Entries tagged with 12th century

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Drachenwald's crown Tourney

I was too busy to take many photos at Drachenwald's Autumn Crown in the Netherlands: the first in person event since March 2020, the first since I got better from my exhaustion, me entering the tourney with my dear frend Sir Måns, the long delayed elevations of the lovely Baroness Anna von Syveken and Baroness Magdalena Grace Vane to the Order of the Pelican and the Laurel respectively... well the list is long.

And their was such an elevated sense of joy throughout the whole event - when we finally got to see each other in person again.

So, here we go. For the tournament I chose not to mach Sir Måns 16th century waffenrock, that I just had made, but to go for as romantic as you can get: 12th century, in my green wool bliaut. I also wore my husband's wool cloak, lined in silk. I had braided my hair with red wool yarn, to make longer braids, and sewed brass points to them I made thos braid ends in 1998, but haven't actually used them at an event. They're very basic, just sheet brass with a simple pattern made by a needle and cut and folded to a cone. I really should make new and prettier ones.

The coronet is made by Johanna Lawrence

Sir Måns and I actually got to the finals, and I nearly fainted while we watched the fight then.

The finals was against Count Morales, and this photo is from when they met earlier in the tourney.

After the tourney I changed to my very comfy silk brocade gown, as did sir Måns. These were our investiture outfits when we became baron and baroness of Gotvik in 2016, and we thought it wise to be prepared with matching outfits, just in case ;)

At this event I also received a beatiful scroll for an award that I got in May, in an online court. It is for the Orden des Lindquistringes, a Dracehnwald award for service.

It was made by Lord Maredudd ap Gwylim, and is based on a late 12th-early 13th century manuscript.

In all a wonderful weekend, well worth the two whole days travelling there and two whole days travelling home.

Now I really need to start working ;)

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Hubby's getting his first shot today - and we're going away over the weekend

Tonight Rickard is gettign his first COvid-19 vaccine shot. The timing isn't ideal, since we have booke da cabin by lake Vänern, and he has to drive for a couple of hours on Friday, but you take the vaccine opportunities you get. And hopefully he doesn't get more side effects than I did.

The plan for the weekend, except just walking in nature, burning wood in the fireplace and drinking beer is to make a photo shoot with my green elf wire crown. I did a quick make-up trial a week or so ago, and took some photos with a selfie stick, crouching by a nearby shrubbery and perplexing the passersby.

But I will probably be wearing my green wool 12th century gown from last summer instead for the photos.

I have packed both that blouse, my 16th century Venetian covered with leaves and flowers taht I used for a fairy queen shoot last spring (photos here), and also a my wedding camicia and a new short sleeveless c. 1800 spencer, but I don't know how much time we want to spend on this particular part of our activities.

All depending on whether Rickard gets serious side effects or not, of course. I hope he gets Moderna like me, because it seems the side effects from Pfizer is worse, but you don't get to choose, it depends on what is delivered to the vaccine station.

In the sewing world I made a toile from my saya encordata yesterday and if I have the energy I will cut it out tonight and start the hand sewing.

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12th century

Photos of the new 12th century gown

Miracle of miracles - I actually managed to make apage for my 12th century gown on my costuming blog. It's here. There's photos and info on how I made it, but not as much as there would have been if I hadn't been burnt out.

Some photos for those who don't want to follow the link.

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12th century

I have finished my green 12th century gown

It is all hand sewn from wool, with silk thread, and the embrodiery is silk floss and "metal" thread (metal wrapped around a thread), using split stich and couching. There is also applique from silk, and glass fake pearls.

The embroidery is inspired by the borders seen on clothing in illuminations and sculpture, and by period embroidery, but since the visual sources aren't that detailed I also used my own creativity. I included elements from my heraldry, and other motifs that are meaningful to me, like hawthorn leaves. It is very green.

I am going to make a new undergown first. I have good undergowns, but I really wanted a new. I will also order a tablet woven belt. I can do tablet weaving, but I'm not really that interested, and my weaving isn't good enough as it is.

Here you can see not only the gown, but my sewing room, some of my fabric, and my dolls.

