SCA: Candlemas 2024: Green 1490s Italian - the Accessories

A week ago I posted about the 1490s Florentine outfit I made for Candlemas in February - today’s post is about all the accessories that went into the outfit: 

Hair/Headgear

I’ll talk about my hair first, since it was a lot of fun - I used fake hair for the first time ever for this outfit! It was given to me by a friend several months ago, and I finally fixed it up and wore some of it for this outfit. It was really neat - it’s been two years since I cut all my hair off in order to grow out my gray (and I’m growing it back as fast as I can!) - and it felt soooo good to at least have the feel and weight of long hair again. I miss my hair! 

Anyway, I clipped two long silvery-gray extensions into my hair, then braided it all into a single braid down my back. The front of my hair was parted in the middle and smoothed down over my ears, and I curled the bits that were too short to be included in the braid. I wrapped the braid in gold ribbon, wider at the top and end to hide the elastic bands which contained the braid, with thin gold ribbon spiraled around the length of the braid. 

My inspiration for the hairstyle and headgear were from several paintings, like these: 

La Bella Principessa, Leonardo DaVinci

fragment from a painting of Lodovica
Tuornabuoni, Domenico Ghirlandaio

La Belle Feronniere, DaVinci

I created a reta - a netted skullcap like you see in the first two paintings - using a base of cotton needlepoint mesh canvas.   Once I had the shape figured out, I sewed/knotted the mesh pieces together, and then spray-painted the piece gold, which stiffened the mesh so that it held its shape better. Then I sewed gold metallic braided trim over the seam to hide it, and around the edges, and then attached a long gold ribbon to the corners to tie under my chin. 

Over the top of it all is a feronniere - mine is a long thin black velvet ribbon, onto which I threaded three gold beads spaced out along the front. 

The whole look goes something like this: 

The hair needs work - I like the false hairpiece, but my own hair in the front/side is very flyaway and frizzy looking.  Gotta figure out what to do about that.  

Jewelry

The necklace that I made to wear with this outfit is one of those kits where you press an acrylic cabochon (over a picture or flower petals or what-have-you) into the [pewter] setting - I’ve used these kits for Regency jewelry in the past. For this pendant, I painted the back of the cab with blueish iridescent nail polish, and the effect is sort of labradorite-ish, and I love the way it looks, and the way the color looks with the green and aqua/gold colors in the outfit.  

The pendant is hung on am 16" gold chain; and worn with a second much longer chain which is tucked into the neckline of my gamurra. 

I opted not to wear earrings with this outfit, since my hair covers my ears anyway. 

Purse

I wanted a new purse/pouch to go with this outfit, since my other SCA pouches are all blue and red. I used scraps of the sleeve fabric, cut into orange-wedge-shaped pieces, and lined the bag with some spare blue cotton sheeting I had lying around.  I couched a thin gold cord along each seam line on the outside, added a little fabric-covered button to the bottom to hide the joint between all the seams, and laced the top with a gold satin ribbon.  

Tada! I did a practice run on the whole costume today - doing my hair and getting completely dressed took me about forty minutes! SHEESH. I need a lady’s maid.  Everything is finally finished, though, and now I just have to sit back and wait until the event.  In three weeks.  I guess I'll go crochet something, hehe.  

SCA: Hedeby "Pillbox" Hat (Leens Hat)

 Here's a quick little project that I whipped up yesterday, because I was finished with all my other projects and needed something to do.  Also, I was lacking any type of headgear for my Viking outfits.  

Previously, I had made several Jorvik and Dublin hoods for myself, which I originally wore with my women's Viking outfits, until I learned that they were very likely men's hats; and which I discontinued wearing when I realized that they were styles from the British Isles, and didn't fit with my Swedish/ Danish persona (I haven't narrowed it down farther than that; I base most of my clothing on finds from Birka and Hedeby).

However, that left me with only my Skjoldehamn hood to cover my head, and while it's not always cold enough to warrant that kind of coverage, sometimes I just want to wear a hat with my guy's Viking outfit. 

And so, I decided I'd make myself a Hedeby "pillbox" hat.  I first saw this hat on The Welsh Viking's YouTube channel (link to Leens hat video), and I based my construction and stitching methods on this video of his.  

The most complete hat of this style comes from a find in Leens in the Netherlands very close to the German border (which area was Denmark during the Viking age);  other similar fragments which could be this same style of hat have also been found at Hedeby.   The design itself is practically timeless - this type of hat has been worn since ancient Roman times, was very popular during the Renaissance, and persisted in various forms up through the 20th century (think fancy hotel bellhops).  

