Eva's journal

Posting and posting again. Anyway, on this swedish page are photos of the finished gown based on the finds from grave 31 in Uvdal church, Norway.

The mittens fit. Now I need to fell all the seams, seam allowances inside mittens isn't very comfortable. I have also slowly started on my lecture about 17th century clothing, but my back hurts too much for me to sit longer periods. Thank god for Nobligan (tramadol).
Yesterday I had to spend mostly on my back, on the warm pad, except when my friend Annaaa visited from Stockholm, which coincided with the most effect from my Nobligan. But today I've been able to sit up quite a lot.

Bad things: I cut out the mittens yesterday, from my rather small piece of fulled, madder dyed wool. However, the pattern is flawed in some way, because I ended up with weird, too small mittens. And it was suppose to be "man's size".
I also have no more red, fulled wool, which means that I have to find time some day this week or in the beginning of the next to go buy some. The money isn't a problem, but time is a serious issue here.

Good things:I have just cut the pieces for the shift and since cutting is by far the most boring (and uncomfortable) phase of sewing I am very happy it is over. I will start sewing while watching Top Model Stockholm this evening. In the days I have to work on my lectures.

No photos yet, but you've all seen woollen hose before, so I guess the suspense won't keep you awake :)
I will enlarge the pattern for the mittens tomorrow.

Well, how stupid of me not to check out Kongshirden 1308 first. They had a whole page about preserved mittens from the middle ages, including one pattern. it was made from leather and is only dated to "the middle ages", but I think I will use it anyway.

The washing and hanging did the trick for the pleats, they look much more even now. It didn't help with the allergy though. I guess I have to see if I react less when I'm just wearing it, not working on it. I had to redo the hem, since it hung down too much in the sides, but other than that I'm quite happy with it now. It looks weird, but not necessarily in an ugly way. But it's really warm, I can hardly wear it long enough to take photos in our warm flat. I guess that means I will be wearing it for Mårtensmäss, since that castle really is cold in November.

'nuff talking, on to the photos:

At least that's what I'm hoping I just did. I suspect the wool fabric of the Uvdal gown of giving me allergies. This has only happened once before, and that was a wool with quite a lot of cashmere in it so I attributed the allergy to that. But my eyes have been itchy ever since I started working on it. I'm not sensitive to wool on my skin, but I have an over-sensitivity too inhaling wool dust, caused by frequent exposure of course. This time I (maybe) react to the fabric, and I'm afraid it may be like it was with the other fabric, that I have to take allergy meds to wear it. But before I reach that sad conclusion I tried washing it, however, to see if it is something from the dyeing process that causes my troubles.
The washing will also help get the pleats more even; I'm not totally happy with the way they look on the (my) left side, but if they are stretched out by the weight of the wet dress that may do the trick. It certainly looks better now, when it's hanging to dry in the bathroom.
Handwashing four metres of wool isn't my idea of fun, however, especially not the wringing to get rid of water.
But at least it's finished: all seams are felled and it's hemmed. Tomorrow I start on hose.

Yesterday bippimalin came over to help me dye linen fabric with madder. or rather, with the preparations, we haven't reached the madder stage yet. In the Uvdal 31 grave there was also a linen shift, which had remnants of tannin and madder in, showing it to once have been dyed peach, orange, red or something like that. This (of course) had to be tested so yesterday we boiled coarse linen fabric (12threads/cm, the original had 8 threads/cm!) with soda and then immersed it in a tannin bath, achieved with green tea. Oak gall apples would have been a more period source for tannins, but also much more expensive and hard to get.
The fabric soaked in there over night and was then put in a mordant bath with alum. Now I'm rinsing it in the washing machine and when that's done I will put it in a bath with 1,5 kg madder, which has been lying in water for 24 hours.
This alone shows why dyed linen was extremely uncommon, it was too expensive for a fabric mostly used for underwear. Madder wasn't that costly, but if you need half again the weight of the fabric it still becomes rather expensive. And of course I have no idea how the dye will take or how well it will stand washing, an important thing when it comes to linen clothing, since it doesn't "clean itself" the way wool does.
The dyeing process is also pretty hard on the actual fabric, you need to remove the part of the fibre that makes it strong and shiny.
So, even if there are enough examples of linen being dyed (Egypt, this shift, the lining in the Queen Margareta gown etc), I still think that it was pretty uncommon. Outside Italy and the eastern mediterranean linen seem to have been used only as underwear and headdress and while I think the latter may sometimes have been dyed, it would probably have been easier to opt for a silk veil if you wanted colour, since the linen ones would have been expensive too. Underwear, on the other hand, would have needed to be laundered many times and dyeing which weakens the fabric and (possibly) wasn't hardy would probably not have been very common. It's not like we see a lot of dyed underwear in medieval paintings either.

But now I'm off to grind 1,5 kg (dry weight) wet madder into smaller pieces. Yummy!

PS. Woad may be an exception, there are more finds of woad dyed linen than other colours, and woad is the only natural dye that really "bites" on linen.

PPS. I'm NOT saying that there never was dyed linen, I'm talking about what was probably the most common in the Middle Ages. I'm a professional historian, I never say "never".

So, as requested, photos of me in the half-finished Uvdal gown. The centre front seam is not sewn and no seams are felled, except for in the bodice part. No hemming either of course. It is from the side you really see how big it makes me look, but unfortunately LJ won't upload that image.

I have now locked all the pleats on the skirt for the Uvdal gown. The rest of the sewing will go much faster. Hopefully I can begin to sew the skirt and bodice together tonight. At least I will fit them tonight, with the trusted help of my dress dummy, the grand Sophy.

Except that I should be working on those lectures. Well, we'll see what happens.