SCA: Updated 9th Century Norse "Viking" Kit (female)

I know I've been posting a LOT of tablet weaving lately - the tunic and the coat and the bag - but I thought I'd show you my full [female] "Viking" kit all decked out with the jewelry and the other tablet weaving I've been doing.  This is my nicest, and my favorite, Viking outfit at the moment: 

The entire outfit is made from linen - the serk, smokkr, and the herringbone weave cloak/shawl.  Yes, wool would be more historically accurate for some of these pieces, but it's HOT here in central Ansteorra, and wool just isn't practical in this heat unless it's the middle of January.  

The dark blue smokkr was a lighter teal color, but I dyed it to a darker indigo shade to make it look nicer and more accurate (ish).  

Tablet weaving on this outfit consists of: 

• The blue and yellow band at the top of the smokkr underneath the blue silk trim fabric
• The ivory/white woven band at the neckline of the serk, which is meant to mimic the look of a woven-on edge, though it's actually just sewn in place
• The blue and white belt
• The thin strap that hangs the metal key from the right brooch (left in the picture)

Here's a better shot of the weaving and the jewelry on the front of the dress: 

The jewelry consists of

• a pair of bronze brooches purchased online
• a silver round brooch to close the serk neckline which I made from a metal button
• three strands of glass beads suspended from the bronze brooches, which I made myself (it turns out I'm awful at making beads, but I managed to get enough made to wear with my kit at least)
• a strand of tiny blue glass beads around the neck
• a strand of amber chips around the neck
• three silver raven pendants which hang from the lowest strand of beads between the brooches - two of them are period replicas, and the third is a modern knotwork design

The only thing missing from these photos is the hair and the shoes, and I'll post more about both of those things later.  

Regency: Teal Cotton Open Robe

After working my butt off on SCA projects since Thanksgiving, I needed a creative palate-cleanser project - and I was itching to do something new with Regency stuff (besides the apron, that was actually a functional thing I needed).  So my first “real” project of 2024 is this teal open robe, along with a new shawl and some new jewelry to go  with it: 

I had this teal cotton in my stash for years, and I'd originally intended to do a Really Awesome Regency Dress with it (like this one), but after chipping little bits off of it here and there over the years for small projects, it ended up only 3 yards long - not enough for something big and fancy.  But it was, I realized recently, exactly enough to make a short-sleeved open robe to wear over my white 1800s gown.  

My inspiration for the color palette for this outfit was this painting of Princess Amelia (youngest daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte) by Sir William Beechey (1797).   While I didn't want to recreate this exact outfit, I did want to do something with the same color scheme, with which I am in LOVE - the teal dress with the delicate little silver/white designs, the rust/burnt orange shawl and gold sash and armband. She also wears long strands of clear (I'm assuming rock crystal) beads - which you don't see in Regency art very often - and which sort of pick up on the look of the little silver/white dots on her dress. 

The teal dress in the inspiration picture has some sort of white/silver design on it - it’s probably sprigged - and I’m not sure what the design is actually supposed to be. Stars, dots, probably little flowers? I decorated my fabric with little trios of silver dots, which is a design I’ve used before for Medieval stuff; I really like the look of it, it’s delicate and subtle. I chalked out grid lines on the fabric every 6” and then dotted the intersections and centers of the grid with a silver paint pen: 

The robe is about half machine sewn and half hand sewn - I did the primary construction of the bodice and bodice lining on the machine; but the lining is inserted and the skirt attached by hand, and all the hemming and edging is down by hand as well. 

There's a wee bit of a train on the back, too, for the lovely drape it gives when one walks or the wind blows.  

ACCESSORIES

SHAWL

I made the shawl for this dress out of an old SCA costume. The fabric is a soft, lightweight silk twill, in a deep russet color. The SCA costume was a 12th century *cyclas*, which was just made of two rectangles and some triangular gores, so I removed the gores and the neckline and joined the two rectangles together (flat felled seam + rolled hem edge) to make this shawl. 

SASH

The sash in the inspiration painting looks to me like a dark dusty gold, possibly with some kind of print or embroidery on it, but I suppose it could be brown? Mine is a length of gold poly satin, purchased from Etsy as a “bridal sash” and tied around the waistline of the robe. The color is way too light - I wanted a darker gold, almost bronze - but it’ll do for now. I think eventually I’ll get some nice silk and make a new sash for this outfit. 

JEWELRY

I LOVE the rock crystal bead jewelry in the inspiration painting so much! I haven’t seen clear crystal jewelry much in Regency paintings - usually you see pearls or coral, or colored gemstones with fancier outfits.  My beads are glass (for budget reasons), 14mm round, and strung in two 16” strands. Yes, the bead strands should be waaaay longer than they are in order to look more like the inspiration pic, but I used what I had.  

