The Eagle's Ravenclaw Scarf

The blog has moved and this post can now be found here:
https://peculiarseamstress.blog/2017/12/11/the-eagles-ravenclaw-scarf/

Hogwarts House Banners

As all regular readers know by now, hubby and I are massive nerds in so many areas. One of my nerdy loves is the magical world created by J. K. Rowling. It’s so extensive, so complex and full of fun things. Our wizardingworld-themed Halloween party has become an annual thing, and I continue to add to and improve the decorations from year to year. We even have a sort of back story of who we are supposed to be, so that the decorations will make sense: just your ordinary wizarding family, so magical cookbooks, the more common potion ingredients, wands, Pepperup Potion and weird plants abound, while Polyjuice Potion, Time Turners and Marauder's Maps are absent.

Last week I really felt like knitting a Hufflepuff scarf for myself (because according to Pottermore, my knowledge of myself, and our backstory I was in Hufflepuff), but as I didn’t have the yarn, and this is a work from stash-year, that project had to be put off indefinitely. Then the designs for the House banners in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child showed up in my Facebook feed, and I was intrigued by the Hufflepuff banner. For some unfathomable reason the colours seem to have been changed from yellow/black to yellow/brown, but that would never do, even if I’m still not quite over having to look like a bee if I want to wear house colours. I looked through my stash of wool scraps and soon found some mustard yellow and black pieces that were big enough. I copied the design off of the picture of the banner, scaled it to a size that would work with the scraps I had, and set to work.

 I ironed on a piece of interfacing to the black wool, drew the design on the interfacing, cut it out, pinned it down carefully, and began attaching it with small blanket stitches, with black cotton at the back of the banner for stability. When that was done I completed the design with wool embroidery. I cut out the banner, bound the edges with more of the black wool, and made a channel at the top so I could hang the banner from a rod. 

 

 Then I set about making a banner for hubby’s old house Ravenclaw, also sorted by Pottermore, and fitting his personality brilliantly. That banner had even more issues than the Hufflepuff banner. For one, it was made in the pretty and since the films often used, but wrong colours of blue/silver, when in the books it’s described as blue/bronze. I asked hubby what he’d prefer and his response was that the books wins every time. Good man. So I looked through my stash for blue wool, and a nuance of brown that could pass for bronze.

Then I had to make some adjustments to the banner design. According to the books, the Ravenclaw mascot is an eagle, but by more casual fans it’s often believed to be a raven – that the films made it so didn’t exactly help either. On the design of the Ravenlaw banner I thought it was a bit unclear – it might have been supposed to be a raven, but it didn’t look much like any raven I ever saw. Still, the eagle I tried to make didn’t end up looking much like one either - served me right for being a snob. 

 For the embroidery I had to pull threads from the blue fabric, as I didn’t have any yarn in the right nuance. 

 Once the banners were finished, I began making the rods they would hang from. The banners are quite small (27x19 cm), of a size you’d hang over your bed while in school, so the rods holding them didn’t have to be all that sturdy, more for looks than anything else, really, as I’ll probably pin the banners discretely to the wall, making them look like they were attached with a Sticking Charm. I had thin round rods I got at the craft store last year, and wooden beads with big enough holes to fit the rods. I just cut the rods so length, and glued the beads to the ends.

There, finished House banners!

Cushion Covers for Spring

As spring was approaching I wanted new covers for the sofa cushions. With this in mind I had eyed an old apron that I made many years ago when just starting out making historical clothing, but has since been demoted to the fabric stash for not being period enough. It had a print of green checks on an off-white base, with flecks of beige giving it a "rustic" feeling. It just didn’t cut it as a 19^th century apron, but I thought the green would work well for spring cushions. Said and done, I cut down the apron, stitched up the covers, and added three green buttons from stash for closure on each. That sorted the two larger cushions, but I had three smaller ones that needed new covers even more. 

 I raided my stash, and found a piece of cotton blend upholstery fabric that I was given a while back. There seem to have been a problem with the loom the day it was made, as the woven in flowers are rather ugly – I have another piece of that fabric, where the flowers look as they should, but I have other plans for that. I don’t mind; in this age of wastefulness it feels good to put all fabrics to use, even the imperfect ones. The colour worked well with the green check, picking up the off-white and beige.

 

  I made the covers with a deep overlapping in the back so they would look nice even without additional closure, as I didn’t feel like making more buttonholes. As I only had just enough fabric for the covers without the deep hems I wanted, I faced the openings with strips of beige check cotton fabric left over from lining the bodice of my insanely pieced dress a few years ago. Though it doesn’t really show, a detail like this makes me glad.

