Post-BAM

I managed to get a picture of me at the event, so you don't have to look at my outfits on hangers and try to imagine what I actually look like:

photo taken by my friend Simona

The weather at BAM was fairly all-inclusive, except that it wasn't hot.  But it did rain off and on the entire first day, with a little storm that night;  the next three days were chilly but beautiful, and the nights were coldcoldcoldcold.  I think Friday night was 37º.  Yikes.  I need to re-think my bedding situation, because I was NOT warm enough at night.  An air mattress in that weather needs to be insulated with something, otherwise you're just lying on a giant ziploc bag of cold air. 

Overall I had a ton of fun, though I didn't do a whole lot - mostly I stayed in camp and puttered around the house, cleaning and sewing and watching the family dog and the kids.  I did take the bag of sari strips that I had left over around and gave a bunch away, then put the remainder of the bag into the swap meet that was going on on Saturday.  (I still have half the quilt left to harvest, so there'll be another bag). 

I attended the vigil of a good friend of mine who was recently made a Laurel, at which there was a spectacular bardic circle and an inflatable walking squid (if you've never seen a giant squid lounging around in a camp chair with a beer in one hand you've missed out, I can tell you); and I walked around shopping in the middle of the night and visiting various parties, which I hadn't gotten to do in years. So fun! 

So, What's Next?  

Well, I have to replace the trim on my brown dress, because it snapped and shredded itself at the event.  I have another dress refit I need to start working on soon.  I'm working on another Hedeby bag, and it's coming along VERY slowly. 

Upcoming events are baronial Yule in December and Candlemas on the 2nd of February.   I haven't quite decided yet, but I think I MIGHT be able to swing Gulf Wars in March.  I don't know yet - a lot of pieces will have to fall into place perfectly for it to happen, so we'll see.   For right now I'll focus on the brown dress and the refit, and we'll worry about war when we get closer to it. 

For right now, my things are put away and my laundry's done, and I'm going to get through the next two days of ye olde day job before Thanksgiving and worry about all the rest after the holiday is over.  I can taste the cheesecake already...

A Case to Put It Into

The last thing I did over the weekend was fix up a small wooden box to use as a jewelry box for all my Viking jewelry.  A lot of it is big and clunky (brass brooches, arm bands) and doesn't fit into the soft cloth jewelry pouch I've been using anymore. 

So I purchased a $4 wooden box and some adhesive-backed felt sheets and made a new jewelry box:

For right now all I had time to do was stain this box and clearcoat it, but I want to paint it one day - maybe a Jelling dragon design, or a Jormungandr (Midgard Serpent) - so I made sure to make this as smooth and clean as possible, so that painting on it will be easy when I get to it.  

I have to say, I'm loving the adhesive-backed felt sheets I found for this project.  I never had any idea they CAME with adhesive backing - I've always used plain felt fabric or velveteen in boxes, and adhered them to the wood with messy spray adhesive.  This was GREAT!

And I love my little box.  It was such a ridiculously simple project, but I love it all the same.  And there's room in there to grow my jewelry collection, too - more beads!  Must collect all the beads.




Okay, so BAM starts tomorrow!  See you fine folks on the flip side - and some of you I'll see there!

Jewelry Redo

I re-strung my Viking beads over the weekend. Nothing fancy happened, but I made these changes:

•  I removed the wood beads and the "rockier" stone beads (jasper, agate)

•  I added more red glass beads and some clear ones

•  Tried to keep only glass beads and glass look-alikes (like clear green fluorite)

•  I graduated the beads so that the larger beads are in the center of each necklace and the smaller beads are towards the ends

•  Instead of making one big necklace loop which is looped around my brooches, I made two distinct necklaces and affixed them to a pair of metal hoops which hang from my brooches like distributors.



Here's what it looked like before, when it was one big necklace:

BEFORE

And here's what it looks like now, with the hoop distributors:  

AFTER 

The necklace hangs longer, and the two strands lie more smoothly this way.  I can also clip my little raven pendant off to one side instead of hanging it from the necklace itself.  Not shown is a small pair of scissors and a large needle charm I put on a chain to hang from one of my brooches as well.  

In the future I'd really like to bring in more cobalt blue glass, and more lampwork beads.  In December I'll be attending my very first Flameworks Guild meeting, where I'll learn to make my very own glass lampwork beads!  I'm so excited.  I'm hoping to come away from that class with enough [blue] beads to replace the metal spacer beads I'm still using, but we'll see.  

