincial dress, so I thought I’d make a post on it. It’s not that difficult, actually.

First the blouse: any pattern could do as a base. Make the sleeves a little shorter than to the wrists, and cuff them. As you can see I haven’t even hemmed the bottom edge yet, but since it won't show…

The most important thing on the blouse is the characteristic collar, which should be folded down in back, and taper into nothing at centre front. This is how it looks, with the centre back folded. It’s sewn in two layers. There’re probably better ways to do the collar, but I was short on time when I made it. Next time I make this costume I'll experiment a little more with it.

The bodice could be made using any tight-fitting dress pattern, just making the neckline square. If you want to drape your own, this is how I did it. My bodice is made up from four pieces; two in front and two in back.

The rough shape of them were cut out in a cheap leftover fabric, and then tried on, pinned and re-pinned until they fit like I wanted them to. All the shaping is in the front-, back-, and side seams, no darts. As most people’s bodies have different shapes, the pattern pieces will probably turn out looking different from mine.

Make sure not to do the neck and arm openings to big at first – just make them big enough to go over your head and to put your arms through, and then draw them on the fabric while wearing it. Don’t make the bodice too long, or it will wrinkle and look untidy. When you are satisfied with the fit you can use this mock up as the lining for the bodice, or save it as a pattern for later use.

I put self fabric piping in all the bodice seams, because it gives a nice finishing touch, and also makes the seams stronger – they also give a slight supporting effect, and prevent some wrinkling.

When sewing the bodice together, I had first basted the fashion fabric and lining together, and sewed them as one layer. With the piping, it made six layers of fabric in each seam (hence the light boning effect). I trimmed down the seam allowenses on the fashion fabric and lining, split and sewed down the piping fabric, to make the piping sit straight, and not "tip" to the sides.

I put piping at the neck, sleeve and waist as well, again for a nice finishing touch. My dress closes by hooks and eyes at centre back, but an invisible zipper could be used as well – I’d put it in a side seam, or it will not be invisible.

The skirt is made as any half circle skirt, lightly gathered and reaching to lower calf - simple as could be. Since the bodice is slightly pointed in front, I had to cut away a corresponding amount of fabric at the centre front of the waist of the skirt.

That’s it, a rough guide on how to make this costume. The apron is simple, a rectangle (straight, gathered or pleated) sewn to a waistband. And don’t forget to wear at least one petticoat. If not, the skirt will look skimpy, and will cling to your legs, which isn’t the right look for this dress. Oh, and a note on fabric choise: avoid anything shiny, polyesterish! It will look cheap and amateur-ish. If you're on a budget (like I was), better use a low price, plain cotton, as that will look so much better.

Hope this helped, and good luck!

A Real Scare

2010-10-10T13:54:00.002+02:00

The floor in my combined living room/bed room creaks. Usually just when you walk on it, and mostly when I’ve been away for a few days.

Last night, in the early morning hours I woke up, from the floor in my room creaking. I had only just thought it strange when it happened again – and again and again, like someone walking slowly across the room, over by the door. My heart almost stopped, and I hardly dared breathe. Slowly, slowly I rose on one elbow, trying to see through the dark (not easy, since my bed is screened the cupboard I store my fabrics in) - nothing. Time is difficult to tell when you’re scared, but it might have been ten or fifteen minutes that I listened, thought hard of what to do, prayed, and gathered courage to do something. In the end I came to the conclusion that since I hadn’t heard anything for a while, there was most likely no one there, and if it was, it was probably a thief, surprised by my waking up, and might be possible to scare of.

So I switched on the light, and got out of bed. No one in that room. I walked into every room, and turned on the lights as I went. They where all empty, the front door was locked, and nothing was missing. I finally decided that it’d probably been the cool night air coming in from the open window that had made the floor set slightly.

Even after I had made sure I was alone, I was shaken enough not to be able to put out the light and go back to sleep for an hour and a half. When I finally did my dreams where affected by the fright, and didn’t give me much rest. Even now, more than eight hours later, I’m a bit skittish and feel like a wrung out cloth.

Being easily scared is very inconvenient.

More Cording

2010-10-08T12:15:00.003+02:00

This week I’ve begun my last clinical. I’m at a neonatal unit, and it’s the most fun clinical I’ve had yet. Caring for all these small (in some cases, very, very small) babies and their families is a great blessing, but I pray none of my children will be too premature. The stress of the parents and siblings are enormous, as is the stress of the babies. Interesting as it is, it’s a very new environment for me, which means a lot of concentration to learn as much as possible, and to be attentive to the needs of my little patients and their families. When I come home I usually just crash into bed. I had the day of yesterday, and I slept for eleven hours that night. Wow. Usually I never sleep that long.

With me being so tired all the time, I haven’t got much sewing done (I sound like a broken record, huh?), but I’ve finished the 60th row of cording on my petticoat. I want a few more groups of three cords before the single cords.

I’ve also worked on the back of my regency stays, whip stitching the top fabric and lining together at centre back, and sewn a cord in on each side. Between the cord and back there will also be boning, and on the other side of the cord, eyelets for lacing.

Not a very interesting post, but it’ll have to do as I’m of to the hospital again soon.

Cording This, Cording That

2010-10-02T11:36:00.005+02:00

Whew, I’ve had very much to do in school this past week. Bleh. Still not done, I have a few more things to hand in before the weekend is over. On Thursday morning there was a frost, and it tells me to get a move-on with the coat – but it takes a bit of concentration, which I haven’t had for anything but school. Only projects that don’t need too much of my time, brains and energy have been worked on.

