A new 16th century kirtle

For various reasons (the most prominent being that they are among the coolest gals in the world) I want to have red wool 16th century kirtle just like helwig, liadethornegge and litensessa. In Visby I got red thick wool in the same shade as litensessa and I plan to have it ready by the time of Civil War a month from now. Because my hands have started to act up a lot when I hand sew I have decided to sew the long straight seams on machine and only fell them by hand. And of course the seams in the bodice won't be felled since the bodice will be lined with hand woven linen. All hemming, lacing holes etc will of course be made by hand, so the amount of hand sewing is still quite large, but I'm trying to spare my hands as much as possible.

The skirt will be patterned from Alcega (and/or common sense if one wants to conserve fabric) and the bodice will be a modified version of my standard bodice pattern (for bodices worn without stays under). The modification is that I will make it with a curved front, like Melissa describes here. It is very comfortable and gives a nice shape that feels more middle class to me, something that goes nicely along with a thick wool kirtle in my mind. I have made a pair of stays like that before and they were the comfiest stays I ever had, but when I lost weight I gave them away so now I have to start with making a new pattern.

Flea market finds

Anna, Maja and I went to a flea market which takes place a few Saturdays every summer in the centre of town. I had never been there and generally when private persons sell their stuff the quality is often low and the prices high. Not so this time. It was not the place for vintage finds, though I did see some seamed fully fashioned nylons stockings which very cheap and some vintage hats which at least wasn't outrageously priced. For books, china, cooking utensils and various knick-knacks as well as used modern children's clothes in good shape it was a very good place. I ended up with two (modern) porcelain dolls for Maja, a carpet woven from plastic ribbon, which I only need ot put new edges on, a pink wool felt hat which I will decorate and reshape, some candlesticks, a thing you use for chopping onions, which I really have been looking for, one of those things you use for making shortbread cookies, decorating cakes with frosting or cream and which I just can't find an english word for, two leather containers with metal studs which I want to keep stuff in when camping, a small wooden box and two old large curtains from rayon in a lovely brocade pattern which I plan to use for costuming - pale gold is nice. Some of it can be seen in this photo:




The candlesticks:




Me and Anna and our loot. Maja took the photo:




I got loads of compliments for my hat.