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Last week

Apart from that little meltdown on the 14th, and another on on Saturday, I have had a good week. The weather continues to be beautiful and I am out walking every day. Friday I walked to the nearby town of Mölndal and met Inger, my friend who has had cancer, and we sat two metres apart and talked for a couple of hours. Saturday evening was also lovely - I had spent the day indoors because I was listening to a zoom conference on Merlin all day (and made cinnamon rolls) so after dinner I walked to the nature reserve a little more than 2 kilometres away that is my favourite walking goal these days. I climbed the top of the mountain and sat there, watching the sun disappear behind another mountain.

Yesterday I only had a short walk with hubby before he started working, but I managed to make the newsletter for Gotvik,. the SCA barony that I'm a part of - it took maybe five hours, and I wached the free streaming of the Phantom of the Opera from Royal Albert Hall that was on youtube for 48 hours. I have seen it lvie too, which of course is better, but this was really good.

I have also sewn most of the construction seams on my new 12th century gown, it has LOTS of gores so it takes time to hand sew, and then fell them, and I have also hemmed it. I haven't sewn the sleeves together because I don't have the lining fabric and I want to treat the lining and main fabric as one. I will however baste them together now, so that I can see how much I want to take in the gown at the waist, it is currently based on my chest measurement, since I chose rectangular construction. Before I have worked with my waist measurement and then added gores at the bust and hip, but that was with the pleated on skirt, and I wanted to try another variant this ime.

After that I will add a strip of sturdy silk or linen to the edges and then start on the lacing holes. But first: tea.

Still no cold symptoms, just allergies and arthritis.

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Better, and doll shifts

My ankle is better now, I have even tried taking a few steps without crutches, and can careful put some weight on my right foot. Still better and easier with crutches though, so I try to remember to use them. I am very tired however, probably due to sleeping badly, with my foot elevated, but I hope that that will get better too.

I thought that I was going to be really excited about making things for the doll when they came, and I am, but I realize that I would even more like to have all the things made, than actually making them ;) I also had a hard time deciding which period they should wear. But I decided to start with regency. So yesterday I made shifts for them, and I have now started to cut out petticoats (with bodices) for them and will hopefully have the energy to start on those tonight.

My girls. I am going to re-paint the faces, but I need to have daylight, and a clearer head for that.

On the other hand I want to make myself a regency wool pelisse/redingote too.

Not to mention that I wanted to be able to go out and catch pokémon and raid this weekend, but that is of course out of the question with my foot.

Tomorrow Mattias, a new guy from the medieval group will come over and Anna and I will help him with his orange silk bliaut, lined in pink. I will also try to finish a scroll that needs to be sent to their highnesses for a n event that takes place next weekend.

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12th century,
sca

Making, re-making and really not that stressed out

Somehow I survived this week and after most of the stuff was picked up yesterday, and after I managed to pack all of Rickard's and Maja's stuff in the morning before my lecture today I didn't feel stressed anymore. I haven't done the absolute final packing with sthe stuff I'm bringing with me in teh car tomorrow, and I haven't finished my classnotes. But it's okay, I have some time to work on that tomorrow.

So I spent the evenign on the balcony with Anna, drínking tea and re-making an old liripipe hodd of Maja's, and my old green silk bliaut.
Maja couldn't pull the hood over her head anymore, so I opened it and made buttonholes and sewed on brass buttons.

Then I remade the neck opening on my green silk bliaut. The reason why it had such a deep opening was that I needed to be able to nurse Maja. But now when a) I haven't nursed for ten years and b) I fit into it again I unpicked the trim, shortened it and sewed the slit together.

I'm not bringing it to Double Wars, since Måns and I have chosen the late 13th-early 14th century as our period during our reign, but I might wear it to a picnic in June, which is a less official event.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Weight

I am continuing with this diet I've been since Boxing day and it is going very well, though I am getting very tired of shakes instead of food.

For almost five weeks now I have replaced the breakfast shake with real breakfast, though with strict guidelines for calorie content, and it has been wonderful. Mostly I have two pieces of crisp bread with one boiled egg, tomato and ruccola, and it's really yummy. And I keep losing weight - I started on 98,5 kilos, and now, I'm at c. 73 kilos. And I can wear almost all my old clothes. For some costumes, like my Flemish 16th century I need to lose quite a lot more though, but since I will be on a diet, though less severe, until August, and after that continue to watch my food intake for the rest of my life, I may eventually be able to fit into them again. Right now I think that I would even more like to fit into the green bliaut again.

