A Nursing Friendly Dress

In my last post I wrote about some pillow cases I’d finished as part of my “forbidden to start any new projects until we’ve moved” deal with Tobias. Another thing that was awaiting completion was a dress begun this past spring. I wanted a pretty dress, fit for church, which it would be possible for me to nurse in, without it being too obvious it was a nursing dress. If I could still wear it after B is weaned that would be nice. I had seen a very pretty dress worn by Sophia Myles in an episode of Foyle’s War some years ago, and was reminded by it when I bought the first three series. I decided to try and make something similar.

I had stumbled on very good priced semi sheer cotton during the winter, and decided it would do for this project. I draped the bodice, sewed it, and left it. Now I took it out again, drafted the skirt and sleeves, and rather quickly finished it. I also made a rose from the dress fabric and a piece of velvet ribbon to wear in my hair.  

The dress is closed by a zipper in the left side, but the gathered bodice front opens, as you see, with self fabric ties. This makes it quite easy to gain access for nursing, and also makes it a bit adjustable in size for when I’m no longer nursing. 

The dress has wider ties that make a bow at the waist back, to give some visual interest. The skirt is slightly flared, and ends mid calf.

The sleeves are gathered at the shoulder, and have six small, stitched down tucks taking in the width at the cuff. 

This dress turned out entirely hand stitched, first since I did a lot of sewing when B was sleeping in my lap as a teensy weensy baby, and then, when I took it out again, my sewing machine was not easily accessible in the mess and confusion of boxes.

Unfortunately I’ve had to use the self timer on the camera, and after wearing the dress for hours, so the pictures aren’t all too good. Also, I’m afraid the nursing bras I have don’t give enough support to make a pretty silhouette. Ah well, I’ll have to live with that until I make one myself, or stop nursing.

Pillow Cases and Cushion Covers

Two and a half weeks ago we moved to a new city, and though not completely unpacked yet, we’re feeling at home. My fabrics, thread, pins, needles and other equipment are slowly being excavated from the mountain of boxes, so hopefully I’ll be sewing again soon. In the meantime I’m working on a needlebound project that I’ll show you at some future date.

In the month or two before moving Tobias came up with the idea that I shouldn’t start any new projects until after moving, and considering how many unfinished projects I have lying around, I thought it a good idea. It was funny to see how close to finished some of these projects were, I seem to have lost interest (or been distracted by something else) just hours before I had completed projects. Hmm.

One of the projects I now finished was stitching lace to a pillow case sewn years and years ago. I already had one finished, as they were intended to be a pair, but I got fed up with attaching lace, and used the case I’d finished, putting the other one from my mind.

 Now I have two, but as the one that was finished had been bleached with use, I packed it away with the things to be in storage until we move again. Hopefully the new one will be bleached to a similar shade by then.

I had made another cushion cover at the beginning of summer, from scrap pieces of linen, and as I still had some of the linen left, I intended to make more. I admit I did bend the “no new projects” rule with this one. All three cushion covers are made from greyish lavender heavy linen, and all are embroidered using the same shade of floss, but they are all different. Diversity and uniformity in one; that’s what happens when I get bored with making the same thing over and over.

The first one is pieced from smaller scraps, and every piece of the front has been treated differently. One is left plain; another has two rows of hemstitching, and the third small embroidered flowers. 

The second (which did not have to be pieced) has a simple square in cross stitches, with a little detail in the corners.

The third is not pieced either, but unlike the others it opens in front. I covered buttons with the same linen, and embroidered them. 

Not the most interesting of sewing related posts perhaps, but beautifying ones home is important, so some time has to go to that. And now you know I’m still alive :)

Varberg 2012

It’s been a while since last I posted, but I’ve been rather busy. At 1 August we’ll be moving to another city, as Tobias got accepted to the education we hoped and prayed for! We have found an apartment, and are looking forward to a larger kitchen (the one we have now is tiny), not having to carry the pram to the third floor, and a second bedroom, which will be used as a study, as B sleeps in our room. With luck we might even get a proper winter there, as it’s a bit farther north, and not right by the sea, as the city where we live now. We love it here, but change of scenes for a while is not a bad thing. We’ll only be there for less than a year and a half, as the latter part of the education will be given in this part of the country, when we’ll have to move again. Anyway, with all of our planning, hoping, looking for a new home and waiting for acceptance to university, as well as being surrounded by boxes in various stages of packing, I’ve not really been in the mood for writing until now. Now that I am writing, I once again find that I have a harder time expressing myself than before. I blame it on nursing brain; some days I feel truly stupid.