 The fabric had a few heavy dark stains that wouldn’t go away in the wash, and I didn’t have enough material to cut around them. As a solution I made a self-fabric appliqué flower with an orphan button from stash as the centre. The placement is a bit odd, but it’s way better than the stains.

 So now our old sofa looks pleasantly light, airy and ready for spring, just in time for Easter. 

The beige theme continues, as I'm working on a checked white and sand coloured 1920-23-ish house dress. More on that later :)

Baby Quilt II

The blog has moved; this post can now be found HERE.

Babynest

The past few years I’ve seen lots of people in Sweden making so called babynests. It’s a clever thing to create a cosy sleeping spot for babies, where they don’t have to feel exposed on a big, empty space, like in a cot. It’s also supposed to be safer to co-sleep with baby in a babynest than without, and you can put it pretty much anywhere, or bring it along when travelling. It is, I believe, originally developed for babies in neonatal units, but have since been adapted for healthy, full term babies as well.

I wanted to make one when I was expecting B, but never got round to it. I improvised with a rolled up blanket in a pillowcase, which worked all right, but this time I wanted the real thing. As we have three floors in our house, and I like to keep my babies close, I want an easily moved sleeping place. I used this description (only in Swedish) for a starting point, but deviated slightly. For one thing I hand stitched the whole thing, so I worked in another order than the description said. That way I could work on it sitting on my bed watching a movie, or next to B, snuggled up closely, when he was watching a movie. I only used materials I had at home, so it has cost me nothing but time at the moment. The fabric, for example, came from a worn out duvet cover, that still had some sound areas. Instead of just throwing it into the bin, I used the good parts for this project. That the material's been used for so long also makes it very soft for baby to sleep on.

The function is quite simple: a padded bottom surface, and padded sides that are controlled by a drawstring, to change the size of the nest as baby grows. 

Laid flat.

Slightly gathered, but not yet tied.

 

Tightly gathered and tied, the ties neatly and safely tucked away.

 The drawstring tied at the bottom, before the ties are
wrapped round themselves, so baby won't get tangled.

The whole thing can be tossed into the washer at need, but I plan to make little sheets (including protective ones) for it, to minimize the frequency of that. Just need to think of a clever way to keep them in place, as there is no mattress to fold them round…. Buttons or ties are at the top of my mind, but we’ll see. As the sides of the nest cover the spot where I would attach the sheets, there are good chances baby will never get bothered by them.

I’m also working on a patchwork quilt for the little stranger. B got one when he was born, which he still sleeps with every night and every nap, and I want every baby (be there only ever two, or many) to have one.

Sewing Roll

For a while I have seen many Swedish textile crafters, historical costumiers and the like make sewing rolls (or mesma/marsma as thay are often called). Sewing rolls don’t have a historic base in most of Sweden (unlike the housewives of other places), as it seems to have been a Sami thing here, and, as Anna pointed out in a discussion about them, as in so many cases all over the world, the majority of a countries population, thinking themselves very civilized, don’t want much to do with the indigenous people’s traditions. It is however a very clever thing for when you need to bring your sewing kit along when travelling, which is probably why the Sami used it, being nomads. As many people today go away from home more or less frequently, and many sewing people bring their projects with them on vacation, to school, work, the beach, sewing groups etc., it comes in handy. I’ve been meaning to make one myself for years, but somehow I never got round to it, as there have been so many other things to do. The past few weeks however, the making of sewing rolls has really taken off in a sewing group on facebook, and I fell for the pressure and finally made one. 

Neatly rolled up, with braided wool ties keeping it closed.

As I intend it for modern use I could go for whatever design I wanted. I chose to be inspired by 19^th century rural folk textiles from my county Skåne, and the thing turned out to be a nice marriage between a historic item from the far North of Sweden and historic textiles from the far South (which would still considered quite far North by most of the world).

I used heavy wool left over from my folk costume skirt (same as I used in my pincushion), and embroidered it with wool yarns - wool embroidery of high quality is often seen in cushions and covers in this area during the 18th and 19thcenturies. 

 The outside.

 The lining is made from lighter wool, as are two of the pockets and the bound edge.

Proof of a mishap and change of plans: originally I had another embroidery here 

(my initials and the current year), but it had a quite severe, military look about it that I didn't like. 

I unpicked the embroidery and did this instead, when the pocket was already stitched 

firmly in place - thus the now uneven edges. Sigh.

The pockets are all lined with striped cotton, slightly resembling the ones often seen in country women’s and children’s aprons in 19th century Skåne.

The small pocket will be good for holding Nalbinding needles and such.

The metal button is supposed to bring the thought to the silver buckles, buttons, chains, clasps etc. worn with the folk costumes for best. 

 The lid of the pocket closes with a sewn loop.

