SCA: The Hand-Sewn Viking Project, Part II: Red Apron Dress

 I decided to make myself a hand-sewn Norse “apron dress” to go with the white serk I made by hand back in August. There was a whole grand plan there in the beginning; but I kind of made the serk and then dropped the idea for a while. I don’t know why it’s red -  99% of my SCA wardrobe is in shades of blue, but for some reason I just needed a red one this time. I never wear red..?

Anyway, the fabric is linen, and all the weaving and decorative bits are in 8/2 cotton weaving thread. Aside from the material choices, this dress is as close to period as I can get it with my current knowledge, from the patterning to the stitches used to the decoration. 

Tablet woven trim 
and a red and yellow “Hedeby braid” over the seams

The Hedeby braid - diagram and close up photo of it in situ 

The Hedeby dress fragment - the braid is positioned over the seam on the left side of the piece 

I used a backstitch for the seams, finished the seam allowances with a whip stitch, and used the herringbone “Osenstitch” (Inga Hagg’s term) for the hem

A silk ribbon folded over the top edge of the dress, with tablet woven trim based on the Oseberg “narrow band” design

I made the dress ankle length this time, to see how a longer dress feels to wear - I like it much better than the calf-length apron dresses I normally make; I feel like it’s much more flattering. I also made the straps and loops verrrrry thin this time, just because I like a thinner strap. The whole project took me a little over a week to make, about 28 hours total, I think. 

I’m super pleased with the way this came out, and I plan to wear it at Candlemas in February. That’s a long time to wait! 

*

Meanwhile, I have some A&S stuff to get cracking on for the new year, and I have another hand-sewn dress in the planning and scheming stages. More soon! 

SCA: BAM Shenanigans & Updating my Roman Outfit

War of the Rams ended up being a total bust for me. I hurt my back on the first day, and was basically stuck in a chair at camp the entire weekend - I didn’t get to go anywhere or do any of the activities, or even see people I’d been looking forward to seeing. I was pretty bummed about that. I didn’t even get any pictures. 

However, I did wear a blue jean  “cowboy viking” outfit on Friday that I made as a joke, and got a bunch of good laughs out of it. I don’t have a pic of me in it, but here it is on my mannequin: 

Isn’t that ridiculous? I wore it with cowboy boots and a red bandana over my hair. There were several double-takes, and a few people busted out laughing when they saw me, hehe. Silliness. 

I also bought this gorgeous new mug for myself while I was there. It’s a hand made and hand painted pottery in a loosely Greco-Roman design, and one of a kind - I couldn’t pass it up! 

Speaking of Roman, I found out that the Bjornsborg spring event this coming year will be Roman-themed, hooray! I love wearing Roman, and the weather then should be perfect for it.  I decided to upgrade my kit a bit this month, starting with a new sash to tie around my body (it's blue; the old one was dark gray and I didn’t like the way it went with the light blue chiton). 

This week I treated myself to a pdf booklet of Greek- and Roman- inspired tablet weaving patterns from Etsy (some traditional “Greek key” designs, and some patterns inspired by the geometric designs in floor mosaics and frescoes), and I made up this one in blue and white cotton: 

Once it was done, I sewed it onto the top edges of my linen chiton, to dress it up some. (Decorative trim on these things IS period,  but tablet weaving itself is NOT…but I’m not worried about that, I’m not going for exacting historical accuracy with my Roman, I just want something approximate and *pretty* to bang around in at the event).  

That’s all for now.  At the moment I’m working on two pieces: a new palla for my Roman outfit, and a hand-sewn Norse smokkr for an event in January. More on that soon! 