Leens hat, from Journal of Archeology in the Low Country

Both hats date from the 10th century, and are made of wool.  The Leens hat contains some decorative stitching around the top edge and down the center of the top of the hat, in a type of braided/herringbone stitch. 

My hat is made of scraps of heavy brown linen left over from the Skjoldehamn hood project - I didn't have any wool on hand. The "side wall" pieces are about 4.5" high by 27" around (my head measurement), and the top is a rough oval shape, which I traced from my metal AOA circlet.  So the hat would be thick enough to keep its shape, I double the thickness of the linen on the sides and top.  I sewed the hat by hand, using a plain running stitch on the seams, and then turned the selvages in and whipstitched them closed, creating something like a French seam to keep them from fraying.  The hem is simply turned and whipstitched in place. 

construction stitches

top piece based on my circlet; "band" pinned and ready to sew

For the decorative stitching around the top of the hat and along the back seam, I used a #10 cotton crochet thread floss in a medium gray (because that's what I had on hand).  I followed Jimmy's instruction from his video (above), and it looks like this: 

diagram of how the stitch works

stitch in progress

If I end up liking to wear this hat and wear it a lot, I may one day replace it with a wool hat with wool thread on the decorative stitching; but for now this linen version is a good start.  I'm actually pretty happy with the way this hat fits and looks.  The band is a bit loose, so the hat slides around a tiny bit; but thankfully it doesn't make my already tall head look even taller.  I'm not sure whether I'll wear the seam stitching at the back or the front; I've seen it done both ways online.  

finished hat

SCA: A Bag and A Hood, and the Last of the Herringbone Linen

 After the blue herringbone Hedeby bag, I still had some of that herringbone linen left over, and I had a set of walnut bag handles already made, so I decided to make one last Hedeby bag, and another Jorvik hood to go with it: 

This time I dyed the fabric a rich dark green. I dyed the pieces separately; the bag came out UNBELIEVABLY  DARK, but the color is gorgeous. The hood is a bit more believable.   

The bag is lined with linen I dyed the same color, and includes a phone pocket on the inside. Fabric straps attach the bag to the handles, which are the walnut handles I took off another bag which I didn’t like. The carrying strap is a three-strand braid (doubled) of some charcoal gray acrylic yarn I had in my stash. 

The hood is French seamed up the back and top, like the other ones I made recently; the front is cut on the selvage edge this time, the way the extant Jorvik hood was done.  The ties are just tubes of the same fabric.  I didn’t put a sit in the back of this one, honestly I just forgot because I was going too fast. 

So that’s all for the herringbone linen (or is it?) I got a lot of mileage out of that stuff.  I forget what the original yardage was, but from the piece I bought in January, I got: 

• a blue apron dress
• a gray (now dyed teal) shawl
• a blue Hedeby bag
• a green Hedeby bag 
• a Jorvik hood 

I'm already wishing I had more.  I'd love to find some diamond-twill linen to work with next; maybe I'll keep my eyes open for it the next time I can go to Gulf Wars.  

SCA: Three Jorvik Hoods

 In May, I cut off over two feet of hair and started growing out my gray. I’d dyed it for years, and it was looking pretty dry and worn. It’s healthy now, and a great shade of silver - but it’s too short for all the cool braids and updos I used to do to go with my costumes. 

So this week I made a trio of Jorvik* hoods to cover my short hair at events where I’m dressed as a Viking. I used scraps of old linen from past Viking projects, so the hoods will coordinate with whatever I’m wearing (my entire Viking wardrobe is in shades of blue so that I can mix and match and it will all coordinate).  

*The Jorvik hood is rounded at the top back and comes down past the chin; the Dublin hood is pointed and shorter. I had that backwards at first, until I looked it up this week.  

All are machine sewn with a French seam up the back/top. The hoods we’ve found in gravesites use the selvage edge as the front opening of the hood, but I didn’t have scrap pieces big enough to do that, so they’re hemmed by hand. The ties are fabric, instead of woven or braided cord. These took me about an hour each.  

Viking hair:  handled.  

Let There Be Wool!

This is a picture of me draped in a medium weight tabby wool.

I am allergic to wool.

OR AM I??

I’ve had a few people tell me over the years that I’m not allergic to wool, but rather to the chemicals used in the commercial processing of wool fabric.  To which my reaction has always been a polite “I’ll have to look into that, thanks for the tip” which really meant, “heck off, don’t gatekeep my allergies."