The bottom pocket is made from the test knitting I made before beginning my folk costume spedetröja a few years ago. It is bound with a strip of silk, as the finest spedetröjor was. I’d been saving the test piece for this purpose, thinking it too pretty to throw away. 

 Knitted pocket bound with silk.

Examples of extant women's clothing and jewellry from my area can be found here.

Scissors, thimble, thread and more.

I’m quite pleased with how the sewing roll turned out – it’s almost a little piece of art in itself, and will look nice in my sewing room, and when I bring it along with me.

Detail of the embroidery on the outside.

I have a new skirt to post about as well, that have been pending for a couple of weeks, but I need some photos first, and in my present state of late pregnancy, I don’t often feel like going through all the hassle of a photo shoot, not even a small one.

From Blouse to Pillowcase

What with my pause from historical sewing (on which I’ve done very well indeed, though I say so myself: but my head is full of ideas and plans) I don’t really feel like I have a lot to write about… Sure, I’m working on a few contemporary things (and I use the word in it's broadest possible sense), but they’re not yet ready to be blogged. I do however have one tiny thing.

A couple of days ago I cleaned out my wardrobe; a few things I’ll give to my younger sisters, a number of things have gone to a charity shop. Some things were so worn and faded they were not fit to use at all. I scavenged the buttons and let the rest go the way of all the earth. A few old blouses were too small for me, or in a style I don’t really use, but had bought because I liked the fabric. These I put aside. Some of them will end up in quilts, some might be made into baby dresses if ever I have a daughter. And one I made into a pillow case, with a ready made, working buttoned opening and all. I ripped the dart seams, measured, sewed, cut and finished the edges. Simple as that. It's actually hand sewn as I did it while watching a movie.

You can still see the marks from the darts, but I hope most of them will go away in the laundry. Now, the pillow is not in it’s best element in our sofa – on a white bead spread in a bright summer room I believe it will look delightful. And it’s reused, which feels good. The scraps that are left will also be used, as with so many scraps in my home, in a quilt.

Medieval Pilgrims Satchel

I worked so hard to get my families new things finished for the event I mentioned in my last post, but to paraphrase Jane Austen “our intended excursion to Wadköping turned out very differently from what I’d expected. I was prepared to be wet through, fatigued…. ; but the event was still more unfortunate, for we did not go at all.” That is, little B and I didn’t go, as he got ill. Tobias went up on Friday afternoon, but came home again on Saturday evening to help me with the poor sick child. Little B’s been really ill, with huge, painful blisters in his mouth, and gums swelling so heavy his teeth almost disappeared from view, and it has prevented him eating very much at all. When he’s been so hungry he couldn’t help but eat, he did so crying from the pain. It was truly heart wrenching to witness. Naturally we went to the doctor, but as it was a virus there wasn’t much they could do. Now, after eight days of fever, he’s slowly on the mend – thankfully! He can eat again without more than the occasional whimper and is moving from liquids to soft solids, only has fever in the evenings, and can find things amusing once in a while. He’s still more sensitive than he usually is though.

Unfortunately Tobias and I are coming down with it now. I’ve had a fever for a couple of days, and I have a very sore throat. Bleh. So, pictures of the new tunic I finished for Tobias in time for the event will have to wait until we both feel better.

I have however managed to sew something during this last couple of days when B’s been getting better, and I’ve been getting worse: a medieval pilgrim’s satchel. (Isn’t satchel a nice word by the way? Just listen to it: satchel...) I have mixed feelings about them, as they are far more common in the living history world than they appear to have been at the time. Then, they seem to have onlybeen used by people during travelling, like pilgrims, but so many people of today feel the need to carry a lot of things with them, and must have something like their modern purse. I usually don't carry a lot of things with me, once I've left all my things in our tent all I have is my belt pouch. But having something more to pack in for events, and to carry the now needed child related things in, is important enough for me to have made one. It will be a good complement to baskets.

It’s made from rather heavy wool twill scraps I had in my stash, with white yarn in the warp and brown in the weft. Wool is a good choice for bags and purses, as it keeps the contents reasonably dry, unlike linen. Leather would have been even better, but I don’t have any I want to use for this.

The body of the satchel is made from one piece, and the strap from another. The satchel is about 30 cm wide and 32 cm deep. I made the strap rather short, as they often appear to be so in period art. I also find it more comfortable and balanced.

Guillaume de Diguleville receives the pilgrim's staff and satchel 

from Grace of God, late 14th century or early 15th century.

I had planned to tablet weave it together with blue wool yarn, but the fabric frayed too much for it to work. Instead it’s stitched together using waxed linen thread and trimmed it with wool braid. I also added tassels, which is a common feature in medieval bags and purses, including pilgrims’ satchels. 

