Dyeing Stuff: A Pink Cotehardie

I made this pinkhardie in 2016, and I loved it - except that it was pink.  It was a lovely pink, but I'm just not a pale-colors-person.  I usually keep my SCA wardrobe to blues and greens and earth tones;  in Mundania I wear black almost exclusively, except for a few very dark colors.  I needed this cotehardie to be something I was more comfortable in.

RIT dye to the rescue!  I hemmed and hawed forever over the color - red or purple? - when what I really wanted was a deep mulberry tone.  Why not mix them, I thought?  I do it with house paint, art paints, and nail polish - why not dye?  Turns out, RIT has a handy color mixing chart on their website - and the answer was red AND purple.  And brown.

1 = Wine only; 2-4 = varying degrees of Cocoa Brown;
5-7 = varying degrees of Eggplant;  8 = final mixture

I used a bottle of Wine, a bottle of Cocoa Brown, and then added 3/4 cup of Eggplant to cool off the maroon color and give it a hint of purple.  I tested the color on strips of paper towel just to be sure I had the color right before dropping the dress in.

This was all done in my stainless steel kitchen sink, by the way.  I keep meaning to try out my washing machine, but it's new and I'm not sure how well it'll work yet, so I keep opting for the safer, known route. The water in the sink gets hot enough to steam and burn people, so I assume it's hot enough for dyes, and I have yet to have a problem with colors coming out right.

I LOVE the finished color! (It's a good thing I love it, too, because my thumbs and a couple of bath towels are now also this color.  Oops).  The linen took the dye really well, without any splotches or voids or other weirdness.  The color is a little bit lighter than my test piece after going through the wash to remove the excess dye.  Still, it's rich, deep, and kind of delicious.  Now I have the dark mulberry cotehardie I've been wanting, and the whole process only took about 45 minutes.  I've got two other dresses that need to be re-dyed, and now I can't wait to get started on them.

A note: the buttonholes were done in polyester thread, so they didn't take the dye at all.  Yup, I have pink buttonholes.  At some later point, I can either pick them out and replace them with new thread, or try to stain them with ink, which I've done successfully before with black ink.  We'll see. 

What's Next?  

I'll be making new handles for my Hedeby bag soon, and at the moment I'm painting a wooden chest.  Updates soon! 

Brown Apron Dress

ignore the blue hemline; it hangs correctly
on me, just not on a hanger

With a Viking-themed event coming up in October, I wanted to be sure my Viking wardrobe was ready to go. I realized, though, that the various pieces of my wardrobe weren't all as interchangeable as I thought - I could make ONE outfit out of the pieces I had, and that was it!  I needed a new under dress and a new apron dress.  I decided to work on the second problem first - because I already had the fabric for it.

The fabric is a chocolate brown linen/cotton blend,  harvested from the skirt of a costume that I made back in 2011.  It's got a lovely drape and feels really nice.  I really wanted it to be full-length, but I didn't quite have enough fabric.  As it is it comes down to about mid-calf.  The pattern I used is the same as this one (though I made myself a paper pattern so I don't have to do the math every time).

it's straight, trust me.  It's laying weird in this picture. And I suck at photography.  

The seams are decorated in a 2-color double herringbone stitch.  The band of embroidery across the top of the dress is a double herringbone stitch, too, but the second color is much narrower than the first, and a third color accents the Xs between the stitches.  The entire band is surrounded by a border of teal embroidery floss couched in a spiral with green.  There was supposed to be a pair of ravens capping this off in the front, but my embroidery skills are no longer up to par - I tried three times and couldn't get it right. I have a lot of practice to do.  For now, I am raven-less.

The straps are loop straps, similar to what I did on my orange apron dress. It's just a long tube of fabric, folded in half and hand-sewn together leaving a loop at the end for the brooch to go through.  I really love the look of this style of strap, and the ease of wear. They do have to be exactly the right length, though - they're not as forgiving as plain straps, and not adjustable at all. (Are they period?  Maybe.  We've found loops constructed in this way on brooches that seem to suggest that there were loops on apron dresses - but then, our evidence for these apron dresses is sketchy at best, and only based on small fragments of garments, so the whole "apron dress" idea is kind of made up anyway).