What's Next? 

Yea, and a case to put it into...

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.  

The Sari Quilt

So I had this huge silk quilt.  The front was made from dozens of pieces cut from the edge banding on silk saris from India.  The border around the front was made from a deep purple dupioni silk.  The backing was made from a royal purple rayon challis.   It was GORGEOUS.  It had been given to me by someone who'd received it as a gift many years before and didn't want it anymore. It was also something I was never, ever going to use - my cats would destroy it, and it was really hot. 

After having kept it in storage for years, I looked more critically at the quilt: on closer inspection, the quilt was badly worn around the edges, some of the sari pieces were fraying, it was discolored in several places, there were bleach stains on the back, and the inside was lined with an open-cell polyurethane sheet which was crusty and starting to melt with age.  

So I choked back my revulsion to destroying a beautiful piece of art, and cut all the sari silk and the dupioni free of the quilt so that it could be salvaged for other applications.  Since we know that Viking apron dresses were often finished with trim made of strips of imported silk and other fine fabrics (Hilde Thunem's paper on apron dresses, see Inga Hagg references/biblio and Birka finds), I opted to use a few of the pieces from this quilt on my naked apron dresses and smocks:  

Here's a bit of navy blue sari silk with pink and blue on the top edge of my brown linen/cotton dress.  And yes, I picked out all that embroidery on the brown dress.  It killed me - I'd just done it in September and I did a really good job, but it was incorrect for the dress and the time period and I just couldn't look at it anymore.  

Here's a lovely gold and teal on the "bayou" blue smock sleeves. (Bonus cat).  

.  

Here's a bit of the same navy and gold with blue and pink that's on my brown dress, on the "bayou" blue apron dress.   

And two extras: 

A bit of gold and silver on the sleeves of my white smock. This fabric actually came from an old lightweight curtain panel I had in my stash, and I was really pleased with the way it looked on my white smock,  It was this look that convinced me to try out some of the sari fabric on my clothes.  (I'm NOT pleased with the zigzag stitch I used to put the trim on - I'll be picking that out and using a less obvious stitch as soon as I get back from BAM).  

 This isn't from the quilt either, but I did find a bit of trim in my stash that works with the color on my "bluebonnet" blue apron dress (the one I just made over in October).  I really love the way it looks with the teal rayon ribbon at the top.  

And finally, lest you think the orange cat (Rory Williams) is my only sewing friend, meet Rabi and Gypsy:  two brothers who also like helping me with my sewing, usually by sleeping in my chair or sitting on my lap to keep me warm while I work.

What's Next?

Technically I'm out of stuff to do before BAM, but I do have a couple of small projects I'm playing with that might be done before I leave - I'll show you if I get them done, if not, I'll see you after the war!

Bayou Linen Dresses

I had 6 yards of linen in a shade of muted blue called "Bayou" which I absolutely adore - so much so that I've already got a Eura dress and a Skjoldehamn hood out of the same stuff.  I forget why I originally bought this particular yardage, but I've had it for years and hadn't done anything with it, so I decided to use it to flesh out my Viking wardrobe a little bit more.

First I made a new Viking apron dress - almost the same pattern I always use (more on that in a sec), with thin loop straps.  This one is full length instead of short, since I had enough fabric this time to make it long. (Nothing wrong with the shorter apron dresses; I just prefer mine longer).

It's also unadorned so far, since I didn't have anything to use as trim around the top of the dress.  I'm hoping to find some nice trim at the event.














In an effort to be as frugal with my fabric as possible (because I wanted to get a second dress out of it), I went looking for more conservative cutting layouts online. And I discovered something:  apparently the entire known world makes apron dresses with 3 panels and 3 gores!  I've been making them with 4 panels and 4 gores.  The heck?   I honestly don't remember where I even got my pattern, but I think I figured out what happened:

This is the standard pattern that it seems everyone uses - both halves of this picture are identical, except for the colors.  On the left is the three-panel pattern, on which the two smaller (blue) panels are meant to be seamed together to make a full third panel.

On the right is the interpretation of the pattern that I've been using, where the blue side panels are used separately as TWO side panels (blue and purple) - each a quarter of the dress, instead of being combined into a third of the dress.

Obviously, somebody read those side panels wrong.  Was it my mistake, or was that how the pattern was drawn when it came to me?  I really don't remember. It's just as likely to be either one, I guess. It really doesn't matter; both ways of patterning the dress are equally valid.  I just thought this was neat.  I kind of love being shown that I'm wrong or that I've been doing things slightly differently without knowing it, because it means I get to learn new stuff and try out new ways of doing things.