I could have lined it, making it even prettier (I'm not thrilled about how it looks on the inside of the lid) and more sturdy, but I didn’t have any fabric I wanted to use for this, and I’m working from materials in my stash as much as possible at the moment. Still, all in all I'm pleased with how it turned out.

So that’s another of this summer’s planned projects I can cross of the to do list.

Checked 14th Century Pillows

This is my 200^th post! Hooray! I had hoped to have a giveaway, but there’s just no time to make anything for it. Hopefully there will be one later, when things calm down a bit.

For a while now I’ve been wanting medieval checked pillows, like in the pictures below, alla found in this database. They are tolerably common in pictures from the fourth quarter of the 14^th century (and continue to show up in the 15^th century), but not so much before. I did however find one pictured as early as the 1330’s. They are most often blue, but I’ve seen a few examples of red, black and green as well.

 Austria, 1330's.



Austria, 1350-75.

 Austria, 1370-72.

 

Austria, 1370-72.

Italy, 1370's.

Since I gave birth to little B 18 months ago I’ve had some slight problems with my hips. They are all right most of the time, but I need a pillow between my knees when sleeping or I get a bit of pain. The want for good looking pillows to bring to events have thus grown into need. Finding a suitable fabric for it was not easy though. I could have had it specially woven for me, like the one my friend Maria made for Isis, but that’d cost more money than I have to spend on pillows. So far I’ve stitched pillows into plain linen towels for every event. But then, a few months ago, I found a couple of linen/cotton blend tablecloths in our often visited charity shop, for 60 SEK ($9; £6; €7). The check is not a perfect match to the ones I’ve seen in medieval art, but will do very nicely until I stumble upon something even better. I could see pillows like this looking wonderful in soft wool.

 The pillows on a quickly made medieval-ish pallet.

This is what our sleeping arrangement will look like this summer.

For the past two evenings I’ve been sewing two pillowcases (by hand, with waxed linen thread, of course) but there’s enough fabric left for several more. I stitch up feather pillows in them, using rather large whip stitching. It’ll be a bit of a hassle to do that every time, and to take the stitches out whenever the cases will be washed, but I don’t know of a period way to do it. I don’t even know if loose pillowcases like these are period (I rather suspect they are not), so I think this imitation of pillows without cases will look nice and unobtrusive.

A good thing is that they look fine and modern enough to sit on our sofa when we’re not at events.

I wanted more blue pillows for our living room, so that’s two birds killed with one stone, and one project off of this summer’s list of medieval projects.

A Pile of Planned Projects

As our participation in this years living history and re-enactment season draws ever nearer I, as always, find myself heaped with 14^th century projects that needs to get done. That’s the problem with having too scattered interests; you don’t make the things you will need until the need is upon you…. As I can’t bear the thought of cheating and machine sew our clothes it takes a bit of time to get it all finished. At the moment I’m working on:

- Tobias’ new buttoned cote. There will be 34 cloth buttons down the front, and a bunch on each forearm. I guess at least 50 in total.

- Shoes for little B. One is stitched, awaiting finishing, the other one not yet begun. They will eventually be front laced, not tied round the ankle as when tried on in the picture.

- A shirt for B. Well, I’ve not really begun it, only ironed the linen, but as I want it done for the next HSF challenge I’ll start it tomorrow.

What I have planned is:

For me

- A shift. Unbleached linen is ordered.

- A veil and wimple – I have semi fine, bleached linen for that.

- A new kirtle. Will be remade from an old grey wool early medieval cote.

For Tobias

- A new pair of hose – brown wool is ordered.

- A new bag hat. We have a lovely thin red wool for that.

For B

- A new cote or two. Wool left over from making Tobias’ clothes will do nicely.

- Possibly a new coif. Fabric for that might be found in my linen scrap box, or the stash.

- Fake cloth diapers, to go over his disposable ones. Again, linen scrap box.

- A period looking toy or two wouldn’t hurt…

Household items

- Pillow cases, from this linen/cotton blend.

- Pilgrims’ satchels. Coarse wool fabric from the wool scrap box (I have several scrap boxes…).

- Linen towels. If large enough linen scraps can be found.

I will likely also make some toddler’s clothes for a friend’s son, in return for nalbound socks for B, as she is much better at nalbinding than I am, and I am the better seamstress. Trading work is a good thing.

Now, not all of the above are equally important. I will have to choose carefully in what order to make things. I also have a paper to write, so as to finally finish my education to be a specialist nurse in paediatrics. Though I’m a stay at home Mum, a university education is always good to have. With all of the above, all I can say is; it's a fine thing that Sunday is a day of rest!