SCA: The Hand-Sewn Viking Project, Part II

The second part of my hand sewn Viking outfit project is the smokkr, or apron dress: 

I searched high and low for the right wool, learned a lot about fabrics I almost never use - and then I learned that it was going to be prohibitively expensive to use the wool I wanted for this dress.  So I ended up using a wool "stuff" fabric I had in my stash instead: it's a lightweight diagonal twill, and very smooth, almost like a suiting but not as slick or thin.  On the suggestion of a friend, I ran it through my washer and dryer a couple of times to felt the fabric a bit, which made it thicker and softer, and got rid of the little bit of sheen it started out with.  It’s not perfect, but it’s just fine for this project, which is basically a test-run for a more serious version of this dress that I might make next year. 

Anyway, the pattern for this  dress is the basic three-panel-and-three-gore pattern that the entire SCA uses, which, as near as I can tell, the pattern we use was designed by Carolyn Priest-Dorman (SCA name M. Thora Sharptooth, East Kingdom) in 1993 as a 9th-century Danish apron dress.  FWIU the pattern is based on a combination of viking artwork and on archeologists’ renderings of proposed designs for the garment which were based on grave evidence. 

I went a step further and created a pleated front for this dress, in the style of pieces found at sites like Køstrup and Kaupang.   The exact method the original owners of these garments used to pleat the fabric is not known; I had never pleated anything before so I used the simplest method I found, which was to baste the fabric, draw it together, and then whipstitch over the pleats to hold them in place.  It’s a little uneven, but I think not bad for a first try. 

I finished the top of the dress in two ways. Firstly, because I forgot to hem the top of the dress before I pleated the front, I ended up using a binding strip made of herringbone linen scraps that I had in my stash, which I dyed green.  I then applied a thin tablet woven band to the top edge of the dress between the two brooch loops over the bust. There is evidently some confusion over exactly how this was accomplished on the original Køstrup dress; the band was either suspended between the loops or it was attached to a vegetable diver fabric backing which has since rotted away leaving only the wool band in place. I opted to attach my band to the loops at the top, and whip stitched it to the top edge to help keep it in place. The band itself is cotton and was woven specifically for this project. 

For the shoulder straps and front loops, I used the same fabric as the body of the dress to create a thin double-folded tube, whipstitched closed on the side, following Inga Hagg's sketches of the loops found within the tortoise brooches at Birka: 

Hagg, 1974

I used period stitching methods on this whole dress, like I did for my serk. I used a backstitch for the primary construction seams, a running stitch to attach the linen binding at the top, flat-felled the seams and whip-stitched them in place, and then folded the lower hem and stitched it in place with a herringbone stitch (Inga Hagg's "Osenstitch"): 

Hagg, 1984

This dress has its problems, to be sure. I deviated from my inspiration pieces in areas like fabric choice, and in the use of an edge binding at the top. This was my first time hand sewing an apron dress, hand sewing on wool, and creating pleats/smocking.  Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with the way this turned out, and I can’t wait to wear it with my new serk when the weather cools off a bit! The whole dress took approximately 21 hours to make, including the weaving. 

Whew! Next project! 

SCA: Prepping for BAM

 The third week of November is "BAM" - Bordermarch Autumn Melees, now called War of the Rams.  It's a five-day event in the middle of east Texas, and it's usually wet and cold...and a TON of fun.  

In 2020 and 2021, my Pandemic Project was an all-new Viking wardrobe - two new serks and three new apron dresses.  By the time the Pandemic blew (mostly) over and we were free to hold SCA events again, however, I'd gained enough weight that exactly NONE of my new dresses fit, so earlier this year I rushed to make two new serks and two new apron dresses that would work for me (the teal one that I've never blogged about (oops), and the blue herringbone).  

However, in August I started hitting the calorie-reduction and daily-walking bits as hard as I could, and I'm pleased to say that I've lost about 25lb since then - enough that I can fit into all of my Viking clothes, both the pandemic projects and the new pieces, as well as some older apron dresses that I spiffed up in 2020 and have never worn since.  