I had every intention of timing all of this work - especially the embroidery - to see how it stacks up against my estimate - but I completely forgot at first.  I can tell you I watched about two dozen episodes of Forensic Files and all of the new Dark Crystal series (and the original movie) while I worked, but I also went way, way past that.  All told, the dress took me about 3 hours (I actually timed that), and I believe the embroidery and hand-sewing on this dress took about 30 hours. My estimate was 6!  How long does embroidery take, anyway??  I guess now I know a little bit better: it takes forever.

So there's one new apron dress to wear to Valkyrfelt in October.  I'm very pleased with it.  I really love the colors in the embroidery, and I love the way the dress fits and the fabric feels.  In the pictures here it's shown with the blue linen Eura dress that I made in  2015.  (I know the hemline looks wonky in the first picture - it's not.  It hangs perfectly straight on me, just not on a hanger!)

So What's Next? 

I have a dress to dye!  Actually, it's already done.  I'll post about that in the next couple of days.  

Making Over A Camp Chair

There's a big push in the barony lately to reduce the appearance of mundanity.  That means finding ways to obscure the modern and blend it with the historical - things like phones, coolers, tents, chairs, mugs, tennis shoes, etc.  In one of those things I found an opportunity to do my part:

BEFORE

This is my camp chair.  It's brand new, really comfy, and even has a little table that flips up from the side, with a cup holder in it.  Neat!  It is, however, glaringly modern with its metal frame and nylon upholstery.  Fortunately, I've solved this problem before.

The first order of business was to remove the upholstery from the chair and spray paint the frame.  I wiped down the frame to clean off any dust, then sprayed it with an automotive self-etching metal primer (2 colors, not that it matters).  Once that was dry, I sprayed it with a brown spray paint.

PRIMING THE FRAME

I painted the plastic flip-up tray with dark gray all-purpose primer, then the same brown spray paint. I clearcoated the entire tray with Polycrylic to seal the plastic.  With the metal primer, the paint won't flake off the frame, but the plastic might flake or chip if not protected.


Next I made copies of the seat and back pieces that I removed from the chair in a blue polyester upholstery fabric with a swirly Italianate design on it.  I made these double-thickness, the seams reinforced with two rows of stitching on the inside, and the seat 5" longer than the original, so that the ends could be wrapped around the frame and sewn in by hand (which was a big pain in the butt!)


This chair had armrest pads, too, which I copied, and used the velcro and interior padding harvested from the original pads to close.  And yes, the cloth seat and back will be just as strong as the original nylon pieces - the red chair I made over in 2013 held up just fine until the frame itself broke.

AFTER

Now, does that look like a period piece of furniture?  HELL no.  But it looks less modern, and when placed under a tent with wooden poles, next to wooden chairs, it kind of blends in because of the frame color.  It's by no means going to fool anyone, but every little effort helps the overall ambiance.  I do need to re-do the back piece:  see how it looks all twisted?  I tried to cut my fabric as straight as I could, but I was cutting it out of an old dress, and I think I got this piece a little on the bias.  I'll fix it. 

What's Next?  

I'm working on a little painted wooden box right now, and on some embroidery on a new Viking apron dress that I made last month.  Show you soon!

A To-Do List: On Project Management and Prioritization

In days past, project management was a big topic on this blog, mainly because I (like most of us) tend to take on too much work, work in a rush, and end up either not getting everything done or turning out half-assed work.  Right now, as I come back into the SCA after a long hiatus, I'm in a pretty great spot:  I have no projects right now, and it's up to me to pick and choose where I spend my efforts going forward.  A fresh start!