My corded petticoat is coming along nicely; I’m working on the 49th row. And, I did find evidence for corded petticoats in Sweden – huzzah! One example was in a book I bought in January (Underkläder – en kulturhistoria (2008), by Britta Hammar & Pernilla Rasmussen), but somehow it had not registered, even though I’ve looked at the picture a few times – it is a pretty small picture, and the corded petti was lying amongst a lot of other underwear, stockings, dresses and toys. It had belonged to a little girl who died in 1855, 4 years old, and a lot of her possessions were later donated to a museum. A search on the digital database of some other museums gave me another one, for a grown up woman. The cording is woven in, of course, but I still think sewing them in is a very good next-best-thing. The fun thing is, that I have grouped my cords in a way very similar to the extant ones, so that at least is period correct.

I also got a sudden stroke of inspiration for (finally – I’ve wanted some for years) making regency stays. I bought a white cotton fabric with woven in checks of a sort of dark brick red in a charity shop a couple of weeks back, and I would like to make a regency dress from it (no, it doesn't look like a kitchen towel in real life - the material is quite fine and sheer) - I hope there is enough material. I must have the right underpinnings first though. Regency dresses, when done right, can be some of the most elegant frocks in history, but if done wrong, you’ll look like a pregnant hippo in a nightgown, which is less elegant…. When I was a slim, almost bony teenager I could have gotten away with short stays, but nowadays I have a more feminine figure, so long stays are essential. I base mine mostly on a pair described, and with the pattern pieces drawn out in small scale, in the same book I referred to above. It’s in Swedish, and full of Swedish examples of underwear from the 18th century up till now, which is not all that common when it comes to fashion history. I also look at the ones from the book Fashion from the Kyoto Institute, and one from another Swedish book (Empirens döttrar – kultur och mode under tidigt 1800-tal (2009), by Anette Kindahl, Katarina Olsson & Ingrid Roos) I recently bought. It’s interesting to see how similar they all are – makes one wonder if the Swedish ones might have been imported. Either way – there’s evidence for them from here, which is the important thing.

They should be made from white or cream cotton satin, but I didn’t have any, and didn’t want to waste the opportunity either – inspiration comes and goes with me. I might make another pair sometime, in cotton satin with the embroidery done in yellow silk like the originals, but for now, a simple cotton fabric embroidered with cotton will have to do; I can look at it as a smart mock-up, and I won’t feel guilty. It’s not like it’ll show anyway – I wonder if not the fabrics might behave differently, though. The stays will have a combination of boning and cording, like the ones in the books. I’ve made the pocket down the front for the busk, with cotton cording down each side, and the channels for boning radiating out from that. I also made the eyelets for securing the busk. I haven’t done the bust gussets yet, since I don’t know what size they’ll have to be – I want to wear the stays and experiment, but for that to work properly, I’ll have to finish the boning and eyelets in the back first, and pin front and back together so I can try it on. So that’s next – starting on the back panels. Eyelets are a bit tedious to sew, but I find I really like cording – it’s fun to do, and it looks nice.

Now - back to my school work.

Another Recomendation

2010-09-29T23:39:00.009+02:00

I'm sure many of those of you who, like me, love costume dramas, have noticed that some costumes appear in several productions. There is a website dedicated to finding as many as possible of these recycled movie costumes, and it's called (surprice) Recycled Movie Costumes.

You can do a search by era, and submitt costumes if you know of any that's not listed on their site (I've submitted a couple some time ago). It's great fun, and some costumes have been used far more times than you'd think.

One thing you'll get comfirmed is how truly different looks you get, depending on corsetry, hair and accessories, even when the same outfit is worn - just look at these pictures:

Jennifer Ehle as Elisabeth Bennet in Pride and prejudice (1995).

Jemima Roper as Amanda Price in Lost in Austen (2008).

This could serve as an exellent example for all girls and women who (would) like to wear period clothes in historic settings: no matter how pretty and accurate your outfit is, if you don't do your hair in a period way it'll just look weird. It's all in the details :)

Pincushion

2010-09-27T14:45:00.004+02:00

The other evening I suddenly thought I’d like to try out an embroidery technique, known in Sweden as “Skånskt yllebroderi” (Scanian wool embroidery). It was common in the countryside in the county Skåne during the 18th and 19th centuries for covers and cushions. It’s embroidered free-hand on wool fabric (traditionally recycled from old clothing) with wool yarn.

The fabric is usually dark, and the embroidery is done in bright colours, often illustrating flowers, trees, animals and humans. To save material, the stitches are very short on the wrong side. Every woman had her own style, depending on her skill and artistic eye, so there are a lot of different looks to these works of art. Some are downright ugly in my opinion, but others are very charming. They all have the whole surface covered with different kinds of images, and for covers and cushions made for weddings, they also have the initials of the bride and/or groom, and the year embroidered on them.

My first project was a bit more humble than a cover for a bed or a cushion for the seat of a horse drawn wagon – I used a leftover piece from my folk costume skirt and made a small free-hand embroidery of a flower, and then a frame round it. I thought it looked a bit empty, so I added the “stars” or whatever sprinkled in the background. The flower is tolerably traditional, but I’m not so sure about the stars; I don’t care though, I think it looks pretty.

I decided to re-cover my old pincushion with it, since it was looking rather dismal – I have to do that every few years.

I also used this opportunity to put a piece of cardboard in the bottom, to save my fingers from accidental pricks; should have thought about that some years ago...

I like how it turned out very well indeed. Small, quick projects are gratifying.

Winter Coat Fabrics

2010-09-26T09:38:00.001+02:00

Two years ago I found a lovely, burgundy wool fabric for a very good price, and bought it to make a winter coat. I cut out most of the pieces for the outer layer, and began sewing them together, and then something or other came in between, and it’s been left hanging since. Now I thought I’d finish it so I can wear it this coming winter, since my old ones really are threadbare. I want rather a deep hood on this coat, but I didn’t have enough fabric, but then last year I found some wool of the same weight, and a shade or two darker than mine, in a charity shop. Yay. I’ll use that for cuffs and other trim. The lining fabric is graphite grey satin, which I think will make a nice contrast.

