SCA: Men's Viking Outfit: Dyeing All the Things

The other day I posted a couple of pictures of me in a couple of my Viking outfits.   When I first saw the picture of me in my men's Viking outfit, I realized two things:  (a) that was the first time I'd ever actually SEEN my men's Viking outfit on me from an outside perspective, and (b) I didn't like it at all.  

Most of my (women's) Viking outfits are in varying shades of blue and green, and I like them all.  But each women's outfit is primarily one color:  the color of the apron dress, backed by a white or pale gray under dress, with coordinating accessories (hats, bags, etc) in complementary shades of blues and/or greens. Very simple.  

The man's outfit, however, was made up of several pieces in varying light blues and light greens that were worn all together,  and the different colors were NOT working well with each other.  Overall the whole outfit looked...kind of Smurfy.  And that's not good. 

 

before

The Problems

1.  Multiple shades of blue and green that don't all go together very well

2.  Main body of tunic is a really weird green that is probably not a "period color"  which was bothering me

3.  I never really cared for the big trapezoidal neck yoke and the sleeve cuff pieces.  I don't like the shape of the yoke at all.  

(Please ignore the violently turquoise socks - those are being replaced by new socks in natural colors).  

The Solutions

THE TUNIC 

I removed all the trim, visible top-stitching, and the blue yoke and cuff pieces. Then, I re-hemmed all the edges by hand, and dyed the whole thing.  After that, I applied some new trim pieces to the neckline, sleeve cuffs, and the lower hem of the tunic.  

The new color of the tunic (right)  is much better.  I used a royal blue and teal to achieve this shade of blue, which is one that would be achievable with natural dyes like woad, and therefore makes the tunic a bit more period-looking than it had been before.  

 The trim fabric is made from an old linen apron dress that didn't fit me anymore; I also couched a twisted cord in coordinating colors to the edge of the trim fabric.  I don't wear this rust/orange color as a primary color, because it looks awful on me in large amounts; but I really love the way the rust/blue set each other off.

PANTS, SOCKS, AND WININGAS

The linen pants, which started out a sort of "light navy" color (sort of darkish grayish blue, shown on the left of this picture), were dyed with a deep brown, which rendered them a sort of charcoal gray, which grounds the more intensely colored tunic nicely.  

I dyed the winingas with a bit of the same brown and some charcoal gray.  They started out a sort of baby-blue, and the warp threads in the wool remained blue, while the weft threads dyed a deep charcoal-brown, and I REALLY like the effect.  

The End Result

after

Here's what the finished outfit looks like: 

This is a much more balanced color scheme, with a single intensely-colored piece grounded by dark neutral tones. I feel like the colors here are much more natural and realistic-looking - these browns and grays and blue are colors which are achievable with natural dyes, and might have been worn in period.   I'm immensely happy with the way the dyeing turned out. (The tunic actually looks more blue than this in person, I could NOT get it to come out right on my camera).  

I'm also pretty stoked that I managed to do this entire project for only about $20 for just the fabric dye.  That's far less than half of what I would have spent on just the linen for a new tunic!  

    

     

Just for fun, here's a pic of with my blue wool cloak. 

Bonus: new hat! 

Whew, done!  For now. 

Mr. Madylyne

On the last day of an event, I like to dress as a dude. Packing up and breaking camp in a dress is a pain in the ass, and MAN, I hate stepping on my skirts while I'm trying to do work.  So.  Pants it is.  But not jeans - I still want to be in garb on the last day. 

Also, I really just dig men's Viking clothing.  I had a pretty decent tunic which was very festive but not period, some winingas that didn't stay up, and no pants at all (I was wearing baggy yoga pants).  The whole outfit had to be re-done from the ground up.

And so, from the top down,  this is the new tunic.  It's simple, beige and blue, with no trim, embroidery, or other ornamentation.  It's a plain, geometrically cut t-tunic, like the old one.  I have a pair of metal bracelets I can wear with this, a beaded necklace, and a small, round, silver brooch I can close the neckline with.  