So, I tried the three-panel dress.   I have to say, I really like the way the skirt lies with this method. It's less full, because there's one less  gore to make up the skirt circumference, but it's a smoother lie, and it's still plenty swishy.  The way I cut it uses a little less fabric than my four-panel method, too - which is what I'd wanted in the first place. 

From the remaining 3y of linen I squeezed out a new smock. It's a plain rectangular-construction T-tunic with 4 gores like all of my smocks (inspired by the Birka  and Haithabu reconstructions).This one has a wide, oval neckline (almost a boatneck but not quite as wide) finished with a narrow edge binding in the same fabric. The sleeves are a little extra long so that I can wear my new bracelets over the fabric.

True, I've got a Eura dress out of this same fabric, and I really don't need two smocks in the same color.  But I hardly ever wear my Eura dress anymore, since it's too early to have been worn with the apron dresses we know and love (9th century, whereas the apron dresses are 10th-11th).   So this isn't a second smock in the same color, it's a replacement for the Eura dress, which I think will be relegated to life as  a nightgown, or maybe something to wear to the showers.   

What's Next?  

Q.  Whatcha doin', Mady? 

A. Destroying priceless heirlooms, you?   

Trimming My Viking Coat

Back in October 2015 I made this coat out of some remnants I had - burnt orange and royal blue linen, and a pair of gray cotton curtain panels from Ikea:

It's a great coat, and I love to wear it.  The only problem is, I made the arms a little bit too short. I don't have any of these fabrics anymore, either, so I can't just pull off the blue cuffs and make new longer ones to match.

Instead I added a second cuff made of white faux fur, to extend the length of the sleeves overall.  The cuffs are interlined with some scrap linen and an iron-on interfacing to help them keep their shape. So that the cuffs wouldn't look like add-ons, I also ran a 3" band of faux fur all the way around the neck and front, and the lower hem of the coat.

(sorry for the terrible picture)

I have to admit, I tried to dye this fur brown at first, because I hated the white - it's just so bright and glowy!  It kept coming out purple, though, no matter what dye I used.  Can't walk around an SCA event with purple muppet fur trim!  So the white is growing on me, I guess.  I suppose I can pretend it's polar bear or something.  What white fur would have been available to eastern Scanindavia in the 10th century?  Fox? Rabbit? Weasel of some kind?  I don't know.  Certainly not purple muppet.

I'll be honest, I'm not happy with the way the sleeves look. The fur cuffs look overly bulky and unbalanced, and the width of the blue section on the sleeves now looks completely stupid alongside the equal width of the fur cuffs.  But overall, I like the way the trim on the whole coat came out - it's warmer, it covers me better, and it's a bit longer on the hem. It's quite a bit heavier, too - I'd forgotten how much weight faux fur adds to a garment.

I would say something cheeky like "I'm ready, bring it on, weather!" but I know better than to tempt Mother Nature like that.  It's shaping up to be pretty cold at the event, and it might be rainy, too.  I've got a coat I can actually wear, now, and a couple of good hoods to cover my head, and I've got lots of Secret Mundane Underthings (leggings, tall socks, long underwear) that I can wear under my clothes, so I should be okay in the cold.

Preparing for this event I always laugh at the crazy weather BAM gets.  This time the highs should be in the 40s-50s.  The last time I went, four years ago, it was 90º during the day.  The year before that it stormed the entire time and flooded out half the site.  You just never know with this event.

What's next? 

I have a pair of new blue dresses to show you, and a "new" apron dress pattern. More on that soon.

Button Pins

So far I've posted photos of my under dresses held together at the neckline with my new trefoil brooch.  But I've read that Viking women probably used 1" round brooches to hold their necklines together (link).  Since I wanted to use my trefoil brooch elsewhere, I decided to make myself a couple of little round brooches:

This was once one of a pair I made to hold my sleeves on when I was wearing 14th century stuff.  I don't know where the other one has gone, but this one has been commandeered by my Viking wardrobe for now.

These pins are all made from 1" buttons.  I clipped the loops on the back off with my wire cutters and then used a metal nail file to file the cut ends as smooth and flat as I could get them so that they wouldn't snag on my clothing.  Then I attached a 1" pinback to the backs of the buttons with superglue. The pinbacks are a little too large;  they stick out one side of the button, but that's okay.

