SCA: A Klappenrock for Ivar Hersir

My good friend Ivar was given a piece of gorgeous wool several years ago that he’d always wanted to have made into a coat, so I volunteered my services. He and I sat down at the last event and took some measurements and discussed styles, and he basically gave me free rein to “do what I do,” hehe. 

It’s lovely fabric, a medium-weight wool of about 4y.  It looks dark gray from a distance, but up close it’s made up of black, light gray, and dark blue threads in a herringbone twill striped pattern, with a thin stripe of brown every few inches. 

I made it into a klappenrock - the tunic-length coat with an angled front that wraps over in the front, for male Vikings. I don't know a whole lot about the archeology behind this style; it’s described by Inga Hagg from her studies on the finds at Hedeby (10-11th century).  I've seen the klappenrock in the SCA, although not often, and usually made out of linen. 

The pattern I drew up was pretty simple - it basically looks like the drawing above. Nothing fancy, no gores or gussets, just angled front and back pieces. I didn't have an Ivar available for fittings, as he lives two hours away from me, but I had him bring me the fabric as well as a tunic of his that he liked and which fit him well, and used that as a jumping-off point for sizing and shaping the coat.  I did take measurements of him as well, when he delivered the fabric to me at the Bjornsborg fall event a couple of weeks ago.  

Sewing this coat was also very simple.  I did the seams on the machine to save myself some time, and then hand-finished all the seam allowances for a period look.  I couched a length of brown wool yarn along the seam allowances edges with a herringbone stitch to help protect them from fraying: 

I used a herringbone stitch in black thread for all the seam allowances and for all the hemming on the open edges. 

Very often you see these coats with a contrast guarding around the edges, and I didn't do that (I had no extra fabric with which to make one), but I did finish the front edges and sleeve cuffs with a band of tablet-woven trim which I made.  

The pattern for the woven trim is  Ladoga 2b, which is a Rus design from Staraya Ladoga barrow in Russia; in blue and white with a red and black border.  I made about 3.3 yards to go around the neckline and front opening, and another yard or so for the sleeve cuffs. 

And that's it.  This was a great "quick" project (the coat itself took about five hours to make, and the woven trim took me about a week or so weaving in my spare time).   His excellency absolutely loves it.  Success! 

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It's going to be a while before I post again.  We just finished up Bordermarch's event War of the Rams, and so events are over until February, for me - but I have a LOT to do over the winter, both for the SCA and with projects around the house. 

I'm working on a new outfit for A&S in the spring, a new hood, and a LOT of tablet weaving - including building two new looms.  I'll try to post about the stuff I'm making as I go along.  

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: 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!  

Regency: Teal Velveteen Pelisse

Behold:  a finished velveteen pelisse for winter wear!  

Last fall I acquired a huge stack of velveteen Ikea curtain panels from my local neighborhood swap group.  I knew right away I wanted to make a pelisse out of it. The fabric is heavy and warm, but not TOO heavy - perfect for our relatively mild central Texas winter weather. 

It would be a nifty addition to my Regency wardrobe, I thought, but more than that, I was in dire need of a long winter coat that was affordable - so I knew I wanted to make one, but I could never find the right fabric and pattern for it.  Yes, I absolutely plan to wear this in "real life" as my regular winter coat! 

left: fashion plate from Ackerman's;
right: design inspiration from Laughing Moon

This fashion plate, and this gown, were my first inspirations.  I loved the ruffles around the neckline and the big tie in the front of both, so I decided to use my Laughing Moon Spencer pattern (#129) for the bodice and sleeves, since it already has the shaping and design on the bodice that I wanted. 

I used the skirts from my Reconstructing History round gown pattern as a guide for the width and length of the skirt panels. 

dyeing the velveteen

The first problem was the color of the velveteen curtain panels:  they were bright aqua, which - no. Too bright and cheerful for me.  

Fortunately, they're 100% cotton, so they dyed pretty easily with Rit dye.  I used a 2:2:1 mixture of dark green, teal, and charcoal gray,  and came up with this lovely deep muted spruce green color.  (Okay, it's TEAL. Rit dye's formula charts call this "Blue Spruce Green," but it's totally teal).  