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Two weeks ago we attended the annual medieval days at Varberg fortress again. As usual, it was fun (and as usual, not very much of interest to buy for serious reenactors), and I was in a much better mood than I was in Lund. B was on his best behaviour (but then, he’s usually an angel), we only had to stop once to nurse him on the way there, and not at all on the way home, as he slept the whole time. He charmed everyone, and made very good advertising for babies.

On Friday evening as we made camp, heavy, dark clouds came in from the sea, but we moved quickly, and managed to have all the tents up when the rain came. 

 Picture by Vix

Our family didn’t sleep in the tents this time, it did take a rather heavy toll in Lund, and right now, it’s not worth it. We stayed at a hostel, situated in what used to be a jail, right outside the walls of the fortress. Luckily, our cell (No 19) had a window you could actually look out of; most cells had nothing but a tiny little thing close to the ceiling. 

Despite the not too happy history of the place, it was the nicest hostel I’ve ever stayed in, where they had worked with the original purpose, of the place when it came to decoration, and not against it, with a good looking room, fresh bathrooms and a tolerable kitchen.

Saturday was perfect for wearing layers of wool, as it was chilly, and cloudy, even misty from time to time. It was very pleasant. Good thing I’d made warm clothes for B, he was happy and toasty the whole day. I also found that double layers of dresses come in handy as an improvised blanket when your child falls asleep. 

 Picture by Peter

Sunday on the other hand was hot and sunny, but except for the children who were stripped down to their linen shirts and shifts, of course we all stayed in our wool clothes, though not with overdresses, hoods and the like. We and the parents of the other baby desperately tried to find some place cool and shady for our little ones.

One of my sisters was with us, and she slept in the women’s tent up at the camp. We brought her our large straw mattress, as B and I would use it during the days. She was so helpful, taking care of B a lot so I could rest my back. Now, she’s as fond of babies as I ever was, so I’m sure she didn’t feel it a burden, still, I’m grateful. 

I had fun, dressing her hair in plaited coils over the ears, in a very fashionable 14^th century way. I think she looked very nice, having hair long and thick enough not to make the coils look too thin.

I believe that, for me, the single best experience of the weekend (apart from hanging out with our friends), was churning butter. I’ve never done it with a proper churn before, and it was brilliant! Too bad B became hungry before I could finish it, and help in washing and salting it, but you can’t have everything. B liked the churning as well, and wanted to chew the staff.   

Picture by Peter

 

Tobias was otherwise the one upholding the family honour of putting in a lot of work in camp related chores, churning butter was almost the only work I did, besides tending B .

He also took part in the wrestling lecture, and looked great (not that you can see it in this picture...), but got slightly bruised. You can read more about the wrestling, and see more pictures here.

Picture by Peter

I held one of the lectures on 14^th century dress, and feel I made a bit of a pig’s ear out of it. Nursing brain and a bored, slightly fussy baby (who was being entertained by Daddy, but sometimes, Mummy is the one to be with) was the main reason for it I believe, I forgot half of what I’d planned to say, and jumbled the rest. Ah well, one can’t always be on top of things. 

The food was interesting at worst and really good at best. I believe my favourite was the salmon. I believe a well documented post on that will show up here.

Even though I had fun, it was tiring, and I’m glad it was our last event of the season. Hopefully it’ll be easier next year. Sure, B will likely be running around all over the place, and require constant watching over, but I’ll not have to carry him all the time, and he won’t have to nap as often (which can be a bit tricky with the sounds of so many people moving around the tents all day). Sadly, this particular event will not take place next year, as the fortress will be closed for renovation. We hope it’ll be brought back when it opens again.

I have a few ideas for future posts, but what with the move and all, I’m not sure when I’ll have the time and energy for that, so don’t wonder if the blog is silent for a while.I've not stopped blogging :)

Medieval Festival in Lund

Last weekend we went to an event in Lund, a two day festival. I had made one more shirt and two more bibs for B, and a simple, but slightly creepy looking cloth doll, which is a good and rather liked chewing toy. 

I also started on another cotte for him on Thursday, and finished it on Saturday, as he was taking a nap in my lap. It’s partially lined with linen as his other cotte, and closes with seven cloth buttons. It’s made from the little fabric left from making my yellow kirtle, and Tobias’ yellow liripipe hood.

The site for the event, a park in the town, was a rather nice one, large enough not to feel crowded, but small enough to not make the distances too great. It’s location in the town was good in that it made it easy for lots of people to come to the festival, but less good in that we had our night sleep disturbed by loud passers by once or twice (the most memorable being some kids shouting something about the Lord of the Rings when startled by stumbling on our camp). The park has plenty of beautiful old trees, and during the early morning and late evening hours, animals came out to graze. One very big hare in particular caught our interest.  

