SCA: Small Side Quests

While I waited for fabric to come in the mail the last couple of weeks, I made a few small things:  

1.  Wool Skjoldehamn hood

I had quite a bit of that green wool left over from my tunic dress. The problem is, the color isn’t one I can wear - that bright, yellow-y, acid-green makes me look like I’m suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, lol.  So I decided to try to overdye the fabric to a shade of green I can actually wear. 

This came out really well. It’s more of a Kermit-the-Frog green now, which is much nicer to my skin tone.  The fabric didn’t shrink or felt in the wash at all, either, thank goodness. 

And so here’s a Viking hood.  I hand-sewed the entire thing, because I really enjoy hand-sewing, and I like the look of it on this fabric in particular. I won’t put any woven trim on this hood, though I may make some whipcord ties for the hood part, like the original piece has. 

2. Matching (ish) Hedeby bag

I dyed another piece of the leftover fabric to make a new Hedeby bag out of.  For both pieces of wool, I used Rit dye’s “Pearl Gray” and “Teal” - for this bag, there’s a bit more of each, and a lot more teal than gray. It’s a little darker and a little cooler-toned than the hood. 

As always, I made the handles on my scroll saw out of red oak scraps that I have a million of. Instead of a tablet woven strap, this time I crocheted a quick cord. I may replace it with a woven strap eventually, but for now yarn will have to do. 

3. Hedeby "Coin Purse" 

In the process of making the bag above, I ended up making my first bag way too small for the handles I had already created, which were sized to fit the size bag I normally make (about 9" x 11").  I ended up cutting out a second bag which became the one pictured above; but in the meantime I decided to do something silly with the smaller bag.  I cut it down even smaller and sewed it up, then made a pair of wee handles for it, and made this tiny Hedeby bag just for fun: 

The finished mini-bag is about 4” across, including the handles.  It's not terribly useful for most things, it doesn’t even have a strap, it's mostly just for fun. I'm just hoping it will just make people laugh when they see it.  

4.  Ottoman pillbox hat

Because I was extremely bored the other night and got sucked into a 16th century Ottoman/Turkish rabbit hole online, I ended up making this little hat: 

I do absolutely plan to make an outfit to go with it someday if we ever have an Ottoman-themed event again.  For right now, I have this little hat as a jumping-off point. The fabric is from a small piece of blue and gold brocade I received in a prize basket in February; it’s lined with blue linen; and the trim around the bottom is a bit of scrap silk from a sari. 

Random stuff!  More soon. 

Regency: Marianne Dashwood’s Enormous Hat

 I love Sense & Sensibility - the book, as well as both the 1995 and 2008 adaptations.  Last post, I showed you the new dress I made which was sort of inspired by a color worn by Elinor (Hattie Morahan) in the 2008 miniseries. 

This time I have made a GIGANTIC HAT like the one Marianne (Kate Winslet) wears in the 1995 movie. I love Regency hats, although most of them look pretty silly on me (some of them are just silly in general, let’s admit it), but I just HAD to have Marianne’s big hat, silly or not. 

I ordered a big floppy sun hat from Amazon to start with. Reader, it arrived crumpled up in a little tiny bag and it was so wrinkled and crushed! I steamed it flat again and reshaped it on a foam head to get it back into shape; then used my steamer to bend the brim in the front and back, securing the edges with a bit of thread to hold the brim in place while it dried. 

Since most of my Regency wardrobe is done in blues and greens, I changed the color scheme a bit from the inspiration pic: I used a powder blue fringe-edged ribbon for the band and ties, and natural brown ostrich feathers for decoration. 

The feathers are stitched and glued in place; I steamed them a bit to help curl them so that they would flop over the brim like Marianne’s feathers do. The steam ended up not doing much, so I ran the spines (I don’t know the correct terminology) through my fingernails tightly, like you do with curling package ribbon and scissors, and then made them nice and curly. 

Now, I don’t know if Marianne’s hat also has flowers on it, or just feathers, but I opted for both. The flower is just WAY too big, but this whole hat is just ridiculous, and I love the way the deep purple color looks with the blue ribbon and brown feathers. 

Tada! I LOVE this hat. It’s just so HUGE and fabulous!  Now I need to get myself a big hatbox to keep it in. Oh no, more shopping, lol. 

SCA: A 15th-Century Velvet Houppelande

At my very first Gulf Wars, someone lent me a giant flannel houppelande on a cold night, which I threw on over my cotehardie, and I have wanted one ever since.  So comfy!  So voluminous!  It's like wearing blankets!  This year I finally made one for myself, since War of the Rams (BAM) in November is likely to be pretty cold in the evenings.  

This houpelande is made of the same cotton velveteen Ikea curtain panels that I used for my Regency pelisse, back in June.  Last year I acquired a huge box of these curtain panels from my local neighborhood swap group for free, and I still had 4 of them left (about 10 yards of fabric) - they were perfect for this project.  