However, I came across a website a while back that went into the idea a bit more, and suggested a washing method that supposedly worked for the author. It sounded simple, so I wrote it down, thinking I’d try it one day if some random wool ever happened to me.  What's the worst that could happen, right?  It wouldn't work and I'd end up with an itchy rash for a day.

Finally, one day, some wool did happen to me.  The piece I’m wearing in the pic was given to me by a good friend, who had been about to donate it to the local craft resale shop because it had some moth holes in it.  I figured this would be a good piece to try out this washing method.

It’s very simple:

1. Soak the fabric in a sink full of cold water with vinegar (I used 3 cups) for thirty minutes 
2. Press the excess liquid out of the wool gently 
3. Wash in the washing machine (yes!) on delicate cycle in a mesh laundry bag
4. Hang dry 

That’s it.  And you know what?   IT WORKED.  I tested the fabric on my arms and hands before I tried this method, and of course, I reacted to it the way I normally do (rash, itching). After the wash I tested it again several times on my arms and hands, and then wore the fabric around like a scarf all evening with the fabric against my face, neck, and arms - I never had a single problem with the washed fabric, and still haven’t. 

It works!  I’m saved!  Now this is just one piece of fabric - it may or may not work on all wool pieces. But I’m encouraged, and I feel like a whole new world of costuming just opened up before me.  I can’t wait to try it again to see if I can repeat my results.  

Unfortunately, when I tried to dye the fabric, it came out like this.  Gorgeous shade of blue, but patchy and splotchy.  Here it is after re-dyeing with a darker color to cover up the mistake:

(dark photo is dark)

Before I dyed the shawl and hemmed it, I cut off about 14" from one edge, where all the moth holes were.  That was still a pretty large piece of fabric, and I decided to get a hood and a small bag out of it:

Here's the Dublin hood I made out of part of what was left.  It came out a Weird Green, I know - but the dye job is smooth and nice.  (It looks weird in the pic, I know - that's just the light from the window).  In this picture it still needs ties.  I'm on the fence about whether to weave some or just buy some twill tape.

Here's the second thing I got out of the remainder of the fabric:  Yet Another Hedeby Bag.  This actually replaces the green linen bag from this post, which was too flimsy and too small.  This bag is 1" around larger in every direction, and is much sturdier.  This time, I sewed in a box bottom.

Both the hood and the bag, and the edging on the shawl, are sewed entirely by hand, because I was bored and needed something to do. Quarantine makes people do weird stuff, you guys.

So, yay wool!  I'm so excited about this.  Like I said, I want to try again to see if this will work on different fabrics, but at the moment, I'm psyched about the fact that I got three articles of clothing out of one piece that I can wear and not worry about having a reaction to.  Three! I will, of course, update here when I test out this washing method again. 

Adventures In Dyeing: A Dublin Hood

It's days until BAM and I'm spinning my wheels.  I'm out of projects, and I needed something to do.  I thought, I've only got the one Dublin hood, why not make another one?  But the only scraps I had left that were big enough to get a hood out of were white.  There's nothing wrong with  white linen, but I wanted color. Boom:  weekend project.

Looks gross;  smells like SANGRIA mmm

Fortunately, I also had some frozen blueberries, a pomegranate, and a large jar of hibiscus flower tea.  That's right, no RIT dye for me this time - this is my very first foray into dyeing with natural materials.  It's something that's fascinated me for years, but I've never had the time or the space to get into it.  For this hood, though, I didn't need much space - only a pot on my stovetop - and I already had the materials.

I soaked the hood in vinegar, simmered the plant material in water for about 30 minutes, added 1 cup of salt as a fixative, and then simmered the dyebath with the hood in it for about an hour, then left the hood in the dyebath while the water cooled down.

Tada!  I have no idea what color this is.  Light red?  Dark pink?  Almost-magenta?  Does it have purplish areas in it or not?  If the color even? I can't tell - it's even in some lights, and in some others, not so much.  I'm not terribly likely to wear this color, but this was a really fun experiment.  I definitely want to learn more about plant dyeing when I get back from BAM.


AN UPDATE:  I very rarely do this, but this one was weird.  Two years later, in 2022, I pulled this raspberry-colored hood out of storage to get ready to go to an event, and it had faded to nearly white.  I don't know what happened to the color - I didn't store it in sun or heat or any moisture or anything.  It just faded, very badly.  I have no idea why.  

Candlemas

Yep.  I just never remember to ask someone to take pictures of me.  Here are some selfies, though, of the finished pink dress and new ear cauls.

In my uber-Medieval living room, with
turban and brown linen/blue cotton hood.