 Picture by my father in law, J.W.

The weather was good for the most part. The rain poured down just as we were driving to the sight, and a few drops fell as we pitched our tents, but up till the hour before the event closed, we hardly had any rain at all. The temperature was a bit tricky though. At times it was quite hot, at least in the sun, so B wore nothing but linens, but at other times, wool was very comfortable to wear. I put B in modern tights and/or needlebound socks when it was cooler, as well as his cotte and, occasionally, hood. 

 Picture by my father in law, J.W.

As with most medieval festivals in Sweden, it’s more of a children’s festival with a “medieval” theme than giving a good representation of how a medieval market might have looked like. The same is the case with the visitors. The majority is wearing modern clothes, of course, and most of the people dressed up look more like something escaped from a Disney movie than anything remotely medieval. Apparently, anything not glaringly mainstream 21^st century has got to be medieval. Ah well. Some people were doing a pretty good job, and a couple of times our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a few truly well dressed people. Tobias jokingly compared ours being the only group truly trying to be period with us being like the early Christian missionaries coming into the Nordic countries to convert the heathen. 

 Picture by my father in law, J.W.

 I don’t mind it being a children’s festival, but I do mind that the organizers claim they aim for everything to be as period as possible, when most things are not. A greater knowledge of history is clearly needed on their part.

We as a group had a good time though, as always with such lovely people; cooking, mending equipment, working on our different crafts, and in the case of me, Tobias and another couple of parents, tending to our babies. B was an angel, being in a good mood most of the time, sleeping well during the nights (warm and cosy in two layers of clothes, warm socks, mittens, a winter hat, sleeping with me on our big straw mattress, sharing my blankets, with Tobias on our narrow straw mattress right on his other side), and tolerably well during the days. He looked adorable in his little outfit, and he and the other baby must have been our best attractions, poor things. 

 Picture by my father in law, J.W.

Tobias took part in the weapon and fighting lectures, worked in the camp and was generally agreeable, which is more than what could be said for me.

 Picture by my father in law, J.W.

I was very tired, my back hurt like mad, and B wanted to be in my arms most of the time (not surprising with so many strangers and so many new things going on around him all day), so I missed quite a lot of what happened, couldn't help with the work in the camp, and all these things combined made me rather cross. On Saturday evening the tiredness and back ache was so bad I claimed I would stay at home from our next event, and never do living history again. Ever. Of course, by the following morning, after some sleep and subsiding of the pain, I thought living history the most charming hobby in the world. 

  Picture by my father in law, J.W.

There is something very agreeable about hearing wood being chopped, and smelling the smoke from the fire as you’re getting up. Wearing wool dresses in the cool morning hours as the sun is rising and drying the dew from the grass, conversing with friends – it really is a pleasure. I’m still ashamed of my bad temper and poor behaviour though.

 Lessons learned:

- Bring a baby sling next time, to save your back. I had planned to buy twill linen or hemp for one (the ones we have being far from period), but the trader didn’t have the fabric I wanted with them, but on another festival, in Norway. Too bad.

- Put B on a blanket more. I did this when possible, but as the weather had been less than fine all week, the ground was damp, and as we were using all of our blankets when sleeping, I didn’t want to get them wet. So, bring an extra blanket next time, and avoid back ache.

- Bibs are good (if we hadn’t had any, we’d have had to change B’s clothes a number of times), but having enough of them is better. We had to wash bibs several times, to make sure there was a clean and dry one when needed. I finished a new one yesterday.

- Something to cover the nappy is a good idea. Not necessary, but a good idea if there is time and energy to make it. With such a small child, the cotte or shirt rides up easily. Most visitors don’t mind (they’d probably have minded much more had we used period cloth nappies), but it would look better.

- Bring chocolate. Combating a bad mood is easier if your blood sugar is not too low. Raisins did a tolerable job, but chocolate being chocolate, it always cheers you up, no matter what the cause of your bad temper :)

- Don’t stress with last minute projects. Begin in good time, so you’re not stressed and tired as the event starts. Consider if the item you want to make really is essential, or would just be nice to have. If a project has you stressed from running out of time, drop it. It’ll make you more relaxed as the event starts. This one I’m not very good at…

Baby's Wool Hood

I have gotten far less sewing done than I had hoped lately, but quite as much as expected, as B is teething and thus rather clingy from time to time, my poor dear. Nothing for it but to give him a lot of attention (besides singing and playing, he likes reading – will he grow to be a bookworm like his parents?) and cuddles when he’s awake, and try to get house work and sewing done when he’s sleeping – which because of the aching teeth has been less than usual. Thank Heaven for modern pain medication when things are bad, or he’d hardly eat or sleep at all some days. I know all mothers (hopefully) feel like this about their little ones, but B really is the most adorable, lovable, beautiful and sweet baby boy in the world. I am so blessed to be his mother.