I didn't have enough of the velveteen to make a full circle houppelande, so I used a simple A-line cut for the body of the dress, (adapted from a vintage 80s dress pattern) with side gores for as much fullness as I could pack into this thing.  The sleeves are D-shaped, and come to a short cuff at the wrist.  

The houppelande is unlined - I didn't have any fabric to use as lining, and I figured this velveteen would likely be heavy enough to keep me warm when worn over my other clothes. After it was put together I dyed the entire piece with teal and charcoal Rit dye, which gave the aqua-blue fabric a lovely medium blue-ish-gray color: 

After dyeing the whole thing, I added a collar and cuffs of white faux fur from my stash: 

 

The belt is one I made for a Burgundian gown that I made several years ago and never got around to wearing (oops). I had to move the hooks out several inches from where they were to get it to fit, but thankfully, the belt was long enough that I had plenty of space to work with.  The hooks themselves are gold-colored plastic highlighted with green nail polish to mimic an enamel look; I forget where I bought them originally, I've had them for aeons. 

The padded roll hat in the first picture is one I made many years ago.  It's nothing fancy, just a stuffed roll of damask upholstery fabric with pearl beads sewn on, worn with a netted/beaded snood and a couple of lightweight veils pinned onto it.  

So there's a big, new, warm outfit for BAM that I can wear on cold nights.  I also have my linen coat to wear over my Viking outfits, which won't be terribly warm on its own, but which I can wear with layers of hoods and caps, and my wool shoulder cloak.  

Edit:  It turns out the weather at BAM wasn't cold at all - mid-70s during the day, and only into the 60s at night, so I didn't get a chance to wear this at the event at all.  Maybe next year.  

SCA: Hedeby "Pillbox" Hat (Leens Hat)

 Here's a quick little project that I whipped up yesterday, because I was finished with all my other projects and needed something to do.  Also, I was lacking any type of headgear for my Viking outfits.  

Previously, I had made several Jorvik and Dublin hoods for myself, which I originally wore with my women's Viking outfits, until I learned that they were very likely men's hats; and which I discontinued wearing when I realized that they were styles from the British Isles, and didn't fit with my Swedish/ Danish persona (I haven't narrowed it down farther than that; I base most of my clothing on finds from Birka and Hedeby).

However, that left me with only my Skjoldehamn hood to cover my head, and while it's not always cold enough to warrant that kind of coverage, sometimes I just want to wear a hat with my guy's Viking outfit. 

And so, I decided I'd make myself a Hedeby "pillbox" hat.  I first saw this hat on The Welsh Viking's YouTube channel (link to Leens hat video), and I based my construction and stitching methods on this video of his.  

The most complete hat of this style comes from a find in Leens in the Netherlands very close to the German border (which area was Denmark during the Viking age);  other similar fragments which could be this same style of hat have also been found at Hedeby.   The design itself is practically timeless - this type of hat has been worn since ancient Roman times, was very popular during the Renaissance, and persisted in various forms up through the 20th century (think fancy hotel bellhops).  

Leens hat, from Journal of Archeology in the Low Country

Both hats date from the 10th century, and are made of wool.  The Leens hat contains some decorative stitching around the top edge and down the center of the top of the hat, in a type of braided/herringbone stitch. 

My hat is made of scraps of heavy brown linen left over from the Skjoldehamn hood project - I didn't have any wool on hand. The "side wall" pieces are about 4.5" high by 27" around (my head measurement), and the top is a rough oval shape, which I traced from my metal AOA circlet.  So the hat would be thick enough to keep its shape, I double the thickness of the linen on the sides and top.  I sewed the hat by hand, using a plain running stitch on the seams, and then turned the selvages in and whipstitched them closed, creating something like a French seam to keep them from fraying.  The hem is simply turned and whipstitched in place. 

construction stitches

top piece based on my circlet; "band" pinned and ready to sew

For the decorative stitching around the top of the hat and along the back seam, I used a #10 cotton crochet thread floss in a medium gray (because that's what I had on hand).  I followed Jimmy's instruction from his video (above), and it looks like this: 

diagram of how the stitch works

stitch in progress

If I end up liking to wear this hat and wear it a lot, I may one day replace it with a wool hat with wool thread on the decorative stitching; but for now this linen version is a good start.  I'm actually pretty happy with the way this hat fits and looks.  The band is a bit loose, so the hat slides around a tiny bit; but thankfully it doesn't make my already tall head look even taller.  I'm not sure whether I'll wear the seam stitching at the back or the front; I've seen it done both ways online.  

finished hat

SCA: The Blue Bycocket

 So, I was at coronation yesterday, and a friend of mine busts out this huge box full of felt bycockets she’d made, and gives one to another friend who was sitting nearby.  And I said, “That’s f——-g cool! I want one!” AND Y’ALL, SHE UP AND GAVE ME A HAT.  It’s been years since I rocked The One True Century*, but I’ve always wanted a bycocket to play with - and now I had one. 

