SCA: Sprucing Up An Old Viking Coat

before

A before picture: 

This is an old gray coat that I made approximately one billion years ago.  The outer shell is a "linen weave"cotton canvas; the lining and the blue edge banding are linen.  Once upon a time it was covered with inappropriate decorative embroidery and really, really ugly faux-fur trim - all of which I removed, and the end result is as you see here. 

Over the weekend I wove a whole lot of new trim - originally to use on my male viking tunic, but, when I saw all the colors together, I decided the trim would look MUCH better on this coat. So I wove about two more yards so I'd have enough - a total of 9y - and grabbed some 1/2" red silk ribbon from my ribbon box which I had been saving for a rainy day. 

Here's what the coat looks like now: 

The red silk ribbon only goes along the lower hem, and the sleeves cuffs.  I didn't have enough to use for the entire border around the front opening and neckline; but I think it looks neat on just the hem and sleeves. Gives it a little pop of color without being overwhelming, I think. 

The weave is the "Oseberg Narrow Band" design (12L1), to which I added some extra width in the blue background, and a red and navy border stripe on the edges.  

I'm super happy with the way this came out!  I still need to do something about the lack of trim on my male tunic; but now I have TWO coats (the green one got new trim last month) that I can wear in the colder months.  

Of course, now I still don't have trim to put on my male tunic - I guess that's what's next! 

SCA: A Tablet-Woven Edge Detail

 So, I read about this NEAT thing where you can weave a band directly onto the edge of a piece of fabric or a garment, which adds a bit of decorative detail and also protects the fabric's edge.  There's a great picture of the technique on this page, if you can read Swedish (or use Google translate, which is what I did). 

I decided to try it out...sort of.  I didn't have a flat piece of wool fabric to use; but I wanted to try the look on the neckline of a serk, and I wasn't sure how to get the round neckline aligned with the loom - and also, I didn't think the linen of the serk would lend itself well to the stress of weaving. 

Instead, I decided to try to simulate the look by attaching a thin tablet-woven band to an existing garment by sewing it on.  I sewed it on edge-to-edge (as opposed to applying the band flat on top of the surface of the fabric) so that it looks like it's woven in place. 

the band was sewn to the neckline and 
sleeve ends

I really like the look of this.  I'm always trying to find more ways to make my viking kit look fancier and nicer without resorting to non-period "reenactorisms." I like the way this came out. It's a simple detail, but it looks finished and polished without screaming WOVEN TRIM ON ALL THE THINGS!! 

a closer shot of the neckline and stitching

What do you think?  I think I'll definitely try this again, and, of course, I DO plan to learn to weave directly onto a piece of fabric, as soon as I get some fabric that will support the weaving properly.  

Neat! 

1/4" 6-card single-color woven band
in cotton thread

What's Next? 

Right now I'm working on several things which I plan to blog about in the coming weeks: 

• a fully hand-sewn linen serk and smokkr set
• a new set of woven bands to decorate my male viking tunic
• a Regency ballgown (?)

Oh! And also, I just finished a belt which I really love and can't wait to wear: 

More soon! 

SCA: A Roman Outfit for Hot Weather

The hot weather is on the way.  It's already in the low 80s here in central Ansteorra, and by the end of May  - and the next event being Steppes' Warlord on Memorial Day weekend - it's likely going to be in the 90s.  Last year I wore  my guy's Viking outfit to this event and I BAKED ALIVE.  This year, I decided to make myself a new Roman outfit - loose, lightweight, and breezy.  

The chiton  is a medium-weight blue linen.  The correct way to make one of these would be to have one long length of fabric folded across the body from side to side; but to conserve fabric (and money) I had a shorter length of fabric which I split into two 2y squares.  

Where the wrapped side should be left open, I went ahead and seamed both sides of this garment for modesty's sake - the site where the Warlord event will be held is wide open and  notoriously windy, and I didn't want to accidentally flash anyone.  

The green palla is a length of sheer cotton gauze that I harvested from an old costume and re-cut for this purpose.  It may not be as breezy and cool as handkerchief-weight linen would be, but it drapes very nicely and I love the color.  