 

inside ties and hand-finishing

The pelisse is lined in a sage green cotton fabric that started life as a duvet cover I had sitting around not being used. Here you can see the ties I placed inside the bodice to help hold the thing together - I didn't want to rely on the belt/sash to do the job on its own.  The ties will help keep everything aligned properly when I wear it. 

The problem with dyeing the fabric was that I originally did it in two separate batches.  I measured carefully, and used the exact same dye on both batches...and yet, they still came out slightly different colors - one batch was a bit greener, and one batch was a bit bluer. 

So, after I finished the pelisse, I overdyed it again to bring the colors back in together.  The lining dyed, as well, and now it matches the velveteen fabric. 

bodice back

Since I do plan to wear this coat mundanely (i.e. not as a costume, but as regular daily wear), I made a few modifications to the pattern to help it be more wearable - the inside ties are one. 

I also lowered the hem of the bustline by 3" to accommodate a "normal" modern bustline.  It still fits fine when I'm corseted, but since I mostly won't be wearing this with a corset, I wanted it to conform to my "regular" bust shape when I'm wearing it to the office, for example.    

I added hidden side-seam pockets to the skirts as well.  Bitches need pockets! I generally don't carry a purse - just my phone which is in a wallet case, and my keys, and I needed somewhere to stash them. 

I also added belt loops to the side seams of the waistline, to help keep the belt/sash in place. 

before hemming the bottom

Altogether, this pelisse took me about 12 1/2 hours (over the course of 7 days) to construct and finish.  Most of it is sewn on the machine, although I did do all the finishing - anything that's visible from the outside - by hand.  Because it's so long, and there's so much fabric, it's surprisingly heavier than I thought it would be, and it IS very warm.  It'll make an excellent top layer and windbreak in winter weather this year. 

Thankfully, our winters are generally pretty mild, usually averaging about 40-50º most of the time, and only getting down into the 20s-30s for a couple of weeks in January or February; so this pelisse didn't have to be very heavy - it's mostly just a windbreak and an extra layer. With a sweater underneath and a scarf at the neck, it'll be just fine for the weather here.  

Things I would change if I had to do this again: 

(1) the sleeves are a teensy bit too long. They're lovely, but I worry about them being in the way while driving.  

(2) the back of the bodice and the shoulders are very fitted, and I worry that they won't accommodate more than a very thin shirt underneath - I won't be able to wear sweaters with this thing.  (Good impetus to lose a bit of weight before this winter!) 

(3) The belt loops are laughably too big. I should have made them half the size I did; but it's okay, I doubt anyone will notice or care. 

A New Coat

I like my existing Viking coat just fine.  I last worked on it in November, and I was really happy with the result.  It's super heavy - heavy cotton lined with linen, with faux fur trim all around the edges - and very warm.  At BAM in November it got into the low 30s, and this coat was fantastic then.  (30º is Basically Arctic for us Ansteorrans).

However, I wanted something a little bit lighter, for cooler but not freezing nights.  Something without all the fur, something with a bit more swish to it.  I'll be honest with you, the idea started when I saw a coat on Pinterest that I absolutely loved, and resolved to make a copy of for myself.

So of course I made a new coat which is nothing at all like the Pinterest coat, because I couldn't find fabric in the right color.  I did, however, find a lovely shade of green linen at Fabric-Store.com called "Agave" that derailed everything I'd been planning, because I fell head over heels in love with it, and I ended up designing a completely different coat than the one I'd had planned.  You know how that goes.

The new coat is a basic T-tunic shape, with a dropped shoulder seam and angled front and back pieces (no gores).  It's fully lined, and the lining contains two inside pockets, because bitchez need pockets.    The body color is "Agave", and the edge banding and lining are "Graphite", also from FS. I made the blue trim between the body of the coat and the edge out of the remnants of my new blue dress.

I love my new coat!  I can't wait to wear it! Of course, in our weather, I may not get to wear it until late December.  We'll see.  It all depends on when the SCA decides to have events again, really. That might not be until November, from what I'm hearing.

But wait...

Did you notice something else in the pictures?  That's right - I got a new dress dummy!  I'm so excited about it.  My last one, Violet, finally died when I moved two years ago.  I've missed her ever since, and wanted a new one, so I finally treated myself to a replacement.   This one is kind an intense teal, and so in the pics above I have a white tshirt covering her so the color doesn't distract.   Everyone, say hello to Iris:

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.