So, I've been spending my spare time in fixing up these older new dresses. All of my newer Viking clothing is seamed on the sewing machine and then finished by hand, and constructed in as period-correct a way as I can make them.  Except the older new dresses weren't - some of them were hemmed on the machine, so I'm picking the hems out and re-doing them by hand to make them look a bit better.  I did the same with my serks, which were all made entirely by machine - I picked out all the necklines, hemlines, and cuffs, and re-did them by hand in either a herringbone stitch (on the inside, which looks like a running stitch from the outside), or a running stitch. 

linen serk with new neckline stitching

All of my clothing is ready for BAM, and all of my packing is as pre-packed as I can make it, and I still have a week and a half to go.  So I'll be re-hemming dresses, ironing things, and working on various crochet projects until then.  I can't wait! 

SCA Viking: Herringbone Linen

 Several months ago, I purchased the most beautiful fabric from a friend who was cleaning out her stash: it’s 100% linen, light gray, in a herringbone weave. I’d always wanted a herringbone or twill weave in my viking wardrobe. 

I dyed the linen a deep intense blue, with Rit’s “Indigo” dye. It actually didn’t turn out all that well the first time, but I made the dress anyway and then dyed it again and this time it came out beautifully. 

I applied a handwoven tablet weave trim (from Etsy) to the top front of the dress, and used very thin loops for the straps. Here is the finished product on the mannequin: 

As a bonus, I used the remaining herringbone yardage to make the shawl: I picked out the weft threads on two ends of the piece to make a fringe, and knotted it.  Just a little lightweight something to wrap up in on breezy evenings. 

Now I have three whole dresses I can wear to events this fall. (All the dresses I made last year sadly are already too small; but I’m working on that).  The “agave” dress I made in January (I’ve changed the trim on the top), and a dark teal one (“apatite” from Fabric-store.com), and now this. Time to start working on accessories and camp things.  

Getting Back To the SCA For A Moment...

 In May of last year, when I made that new Viking coat, I fell head over heels in love with the fabric I used for the outside of the coat.  It's "Agave" linen from Fabric-Store.com. I just couldn't get enough of it.  But it went out of stock, for 7 months I couldn't find it again.  Finally they got it back in stock, about a month ago, and I ordered 4 yards to make a new Viking apron dress.    

I got that dress on there all kinds of sideways,
didn't I?  Slow down, me.  

It's the same as all my other apron dresses recently:  three panels, long looped straps, long hem.  FS' linen is so nice to work with, and I love wearing it.  I adore this color - that makes sewing it even nicer.  The new machine helps, hehe.  

This time, to trim out the top of the dress, I did something new.  I didn't have any more sari bits to use, and I couldn't find a woven trim I liked that would set off the color of this linen.  So I ordered some 1-1/4" silk ribbon from Burnley & Trowbridge., in apple and teal.  I was worried about the colors being right - it's SO hard to gauge colors over the internet - but I'm really pleased with them, and with the way they look on the dress.  Plus, this stuff is SO soft, I keep dropping it because I can barely feel it in my hands!  I'd admired this ribbon look (and/or strips of silk cloth) for years when I saw it on other people, but I'd never tried it myself until now.  

It looks all frumply because of the way everything 
hangs on the dummy.  I really need to fix it! 

So that's my new apron dress.  I can't wait to wear it - and all the other Viking stuff I've made over the past year out of COVID-induced boredom.  (Click the "Viking" tag below to see it all).  I've basically re-made my entire wardrob while we've been sequestered at home this past year.  From what I understand, we *might* begin to have in-person events as early as this summer - I imagine that depends on how this whole vaccine thing goes.  I'm so excited!  I miss the SCA and my friends so much!  

In that vein, I did something else:  I ordered an adjustable garment rack from Amazon to hang all my clothes on in my tent.  No more getting dressed out of plastic boxes and bending over the whole time I'm getting dressed, hurting my back!  I only hope it fits in my tent with my mattress and all my stuff.  I may set up the tent in the backyard over the weekend and give it a try.  

