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/

1840's Knitted Garters

I felt the need to make myself a pair of suitable garters for my 1840’s outfit. I had raided my closet and cut down a pair of too small white cotton tights to make a pair of over knee stockings (a budget variety, if you like me can’t afford reproductions – just make sure to stitch the tops, so they don’t unravel), but like their 19^th century counterparts, they wouldn’t stay up on their own. I felt like knitting and knowing I had come across knitted garters in the mid-19th century before, I went to the internet to see what I could dig up.

After a short search, I found that a description of how to make knitted garters were present in The Workwoman’s Guide from 1838, which suited my period just fine, though I have yet to find an example of knitted garters from this period in Sweden. I looked through my stash of yarn, and picked out a soft blue wool, not too thick. I used knitting needles 2 mm (US 0, UK 14), and with 14 stitches I got a width of 4 cm, not too far from the “nail, more or less, wide” mentioned in the description. To really have them a nail wide (a nail being equal to 5,7 cm or 2 1/4”) seemed too wide for comfort. I also made mine shorter than the 2/3 of a yard (about 60 cm) stated in the Guide, as 46 cm worked just fine for me.

I knitted in a hole at one end, described as optional, which might be why I didn’t need the full 60 cm: I just wrapped the garter round my leg, pulled one end through the hole, and tied it off.

This was a quick and simple project, just what one needs once in a while. The garters are really comfortable to wear, and though no one will see them, I like the fact that they are blue. When in active use, I fold my stockings down over the garters though, I feel it makes it more secure and comfortable, as the stockings will just roll down to the knee otherwise, which is really annoying.

Molly's Corner - a Gift of Miniatures

Those of you who follow my Facebook page might remember that I wrote about my wish to make miniatures, but not thinking I had the time and space for it. Well, I found a loophole… My mum’s birthday was coming up, and she likes miniatures. She is also a Harry Potter fan, with a particular love of the Weasley’s home, the Burrow. Early one morning, when hovering between sleep and wakefulness, I was struck with the thought that I’d knit the beginning of a Weasley sweater in miniature, and maybe make a miniature book, a wand, a cup of tea….  It quickly snowballed from there, and two weeks later Molly’s Corner was a fact.

I had no budget at all for this project, but luckily a stash of materials for creative stuff of all kinds. I decided that the moment in time of this miniature would be set a few years after the Battle of Hogwarts, when all the children had left home, and most of them had married and some started families of their own.

In the end I made

- almost the entire front of a wool Weasley jumper, and some skeins of yarn

- a knitted wool blanket

- a pillow in crazy quilt patchwork technique

- a wooden wand

- a candle on a candlestick

- an inkwell with a quill

- a framed picture of Arthur and Molly Weasley from the films

- several books

- letters, both unopened and opened

- a shopping list

- a child’s drawing

- Witch Weekly Magazine

- a box with merchandise from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes

- a cup of tea

The jumper was knitted in thin two-ply wool, with a gauge of 9 stitches/cm (23 stitches/inch). Had I had longer needles to knit on that wouldn’t have been a problem – I like knitting on thin needles - but I only had embroidery needles, and being so short they made my hands cramp if I knitted for too long at a time. The knitting needles I transferred the stitches to is made from jewellery supplies. I made some additional balls and skeins of yarn to make it look more complete. As the knitting is small enough to carry it's own weight, it's quite easy to position it so that it looks like it's knitting on it's own.

The blanket was knitted in one-ply wool yarn on 1,5 mm knitting needles. It was loads of fun to do, even securing all the loose ends after casting off.

The crazy quilt pillow was stitched from small scraps of linen, cotton and raw silk fabrics. It was stuffed with a single layer of quilt batting.

The wand was made from a thin wood stick from my craft stash. I sanded it down, stained it brown and varnished it. It doesn’t look like Molly Weasley’s wand from the films, as I didn’t think to google it until I was finished, but I think it’s cute anyway.

The candle was made from the same stick as the wand. I made a small hole in one end, and after painting it, I glued a piece of waxed black quilting thread in it for a wick. The candlestick was made from the wick holder in an old tea light, that I bent into shape. Another time I think I would have liked to spray paint it a copper or brass colour.