The sleeve openings are held together with small bronze buttons for a bit of a decorative look. 

This whole outfit is hand-sewn, by the way.  I have a BIG hand-sewing project coming up this summer, and I needed the practice.  Since this outfit is basically just a collection of large rectangles, most of the sewing was actually just hemming (whipstitching).  

The under tunic, which is a white handkerchief-weight linen, is a simple rectangular sheath tacked together at the shoulders and arm edges, so that it mimics the shape of the chiton when worn.

This was a piece I already had in my closet from a previous Roman outfit; I removed the neck and opened up the shoulder seams and re-sewed everything to make this more of a period shape at the neckline and arms. 

I made some jewelry to go with this outfit, too - and hey, look, it's a rare picture of my ACTUAL FACE. 

The necklace is pink freshwater pearls and gold brass wire; the earrings are mother-of-pearl drops and gold brass fittings/wire. Both are inspired by jewelry I've seen in period artwork and sculpture, and in Egyptian mummy portraits of Roman/Egyptian people.  

My hair is tucked into a red ribbon band which is tied around my head, in a style also inspired by some I've seen in period artworks.  The makeup is also inspired by several mummy portraits I've seen.  

So I'm all ready for Warlord, and the hot weather.  Bring it on!  

SCA: Oseberg Loom, Take II

After showing my Oseberg loom at the A&S competition at Bjornsborg in February and getting some really great feedback on the project, I decided to enter it again at the Hellsgate Commanders' Crucible event in March, after making some changes to the project based on the feedback I received: 

• I made some changes to the documentation - mostly formatting stuff, but also some changes to the writing to make it flow better, and I included some new information that I've learned since I started the project
• Someone at Bjornsborg in February showed me a new way to warp up this loom which solves almost all of the problems I had had with weaving on the loom on my first try

Initially I had warped up the loom the way you would warp up an inkle loom, with the warp thread ends tied to themselves, forming a big loop that wraps around the whole loom.  This limits the length of the weaving, and, I found, makes it so that the tension becomes too tight to continue weaving about halfway through, since the loom has no tensioner apparatus the way an inkle loom does.  

Instead, according to the input I got from a laurel who talked to me about it at length, I've warped it more like you would do with a backstrap loom, with a long warp which is lashed to the loom frame with a strip of leather thong which can easily be moved when you need to advance the warp or adjust the tension.  This way makes it easier to weave, easier to adjust the weaving, and removes all limits to the length of the weave - you can literally weave as long a thing as you want this way, woohoo! 

Also, since now it's so easy to remove the weaving project from the loom and put it back on again with the leather thongs, you can remove the weaving, take the loom apart to pack flat for transport, and then just put the weaving back on the loom when you get where you're going. My Oseberg loom is small enough to fit in my car fully assembled, so it's not an issue for me right now; but if I ever build a full-sized model of this loom I'll definitely need to take it apart to take it to an event. 

Something else new this time around is the thread I'm weaving with.  I'm using a 2-ply wool thread in three shades of indigo blue  - I've never woven with wool fiber before, and the feel of it is quite interesting. The band I'm weaving is coming out very nicely, but the fiber is really fuzzy and sticks to itself a LOT, which is making weaving slow and kind of a pain in the ass.  

The pattern on the loom right now is the "Oseberg narrow band" (the design with the rhomboids/diamonds on one side and the squared-off zigzag on the back (band 12L1, Nockert 2006). It's a 10-card pattern, and the finished width is only about 1/4" (the warp is four yards, so I'll get three-and-some when it's finished).  I'm not sure yet what I'll do with this piece when it's done. 

Here's my display from Hellsgate.  The wind was wreaking all sorts of havoc with the tablcloth, and knocking the loom and the spools of thread all over the place, but it mostly looked nice.  I got a ton of great feedback on the projects from lots of people, and once again I got the opportunity to sit down with a couple of laurels and really discuss the project in-depth, which was a LOT of fun.  I get super nervous when talking to judges about my work, but I'm getting better at handling it without falling all over myself and coming apart at the mental seams afterwards, hehe.  