Nice rack!

See you soon.  

A Blue Viking Apron Dress

My first Viking dress was dark blue, and I loved it so much - but it got old and worn and too small, and I ended up chopping it up to make dinner napkins (which I still use).  I've wanted another dark blue apron dress ever since - and now I have one!

This is just a plain, 3-panel apron dress, in a middle weight linen.  The color is "Prestige", by Fabric-Store.com - it's sort of a dark steel blue, not intense enough to be "navy", but not warm enough to be called "midnight."  I really love the color.   It's soft and restful, like a quiet evening.   

I found a gorgeous tablet-woven wool band on Etsy (here) while I was looking for trim for another project, and I HAD to have it for this dress.  I've used it around the top of the dress and also for the straps.  I didn't treat this trim in any way, because I haven't had a reaction to it at all (yay!) I guess the weaver did something to it before she used it, or maybe they just treat wool differently in Lithuania, who knows?

Here's the back:

The stitching could be a little better right here;  and the thread is just a hair too light for the fabric and the trim, but that's okay.  It's all I could find.  Anyway, I LOVE the trim on this dress!  I wish I could use trim like this on all my projects.  Maybe I should learn to weave.

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?   

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.

Black Apron Dress: Another Makeover

After making over the blue apron dress, I decided to tackle my black one next.  This just happened to be my apron dress with the most work to take out:

I hated all of the embroidery - I felt like I did a good job at the time, based on my meager skill level five years ago, but now all I can see are the flaws, and it all looks so amateurish now.  The vine motif around the top of the dress (next to the ribbon)  is period but is inappropriate for an apron dress.  The other vine motif on the straps isn't even Scandinavian, it's English, and 13th century to boot.

The blue ribbon around the top of the dress IS a correct Viking device, but it's executed incorrectly and badly.  There were two blue ribbons around the bottom of the dress, too; and the side seams were also all embroidered.

I took all that work out.  All of it - I made the dress completely naked.  I didn't track the hours it took me to remove it all,  but I spent somewhere around 5 evenings carefully picking out all the stitching so as not to damage the fabric. Probably about 20 hours. 

To replace the embroidery across the top, I opted for a trick we know the Vikings did use in their embellishment of the tops of apron dresses:  stitching a strip of imported cloth, often silk, as trim around the top of the dress.  In this case, my "silk trim" is a soft rayon strip cut from an old sarong. I considered layering it with a silk ribbon underneath or something like that, but I really just loved the way the sarong fabric looked with the black on its own.  I fully intend to replace this strip with real silk if any real silk ever happens to me.

I also took apart the long, flat straps and made them into looped straps instead, which is correct for an apron dress based on loops we've found attached to brooches.  I also like they way they function better:  they're easier to use, and once they're affixed to the dress, don't require any adjustment. My straps came out a bit thicker than I wanted them, but that's okay - they look just fine and they work great. 

There:  all finished.  The new design is simpler, but I like it much better than all that ridiculous embroidery I had going on before.  I love that this dress is full length - I prefer a long apron dress. 

And I really love the green and black (the color shows better in the previous picture, sorry).  That came out better than I'd pictured.  I have a ton of the green rayon sarong scraps left, too - I may use them to line a new Hedeby bag I've been thinking about making.

What's Next?

I may play with the bag I just mentioned a bit;  I'm also working on some new cuffs for my Viking coat and a new underdress.

A Makeover: Blue Split-Front Apron Dress

.


In 2015 when I was in the process of spiffing up my entire Viking wardrobe, I created this dress:

Isn't it neat?  It's wrong in so many ways. I did a really good job based on my knowledge at the time;  it's just that that knowledge was incomplete, and based mostly on what I saw other people doing instead of on actual solid research.  And so we had this dress:  split down the front, which is incorrect for the accepted understanding of how apron dresses work; the wrong type of straps - flat straps, not loops; embroidered to the eyeteeth, and apron dresses weren't covered in decorative embroidery; and with a front trim band and skirt guarding in a contrasting color, which was an idea I copied from someone but has no basis in historical anything.  