The inkwell was made from two parts of different sized grommets and an orphaned part of an earring. I glued them together and splattered the would-be inkwell with black paint for ink. The quill was made from a small feather escaped from a pillow, that I used glue from a glue stick on to hold its shape. I then glued the quill to the inkwell.

The framed photo of Molly and Arthur is simple as can be: a picture from off the internet, sandwiched between two pieces of scrapbooking cardstock, the top one cut out to be the actual frame. It has a stand from the same cardstock.

For the books I used book covers that I downloaded from the internet - as there are so many I'll just post a list of links at the end of the post. Some had titles that are mentioned in the books, and on some of the blank ones I added titles of my own, like "Delicious Desserts with a flick of a wand" or "How to care for your owl". I then printed them out and glued them round small pieces of cardstock. The pages were made from paper that I’d dyed in tea, cut and stitched together. Depending on how I wanted the books to look (closed, partially opened or completely open) I stitched the pages in slightly different ways. The open books were given insides in patterned scrapbooking paper, but I didn’t bother with that on the closed books. The stitched pages were then glued to the covers, some of them with scribbled paper scraps, an entry form for The Daily Prophet’s yearly lottery, or a tasselled bookmarker (made from sewing thread) glued between the pages for visual interest. Most of the books were glued together into stacks, with various other stuff (letters, a child's drawing e.t.c.) between, under or on top of them.

There are two unopened letters made from the same tea dyed paper as the books, one showing the back with its seal, the other one addressed to Bill Weasley. The first letter was actually addressed to Molly herself, but I decided the back was also interesting to see. The letters are glued to a stack of books, or I’m afraid they’d quickly get lost. The opened letter is from Percy. It’s really just a short note to let his mum know that “we’re coming to dinner on Sunday”, and even though you can’t see it, glued between books as it is, I thought it was a nice touch to show him on good terms with his family.

The shopping list has a mix of very ordinary things like tea, flour and socks, and more exotic things like dried spiders and essence of dittany on it. I like that it's so long it can trail off the edge of a table, as parchments are often described as doing in the books.

The Witch Weekly cover was also taken from the internet, but I changed a few things: I gave the dress of the silhouette witch bell sleeves and made it longer – I imagine Witch Weekly is mostly read by adult, maybe even middle aged witches, not teenagers or young adults. A mini skirt looked rather silly in that context. I removed the date - I'm aiming for a few years into the 2000's here after all. I also changed some of the headlines – “fall fashions” just wouldn’t do on a British publication. As I couldn’t fit “autumn”, I just changed it to “spring”.  I made some other small changes as well – a bit pointless perhaps, as they don’t really show on such a tiny magazine, and part of it is hidden anyway, but it felt nice to make if fit my vision. Still, a thank you to the person who made the cover in the first place! I assembled the magazine in a similar fashion to the books, but simpler – I just glued the stitched together pages directly to the folded paper of the cover. I’m not sure Harry would have liked a heroic cover picture like that of himself, but he’s instantly recognizable, and it is rather fun to see him as an auror. 

Balancing on top of one of the book piles is a box from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, where Ron was working with George by this time. I always thought it was nice that they started working together, though I’m sure they both felt that it should have been Fred. I still haven’t got over his death, and having lost a sibling myself I know they – George especially - never did either.

I thought that Molly would like a big cup of hot tea when getting comfortable in her corner, so I made a cup and saucer from polymer clay I had left from years ago, when I made (rather ugly) miniature dolls. I painted it in green and orange shades, as my mum like those. I would have loved to fill it with resin water, but that wasn’t in my budget, so I tried to gradually fill it with craft varnish. It worked rather well I think, though not perfect. I gave the cup a spoon as well – self stirring for a bit of magic. The cup looks a bit chipped and worn, and the spoon handle is a bit battered as well - this is the Weasley family after all.

All these little things were put in a large matchbox that I'd covered and lined with scrapbooking paper, and decorated with a scrapbooking tag and some organza ribbon. 