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12th century

My new 12th century wool gown finished

Finallt I have finished the embroidery on my new 12th century gown. And sewn silk on the inside to cover the ugly backside. For reasons that I discuss on its own page in my costumign blog, I made the dress first and the embroidery later. More info and images over there.

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12th century

12th century headwear for men

An SCA friend asked me yesterday about male headwear for the 12th century. So I looked my collection pf pictures and one thing led to another - so today I wrote a long and image heavy post in my costuming-only-blog. It's here.

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12th century

The finished bliaut

The bliaut is finished, and has a long and detailed page about construction and a theory that I have on trim. Go see!

And that's Mysko of course.

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12th century

Cheating with a sari

I'm making another 12th century bliaut. I am even going to make it fitted at the waist, ignoring the fact that I'm way too fat for that style. From a period perspective I mean - I've seen lovely ladies larger than me looking stunnign in bliauts. On the other hand, just being this fat is un-period ;) And surviving a hole where the duodenum connects to the stomach, which I did one year ago. So I'll just give up on any tries to be perfectly period here :)

Anyway, I have already tried out the the contested bliaut-with-a-waist-seam-theory once, and while it was very pretty and worked well I would have preferred a rectangular cut without waist seam and a skirt that widens with gores this time. Unfortunately saris don't come that wide, and since I'm going to use a purple silk sari I will make it with a waist seam.

The fancy part with lots of gold will somehow be used to make a border around the neckhole, but I haven't figured out how yet. For now I'm just starting with sewing the skirt together.
Unlike my green bliaut (linked to above) this one will not have straight panels for the skirt, but slightly gored pieces. Like this:

If anyone wonders why the skirt pieces are made with an upward curve it is to compensate for the fact that I can't curve the skirt at the hem if I want to keep the gold border.
I think it will be pretty. Or maybe handsome, because while the hanging sleeves aren't that common on men in illuminations this is pretty much a unisex style.
St George, looking saintly unkempt in hair and beard, but very fashionable otherwise.

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Rickard's 12th century silk tunic

Eight years ago I starte on a silk tunic for Rickard, inspired by the tunicella of the Holy Roman empire coronation costume. Then I really wanted to make it like the original, I even started making templates in fimo clay for the gold ornaments, so that I could make silicon moulds to cast bronze. (You can read about it here, here, here, here and here.)

This is probably the reason why it never got finished. I made a silk cord with fingerloop braiding and put it all away. Until a few days before Double Wars when I decided that I was goign to wear fancy 12th century garb so was he. So I took the remnants of the zari trim that I had used for his fancy cloak almost as long ago and sewed it on like cuffs. Tom hide some of the zari-ness I put brass bezants on it.

After I came home I continued decorating it, putting glass beads on the cuffs and neck trim, to try and tie them more together colour-wise. I also made silk lucet cords to cover the edges of the trim. And I sewed the ties at the neck, since I actually did find them - you see, a few months ago I moved the cord to a safe place and of course I couldn't find it when we were leaving for Double Wars, so he had to use a brooch to close it.

Yesterday I made him put it on and pose for the camera.

( Close-ups of trim )

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Double Wars XXVII in photos

I really have way to much to do to write about Double Wars, except that it was really nice as always. Valeria finishes high school tomorrow and I have a reception to clean and cook for and on Thursday i'm holding the final seminar for our candidate students. But I can show you some pictures:

I did manage to finish some new garb:

And I made new headwear for my blue 16th century Scandinavian outfit and got some good photos of me wearing it:

( The back, plus close-up of headwear )
And assorted photos from court and gerneal hanging at the site and from the day at Hovdala castle where we participated, such as this one showing hubby looking handsome at the Hovdala archery contest:

( Lots more )

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Challenge 6: Fairy tale

I didn't think that I would have time to do this challenge, which was to make a historic version of clothes that could have been worn by a character in a fairy tale, since this is the time when applications for research founding within the humanities are due. I had lots of ideas, none of them involving fairies. Even J.R.R. Tolkien declared that "Fairy tale" wasn't a good name for the genre, since most of them don't have any fairies in them. Eventually I ended up with what can be interpreted as c. 1150, probably Germany, or 19th century does medieval. Then I had to decide wich "fairy tale" and I decided to make something from the Arthurian legends, which always seem to come in a 12th century package in my mind, probably much due to artists such as Edmund Blair Leighton:

My favourite Arthurian 19th century painting, by John Collier:

They also have the advantage that there are women in the who don't fall into the two categories young, beautiful maiden on one hand, and old ugly witch, on the other hand. There are actually middle aged women in them. I decided to go for Morgause, queen of Lothian (or Orkney, or Norway, depending on story), Arthur's sister or aunt (depending on version). She had four sons, and I think that she might also have gotten a little plump in her middle age.