So, I decided to tear this dress apart and make it over completely into something that is actually correct and which I can wear to events without looking like a bad example.  So, to start with,  I removed all the embroidery, the straps, and the orange trim. 

I also removed both of the remaining blue front panels - they were too narrow to simply sew closed into a single front piece - it made the dress way too small, and it would have placed a seam directly down the front of the dress, which would have looked horrible.  I needed to create a whole new front panel to insert into the dress. Thankfully, Fabric-store.com still sells the same exact color (Bluebonnet), so I was able to order a single yard so that I could make a new front panel. 

Once I'd closed the dress with the new front panel, I also cut a new top facing to replace the one I'd removed in the front.   Then I removed the embroidery from the flat straps and took them apart, and made two new loop straps out of them, as well as front loops.  After that all I had left to do construction-wise was to hem the whole dress, since I'd removed the skirt guarding from the bottom, leaving a raw edge.  

To finish the dress, instead of all that incorrect embroidery I opted for a trick we know the Vikings used on their apron dresses:  I stitched a length of blue ribbon around the top of the dress.  In period this would be a strip of silk fabric or ribbon, or a tablet-woven band. 

In my case, it's a rayon faux-silk seam binding ribbon, and it looks perfect at the top of the dress.  It's almost exactly the color of the fabric, just a bit darker.  It is awfully plain, especially since it's supposed to be simulating "fine imported silk";  I may replace it with something a little fancier at some point in the future if I come across anything that will work. For now, I like it just fine.  

So there's a piece of fantasy made over into something with a little more fact woven in.  The best part is that now I have a "new" dress I can wear, for only about $11 (the cost of a new front panel).  I needed an extra outfit to wear to BAM in a few weeks, and this goes a long way to fixing that hole in my wardrobe.  

What's Next? 

Now that this dress is fixed, the question is, do I launch into a quest to re-do all of my apron dresses to make them more correct, or do I leave the rest alone?  I hate to take out all the work on the orange and brown dresses just yet - I did a really great job on both of them and I love the way they look.  My black dress, however, is covered with some very amateurish needle work and is glaringly incorrect, so I think I will make that one over next. 

Awesome Viking Bling

Valkyrfelt was AMAZING. Bjornsborg really knows how to throw an event. There were so many neat things to do and to learn, there was music everywhere and games to play,  the food was fantastic, and I had SO much FUN.  I went to a workshop where I made a pair of matched Viking arm bands in a period design copied from a piece found in the Cuerdale Hoard:

I got to use hammers and an anvil! 

So there's some awesome Viking bling to add to my wardrobe (And the British Museum has a free online PDF book on the Cuerdale Hoard, check it out).

I got even more bling, too - this awesome brass brooch was my site token! I was surprised to see such nice tokens for an event.  I think these came from a site called Wish, but I'm not sure. I think some people had trouble with the pins falling off, but mine is pretty solidly made.  I plan to use it to close my coat.

So, What's Next?  

BAM is coming up in November - Bordermarch Autumn Melees, now called War of the Rams. It's a five-day war event out in east Texas, and I haven't been in something like four years.  I've missed camping so much; I really didn't want to come back this weekend, and I already can't wait to go to BAM.   

So in the run-up to the event, I've got several things to do:

• I'm making over an old blue apron dress that needed a little help, just waiting on some extra fabric to come in the mail
• Making a new under dress from scratch
• Adding faux fur cuffs and trim to my Viking coat (because the sleeves aren't long enough), and
• Making over my black apron dress as well

So I've got a full plate for the next month/three weeks!  I hope I can get it all done in time.  I'm still working on those couch cushions for a friend of mine, too, so I've got a LOT of sewing to do.  

See you again soon!  

gratuitous cat bawls

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.