So what's next for this project?  Honestly, I don't know.  I think I've done all I can do with this little prototype Oseberg loom - I think the next step for me, if I want to continue in the weaving vein*, is to either switch my focus to the weaving itself, or to go bigger and build a full-sized Oseberg loom to work on and display at the next A&S event (it was suggested to me by two people that this would be a fantastic project for Kingdom A&S in September, but yikes, that's high-stakes!)  

*And of course, I DO want to continue to weave - I love weaving.  But I also have a new Viking outfit I want to get to work on which will be as near to "completely" historically accurate as I can make it, all hand-sewn, hand-dyed, etc.  I've been planning that project with the idea in mind that I would take it to LPT next year; but I could just as easily do both the sewing project and the big loom if I wanted to.  Right now, I just don't know.  

Right now, I'm very happy with the way the last two competitions have gone; and I'm excited about moving forward - but I'm also ready to take a break and work on something else for a minute.  Steppes' Warlord is coming up, and it's going to be HOT, so I'm working on a new Roman outfit that I have to finish in the next couple of weeks, so that's what I'll be doing with  my April.  Show you when it's done.  :) 

Stuff and Things

 I'm still alive, just haven't posted in a couple of weeks.  I'm in the middle of several projects right now that I'll be posting about very soon;  for right now, though, I may be off and on with posting for the next little while, because I'm dealing with a family medical situation that's taking up a lot of my time and mental energy.  

Coming soon, though: 

1.   More tablet weaving, including a new way of warping up the Oseberg loom, new wool thread to weave with, and the next A&S competition

2.  A new Roman outfit for the upcoming hot weather

3.  A new Viking outfit, which I'm sewing completely by hand for the first time

4. Maaaybe a new Regency dress.  I have a set of sheets that I don't need anymore that may become a blue-and-white dress; I also have my eye on some black cotton voile which really wants to be a mourning dress.  Not sure yet where I'll go with that (and I have to get through Hellsgate at the end of March and Warlord at the end of April first, before I start new Regency stuff!) 

SCA: Tablet Weaving Stuff & Upcoming Projects

Just a quick update on what I've been doing lately:  I recently updated my linen coat (2020) with some new trim.  A few years ago I trimmed it with bands of blue and green linen, wishing, at the time, that I knew how to tablet weave so I could make something cool for it.  Well, I do now, so I did! 

old linen trim bands

new herringbone trim in blue,
white, and navy

What's Next? 

I'm currently weaving a belt on my inkle loom, working on the Oseberg loom A&S project for another entry at an upcoming event, making a new Hedeby/Birka bag for myself, and making a new Roman outfit for myself for the hot weather we have coming in the next month or two.  

More soon!  

SCA: Oseberg Loom: An Experiment

What Is It?

Photo from the Oseberg Textile book (Nockert 2006, p. 144).

The Oseberg loom is a wooden loom found in the Oseberg ship burial (Tonsberg, Norway, excavated in 1905, dating from the 9th century).  It was partially destroyed by the weight of the ground above it, but a  woven band and weaving tablets were still attached to it.  The loom consisted of a base, two upright sides, and a crossbeam in the center for support; the whole thing measured about 2 meters wide by about a meter high and is made of beech wood.  

I've found LOTS of information online about the woven bands that were found at Oseberg; but very little information about the loom itself - mostly what I've found are people's recreations of the loom in various sizes (which I found very helpful for construction ideas, but not documentable research). 

 

How I Built It

I decided in late January that I wanted to build myself a smallish version of the Oseberg loom as an experiment -  just to see if I could do it, and to see how weaving on an actual period loom would be (I normally use an inkle loom, which was invented in I believe the 1700s). 

 I used only scrap wood I had laying around in my shop for this, because I wanted to get this done on the cheap.  The original Oseberg ship burial loom is made of birch; mine is made of pine 1x2" furring strips. Each piece that I had on hand was about 3.5' long, which was the perfect size for this project. 

(ignore the table legs, that's a different project)

My loom is approximately 3' wide and about 18" high.  It's a little big for a "tabletop"loom - but I planned to use this on my low coffee table in my living room at home, and it's exactly the right size and height to work with there while sitting on the couch.  