The new thing is the overgown, which is made from a large bedspread or table cloth, probably of Thai origin, that I found at the salvation Army. The blue fabric is silk and I have sewn a broad lace trim in "gold" thread on it and then glass beads. Lace isn't period, but I didn't have that much time and you can either pretend that it's some kind of couched gold thread embroider, or a 19th century theatre costume. In which case it wouldn't matter.

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More photos

I made a gallery with photos from "Lady Ragnhild's Collegium".

Maja, me and Lady Astrid sewing.

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A photo

We're back from the event and it was really nice. The weather was wonderful and though I didn't get to hear them I'm sure the lectures were really interesting. I spent msot of the time with Maja and sometimes Valeria, but I managed to give my lecture and to finish Maja's 12th century dress. Valeria's was finished a week a go and is remade from one of my old early 14th century sleeved surcoats and I wore a really old woollen dress in a colour I adore. I think we represent our different ages in a reasonable way: Maja's dress is luxurious, but not laced, Valeria is wearing a laced highly fashionable gown and I'm wearing a dress with a looser fit and without the hanging sleeps, looking a bit more matronly. The current king and queen are doing 12th century so that's why I wanted us to all wear clothes from that period for the banquet.
Anyway, I'll write more later, here's the photo, taken by

jehanearbonne:

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12th century,
visby

So, how did my clothes sale go?

As you may remember I had decided to sell off some clothes during Visby medieval week.
It went okay. The red corset was sold to my friend Malin and it fit her just perfect. The grey effigy corset wasn't sold, so I brought it home. Neither was the short grey corset, so I donated it to the auction to raise money for the Prince' and Princess' traveling fund. It was bought by a lady in a quite nice Tudor dress and french hood. My grey jacket was bought by the queen of Nordrike and this dress

was bought by

historian31, aka Teddy's friend Paul. I wasn't there when he tried it on, but according to both him and hubby it fit him, and I'm sure he looked much less dumpy in it. (This was short after the birth of Maja.)

I bought fabric, a cheap recorder for Maja, hand made sewing needles, indigo dyed silk yarn and a flea fur (whole, dead marten) for the money.

Current Mood: accomplished

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I forgot...

to say that yesterday I finished my cute 19th century shift with inserted lace and all. All hand sewn, because I felt like it. And since I'm aiming for the 1840s-1850s machine sewing isn't period. And anyway, underwear were hand sewn at home into the 20th century. But mostly I did it because I felt like it, I mean I have machine seams on my medieval garb, so I'm not a hand sewing purist. I also unpicked seams on my corset and decided that I'm not going to have the extra boning in front that

jenthompson has, because I like the corset to be less rigid there so it can curve in at the waist. So now I need to sew the basque on again in front, where I have cut some away and add boning channels on the left half of the corset and then bind the edges. Hopefully this should get done tomorrow. Today I was social with Anna, so I didn't do any machine sewing but started hemming my royal blue silk chiffon veil that I plan to wear with my 12th century (and earlier) clothing. She was busy making a pattern for the 18th century riding jacket in PoF that she's going to make to use as a mundane jacket (with some alterations, since she's not going to take up wearing a corset every day). I also sorted the fabric in my big white cupboard and found some nice medium blue thin cotton jacquard I'm going to use for a new blouse.

Current Mood: irritated

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12th century

The green bliaut page

There is some stupid trouble with uploading stuff on the account that has the first page, the costume gallery etc, hopefully it will sort itself out. Anyhow, thanks to my darling husband who's been taking care of kids and household this evening, there is now a page on the green bliaut. Hopefully you can see it, or else I will kill myself, or Comhem my internet provider.