I’ve made the pattern myself – it’s a favourite style of mine, with the princess seams starting at the shoulder, and I’ve used that style both for coats and dresses in the past. Well, to say I made a pattern is a bit of an overstatement… I used my old coat as a model, and I don’t have the pattern pieces left; at least I can’t find them. That makes it a bit tricky, since I only just bought the lining fabric a month ago and so haven’t got the pieces cut out – oh what fun to cut out the lining without a pattern... Yesterday I started, and by carefully pinning the lining fabric to the outer one, I cut out the two front panels. I must be more careful to save my patterns… not that that would have helped much in this case, since I changed the fit quite a bit once I started to sew. Ah well.

I haven’t cut out the sleeves or the hood yet, I haven’t even made the pattern for them yet. I will have to try to get a move on – it’s getting a bit chilly some days, and before you know it there will be frost.

So Tired

2010-09-19T20:08:00.004+02:00

The last couple of weeks I’ve got increasingly tired, going to bed at unnaturally early hours, and taking naps almost every day – so not like me. I wonder if it’s just the shortening days or something else. Either way it leaves me with a lot less energy and inspiration to work on school or any textile related thing than I’d wish. I can't help it, but I’m feeling a bit listless.

I’ve managed to get a little work done however. I’m working on the 43d row of cording on the petticoat. The group I’m working on now will be as wide as the one at the hem, and then I’ll make groups with fewer cords in them, probably three or four cords/group. It’s very convenient sewing when you can’t seem to work up anything that looks like brainpower to do something more complicated. You just go round and round and round and round….

The Bayeux-inspired embroidery has all that was drawn on it sewn, so now I have to figure out what I want to do on it next. The borders need to be embroidered – the upper one should be simple enough, I’ll just take whatever figures captures my fancy from the original. The lower one is the problem – I could do something similar to the top, but I think I’d prefer to add the events that happened before the major scene. That way I’ll get the whole story, with less work. And then I’ll have to figure out what the text should be, and what language I want it in. I think I’ll stick to Latin as the original, it looks cool. And I think I’ve decided to do more scenes after this one – the question is which ones; the burning bush, perhaps, and then Moses and Aron before Pharao? Decisions, decisions…

And lastly, lo and behold, I have started work on my winter coat again! I haven't done much (almost nothing to tell the truth), but I've got the ball rolling, so it should be easier to just continue. I will post about that separately. Right now there seems to be a good chance I will be very happy with it when finished.

Just a Short Post to Recommend...

2010-09-11T10:19:00.009+02:00

... the Casualty 1900's series. Well, I don't think it's on TV anymore (or yet - it hasn't broadcasted here in Sweden anyway), but it's available on DVD.

If you like BBCs costume dramas, and also happens to like series like ER, Chicago Hope etc. you will love this. It's about the lives of the doctors, nurses and patients in London Hospital in 1906, 1907 and 1909. It's based on journals, newspaper cuttings, diaries and so on from the people who worked there, and from the little I know about Edwardian England, and nursing back then, it looks accurate enough. As a lover of history, and an RN myself, this is just perfect. It's recomended from the age of 15 here in Europe, as it's rather grafic in the ghastliness of illnesses, injuries and living conditions of the poor of East End. It's interesting, sad, and yet encouraging.

The problem with good costume dramas is that I get a sudden and strong wish to make clothes from that era - so in future I might make a Sisters uniform from the early 20th century...

On Request :)

2010-09-08T15:45:00.020+02:00

This post is for the benefit of some ladies from the Sewing Academy, as a short answer to how common Scandinavian women dressed in the mid 19th century. This is not all the information there is – I myself have a lot of unanswered questions, but still: here are the pictures I promised. I won’t include pictures of upper and middle class women, as they dressed pretty much the way women of the same social standing in the United States of that time (I did however notice a slightly higher level of women, even young ones, wearing caps in their portraits, than in the States). I only found Swedish and Danish pictures, and they where hard to come by... First the ones with a really local character.

A Danish painting from 1856, by Christen Dalsgaard, called “Mormoner på besøg hos en tømrer på landet”, meaning ”Mormons visiting a carpenter in the country”. As a mormon myself, I think this is an interesting one :)

Another of Christen Dalsgaard’s paintings, from 1852, called “Ung Jysk bondepiga skriver vennens navn på den duggede rude” - “A young farmgirl from Jylland writing her friend’s name on the dewy window”.

The red sleeves are most likely what is seen of a knitted sweater – similar ones where worn by women in the very south of Sweden, like this, from Torna in the county Skåne (Scania) by J. Kulle, mid 19th century. The painting is called “Söndagsmorgon” – “Sunday morning”.

Or this, by Kilian Zoll, 1840’s: “Majsångare I Skåne” – “Maysingers in Scania”.

Mind, what we refer to as folk costumes today varied extremely much in existance and apperance with country, location, time, economy, age and personal preference, so these pictures are in no way exclusive! I am also horribly biased - Scania is my county, so I have more pictures from there than from anywhere else in Sweden, and I have more Swedish than Danish pictures for the same reason - sorry about that.

Then we have the ones which are more fashionable:

Christen Dalsgaard, Danish, 1858: “Ung pige beder landsbyens gamle postbud besørge et brev” – ”Young girl asking the villages old postman to attend to a letter”.