At the actual event site, with blue velvet dress
and a bit more cleavage than I meant to show.

ONWARD, TO GULF WARS!  More soon.


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Ear Cauls, Four Ways

Two years ago I made this set of red and gold ear cauls.  Last year at Gulf Wars, one got thoroughly crushed when I packed to head back home.  I decided to make a new set, and I had three goals in mind:

1. not red and gold
2. sturdier construction
3. more secure way of keeping them on my head

Keeping those goals in mind, allow me to show you my new cauls:

1. Oops. 

They're totally red and gold. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just thought I'd do a new color this time. Turns out, this was the fabric that I liked the best. It's left over from the red, faux-silk sari that I used to create the trim on the red and white Habsburg gown that I made for Candlemas in 2015.   I'm rather proud of myself for using the fabric the way I did: there's far less applied decoration on these, since the fabric itself is jacqard and brocade, and there's a little decorative border between the two already.  I aligned that line vertically, so that I can flip the cauls around and wear either the red side or the gold side facing outward.  It's almost like having two sets of these!

2. Sturdier Construction

This time, rather than creating a papier-maché form, I made something more similar to plaster, with layers of buckram soaked in a mixture of white glue and water. They took about four hours to dry completely. They're a bit flexible, but extremely strong.  They're a little heavier than the papier-maché set, which will help keep them in place.  I changed the shape a bit by forming the cauls over a little glass bowl from Ikea, instead of over the wire spider that I used the last time.

Clockwise from top left: glass Ikea bowl; buckram caul
forms; scissors; sari fabric scraps; buckram trimmed from
edges of cauls

Between this stuff, the spray adhesive, and the
hot glue I used to attach the trim, I pretty much
glued myself to everything I own for three days
in a row. The other day I glued a box of baking
soda to my bathroom counter.  I have glue issues.

Last time, I attached the fabric to the forms with spray adhesive. It was quick, but that was both good and bad: it was so quick that I didn't have time to smooth out the fabric over the forms as much as I'd have liked. This time, I used a mixture of white glue and water on a paintbrush to attach the fabric...but because this glue was so much slower than the spray, and so wet that it kept softening the forms and making them mooshy, I actually had a really hard time getting the fabric to stay on the form:

A terrible idea in progress.

Just a tip: don't do what I did, with the bobby pins.  I've had good luck using them to secure delicate fabrics for sewing purposes - they hold well enough to get a piece through the sewing machine, without poking holes in the fabric.  In this case, though, they made the edges of the cauls extremely lumpy.  I had to soak this caul to soften it completely, remove the fabric, then re-form the caul over the bowl. I ended up using the spray adhesive to attach the fabric again after all.

The cauls, overall, are a bit lumpier than I'd intended, but far more smooth than the last set.  It's something to keep working on.  I think next time I do this, I'll cover the forms with something thick and soft, like felt, to smooth out any rough spots in the forms, before putting the decorative fabric onto them.

After both cauls were covered, I used hot-glue to affix a band of brown upholstery gimp to the edges, and a wee strip of gold metallic ribbon across the center line of the fabric and just inside the gimp around the edges.

3. More Secure

My last set were independently suspended from my circlet by little metal hooks, so that I could pop them on and off easily.  It was a neat idea, and they stayed in place really well as long as my hair was wrapped around them snugly, and my veil was wrapped around it all so tightly that the veil slipped around on my hair and all over my face.  It was kind of a pain in the butt.  Also, my hair isn't long enough anymore to help that whole situation out.

This time I attached each one to the ends of a linen band - which I made too short, and which slipped off my hair right away.  I replaced the band with a black, velvet ribbon, with the velvet nap facing inward so that it actually grips my hair or a snood and doesn't slide around.  My circlet sits on top of the ribbon and above the cauls, which helps to keep them in place, too.

The finished set is much more secure - and comfortable - and, I think, prettier than the last set:

 

Top: gold side out, and red side, with metal circlet; both with single veil
Bottom: red side with two veils; gold side; with embroidered ribbon band

My circlet got a bit of an update, too.  It was silver-colored brass with black antiquing in the detail. It was also scratched and tarnishing.  I cleaned it up (with toothpaste, because I couldn't find my actual jewelry cleaner), and then coated it with gold nail polish the same way I did the buttons on my pink cotehardie.  I really like the way it came out.  And maybe now it'll stop turning my forehead green.