The uprights are pegged into the holes in the base with dowels that are glued into the uprights, but can be removed from the base. The crossbar in the middle of the loom is also pegged in place in the same way - glued in the crossbar but not into the sides.  The whole thing breaks down into 3 sticks and the base/foot piece for travel and storage. 

The base is also made of a 1x2" furring strip, with crossbars attached to the ends to stabilize the loom and stand it up.  The crossbars are pegged in place permanently.  

How the Heck Do You Warp This Thing??

Honestly, I went into this with zero idea how to warp this loom.  I'd seen pictures of recreations of this loom with weaving already on them, but never found any description of how it was accomplished, so I just decided to wing it and see how it worked.  After all, this IS an experiment, right?  

welcome to my dining room

I'd seen two ways of warping this loom online: one, where the length of the thread is wrapped around the post and the finished part of the woven band was wrapped around the other post, with the weaving happening in between;  or two, where the length of the thread was wrapped around the whole loom from one post to the other, and tied together like you would do on an inkle loom.  I decided to try the second method: 

Weaving on this loom is…interesting. I had intended to use this loom on my coffee table, sitting next to it, but I have to twist my back so much to weave that it hurts me (I have a bad back).  The next thing I tried was putting it on my dining table and standing next to it, which worked great - except that the loom is so lightweight that it walks around while I’m trying to weave, so I had to clamp it to the table top to get it to stay still. Once I did that, though, weaving was super easy, and fast.  

Advancing the warp is easy enough: I achieved proper tension by tying the lower warp to the crossbar, so to move the weaving I just untied it, shifted the warp around, and then re-tied it. 

The A&S Display

This project was intended from the beginning to be an A&S entry at the Bjornsborg "Battle of the Beasts" event this past weekend.  Here's what my display ended up looking like: 

The entry consists of the loom with weaving in progress already on it that I could demo for people who wanted to see it in action (of which there were actually quite a few!), my documentation, a page of photos showing the process of building the loom and some related things (patterns, examples of woven goods), a couple of woven pieces to show what you can do with a loom like this, some threads I've used to weave with, and some tools like shuttles, cards, and period-replica scissors.  

I warped up my inkle loom with a new project before I went to the event, and sat nearby and sewed for most of the day so that I would (a) have something to occupy me at the event since I wasn't doing anything else (I didn't have any "jobs" this time around and I don't fight or compete in any of the other activities that were going on) and (b) so that I would be available to answer questions and demo the Oseberg loom for people, which was a lot of fun. 

I got a lot of really great feedback on my project and my documentation.  I didn't win, but I'm told I was one of the finalists, which pleases me.  The best part, though, was that I got to sit down and chat with a couple of my favorite Laurels about the project and about weaving in general, and I have lots of great ideas for warping up the Oseberg loom and some adjustments to my documentation which will make it even better for the next time I enter this project (which might be in March, not sure yet).  I'm excited about trying out a new method of warping this loom - I need to finish the weave that's on it now and figure out what pattern and colors to use for the next round.  

More about this project in the next couple of weeks, I hope!  

SCA: Bjornsborg Spring Event

Bjornsborg's spring event "The Battle of the Beasts" was this past weekend.  I had SO much fun!  It was a theme event, inspired by Aesop's fables, so we had lots of animal-themed activities and animal-inspired clothing going around (including some kids in animal onesies, which was adorable).  

I'm a nut for ravens and crows, so I brought some of that into my clothing with some dark colors which I never get to wear (because the black dress isn't really period),  and I wore some black feathers on my dress and in my hair - and of course, all my raven jewelry bits and accessories: 

A&S

I entered two A&S competitions at the event.  One was the largesse competition, for which I donated some of my woven bands that I made in December/January for the A&S event at Candlemas that never happened.  Turns out, there were only two entrants - me and the person running the derby, so we kind of both won.  

