SCA: Events: Bjornsborg Fall Faire

I haven't had a lot of luck with events this fall at all.  First of all, it was still in the 90s here until like a week ago, so I really didn't want to be outside all that much.  One of the events I was going to go to in September was canceled at the last minute; another one at the beginning of October I managed to go to, but I couldn't camp, and it was so hot and so much walking around a very BIG and extremely dusty event site, and between the heat and my allergies I didn't stay long.  

Last weekend, however, was the Barony of Bjornsborg's Fall Faire, which I wouldn't have missed for the world.  The weather has finally cooled off, and Bjornsborg really knows how to put on an awesome event.  There were classes, competitions (no A&S, sadly), games, a couple of great bardic circles, a tavern with food and drink for lunch, and a feast on Saturday evening.  Court that night was long, but hilarious; and it rained like crazy and even hailed a bit during the first half of court, which made it kind of hard to hear what was going on at the front, but it was still a great court. 

                                 Me and Hersir Ivar 🫶

I also got to try out my new campsite this event, which was kind of exciting for me.  I got a new tent which is bigger than my old one, and sets up "instantly" (seriously, it takes me like 5 minutes to put it up all by myself, and I LOVE that!) I also got a new air bed which is wider than the twin sized one I was using before (that I kept falling out of!), and a new rocking camp chair which is SUPER comfortable.  

                        Big tent! 

This tent is big enough that I can bring my rolling garment rack for War of the Rams next month, too.  It's a five-day event, and it's going to be COLD and there are tons of parties and other activities which may or may not require costume changes - and it's SO nice at WotR to be able to just hang up all my clothes instead of rooting through a plastic tote bin for them like I do at short events, especially for when I need to duck into my tent quickly in the evenings to grab a coat or other outerwear.  

 

For my next trick, I'm going to be making a Norse klappenrock, (a short coat with a wrap-over front) for Master Ivar, complete with tablet-woven trim.  He brought the fabric to me at the event, and we sat down and took some measurements and talked about styles and colors; and I'm going to be working on this between now and WotR.  I'll show you when I'm done.  

SCA: Heraldic Table Runner For the New Sprezzatura Table

 Once the table for Sprezzatura's camp was complete I wanted a nice bit of something to go over the top of it.  I briefly considered painting the household's heraldry onto the top of the table, but the table will be covered with food and drink and all sorts of other stuff at events, so I decided to do make a fabric table runner - it will be easier to see, make the table look nicer, and be washable in case of spills.  

The fabric is cotton broadcloth, with cotton/poly bias tape edging. The appliqué is quilting cotton, backed with fusible interfacing, and the whole thing is backed with more blue broadcloth so that the back of the appliqué is hidden and protected. 

I haven't done appliqué in about 8 years, and I've never done it on my current sewing machine.  The machine did NOT want to cooperate. It's not perfect - I've done better in the past - but for not having done it in so long and having to practically alligator-wrestle this sewing machine into doing what I wanted, I think it came out pretty well.  I'm satisfied with it.