Whew!  That took a few days longer than I thought it would.  I really bit off more than I could chew for Candlemas this year.  Which is ironic, really, considering that I opted out of both Candlemas A&S as well as Kingdom A&S the following weekend because I haven't had time to really do a job on something special.  So instead of taking on a new, big project, I pecked myself to death this past month with a bunch of little ones.  I need a brain transplant some days, you guys.  Oy.



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Blue Velvet Redux

new dress, for Candlemas 2016

In 2012, for my second Candlemas, I made a midnight blue velveteen gown that was more or less cotehardie-ish, with a shimmery leaf-green lining in the sleeves, embroidered with gold thread and tiny faux pearls. It had seen some wear, and was far too small for me, the last time I tried it on (six months ago), so I decided to adjust the sizing a bit, and to change the look of the whole dress.

In an awesome turn of events, when I tried the dress on a couple of weeks ago, before starting this project, it fit me perfectly!  Yay!  No re-sizing necessary!

Here's What Changed: 

1.      I removed all of the gold metallic embroidery and beading, steamed out the impressions left by the decoration and brushed up the fabric's nap with a soft brush to smooth it back out. 

2.      The original front lacing placket was removed and replaced with buttons. 

3.      I unstitched the neckline edges and flattened them out, then re-shaped the neckline at the bust. 

4.     The neckline was a wee bit deeper in the front than I wanted before, so I added a 1/2" edge binding in a linen the same color as the velveteen. 

5.      A twisted, blue, cotton, embroidery floss was couched in along the join between he body fabric and the edge binding. 

6.      I removed the green sleeve linings were removed and replaced with a blue washed-silk fabric from stash.

7.    Finally, I put smaller buttons onto the sleeves.  The size and design don't match the front buttons, but the metallic tones of both styles look great together, and I like having smaller buttons on the sleeves, anyway - less banging my arms on feast tables. 

The dress in 2012, made from a pair of
cotton velveteen curtains purchased at Ikea

Buttons and edge binding on new dress

One Last Thing

I tried out an embossing technique that I'd seen online - there are many tutorials on YouTube and on various blogs out there, this is one.  Basically, you wet the fabric with a spray bottle, place a rubber or foam stamp underneath it, and use a hot iron (without steam) to dry the fabric against the pattern of the stamp.  I thought it would be nifty to have a band across the lower hem, and one at the hips -  similar to the decorative bands in this image from Les Belle Heures du Duc du Berry.  At first, it looked fantastic: 

yay?

After a day or two, though, the embossed design simply disappeared from the fabric.  I tried it a few different ways (wetting the fabric on the inside, the outside, different iron settings, using starch, not using starch), but no matter what I did, the pressed pattern simply would not stay where i put it - after hanging for a couple of days, it just vanished. Oh, well.  It was a neat idea.  

Okay, Two Last Things

I thought I might "reupholster" my old red ear cauls for this outfit, as well, before I remembered that one had gotten badly crushed at war last year, and I'd thrown the pair out and resolved to make a new set when I needed one.  

Instead, since I felt like trying out something new, and didn't want to spend the time on making a new set of cauls, I decided to try my hand at making a bourrelet, or padded roll headpiece, instead - which, of course, ended up taking more time than a new set of cauls would have.  Whatever. :) 

Cotton/poly damask scraps from stash, over-embroidered along the fabric's design, with (plastic?) silver trim, plastic pearl beads, and a glass "ruby" and plastic pearl drop in the front.  There's a wire inside from an old Halloween witch's hat, and it's stuffed with the contents of an old bed pillow that had gone flat.  I love recycling old stuff!   

I may or may not end up doing some more embroidery on it.  The more I look at it, the less finished it actually looks.  Then again, 90% of it will be under a veil.  I'm not sure yet. 

I'll have pics of the finished outfit, with jewelry, veils, and other accessories, after Candlemas. 

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S'mo Viking

I've finally finished ALL of the items in the Great Big Viking Project! 

These are the things I've finished since LPT last month:

Here's the coat I've been working in fits and snorts for several months.  I made the gray shell in 2012 for the Battle of Ethandune event; I've just recently added the blue trim, and the burnt-orange lining. 

It's reversible!

Another Skjoldehamn-style hood, this one in Caerleon company colors. The lion appliqué down the center front was embroidered by Simona, on her fancy-schmancy embroidery machine.

A red dress that started out as another plain under dress like my black one, but which scope-crept itself into a lace-fronted loose gown, with seam and edge embroidery and hand-stitched eyelets.

My original apron dress (also from 2012), which was dyed to refresh the faded color, and then embroidered along the seams and straps.

Next on the blog: last-minute event stress (aka Wednesday). 

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