I totally cheated on the pants.  I've tried the Thorsberg trouser pattern before, but I can't seem to make it work for me - the seat always rips out when I wear them.  The billowy Rus pants design calls for more fabric than I had to work with.  What I opted to do instead was to make a pair of "long sleeved braies":  basically, I used my Medieval underwear pattern, which I know fits well, and extended the legs to full length.  Here's sort of what the pattern looks like:

It worked really well.  I now have a pair of pants that is comfy, moves with me, and the waistband stays in place...And which I can't show you, because they look truly horrible and ridiculous on, without a shirt, and the shirt covers up all but the lower legs.  You can kind of see them in the next pic:  

Here's a pair of wool winingas that I ordered from Etsy, and the Vlaardingen shoes I ordered from Bohemond a few months ago.  I tried this with linen winingas that I made, but I just couldn't keep them up - they fell completely off every step I took.  The wool clings to the fabric of my pants much better, and hugs the curves of my legs, so they stay in place just fine.  (It's hard to get them on evenly, though - you can see how loose some of the wraps are. I'll get better).   I got the raven hooks from the same Etsy shop, and I lurrrve them.

So that's me as a guy!  I swear I didn't match the tunic trim to the pants on purpose, I was just working with the leftover fabric that I had.  Those winingas take forever to put on - I imagine I'll get better at it the more I use them.  I don't have any of the usual accoutrements that I see on guys - knives, drinking horns, little leather pouches, nice leather belt.  The belt I have right now is one I wove on my inkle loom out of thin, black yarn.  Eventually I'll come up with a nice kit;  for now I'm just rocking the clothes.  

And here, because I got a new kitten, is your Cat Tax for the day.  Everyone, meet Darcy: 

A To-Do List: On Project Management and Prioritization

In days past, project management was a big topic on this blog, mainly because I (like most of us) tend to take on too much work, work in a rush, and end up either not getting everything done or turning out half-assed work.  Right now, as I come back into the SCA after a long hiatus, I'm in a pretty great spot:  I have no projects right now, and it's up to me to pick and choose where I spend my efforts going forward.  A fresh start!

So I'm looking at the upcoming Bjornsborg Viking event, Valkyrfelt, and trying to decide where to spend my money, my time, and my sanity.  The event is on October 19th, which is exactly one month away from my start date of September 20th (payday).  Here's what my list of ideas looks like right now:

• a new apron dress
• a pair of men's pants for myself
• repairs to my broken Hedeby bag
• a refit of my old parasol which needs a new cover
• new Viking jewelry for myself
• a wooden box I'd like to make just for fun 

Let's look at the time frames on those:  

• apron dress - 3 hours, not including embroidery (approx. 6 hours)
• men's pants - 2 hours
• broken bag - possibly 12 hours
• parasol - 2 hours
• new jewelry - 3 hours
• wooden box - 6 hours

All told, that's 34 hours.  I'll round it up to 40, because you just never know.  That's great!  I have plenty of time to get everything done.  

However, I also have a set of couch cushion covers that I'm making for a friend, and I'm spending about 4 hours a week on those right now.  All in all, I still have "plenty" of time to get all of this done...but do I really want to spend an average of 14 hours a week working on all of this?  No. No, I do not.  I want to have time to do other things with my life, too.  So how do I prioritize this a bit better?  Let's look at what each project is worth to me:  

1. Apron dress:  I'm down by two apron dresses, and so this is definitely needed for this event. 
2. Hedeby bag:  this is my only Viking bag, and I'll need it to carry at the event - it's not unusable right now, but it's definitely a pain in the ass.  Plus, I'm very proud of it and I want to have it with me, and I want it to look its best.  This one stays.  
3. Wooden box:  this takes very little time, and I've already got the box and the supplies I'll need, so this project is free.  It stays on my list for Valkyrfelt, but it'll be the first to go if other things need more time. 

• Men's pants:  while I really want a pair of pants to go with my male Viking outfit (great to pack up camp in on the last day!), I don't really want to spend the money on this right now.  Tabled for future events. 
• The parasol isn't necessary for this event.  The site is fully shaded by trees, and the parasol isn't Viking at all - I'd rather use hats and sunscreen for a Viking event.  This one can go.  
• New jewelry would be fun, and beautiful (and I'm craaaaving amber right now), but do I really need it?  No, I do not.  I'll table this project until necessary items are done, if I still have time and money.  

There.  I've just cut my list in half!  From +/-40 hours to about 23 (round up to 26).  That's much more doable, and I'll have the time I need to do each of those three "needful" things nicely and correctly, instead of rushing through trying to get 6 projects done.  I'd like to try to time myself as I work to get a better idea of if my estimates are correct - if I remember to, I'll post about it here.  

As of right now, I've already completed the brown apron dress and am now working on the embroidery (seams, top edge);  and I've begun the wooden box.  Hopefully I'll have pics of finished projects for you soon.