Here's a silver one I made last night.  These only take about 10 minutes to make, so I made two.  I only glued buttons to my fingers three times, and I glued my finger to a spiral notebook just once.  I'm getting better at adhesives!

Here's one I made out of a button that looks like an old Roman coin.  Would the Vikings have used old coins as jewelry pieces?  I have no idea - I suspect they probably would have traded them for the metal value, if they'd come across them.  I just thought it looked neat.







There:  two new, and one old, little round 1" brooches to hold the necklines of my smocks together. 10 minutes of work each for a little extra bling and function.  Sweet.

Two Viking Smocks

I badly needed a couple of plain, neutral-colored underdresses, since most of mine are very strongly colored (red, black, dark blue) and don't go with my apron dresses - I've been struggling to make enough outfits for a longer event.  So, since I was ordering blue fabric for the blue apron dress makeover, I went ahead and ordered some linen for a smock as well.  I also recently purchased some off-white linen from Joann's (a friend gave me a gift certificate for my birthday).  Now I have two new under smocks:

The first one is a plain T-tunic style smock with side and front/back gores.  The sleeves are a little extra long so that I can wear my new bracelets over the fabric.  The keyhole neckline is finished with a narrow edge binding in the same fabric.  The color is "natural" from Fabric-Store.com.  It's a medium weight linen, and maybe I should have ordered a light weight - it's a little heavier than I wanted an under-layer to be, and just the tiniest bit scratchy.  That will wear out and the fabric will get smoother and more flexible as it's washed, though.

The second smock is nearly identical to the first one; the main difference is the fabric:  the linen from Joann's is a 55/45% linen/rayon blend. It's lighter weight, a denser weave with a smoother finish, and a straighter drape.  The pattern itself is the same:  a T-tunic with 4 gores, extra-long sleeves, keyhole neckline.  I used a neckline facing on this dress instead of an edge binding strip because I like how flat and smooth the faced neckline is.  The edge binding is more period, I just like this better.

I could decorate the sleeve cuffs of either of these dresses with a thin strip of ribbon or woven trim;  I haven't put much thought into it yet.  I'll have to stare into my stash and see if anything inspires me.

What's next? 

I'm trimming out my coat with some new fake fur;  but first:  some new jewelry.  Stay tuned.

Green Birka Bag

I love my brown Hedeby bag so much, but every time I use it I think it's just a bit too big.  I don't need to keep a lot in it - just my phone, my vape, my site token, and whatever little bits of things that happen to me during the event.  I figured I'd make a smaller one "someday"...until I realized I could make one now using scraps I already had.

The bag itself was made from a remnant of green linen that I had in my scrap pile.  It's lined with a bit of an old, torn, rayon sarong in similar greens (the same sarong I used to make the trim on the black apron dress).  I cut it to 8 x 9.5" with a 3/8" seam allowance included.  The bag and lining were sewn separately, then hand-stitched together around the top.  

My Lovely Assistant

The handles were my favorite part of this project.  They're made out of a bamboo serving tray that my roommate was throwing away (modeled by Rory, above).  I knocked the sides off the tray with a hammer, then cut the handles out of one of the long sides of the tray with my jigsaw.  The bamboo was easy to cut and sand, but didn't take stain very well - the finish came out looking a little on the rustic side. (But the handles were free, so I'm not complaining).  They're stained with a light coat of Walnut-colored stain and finished with two coats of Polyshades stain-and-seal in Espresso.

Inspiration: Birka handle, Swedish
National Maritime Museum

I attached the handles to the bag by sewing them on with thick, twisted embroidery floss, looped through the holes drilled across the bottom of the handles.  I have my doubts about how well the floss will hold up to being scraped across the edges of those holes all the time, but we'll see.

The cord strap is a whipcord woven out of dark purple crochet thread - it's actually the drawstring out of a pair of pants I made years ago which have long since bit the dust. The cord is long enough for me to wear this bag as a cross-body bag.  

Not bad for a free project, I think. I dig that every part of this project was basically salvaged from the trash.  And it came out so cute!  I love the way the colors in the fabrics and the wood work together.  I can't wait to try this bag out at BAM - I'll bring it and my larger brown one with me and see which I like better, size-wise.  This bag is the last pre-event project I had lined up, and I finished it last week with two and a half weeks to go. So...

What's Next? 

I have a Viking coat that needs a bit of fixing up.  I'll be back with that next.