David Monies, Danish, 1850: “Soldatens hjemkomst til Køpenhavn 9 September 1849” – ”The soldier comes home to Copenhagen 9 September 1849”. Notice the cap. She also wears her apron – was that the common practice, or was she just so delighted to welcome her husband that she didn’t take the time to take it of and put her bonnet on? (I feel so sorry for the poor widow in the background who's husband has not returned....)

And the ones in between:

A Swedish servant, 1860’s. She seems to have a checked dress, with a kerchief round her neck as well as on her head – the one on the head would be the norm for most Swedish women. She also wears an apron.

A.G. Hafström, Sweden, probably late 1860s: “Avskedspredikan för emigranter vid Tullpackhuset” – ”Farewell sermon for emigrants by Tullpackhuset” (in Gothenburg). A lot of kerchiefs and aprons. If that is some kind of outer wear jackets, or in-door basques is difficult to tell… I vote for jackets.

H. Siegumsfelt, Denmark, 1863 – no idea what this painting is called – notice the cap.

Danish couple, 1860’s - she's wearing a cap and apron.

Now, this Swedish countrywoman is thought to have had her picture taken in the 1870’s, but as you can see, her dress have some elements that was in fashion some 20-25 years before. It's also shorter than what is fashionable, to enable her to work.

This is very typical for Swedish countrywomen at this time – you can even se mutton sleeves from the 1830’s a far in as the 1870’s, as in this picture from Scania:

And here’re a few other pictures from Scania, mixing fashion with local tradition (most of them from the 1860’s/early 70’s):

Most women (at the very least the married ones) from the country would have had something on their heads when going out, but not all of them wear them in their portraits. In many areas, hats and bonnets were not for the women of the farming community . Corsets would not have been worn by them either - it would have been considered very vain, and maybe even immoral. Some dresses had boning of cane, to give some support. Multiple petticoats, and maybe quilted petticoats would have supported the skirts. Aprons seams to have been extremely important to these people - you see them in almost all photographs. I'm not sure all of these women are wearing dresses - I think some of them are wearing waist lenght jackets, as an indoor garment.

Also, as we discussed over att the SA, linen was used in underwear, wools in outer clothes - also, dresses with a cotton warp and a wool weft was getting common, kerciefs was made from wool, cotton or silk. Aprons was made from wool and/or cotton, or maybe silk for dressier occasions.

There, I hope you enjoyed what little I have - finding images of "fashionably" dressed farmers wives is not easy. But I think it's fun, since my own ancestors where farmers and would have dressed somewhat similar :)

Working on Old Projects

2010-09-07T09:33:00.006+02:00

Last time I posted I said I was coming down with a cold, and that was some cold – I had a headache and fever for four days, which returned briefly over the weekend, and I’m still coughing. I missed the first three days of school, so a week into the term I’m already behind – smashing….

The good news is that I’ll be able to do most of my studying the coming two months from home – my own dear home! (Happy dance!) That gives me quite a bit of hope.

Since I’ve been feeling first so bad and then so tired the past ten days or so I haven’t really made any progress to boast about in any of my projects. I’ve done some sewing on the petticoat, and begun the 36th row of cording.

The other day I took out an old project that’s been hibernating for a few years – my English wool embroidery inspired by the Bayeux tapestry. It’s not intended to be a copy at all, but I’ve been heavily inspired by the look, colours and technique of it. I wanted a story that would have other people than soldiers in it, and one most people would be familiar with, and feel medieval enough, so I chose the Biblical story of Moses. The plan was, when I started it, that I’d embroider the whole story, but we’ll see how that works out. If I only ever finish this segment it’ll still look nice on my wall. Of course, it would be more of an impact to have several scenes from the story.

It’s embroidered with thin wool yarn on linen, and I drew the figures myself. I'm not completly satisfied with them - they don't look odd enough. Anyway, this was easy sewing during my illness – no need to think, just to fill in the areas with colour, and listening to the Old Testament online.

I like to listen to the scriptures, as a complement to my reading, and now it was time for the Old Testament. I never read it through (I’ve read most of it, but not everything), so I started listening to it while knitting or sewing a while back, and it’s very soothing. Interesting too, you get a new perspective on the history-part of it, when you go through it so quickly. When I read the Bible, I usually study some specific event or doctrine, not cover to cover.

I’m working up the inspiration to finish a winter coat that I begun a couple of years ago (is this the autumn of finishing old projects?), my old ones being threadbare. I’ve got it hanging on my wardrobe door, in the hope that inspiration will strike. It will be in wine red wool, but that’s pretty much all I know for sure so far – the sleeves and hood are not cut out yet. I’m running out of fabric, so it will take some figuring out how to make the most of what I have.

One Year

2010-08-28T15:36:00.004+02:00

A couple of days ago it was a year since I started this blog. Woho! It’s been very fun, and a good way to share my interests without boring my family and friends to death. Thank you all who follow and comment on my blog, I appreciate you all very much! I hope the next year will be an even more interesting one, project wise.

As for right now, though, it’s not that interesting. I have so many ongoing projects lying around, and list of others I’d like to start, but with school almost upon me, I don’t really have the time, energy and inspiration right now. . . I’m also having a cold, which doesn’t help. I’ve been working a little on my corded petticoat (which have been woefully neglected), since that is easy, mindless sewing. I love how it looks!

I talked to my Mum earlier today, and we agreed that it’s this kind of projects, that takes forever, and no one will ever see (or if they do, won’t appreciate) that makes it clear that you do it for the simple pleasure of the work itself, and the joy of looking at the finished result, not just to show of. On the other hand, even if you do it for your own pleasure, it's always nice to hear that others think it's nice - and that's partly why we blog, isn't it?

Now I’ll drink some hot milk with eucalyptus pastilles in it, for my sore throat. Have a nice weekend!