The other was the Bjornsborg A&S Championship, into which I entered an Oseberg loom that I made a couple of weeks ago.  I'll have a full post on that up very soon; but for now, here's a pic of the entry: 

I didn't win or anything, but I got a LOT of really positive feedback on my project and my documentation; and I got to sit down with two of my favorite Laurels to discuss the project, and tablet-weaving in general.  It was a very positive experience, and I have some great tips to work into my documentation and my project for the next time I enter this project  (which might be next month, I'm not sure yet).  

What's Next? 

I'll have the post about the Oseberg loom project up tomorrow, and some stuff about weaving in general as well. 

I'm currently working on some alterations to my Oseberg project, a new Hedeby bag, and a Roman outfit for the upcoming hot weather, which I'll post about soon.  I also expect to have a new tent in the next couple of months, and so I may be doing a post about my campsite soon as well.  

SCA: Shiny New Viking Stuff!

Yes, I was responsible with most of my tax refund this year, but I also treated myself to a couple of new shiny things for the SCA: 

Birka Cup

I think my favorite thing in the world, at the moment, is this little glass cup in the foreground of this photo.  

It's a replica of a glass cup found at Birka (this cup was from grave 750, exc. by Hjalmar Stolpe in 1897), and it just makes my heart glad.  I love glassware, especially period glassware - and this is the first piece of period glassware I've ever owned.   

Key

I also got this lovely little bronze Viking key from Raymond's Quiet Press.  It's a replica of an extant key from Lund in Sweden, and it's a great little addition to my set of "jewelry".  I wove a very thin band to use to hang it from my brooches.  

Yay, shiny Viking stuff!  

What's Next? 

I'm working on a BUNCH of things right now, so there'll be posts a-plenty coming up soon.  This weekend is the spring Bjornsborg event, from which there will be pictures (I hope).  I'm weaving my butt off right now making trim to go on my linen Viking coat, I'm working on a new Hedeby bag, I built a new loom and am trying it out, and I'm working on a Roman outfit for the hot weather this coming season.  Whew!  More soon! 

SCA: Just Some Viking Stuff

In addition to spending two months whomping up a new Italian outfit for Candlemas, which was this past weekend, I also, in that space of time, made a TON of largesse items for a largesse competition that was supposed to be held at the event. 

I started working just before Thanksgiving, and finished about the middle of January; and I made the following items: 

thirteen Hedeby bags

1.  Hedeby bags!  

I love making these things, and I had plenty of supplies on hand, so I went for it. The handles are a simple, curvy Hedeby-style similar to the ones I usually make (based on the handles found at Hedeby and Birka), and they are made from 1/4" red oak flooring pieces that someone gave to me a few years ago. The handles were cut on my table saw and shaped with a hacksaw and electric sander; then stained with a walnut Minwax stain.  It took me about a week to produce all thirteen pairs of handles.  

The bags are hand sewn out of linen, because I had a lot of linen scraps on hand that were perfectly sized for this project. Some are lined, some are not, depending on the weight of the linen used. Each bag has a hand-stitched trim in a braided/herringbone stitch, examples of which were found on an apron dress fragment from Hedeby and on a hat from Denmark; some are bands across the front of the bag, some are stitched around the top edge, and some are covering the side seams. The handles are sewn onto the bag with matching thread (cotton embroidery floss).  Each bag, from sewing to decorating to handle attachment, took me about three hours.  

The bags's carrying straps are a combination of flat card-woven bands, and tubular card-woven cord bands made after a method I found described in this paper by L. Elena Hylton.  You use 4-6 cards with 4 holes threaded, and pass the weft thread/shuttle through one side of the warp only, looping under the warp to get back to the first side (instead of going right-to-left and then left-to-right as you do in "regular" card weaving).  This causes the weave to pull itself into a hollow round tube when you pull the weft tight, instead of creating a flat band. This method of weaving tubular cording is documentable to as early as the 1100s, according to Elena's research. I used 6 cards for my tubular straps, after I found 4 to make a square-profile band and I really wanted a rounder profile.  I also found that it's harder to weave this tubular band after switching the card's direction in order to untwist the threads - for some reason it just works better going "fowards" than going "backwards".  I'll have to practice it more. 

tubular strap

thirteen woven bands

2.  Tablet-woven trim

Something else I really, really enjoy doing.  I had a number of spools of cotton crochet thread on hand from another project, and so I used up my excess on thirteen 1.5-2 yard pieces of trim.  