using sewing pins to mark the position of the future embroidery

It didn’t take me long to figure out how I wanted to dress it up.  It needed feathers, and I just happened to have a stash that included some teal McCaw, Blue Jay, and some lovely brown feathers that I’d picked up over the years. I bound them together with some teal ribbon and sewed the package together. 

feathers before securing them to the hat

Now for the body of the hat. It’s midnight blue, and what could be more perfect and more me than a nighttime full of stars?  I covered the crown of the hat in gold and silver embroidered stars, and teensy pearl beads: 

Next I used some of the leftover teal silk ribbon from other projects to cover the edge of the brim, and added a strip of some old blue and gold medallion jacquard trim that I had in my stash. I also found a fabulous giant button to use to set off the feather cluster. 

Tada!! A finished starry night bycocket.  I’m in love with it  and I can’t wait to get into what’s next - this hat has engendered a whole slew of new ideas as far as what to wear with it! 

* my friend JM calls it that, and I love the phrase.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Viking and I always will, but 14thC rocks.  

Regency: A Green Linen Capote Hat

Before the SCA took over my life at the beginning of October, I was working on a new hat for my Regency costumes.  It started out silly, which I'll tell you about, but first, here's the finished hat: 

First, in July, I bought a blank hat form from Etsy (Austentation) and trimmed it up in blue fabric/ribbon and LOTS of hot glue.  First mistake.  I hated it - it was overly frilly and girly, and I felt like a blue version of Strawberry Shortcake when I put it on.  NOPE.  I took it apart and removed all the hot glue from the straw with my iron and a scrap of fabric.  

just...no.  

What I wanted was something more subtle and graceful - like this ruched capote worn by Jennifer Ehle in the BBC Pride & Prejudice miniseries from 1995: 

The crown of the straw hat was too tall for that ruched soft fabric crown, so I cut part of it off and wrapped the edge in a bit of cotton bias tape to keep it from unravelling: 

(please excuse the hot glue, I removed it)

Next I created a mock-up of the fabric cover for the brim, and an 18" circle crown piece with some spare cotton sheeting I had on hand.  Once I got the fit right across the brim, I took apart the mock-up and used it as a pattern to cut out the pieces in a dark green linen (which I dyed; the linen used to be a light blue).  The linen was a bit limp for this application, and a good deal heavier than the blue fabric had been, and it sagged in places in an unattractive way, I ended up using the gray cotton mock-up pieces as a lining, to give the linen some stiffness: 

This time I sewed the pieces onto the hat with plain cotton sewing thread, rather than gluing them in place - it made the pieces lay flatter and more smoothly, and I should have done it in the first place, really, but I was too excited and in a rush with the blue. Oops.  I used a pad stitch to baste the brim cover in place around the base of the crown; and whip-stitched the turned edge of the crown piece to the brim cover, then pressed the crown piece outward over the stitching.

At first, I didn't like how it came out.  The fit around the edge of the brim was too loose, didn't look clean and smooth at all.  Also, the crown was too small, and wasn't fluffy enough.  I ended up taking the hat completely apart, re-stitching the brim edge so that it fit better, and cutting a new 22" circle for the crown so it would be large enough.  After altering the fabric pieces, I tacked on a green poly satin ribbon to the sides for ties:

I'm really happy with it now; it looks great, fits perfectly, and is a lot more understated than the frilly blue thing I first made.  The only thing is that now the crown is TOO big, and because of the limpness of the linen, it hangs in weird ways around the back of my head.  The hat still needs a lining to protect my hair;  I think when I do that, I'll stuff the crown of the hat with a bit of tulle or something to keep it poofed up a bit more so that it'll stay in place and not sag.  

I plan to wear this hat with my white Ikea dress and the green velour spencer jacket I made in 2021, if I ever get another chance to wear either:

So what's next?  I got some fabulous, FREE fabric the other day, and I'm working on a new Spencer jacket.  More soon!  

  

SCA: Three Jorvik Hoods

 In May, I cut off over two feet of hair and started growing out my gray. I’d dyed it for years, and it was looking pretty dry and worn. It’s healthy now, and a great shade of silver - but it’s too short for all the cool braids and updos I used to do to go with my costumes. 

So this week I made a trio of Jorvik* hoods to cover my short hair at events where I’m dressed as a Viking. I used scraps of old linen from past Viking projects, so the hoods will coordinate with whatever I’m wearing (my entire Viking wardrobe is in shades of blue so that I can mix and match and it will all coordinate).  

*The Jorvik hood is rounded at the top back and comes down past the chin; the Dublin hood is pointed and shorter. I had that backwards at first, until I looked it up this week.  

All are machine sewn with a French seam up the back/top. The hoods we’ve found in gravesites use the selvage edge as the front opening of the hood, but I didn’t have scrap pieces big enough to do that, so they’re hemmed by hand. The ties are fabric, instead of woven or braided cord. These took me about an hour each.  

Viking hair:  handled.