Alive and Kicking...

2010-08-17T20:56:00.005+02:00

... but I've been extremely busy at work lately, and been dead tired when I've come home. I have a couple of projects that I'm working on, but one is a Christmas present, and since the recipient checks in on my blog now and then, I can't show you what I'm doing.

The other project is a pair of woolen-blend trousers for autumn and winter. I really don't like making trousers, but these are in a style I think might look good on me, and that makes it bearable. No pictures of them so far though.

Neither project has been a fast-progressing one, since I've usually fallen asleep when I came home from work. Today I had my last day for the summer, though, so things might speed up just a little. Soon school starts again, which scares me out of my wits. I keep telling myself "only four months, then you're done", but it still makes me sick thinking of it... But before that horror is upon me, I'll have a nice, well needed week at my parents'.

Well, that's pretty much it as far as my life is concerned. Hope you all have a nice end of summer/beginning of autumn.

Festinord

2010-08-02T23:25:00.007+02:00

Last week I went to a young single adult conference/convention the church organize in one of the Nordic countries every summer, called Festinord. This year it was held in Finland, in the little town of Lohja, about an hours drive from Helsinki.

The people from my stake travelled by hired bus to Stockholm, took the over-night boat to Helsinki and then took another bus to Lohja, where we where to be quartered in two schools, one for the men and one for the women. We were some 500 participants, besides the leaders and chaperons. Over the week we had spiritual and secular classes, football (soccer) tournaments which the Swedish men and Norwegian ladies won, the Festinord Amazing Race with fun, silly, tiring, and slightly dangerous tasks to accomplish along the way, dances with different themes every night (Casual, Nordic Midsummer Night, Jungle, and Jazz, which was formal dress), diverse service projects in the community, Festinord’s Got Talent, which mixed brilliant talents with great sense of humour, and meeting a lot of old and new friends. Much as I like all of my friends, and not that I mind sharing my faith at all, there is still something restful about being with my friends in the church; I don’t need to explain certain aspects of how I think, feel and how I live my life, for they know, having the same point of view and the same goals and priorities in life. They are also a great example to me on how to live a good life as a Latter Day Saint. Love and hugs to you all!

Many, many things happened, and I doubt anyone but my family would be interested in it all, so I won’t go into details. This being mostly a sewing blog, I will however share pictures of the “I-need-something-to-wear-and-quick dress” I made the week before Festinord, for the formal Jazz party. I made it from red chiffon, with a black satin lining.

I had all the materials I needed, even the zipper, in my stash, and I made the pattern myself. I wanted it to have a sort of 1930’s-ish look to it, and I tried to put up my hair in a matching way. Someone said I looked like I came from an old movie, which was nice.

After a fun, educating, exhausting week, unnaturally hot for Finland and with the occasional heavy rain (one of which I got caught in, getting soaked to the skin – I love a really heavy summer rain though, so no matter), we left on Saturday afternoon. On the boat back to Sweden on Saturday night it was a bit windy. Actually, it was windy enough at the bow of the ship that my friend C.S and I could lean into it at an almost 30 degree angle without falling.

A member of the crew asked us to go inside after a while, as they where closing of that part of the deck on account of in beginning to be unsafe. It was fun as long as it lasted, but getting the tangles and salt out of our hair afterwards wasn’t – I’m working the last tangles out as I post this, and loosing a fair portion of my hair in the process.

On the boat I bought a tin box with the mother of Moomin on it. My youngest siblings looked at the Japanese cartoon version of Moomin forever when they where little (with the Finish-Swedish accent, of course), and the rest of the family loved the series too, so I couldn’t resist this. It’s divided into four sections, and I use it for my herbal-teabags. Yay!

Now I’m back at home, and just came home from work. I’ve been getting a great deal of inspiration this past week on how I need to better myself in some areas of my life, so I regard this week as a new beginning in a way. I'm so grateful for the fun, spiritual and uplifting week I've had. It was just what I needed.

Folk Costume

2010-07-25T20:29:00.013+02:00

My folk costume from the south-west corner (more specifically, Oxie, Vemmenhögs, Skytts och Bara härader), of the county Skåne (Scania) in the very south of Sweden, is, after having working on it for the past year or so, now almost completed – enough for it to be worn anyway. I will now show it, layer by layer. This is what an unmarried farmer’s daughter of rather comfortable means might have worn to church and parties in about 1820-50. I’m afraid there’re no close ups, since the batteries in my camera died, and some of the pictures aren't very good for the same reason. I've linked to previous posts on the different garments, in case anyone would like to go back and learn more about them.

First it’s the sleeveless shift, hankasärk, made from half bleached linen.

Then the opplöt is put on, a blouse made from fine, bleached linen, with a collar of fine cotton voile. Black wool stockings are worn. I haven’t knitted a period pair yet, so I’ll have to make do with a cotton blend for now – they won’t show that much under my long skirts anyway, and at least the colour is right. Black is a rather unusual colour in Swedish women’s folk costume stockings, in most other places they’re white or red.

The hair is braided and wound round the head, as seen in this painting from Torna härad. Or maybe you can't see, the picture being rather small...

The painting is not from my area (in Skåne there where 23 areas, called härader, with slight or pronounced differences in dress), but borders to it, so some elements of dress are the same (notice the red spedetröja the girl in the middle is putting on), while others differ (like the shape of the collars, and the married woman’s white headdress). I’ve woven the wool ribbons in the hair myself.

After the opplöt, the knitted, woollen spedetröja, trimmed with silk, is put on.