There are five different designs, each very simple and no more than 10 cards each, and all are either period designs or based on period designs. Each one took me about 3 hours to make from warping to finishing. 

3. Lampworked glass beads 

I hadn't made glass beads for several months (due to it being summer, and about 120ºF inside my garage where my glass workshop is set up), and I needed the practice badly. I'm not very good at doing this - I'm still VERY much a beginner, so my beads aren't, like, awesome or anything - but they'll make nice additions to someone's Viking kit, I'm hoping.  

I made thirteen sets of 8 beads.  All of them are about 8mm in size; some are round, some drum-shaped with flat sides, and some are kind of round/oval with little bumps or dots on them - there are 2 of these "fancy" beads in each set, and 6 plain ones.  It took me about a month to make all the beads, working in 20-minute sessions of about 7 beads per session (not all of which turned out right).  

 

Guess What? 

For some reason, the competition didn’t happen at the event. I don’t know why it got scrubbed - I KNOW I read a whole post about it on the event page two months ago, but no one knew anything about it when I got there and asked about where to set up. Shoot! All that work...!  Not "for nothing" - after all, I'm now prepared to enter the next largesse competition, whenever that happens.  

Meanwhile, I learned a lot, and got a lot of good practice with woodworking and weaving. And glass bead making, although I'm kind of burnt out on glass beads for the time being and probably won't be doing any of that any time soon.  We'll see.  

dry run of display at home

Regency: The Pineapple Reticule

Here is the silliest thing I've ever made: a pineapple reticule! 

A few weeks ago I learned that pineapple reticules were a thing - at least one of them, that I know of. This knit pineapple purse is housed in the Kyoto Costume Institute’s 1800-1810 collection (as featured on JaneAusten.co.uk) 

The extant purse is knit in silk, in several shades of yellow and green.  The blog linked above states that pineapples and other tropical fruit were very much en vogue during the early regency, but sadly, I cannot find any other examples of period fruit-like knit or fabric objects online. But this one example is enough for me! 

There are lots of patterns for similar knit reticules on Ravelry and Etsy. I am not a knitter - I crochet (crocodile stitch, maybe?), but I didn’t happen to have any yellow or green yarn sitting around. What I did have was a three yard length of 6” wide yellow poly satin fabric that I wasn’t doing anything with, so I decided to sew a little pineapple bag. 

For the body, I sewed four 6" wide strips of satin together to make a large rectangle, then pintucked the whole thing on the bias, and sewed the result into a tube. The lining is yellow cotton from an old sheet I had sitting around to make mock-ups with. 

The  “leaves” are big triangles attached to the top edge of the tube, and I ran a drawstring (pale gold ribbon) around the top of the bag just beneath the leaves on the inside of the bag so that they'd stand up when the bag is closed.  I didn’t have anything green to use for the leaves, so I cut off part of the yellow piece and dyed it green with Rit’s Dyemore for synthetics in “peacock green,” which yielded this lovely leaf green color: 

The leaves being put together, and the yellow cotton lining: 

And here's the round, flat bottom of the bag, also green. The little covered button on the bottom is just for fun, and just because I love covered buttons:

Y'all, I CANNOT stop giggling at this thing.  It's so silly!  This is officially the silliest thing I've ever made, and it pleases my heart.  HEE HEE HEE.  

Regency: Teal Cotton Open Robe

After working my butt off on SCA projects since Thanksgiving, I needed a creative palate-cleanser project - and I was itching to do something new with Regency stuff (besides the apron, that was actually a functional thing I needed).  So my first “real” project of 2024 is this teal open robe, along with a new shawl and some new jewelry to go  with it: 

I had this teal cotton in my stash for years, and I'd originally intended to do a Really Awesome Regency Dress with it (like this one), but after chipping little bits off of it here and there over the years for small projects, it ended up only 3 yards long - not enough for something big and fancy.  But it was, I realized recently, exactly enough to make a short-sleeved open robe to wear over my white 1800s gown.  