Anyway, this morning I finished B’s wool hood. It’s made of the same fabric and in the same style as my London hood. Now, buttoned hoods seem to have been more of a women’s fashion in the 14^th century, but after carefully weighing the pros and cons, I decided to make it buttoned anyway. A buttoned hood is much easier to put on and take of, especially if B should happen to sleep, and the clothes of very little children don’t seem to have been all that gender specific. 

I wanted to line the hood in wool, as linen gets cold and icky when damp, and our Swedish summers are chilly and wet as often as they are hot and dry. As the weather forecast for our event next weekend looks rather less than promising, warm, comfortable clothes are an absolute must. I wanted very soft, non itchy wool as lining for the hood, and ran into the perfect thing in a charity shop a while back. It was a fine, thin, soft, 100% wool scarf. 

 I sewed the lining to the hood in the same way as in my own hood, and as the scarf was brown, and the lining in my hood is brown, we will have a sort of Mummy and Baby fashion thing going on. That was certainly not the plan, but one uses what one has at hand.  

 

What I had at hand wasn’t all that much, so the hood is pieced here and there.

The hood closes with thirteen small, self fabric buttons and buttonholes. I didn’t feel like measuring where to place them, nor how big the buttonholes should be, I just wanted to get the hood over and done with, so I placed pins at roughly even spaces, cut and sewed. Neither did I care on witch side the buttons and buttonholes ended up - it wasn't a thing one seems to have thought about much at the time. Not my prettiest work ever (I doubt two buttonholes are the same size), but it’ll hardly show on a child in constant motion.

The whole hood is hand sewn, of course, using waxed linen thread. It is pretty large for B at the moment, so he ought to be able to use it for the next couple of years as well.

Some Old Footwear

Continuing the theme of footwear from my last post, today I'll show my two pairs of women's short hose and my pair of pattens. 

 The green hose were made years and years ago, from thin tabby wool, but being stitched with the wrong kind of thread, has been re-sewn and all seams felled with unbleached, waxed linen thread, my usual choice for 14^th century sewing. 

The soles wore out last summer, so I sewed on new ones in thicker greyish wool on top of the old - I think the look of the contrasting soles is rather nice.

 As I wrote about last year, I made a new pair of short hose, from melton wool left over from making Tobias' tunic. I did manage to sew them together on the morning of the event, but not to stitch down the seam allowances. I've now done so, but as the fabric doesn't fray, I've left the top of the hose raw. As I had a big belly in the way at the time, I didn't manage to make these fit as well as the green pair, but never mind. Should I ever attend a cold event I would probably be able to wear these over the green ones...

Both pairs of hose are cut on the bias and are held up by garters under the knees. As the garters are not to be seen, they are simple things made from wool finger loop braid. The fact that the braid is a bit stretchy make it very good for garters as one would not wish to have the circulation cut of. 

I also finished my pattens quite a while ago, probably close to two years. They are likely nothing a patten maker who had any sort of professional pride would have sold, but rather what a clumsy amateur or apprentice might have made. Wood work is not my best talent. I don't think the wood (pine?) is the best choice for pattens, but like so many times before, I've had to make do with what have been at hand. 

I've never tried their usefulness, as the events I've attended since finishing them has been sunny and dry for the most part, except for one, and then I forgot to bring them. Ah well. I think they might be a tad too low to offer good protection though.

And even if it rains I'm not sure I'll dare to use them as long as I have a baby to carry, it's likely to be very slippery with these on. On the other hand, so are leather soles... Hm. If I ever make new pattens I'll make them higher and with the "heels" closer together for ease of walking, but for now, these will do.

Needlebound Baby Socks

This morning I finished a pair of needlebound wool socks for B. They're not very pretty, I'm afraid (mostly because I was careless, watching movies at the same time and accidentally jumped a stitch here and there....), but they fit and will keep his little feet warm.

I took the pictures when he was taking a nap after his first morning meal, so he was still in his pyjamas.

They are slightly too long in the feet, so I don't think he'll outgrow them this season. Next item on his clothing list: a wool hood.