So I'm looking at the upcoming Bjornsborg Viking event, Valkyrfelt, and trying to decide where to spend my money, my time, and my sanity.  The event is on October 19th, which is exactly one month away from my start date of September 20th (payday).  Here's what my list of ideas looks like right now:

• a new apron dress
• a pair of men's pants for myself
• repairs to my broken Hedeby bag
• a refit of my old parasol which needs a new cover
• new Viking jewelry for myself
• a wooden box I'd like to make just for fun 

Let's look at the time frames on those:  

• apron dress - 3 hours, not including embroidery (approx. 6 hours)
• men's pants - 2 hours
• broken bag - possibly 12 hours
• parasol - 2 hours
• new jewelry - 3 hours
• wooden box - 6 hours

All told, that's 34 hours.  I'll round it up to 40, because you just never know.  That's great!  I have plenty of time to get everything done.  

However, I also have a set of couch cushion covers that I'm making for a friend, and I'm spending about 4 hours a week on those right now.  All in all, I still have "plenty" of time to get all of this done...but do I really want to spend an average of 14 hours a week working on all of this?  No. No, I do not.  I want to have time to do other things with my life, too.  So how do I prioritize this a bit better?  Let's look at what each project is worth to me:  

1. Apron dress:  I'm down by two apron dresses, and so this is definitely needed for this event. 
2. Hedeby bag:  this is my only Viking bag, and I'll need it to carry at the event - it's not unusable right now, but it's definitely a pain in the ass.  Plus, I'm very proud of it and I want to have it with me, and I want it to look its best.  This one stays.  
3. Wooden box:  this takes very little time, and I've already got the box and the supplies I'll need, so this project is free.  It stays on my list for Valkyrfelt, but it'll be the first to go if other things need more time. 

• Men's pants:  while I really want a pair of pants to go with my male Viking outfit (great to pack up camp in on the last day!), I don't really want to spend the money on this right now.  Tabled for future events. 
• The parasol isn't necessary for this event.  The site is fully shaded by trees, and the parasol isn't Viking at all - I'd rather use hats and sunscreen for a Viking event.  This one can go.  
• New jewelry would be fun, and beautiful (and I'm craaaaving amber right now), but do I really need it?  No, I do not.  I'll table this project until necessary items are done, if I still have time and money.  

There.  I've just cut my list in half!  From +/-40 hours to about 23 (round up to 26).  That's much more doable, and I'll have the time I need to do each of those three "needful" things nicely and correctly, instead of rushing through trying to get 6 projects done.  I'd like to try to time myself as I work to get a better idea of if my estimates are correct - if I remember to, I'll post about it here.  

As of right now, I've already completed the brown apron dress and am now working on the embroidery (seams, top edge);  and I've begun the wooden box.  Hopefully I'll have pics of finished projects for you soon. 

CIVUS ROMANUS SUM

I'm back!  Hi!  When last I wrote, I had just attended Candlemas in February of this year.  Not a lot has been going on since then - there are very few events in the summer, and the couple that happened in the spring, I couldn't attend for one reason or another.

But this weekend I made it out to our Roman-themed baronial event.  It was 107ºF outside, so a lot of us just sat around in the shade fanning ourselves and guzzling water.  But it was WONDERFUL to see all of my friends again, and to hide from the sun geeking out about history together.

I don't have a great pic from the event that shows my whole outfit;  this is a pic taken before the event, in my bedroom.  A white linen tunica (which is badly hemmed and needs fixing, but it was what I had on short notice - I only decided to go to the event the day before!),  a teal linen chiton (the pattern for which is here), a looooong sash made from upholstery fabric (stolen from one of my Italian outfits), and a palla cut from what I think might have started life as a chiffon curtain panel.   Simple, lightweight, breathable, and comfy.  The jewelry is the same blue lampwork-glass bead jewelry you've seen me wear with many an outfit (better pics soon).

IT ME

So what's next?  

The third weekend of October is Bjornsborg's annual baronial event, and it's Viking-themed, as usual.  Hooray!  I love Viking!  While I threw the Roman outfit together out of pieces I already had, and at the last minute, this time I have time to properly prepare, and I plan to create a few new pieces for the Viking event - namely, a new hangerrock, new wooden handles for my Hedeby bag, and some new jewelry.  I'll be back soon!