The silk bodice, liv – the roll at the bottom of it looks quite ridiculous, but that’s what they looked like. I must confess I’m thinking of making it smaller though – after all, this costume is not to be worn in living history settings, but on festive occasions in modern day society, so even if my aim is to make it as right as possible, I wouldn’t feel too guilty with this compromise. As long as its purpose, to support the skirts and prevent them slipping, is there, I’m satisfied. The liv is laced with a steel chain at the moment, but it will be replaced with a silver one eventually. Btw, I found buckles almost identical to mine in the database of Nordiska Museet, which made me quite happy.

The heavy, wool skirt is next. Notice the look of “a comfortable size” the roll of the bodice gives the hips. This would be even more pronounced by the multiple layers of wool skirts, that was the custom back then. Skåne was comparatively rich, having good farmland, and everyone wanted to show of their wealth, not only by silver and as fine materials as they where allowed, but also by looking well fed. Not a look we tend to go for today, is it? The skirt has a tuck just below knee level, to help hold out the skirts. A silk ribbon with a pattern of woven-in flowers was often sewn on between the tuck and hem, but I have yet to find one in real silk.

The woollen apron, with its woven cotton waistband/ties. It ties a little off centre, with a bow. An apron was always worn, even to church, by the farming community; no woman would be seen without it. On the head is a cotton kerchief – this kind could be worn by married and unmarried women alike.

The starched, white headdress was worn by married women alone, as a symbol of their social status. A married woman would not be seen outside the immediate family without a kerchief of some sort on her head. Today, most people who wear folk costumes in Sweden omit the hats and headdresses, thinking they look silly. I can agree, but think it depends on the setting. I might do both, wear it over my braided, tied-up hair sometimes, and at other times wear my hair uncovered in the styles I usually wear, all according to the occasion. Like I said before, the costume is to be worn to parties and such in this time and age, so making some exceptions and adaptions is all right in my mind. I will for example wear make up, though I will probably not wear modern jewellery.

And that’s as far as I’ve come. I will, when the money, wish and time is there, add spedetröjor, liv and skirts in other colours, aprons in different patterns and materials, and several opplöts, so I can mix and match according to my mood. When it looks like I’m likely to marry, I’ll start to embroider the white headdress. But the costume is perfectly appropriate to wear as it is now. Yay!

Finished Spedetröja

2010-07-24T00:02:00.005+02:00

This (or should I say yesterday now?) morning I finished my spedetröja – yay! For the ones of you who might not have read my previous posts on this, a brief history. This sweater is to be used with my folk costume, from the south-west corner of the county Skåne (Scania) in Sweden. The sweater is called spedetröja in the local accent, and was an important part of rural women’s wardrobe in that part of the country in the 18th and 19th centuries – even after the folk costume as such had gone out of use, the spedetröja was one of the articles of clothing that was still in some use at the very beginning of the 20th century.

The county Skåne was divided in a lot of smaller areas, and they differed a little, or much, from each other costume wise. In my area, the spedetröja was black, sometimes green, and often red for more festive occasions - then as now, there were clothes for working as well as dressier clothes, and the same went for spedetröjor. The ones not to be used in the everyday work on the farms where frequently decorated with knitted patterns, all over the surface or just in a few borders. They where also decorated at the neck and sleeves with silk or velvet, sometimes several rows of different silk ribbons. From what I’ve been able to find from looking at online museum collections, most of the red ones had trimmings in pink and/or black silk. Since I had pink silk at home, I decided to use that. The way the trimmings looked differed from place to place, but in my area they where generally quite simple, compared to other places.

As I’ve said before, the spedetröja is knitted in thin wool yarn on needles 1,5 mm (US size 000, UK size 17). The bottom is knitted in double seed stitch, and up the sides at back and front, there are knitted borders. Another type of border is knitted at the shoulders. These borders are made by knit and purl stitches, in period and geographically correct patterns. The silk is pleated to fit the shape of the neckline and sleeves. It’s sewn on with tiny, spaced backstitches. The inside of the neckline, and the short slit at the bottom of the sleeves are lined with white linen.

I will eventually invest in reproduction silver buttons to close the sleeves, but for now I’ll settle for brass hooks and sewn bars, which I still have to make.

It took me just a couple of days more than four months from the day I received the material to the last stitch on the silk trimming, much, much faster that I’d have thought. I did a mistake on it though; the increases should have been put on the other side of the vertical borders, but never mind – they will be mostly hidden by my bodice anyway. I just have to make it better next time, I plan to make a black spedetröja sometime in the future.

With some luck, there'll be a post about the completed folk costume soon, with all the layers, now the spedetröja is done.

Air Raid Sirens

2010-07-22T18:57:00.004+02:00

Just a question: Have you watched too many movies, TV-series, and documentaries if the sound of British WWII air raid sirens make you jump and wonder where the nearest shelter is, and still sends chills down your spine once you realise, half a second later, that it comes from a mobile phone?? Or do you just have too vivid an imagination? Even when being prepared for it, it makes me shiver. It’s one of the eeriest sounds in the world.

Hmmm…. Being a sucker for history can have its side effects, I suppose.

1940's Style Dress

2010-07-18T19:43:00.007+02:00

The 40’s dress got finished yesterday. I am rather pleased with it, though not all the details are as I would have liked them. I wore it to church today, and one of my friends said I reminded her of an old picture of her grandmother. I took that as a great compliment; seems I managed to give the dress the right air.

The dress is made from rayon, with a hidden zipper in the left side. The front of the bodice is gathered at the shoulders, and there’s a ribbon tie at the neck. The bodice is eased into a waistbant to which the skirt is sewn in smoothly. Another ribbon ties round the waist, and is held in place by loops sewn at the sides. The sleeves are gathered at the shoulders, and have an inverted box pleat at the edge, sewn down about 2 ½ inches up the arm, making the sleeves narrower at the bottom. Thin shoulder pads where made to create the right silhouette. The skirt is rather long, placing the dress in the early 40’s. The shoes are vintage, made in England, and bought at a charity shop some years ago.