So, how do I feel about making miniatures? I love it! I would obviously need lots of practice to become proficient, but I feel this is something I will do more of, when time allows. I’d also love to try and make miniature dolls again, and see if I can make prettier ones now. But first I have other things to do.  

Links to book covers - unfortunately some of the links are dead ends:
Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain and Ireland
Charm your own cheese
Medicinal Plants
One Minute Feasts - It's Magic!
Several handsome miniature book covers
Several basic book covers

18th/19th Century Stockings

In the winter of 2008/09 I began knitting a pair of plain Ca 18^th century wool stockings, using the tutorial on Mara Riley’s page. Progress was pretty good, until I ran out of yarn just after I had made the heels. I had got this yarn for free, and it wasn’t available in the shops. Now, I did have an in-progress nalbinding project where I had used this yarn, so I set out to unpick it. Those of you who ever unpicked nalbinding knows how much time that takes, so when I had enough to keep knitting, I was rather fed up with the whole thing. I put the almost finished stockings away, and though I looked at them once a year or so, I never quite felt like picking up the work again until a couple of weeks ago. I knitted a lot over a few days, and they were finally done.

The yarn is a two ply (lace weight) natural grey wool, knitted on 2 mm (UK 14/US 0) double ended needles. The gauge is ten stitches per inch. If it's any help, the pair weighed 136 grams when finished.

They are not the prettiest stockings seen – I wasn’t very good at knitting when I started out, so the tension between needles differed too much.  Still, a finished project is always nice, and not many will look at my legs up close – yay for long skirts! I took careful notes throughout the knitting process, and have become a better knitter, so hopefully the next pair (whenever I get round to them) will look better.

  

I feel mortified when looking at the stockings laid flat – my stocky legs and heavy ankles have been a sore spot with me since I was in my teens. At the same time I feel guilty for feeling like that – my legs serve their primary function well, which naturally is more important than how they look. Also, the uneven knitting is seen more clearly this way.

This will be my first challenge of the Historical Sew Monthly 2016.

The Challenge: #1 – Procrastination

Material: 2 ply (lace weight) wool yarn.

Pattern: Based on the tutorial on the Mara Riley page.

Year: According to the Mara Riley webpage, 17^th/18^th century. Mine will likely be worn mostly for early 19^th, they seem to be close enough to Swedish lower class stockings of that period.

Notions: None.

How historically accurate is it? The techniques and material are all right, but execution is not too nice. I won’t rank it higher than tolerable because of that.

Hours to complete: No idea.

First worn: For the pictures.

Total cost: Nothing at this time, as I got the yarn for free.

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.

Baby Blanket and Penguins

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!

Socks and Mittens

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.

Folk Costume

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

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.

Gryffindor Scarf Finished

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.

Teaser

All this week I have been studying, and so – no time for sewing. I have been doing a little knitting in the evenings though. Since reports on schoolwork are mildly boring at best, here’s a teaser on the folk costume skirt and apron, taken last week.

The skirt is made of heavily fulled wool and the apron is linen (warp) and wool (weft), woven in a pattern typical of the area and time period. More info and pictures on them will come soon.

Further Progress

When I came home for the weekend I had a parcel waiting for me. It contained the head kerchief, klut, for my folk costume. This kind of coloured cotton kerchief was worn for minor dress-up occasions, like ordinary church service and such, by married and single women alike. For great holidays and events, like Easter, Christmas, weddings, etc. a huge, starched, white embroidered linen headdress would have been worn by married women, and ribbon headdresses by unmarried girls.

This one was hand woven by a woman who sells materials for folk costumes from my area, and gives classes on how to make them. I have ordered my patterns from her. I will have to hem the kerchief, and then it’s ready to be worn. A description and pictures of how I do that will come some other time.

I have knitted 6” on the spedetröja, with a patterned border at the bottom and at the sides. Not much else to say about that.

I started sewing the skirt on Saturday, using waxed unbleached linen thread. I also began sewing a new 14th century veil – you can never have too many veils and kerchiefs.