My inspiration for the color palette for this outfit was this painting of Princess Amelia (youngest daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte) by Sir William Beechey (1797).   While I didn't want to recreate this exact outfit, I did want to do something with the same color scheme, with which I am in LOVE - the teal dress with the delicate little silver/white designs, the rust/burnt orange shawl and gold sash and armband. She also wears long strands of clear (I'm assuming rock crystal) beads - which you don't see in Regency art very often - and which sort of pick up on the look of the little silver/white dots on her dress. 

The teal dress in the inspiration picture has some sort of white/silver design on it - it’s probably sprigged - and I’m not sure what the design is actually supposed to be. Stars, dots, probably little flowers? I decorated my fabric with little trios of silver dots, which is a design I’ve used before for Medieval stuff; I really like the look of it, it’s delicate and subtle. I chalked out grid lines on the fabric every 6” and then dotted the intersections and centers of the grid with a silver paint pen: 

The robe is about half machine sewn and half hand sewn - I did the primary construction of the bodice and bodice lining on the machine; but the lining is inserted and the skirt attached by hand, and all the hemming and edging is down by hand as well. 

There's a wee bit of a train on the back, too, for the lovely drape it gives when one walks or the wind blows.  

ACCESSORIES

SHAWL

I made the shawl for this dress out of an old SCA costume. The fabric is a soft, lightweight silk twill, in a deep russet color. The SCA costume was a 12th century *cyclas*, which was just made of two rectangles and some triangular gores, so I removed the gores and the neckline and joined the two rectangles together (flat felled seam + rolled hem edge) to make this shawl. 

SASH

The sash in the inspiration painting looks to me like a dark dusty gold, possibly with some kind of print or embroidery on it, but I suppose it could be brown? Mine is a length of gold poly satin, purchased from Etsy as a “bridal sash” and tied around the waistline of the robe. The color is way too light - I wanted a darker gold, almost bronze - but it’ll do for now. I think eventually I’ll get some nice silk and make a new sash for this outfit. 

JEWELRY

I LOVE the rock crystal bead jewelry in the inspiration painting so much! I haven’t seen clear crystal jewelry much in Regency paintings - usually you see pearls or coral, or colored gemstones with fancier outfits.  My beads are glass (for budget reasons), 14mm round, and strung in two 16” strands. Yes, the bead strands should be waaaay longer than they are in order to look more like the inspiration pic, but I used what I had.  

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Yay! This was a quick, simple project, and a much-needed break from SCA stuff for a minute.  It's easy to wear, and versatile. 

And I have no idea what's next!  I have LOTS of ideas for new Regency costumes, new Viking stuff and weaving projects, and even a dip into Victorian for the first time (maybe), but where to start?  I think I need a break…I’m also refinishing an old wooden table right now, but I’ll be back soon. 

 

Regency: A Work Apron

Here’s something a bit weird: I made a Regency item for SCA use.  I remembered kind of late that I had promised a friend that I’d help him in the kitchen at Candlemas, and I had this fancy Italian dress that I needed to protect - so I needed an apron. 

I had wanted a Regency apron for a while (I love Elinor’s tan gardening apron in the 1995 Sense & Sensibility movie and have wanted one ever since).  And so I figured, since nobody would really see me in it at the event, I would go ahead and make a Regency apron to wear over my Italian outfit. 

(I swear those pockets are actually even, I don't know why they look wonky on the mannequin; they look fine on me). 

There's not really a pattern; it’s really just a couple of rectangles and some long ties. It’s made out of an old, blue, cotton sheet that I had saved to use as mock-up fabric. The shoulder straps cross over and loop around the waist tie in the back; and there are two large pockets on the front. 

I also made a pair of sleeve covers, which I know I’ve seen somewhere in period on a maid or someone like that - probably on TV - to keep my silk sleeves clean. They’re elasticized at the top and bottom for ease of wear. 

Wearing a Regency apron with 15th century clothing is a bit silly, but I got a pretty blue apron out of it and now I won't get any food on my Italian outfit, so, win-win. 

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.