That’s really all there is to say about it. Didn't get any better pictures of it today, regrettably. And yes, I was tired when I took the pictures. Now I’m off for my third night shift at the hospital. Yawn.

Dealing with the Heat - Vintage Style

2010-07-13T13:28:00.005+02:00

The weather is still horribly hot and suffocating. I truly wasn’t made for this kind of weather; it has me wilting like a thirsty flower. The only thing to be done to survive it without a fan is to dress in cool clothes, put your hair up, keep in the shade, and be as still as possible. Luckily, I’m not working today, so I’ll stay at home sewing all day.

To make dealing with the heat a little more bearable, I dug out my linen 40’s style dress from the back of the closet. Linen is the best material when it’s hot and humid. This dress is made from the same pattern as the polka dot one I’m working on now, though I’m making a few changes on that one.

I put my hair up in a matching hairstyle and tied a scarf round it. Much better.

Now I can even feel just a little bit stylish in my suffering. If the weather forecast is right (which I cross my fingers for), there will be rain and thunder later today – I hope it will cool and clear the air so I can breathe again.

Medieval Socks and a WWII Dress

2010-07-12T19:47:00.006+02:00

Seems a bit silly talking about wool stockings when the temperature has been in the 90’s for the past few days (almost kills me, it does - feels like it, at least), but here goes:

About a week ago I finished a pair of socks in a technique called nålbindning / nalbinding / needlebinding. It’s an old technique, found, amongst other places, in ancient Egypt as well as in Scandinavia and the Viking-ruled part of Dark Age Britain. It pre-dates knitting by hundreds, probably more than a thousand years, and was regularly used in some parts of Scandinavia well into the 19th century for mittens and socks. This makes it perfect for re-enactors doing Viking- and middle ages. You use a rather big, flatish needle made from wood, bone or horn, and you use torn-of pieces of yarn (usually very, very long - you want to piece them as seldom as possible). You then sew the sock, mitten or whatever, stitch by stitch, using your thumb as a base. When you come to the end of the piece of yarn, you lay it together with a new one, wet the join and rub it between your hands until it felts together. The fact that you sew them like this makes them very sturdy – if the yarn should break somewhere while you’re using the sock, that’s all that happens – the sock won’t unravel. However, if you want to go back and change something, that takes quite a while. There are a lot of different stitches, so one thing made in this technique can look a bit different than another one.

I learned the technique from a re-enactor friend some years ago, and began making the socks at that time, but they have been forgotten amongst all my other projects until the event two weekends ago, when I brought them. The other ladies there had brought their nålbindning projects as well, and they where so much prettier than my poor socks and, most of all, they where finished. So last week I sat down and finished mine, even brought them with me to work, and made everyone at the lunch table curious. Turned out one of the girls there recogniced what I was doing, and when I asked her how she knew, it turned out she's a re-enactor herself. Figures.

I then tried to felt them, as that seems to have been very common, making warmer and (again) sturdier clothes. Unfortunately, it would seem I used super wash wool, so it wasn’t very easy, and I couldn’t get them as felted as I’d have liked, but they will do.

And now something completely different: last weekend I began making myself a 1940’s dress from the polka dot fabric I bought some time ago. I use a pattern I made some years ago, having looked on the outside of a Vogue Vintage Pattern for inspiration. I have used that pattern once before and rather liked it. This is the shoulder detail.

Now I’m going to continue working on it, and to watch the first season of Foyle’s War that I bought today. Always nice to watch something from the same era you’re making clothes from, I think it’s inspiring.

Varberg

2010-07-06T18:10:00.009+02:00

Last weekend I went to an event with the late 14th century group Albrechts Bössor (Albrechts Gunners), and it was brilliant. I really liked the people, and five of them have blogs that I follow. Nice to meet the persons behind the words, but it feels a bit silly writing about an event when I know some of the people who where there will be reading it, and probably have experienced it from a slightly different point of view. Anyway, the event was a medieval faire held in the old fortress at Varberg. The market part of it wasn’t very good – actually, it was mostly horrible, with crushed velvet and poly-satin dresses, plastic swords and goth jewellery being sold, and street performers in silly costumes – the usual stuff. Most of the good tradespeople where at a viking festival down south, I believe. Too bad, I had hoped to buy some fabric… Still, there where a few good things and most people seem to have had a good time.

The weather was sunny with the occasional wisp of very thin cloud, extremely hot and rather windy the first day, and stiflingly still and windless the next. We all kept reminding each other to drink water and rubbing on sun block.

Picture by Anders

As night fell it got a bit chilly, which was nice as a change. I find I'll have to make myself another dress to go over the yellow one; it got a bit too cold. The london-hood proved to have been a good thing to have sewn, very cosy.

Picture by Elin

We slept quite comfortably in hand sewn tents, on woollen blankets laid out over straw. The group is very particular about authenticity, which is why they caught my interest in the first place, and one of its main aims is teaching and educating the public, so the camp and equipment was kept as closely as possible to how it might have been back in the day.

The food prepared by Peter where based on recipes from 14th century cook books. Forget boiled vegetables – it was deep fried pies filled with meets and cheese, porridge served with raisins, cinnamon, and almonds, omelette, and bread pudding served with butter and cinnamon, with a smoked herring on the side. Yummy!