*

Yay! This was a quick, simple project, and a much-needed break from SCA stuff for a minute.  It's easy to wear, and versatile. 

And I have no idea what's next!  I have LOTS of ideas for new Regency costumes, new Viking stuff and weaving projects, and even a dip into Victorian for the first time (maybe), but where to start?  I think I need a break…I’m also refinishing an old wooden table right now, but I’ll be back soon. 

 

SCA Viking: Herringbone Linen

 Several months ago, I purchased the most beautiful fabric from a friend who was cleaning out her stash: it’s 100% linen, light gray, in a herringbone weave. I’d always wanted a herringbone or twill weave in my viking wardrobe. 

I dyed the linen a deep intense blue, with Rit’s “Indigo” dye. It actually didn’t turn out all that well the first time, but I made the dress anyway and then dyed it again and this time it came out beautifully. 

I applied a handwoven tablet weave trim (from Etsy) to the top front of the dress, and used very thin loops for the straps. Here is the finished product on the mannequin: 

As a bonus, I used the remaining herringbone yardage to make the shawl: I picked out the weft threads on two ends of the piece to make a fringe, and knotted it.  Just a little lightweight something to wrap up in on breezy evenings. 

Now I have three whole dresses I can wear to events this fall. (All the dresses I made last year sadly are already too small; but I’m working on that).  The “agave” dress I made in January (I’ve changed the trim on the top), and a dark teal one (“apatite” from Fabric-store.com), and now this. Time to start working on accessories and camp things.  

Let There Be Wool!

This is a picture of me draped in a medium weight tabby wool.

I am allergic to wool.

OR AM I??

I’ve had a few people tell me over the years that I’m not allergic to wool, but rather to the chemicals used in the commercial processing of wool fabric.  To which my reaction has always been a polite “I’ll have to look into that, thanks for the tip” which really meant, “heck off, don’t gatekeep my allergies."

However, I came across a website a while back that went into the idea a bit more, and suggested a washing method that supposedly worked for the author. It sounded simple, so I wrote it down, thinking I’d try it one day if some random wool ever happened to me.  What's the worst that could happen, right?  It wouldn't work and I'd end up with an itchy rash for a day.

Finally, one day, some wool did happen to me.  The piece I’m wearing in the pic was given to me by a good friend, who had been about to donate it to the local craft resale shop because it had some moth holes in it.  I figured this would be a good piece to try out this washing method.

It’s very simple:

1. Soak the fabric in a sink full of cold water with vinegar (I used 3 cups) for thirty minutes 
2. Press the excess liquid out of the wool gently 
3. Wash in the washing machine (yes!) on delicate cycle in a mesh laundry bag
4. Hang dry 

That’s it.  And you know what?   IT WORKED.  I tested the fabric on my arms and hands before I tried this method, and of course, I reacted to it the way I normally do (rash, itching). After the wash I tested it again several times on my arms and hands, and then wore the fabric around like a scarf all evening with the fabric against my face, neck, and arms - I never had a single problem with the washed fabric, and still haven’t. 

It works!  I’m saved!  Now this is just one piece of fabric - it may or may not work on all wool pieces. But I’m encouraged, and I feel like a whole new world of costuming just opened up before me.  I can’t wait to try it again to see if I can repeat my results.  

Unfortunately, when I tried to dye the fabric, it came out like this.  Gorgeous shade of blue, but patchy and splotchy.  Here it is after re-dyeing with a darker color to cover up the mistake:

(dark photo is dark)

Before I dyed the shawl and hemmed it, I cut off about 14" from one edge, where all the moth holes were.  That was still a pretty large piece of fabric, and I decided to get a hood and a small bag out of it:

Here's the Dublin hood I made out of part of what was left.  It came out a Weird Green, I know - but the dye job is smooth and nice.  (It looks weird in the pic, I know - that's just the light from the window).  In this picture it still needs ties.  I'm on the fence about whether to weave some or just buy some twill tape.

Here's the second thing I got out of the remainder of the fabric:  Yet Another Hedeby Bag.  This actually replaces the green linen bag from this post, which was too flimsy and too small.  This bag is 1" around larger in every direction, and is much sturdier.  This time, I sewed in a box bottom.

Both the hood and the bag, and the edging on the shawl, are sewed entirely by hand, because I was bored and needed something to do. Quarantine makes people do weird stuff, you guys.

So, yay wool!  I'm so excited about this.  Like I said, I want to try again to see if this will work on different fabrics, but at the moment, I'm psyched about the fact that I got three articles of clothing out of one piece that I can wear and not worry about having a reaction to.  Three! I will, of course, update here when I test out this washing method again.