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.  

Viking Bead Jewelry

This is my Viking jewelry as it was in February at Candlemas:

There's so much wrong with this picture;  but we won't go into that right now.  See the red beaded string with the modern silver raven pendant on it?  I ADORE that pendant, and I don't care how modern it is, it will always be a part of my Viking wardrobe.  I love ravens, and I have little blue Viking ravens embroidered on three pieces of clothing, and a big knotwork raven tattoo'd on my back.  My ravens stay with me.

Those red beads, on the other hand, are too smooth and uniform to pass with Viking jewelry.   The other night I made a small string of random beads - wood, glass, carnelian, and quartz; just whatever I had on hand - and hung my raven pendant from it.  It goes with my boob necklace better, and goes with the color schemes I usually wear when I wear Viking:

Incidentally, you should check out this blog.  It's a research blog, to complement the research the author is doing into Viking beads and ancient settlements.  It's fantastic,  scholarly and clearly-written, and the pictures are really large and clear. I learned so much about Viking beads reading through the whole thing.  My one regret, after reading it, is that I don't have any cobalt blue beads or any fancy glass ones.  That can be fixed!

Anyway, this was just a little last-minute project I did because I'm impatient for this weekend.  See you on the flip side!

S'mo Italian Stuff

Just in time for the 14-15thC Italian-themed Queen's Champion event this weekend:

1.  Green damask giornea top layer for the brown linen gamurra I fixed up last month:

$7 thrift store holiday tablecloth FTW

2.  Blue silk cioppa (over-layer dress, sometimes worn over a gamurra, which is closed in the front, sometimes worn alone) with pieced sleeves:

Event pics, with sleeves, next week!

4.  A new necklace for no reason at all, with graduated, faceted carnelian beads given to me by a client, alternated with 4mm amber-colored glass seed beads:

5.  A blue linen sleeveless underdress, made for a friend to wear while working in the event kitchen and/or bumming around camp:

This was based (loosely) on the following excerpt.  I lowered the top yoke considerably, and left off the trim and shoulder ties.  This is meant to be sort of a sundress that she can wear for SCA work days - casual, plain, and cool in the Ansteorra heat.

from Triumph of Death, Lorenzo Costa
 (right panel)

Also finished since  my last post:  two Roman dresses, and two Viking apron dresses, for another client, as well as two pairs of Phrygian caps for two other people, all to be delivered this weekend at Queen's Champion.  Hopefully I'll have pics of everything for you next week!

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Gold Swiss/German Linen Kirtle

Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas event is a sight to behold.  It's just about my favorite event of the year.  It's primarily an indoor event, chock full of classes, A&S, music, and dancing.  The hall always looks amazing, the feast is lit by candlelight only, and heralds announce each course as a coordinated fleet of servers delivers food to the people who aren't up participating in the ball taking place at the front of the hall before the high tables...to live music.  *happy sigh*

It's also usually a themed event.  This year the theme is Landsknecht, on the road to war (Gulf Wars, in March).  Landsknecht dress, or at least German-styled clothing in general, is encouraged (but not mandatory).  Though I've sworn for five years that I'll never "go German," here is my first one, to wear during the day at the event.

It's based on the following two works by Diebold Schilling the Elder (Swiss, 1445-1485), and a couple of recreations I've seen online that I really love:

unknown, Schilling

Barbara Erlach and daughters,
Schilling

In Nova Corpora

Sew Mill

Notes

The pattern is based on my usual cotehardie pattern.  It's rectangular construction with inset gores, and only the neckline and sleeves have been altered. (The sleeves are short because I'll be wearing a pair of over-sleeves with the dress for part of the day and working with my hands for most of the rest of it; they're cut as modern sleeves with the seam under the arm instead of behind it, which I did for speed as much as for the slightly baggier look they give to the shoulders).   I would really have liked a fuller, longer skirt; but I only had so much fabric to work with. 

The bodice of the dress is flat-lined in white linen; though it is also turned at the neckline/front opening.  The sleeves and skirt are unlined.  I wanted as few layers as possible for this outfit, since a hall full of people dancing, gaming, and milling about gets pretty hot;  I'll be working most of the day, attending dance classes, and wearing braies and a smock underneath this dress as well.  I'd rather not die of heat stroke before lunch.

A close-up of the front lacing after completion, during a test fit.

The lace is a silk twill tape from a stash of vintage notions I received from a friend several months ago.

There are no hooks or loops or holes for the lacing; rather, a thin, double-fold cotton bias tape is attached inside the edge of the front opening. The bias tape was attached with  line of decorative chevron stitches (machined) that run down the entire front opening edge, with gaps in the stitching to form loops in the bias tape through which the twill tape is threaded.

I was originally going to close the vertical slit with buttons or a hook; but I didn't have anything in my stash that wouldn't interfere with the belt I was going to wear with the dress.

(Sorry, the stitching looks horrible from the inside.  On the outside it's nice and even, and practically invisible on the gold linen).

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With my newest Caerleon sleeves...which I made like a year ago and never posted to the blog. But I kinda love them.  :)








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A Bliaut In Three Parts

1. Russet-red silk twill from the fabric district in Dallas, TX
2. Black linen
3. Calontir trim

Technically, I guess the fourth part would be drafting the pattern. The fifth might be that this lovely lady is lending me her serger machine for my work, and it is EPIC.  

The dress is side-laced, with the lacing going up into the underside of the upper arm for ease of getting on/off, and for movement.  The idea came from the lacing I saw on this Flickr page, via Pinterest. 

The black guarding along the bottom of the dress, below the trim, is...seriously...because I f'd up cutting out one of the panels and it was WAY shorter than the others. I had to cut them all off to match, and then used the black linen to lengthen the dress again, LOL.  :)

You saw the preview yesterday, which is a better shot of the trim, which can be found online here at Calontir Trim. 

An aside: 

The first pic is from the Village of Castleton, Bryn Gwlad, Ansteorra, for our annual baronial event (last weekend).  Castleton is AMAZING.  It's a medieval village built by several of our members many years ago, whose buildings include a number of small dwellings, a castle, a wooden ship, and a smaller replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, called The Curtain Theatre.  I've attended many a court in that theatre, and performed there, and it's heavenly.  I adore this site. 

The Curtain Theatre

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And Away We Go!

Welcome to my new blog!  My "regular" project blog was already overloaded with house-y things and gardening, and my poor little SCA posts were getting lost...and not all that popular with readers who were there for plants and furniture, either.  

But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. Er...I mean, HEY LOOK, it's a blog devoted entirely to costuming!  Okay, actually, lots more than just costuming.  I also make jewelry, paint, build furniture (and hopefully a period pavilion of my very own, soon), and do lots of other things.  That's what this little corner of the internet is for.



So, who am I? I'm Madylyne Taylor of Bryn Gwlad, an early 15th-century Englishwoman in The Stellar Kingdom of Ansteorra. (m.k.a. Austin, Texas).   I joined the SCA in January of 2011 (so, yes, starting a blog might be getting ahead of myself a little bit...but who doesn't?).  I'm a singer in the local choral guild (for which I also run a blog), a member of the local early music guild, a sometime-archer, and, like, many other folks around here, I freaking love sewing!  I've been doing it since I was nine years old, and a good half of my total sewing experience has been with costumes, historical and otherwise. 

that's me!

So, this ought to be fun.  I hope you enjoy it!


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