Eva's journal

This afternoon Maja and I are leaving for my home village were we will be taking care of my stepdad's dog while he and his girlfriend Anita (my mum and Anders broke up 16 years ago) and Vendela are going to France to visit Anita's daughter who trains horses there professionally. Among the things I am packing is this pattern and 3 metres of toile fabric. Just in case it gets even more boring than making the (first) toile would be. I really want to make this dress, it's just that I don't look forward to adjusting the pattern for my FF-cups and relatively narrow (but straight) shoulders. I think that I might be forced to add bust darts.

Maja is packing her knitting; she's has just learnt to knit and has started on a simple cap.

If I had had a driver's license I would not have had to pack any pattern and fabric, since there are many things to see in the surroundigns, but as I don't we wil be stuck in a village without a shop or much anything else beside the forest and the fields. And no internet. It will probably be very good for me, I'm also bringing this book: When Broadway was the runway. Theater, fashion and American culture.

Sunday and I was up at six. Yes.
Because Vendela is competing in dressage today and we're leaving early. Especially she, who was up at five to go to the stables and load the horses.

I have my new(ish) shorts on, a tank top and a scarf around my head since it's supposed to be really warm and none of my straw hats are something I want to wear to a horse show, at least not if Vendela is riding; I don't want to embarrass her more than necessary. Of course I'm also bringing a book and a water bottle.

Right now I'm just waiting for her dad to give me a call to tell me that he's outside, waiting to pick me up.

Then when I come home there's a "Mend, unravel, re-make" meeting over at my neighbour herzeloyde's place. I need to take a shower first, since at least one of the person's attending is really allergic to horses, but then I will work on r-making some of Valeria and Vendela's old garb for Maja. My quality has improved so I want to change some of the clothes before she wears them. Not that I know when she will wear them, since we're actually not going to the Visby medieval week this year.

Me and the big girls posing outside our tent. It was a very weird light from the setting sun, so our faces look very orange - it wasn't that bad in reality I think.

Vendela's brustfleck.




The base fabric is a printed silk based on the woven pattern on "Queen Margaret's golden gown", from the early 15th century (dated by the pattern type rather than by the late attribution to Queen Margaret of Scandinavia), made by Duran Textiles (click the link and read about the fabric). The embroidery is made with rocaille beads and fresh water pearls.

I remade an old a-line tunic of hers, made from heavy wool, to a shorter overdress for her gothic fitted dress:



( And her saxon court dress now only lacks sleeves and brustfleck: )

The dress has been finished since Tuesday last week, but since Vendela has been at her dad's place it is not until now that I could take a photo. A very informal one, without doing anything with her hair or any other styling.



I think a silk girdle with a small purse hanging from it, her fringe pinned back and braids looped up on her head would look very nice.

Since I celebrated the solstice yesterday with my coven I invited other pagan friends to come over for tea and pie just to celebrate the day. It was an open invitation, but in the end only two turned up: Flame, who's a wiccan and used to be in the same coven as I was before I started my own, and his boyfriend (and my friend) Edward, who follows the Norse way. I think that was about teh right amount of people - there was enough pie and we could comfortably sit all of us on the balcony and talk and drink tea afterwards. I managed to sew all the buttonholes on the body on Vendela's gothic fitted dress while talking, now "only" those on the sleeves are left.

Now they have gone and I think about going to bed actually, despite that it's a beautiful, beautiful evening and despite the fact that it will never get really dark this night.

Yesterday they tried on their old medieval clothing, most of it sewn 2008, some of it in 2007 even. Except for that the sleeves were short they could wear quite a lot of it so in the end I "only" need to make one shift for them each, an every day dress (which will be a gothic fitted dress) and a court dress (which will be 16th century Saxon gown) for Vendela and two pairs of stockings for Valeria. I haven't started thinking about Maja's new clothing yet, but except for shifts I think that she needs everything new.