As all re-enactors and living historians know, the commonest task, when done without electricity, is extremely interesting to the public, and everything gives an opportunity to teach. I had the pleasure to explain about spinning and sewing, and to let a few children give carding wool a try, which they where thrilled about. Maria, Elin and Anna explained about qualities of wool, weaving, plant dyeing, needle binding and embroidery. Being a military camp, of course there where demonstrations on fighting, armour and weapons, but being extremely ignorant in that area, I won’t even try to report on it as I’m sure to get it wrong.

I spent most of the weekend in our camp, helping with the cooking (which included fetching water and wood), sewing, needle binding, playing with the children in the group, visiting with the others, and learning how to spin on a drop spindle. I had tried that quite a few years ago, but it didn’t turn out very well, now though, it went much better, having gotten some tips from Maria who’s very talented in many textile crafts. After a while, I could even manage to spin while walking. It was so fun that I’ll have to buy another drop spindle now, which is not good at all – I really don’t need any more interesting things to take my attention from the many projects I already have, waiting to be finished.

So, that was my weekend, and a really nice one it was. To those of you who where there, thanks for making it so good, and I hope to see you all again soon.

Best Foot Forward

2010-06-29T23:04:00.005+02:00

Yesterday I finished sewing the second shoe, and I let it soak while I was at work, and turned it when I came home. It has now dried, and I have greased them both a couple of times, and will do it several more times before wearing them outside. Why is it, when you make a pair of anything, that one is invariably better/nicer than the other?

I’ve also finished the soles of my pattens – yay! It doesn’t seem likely to rain this weekend, but my shoes might need protection from gravel and the like. I took the pattens home to my parents when I visited last weekend, and it went rather quicker to finish them when I had access to my Dads’ wood chisels than it did with just my knife. They might not be pretty, or 100 % accurate, but hopefully they’ll be functional. As I’ve said before, it’s a good thing my feet will mostly be hidden by my skirts. If all goes well, I’ll nail the uppers to them tomorrow – doing it now would, I fear, upset the neighbours.

I’ve also made some linen sewing: when I was at my parents’ I finished a new veil. The weather forecast says it’ll be horribly hot and sunny this weekend, so I’ll really need the protection. Yesterday I finished changing an apron (narrowing the waistband) I made years ago. It’s made from half bleached herringbone weave linen, and has simple embroidery over the pleats, keeping them in place.

This might not be accurate, but since I have a bit of an emotional attachment to this apron, having made it during a period of enormous stress and grief in my life, I will wear it anyway and hope no one will censure me for it. Anyway, a lot of people have made smocked aprons lately, it seems to be all the rage amongst female 14th century reenactors at the moment - some variety might be a good thing. I'd like a smocked apron too, but not when everyone else wears them, and they (or what have been interpreted as smocking, and as far as I know) have only been portrayed in the Luttrell Psalter. The apron was made from five scrap pieces: one for each tie, one for the waistband and two for the apron skirt. The skirt parts where whipstitched together, having nice selvages. As if that weren't enough, I’ve begun to change one of my shifts a bit.

I’ve got a lot to do, and less time to do it in.

Not Like I'd Planned...

2010-06-26T23:54:00.004+02:00

So, yesterday was Midsummer's Eve, and I'd planned to wear my folk costume for the first time. But I didn't - I slept. I'd been working from nine pm to seven am for two nights, and was dead tired. Too bad. Still, there's the YSA activity in Finland in a month, and with some luck I'll be able to wear it complete with the spedetröja.

The coming week I'll be busy preparing for the event next weekend, finishing my second shoe, my pattens, hopefully resew an old shift etc. More about that will follow.

Compromise

2010-06-24T18:16:00.005+02:00

Since I won’t have the spedetröja finished in time for Midsummer’s Eve tomorrow, I’ve made a stomacher to fill in the wide opening in front. Stomacher doesn’t really seem like the right word, but it’ll have to do, the purpose is the same. In Swedish this particular piece of clothing (at least when talking about folk costumes) is called a bröstduk or bröstlapp, which could be translated with bosom cloth. It’s embroidered with glass beads in red, white and black, and both the colours and pattern is inspired by a picture of one I saw. The beads are sewn on with grey linen thread, like on one in Nordiska Museet. The material is black velvet sewn to green wool, and between them are a few layers of newspaper glued together with glue made from flour. Most period bröstdukar where stiffened with newspaper, but one or two had love letters sewn into them. Sweet. Rose coloured silk decorates the top.

The sewing along the edges and back looks crude, but it’s not supposed to be seen, and is also true to the examples I’ve seen pictures of.

The embroidery is really simple, compared with most bröstdukar. Most of them have a pattern of stars, hearts and flowers, but unlike the one I used as inspiration, most have beads in blues, greens, reds and whites, and using different kinds of beads. Like the one I used for inspiration, I have my initials and the year embroidered on it. A bit hard to see, unless you know what it says... First it says SAD and below that 2010.

Now, there is a problem: I haven’t been able to find any pictures of bröstdukar from my area. They weren’t worn at the same time as the spedetröja, but I have read that they did exist. The spedetröja were not always worn during the very hottest days in summer, and the bodice had to be filled in with something else. So, what to do when you can’t find the right thing? You look at what was worn by others, close by. If you go a few miles to the east, there are plenty of bröstdukar to be found, and I used one of those for inspiration. It doesn’t feel quite right, but it’ll have to do for now. I will much prefer to wear the costume with the spedetröja…

I have resewn the hems and waistband on my apron, with linen thread this time. It looks so much better now.

Gryffindor Scarf Finished

2010-06-21T10:05:00.003+02:00

Last week I finished the Gryffindor scarf for my little sister. I haven’t given it to her yet, it’s still a few weeks until her birthday. As it is her eleventh birthday, I will put her card in a “parchment” envelope with her address written in green; those of you who’ve read the books will know what I mean.

Hopefully she will like it and not feel too old for such things.