EEEEC: Narrow bands for Viking summer and winter garb:
Entered in Exploration
Two separate lengths of narrow-band weaving done via a rigid heddle in the back strap style, in wool made to trim both summer weight and winter weight “Viking-ish” tunics.
I wanted to make them both just a little bit fancier, even though they are what I consider my more casual or easygoing garb option -I joke that I don’t have a persona characterised by time or place, but that I am simply “high maintenance” so even my casual clothing has to be a touch swish!
My persona Astrid Sudreying is based on a trader’s child from the late Viking period, who grows up moving. Beginning in Denmark and eventually settling in Sudrland (at the top of Scotland). I have ended up with a Welsh husband who is still figuring out much of his persona, so until he does, I guess I’ll just have to keep running the shop.
I have had the beads I first put together for between my brooches for a while and have had pieces sitting about that I have wanted to add to my strands. When I was told it’s acceptable to add your awards to them it gave me the inspiration to not lose those tiny precious items, by putting them on my beads. In keeping with my trading history, some of the beads have clearly arrived via the silk road. Especially some of the hollow metal beads, the blue eye protection beads and the third bead from the right, which was (IRL) bought in a market in Kathmandu by my father’s friend.
I have also added the top strand of beads, made by Queen Ginevra, that my lord Emrys won at the Fighter Auction Tourney. Thank you to the ladies of The Abbey for that generous donation!
Having made an orange brocade Swabian gown for the CF feast last year, I was inspired to make a similar gown for wearing about on the tourney field.
I’m very fond of Roman clothing to cope with the warm summer weather at CF, but I am ever in search of late period clothing that can be worn on hot days. The Swabian gowns with the wide neck line, and shorter cut away sleeves are definitely a good solution. And the gefrens (the fringe at the back of the head) provides some useful protection from the sun. This gown was inspired by a similar coloured dress in ‘The Dance of Salome” by the Master of the Carnation, c 1490.
EEEEC: Magdalena de Narbonne’s Viking Hood with Embroidery
Magdalena shares this Viking hood with embroidery in the category of preparation.
For use at Yule/winter events
Made in prep for the Yule event -knowing that it is held in midwinter, inland close to the alps, I thought it a good idea to keep myself cosy!
The hood is constructed as a typical rectangles-and-squares assembly skoldenham Viking hood, out of a wool fabric. The hood portion is then lined in a chunk of satin rabbit fur, which is both marvellously cozy and incredibly soft!
The embroidered detail is for both form and function as it is how the item is hemmed, and also holds all the seam allowances open and flat on the inside.
“This was quite a long running project. I had a hood for several years that I was avoiding wearing, because it fit oddly, and I’d just found the leftover fabric from making it while tidying up, so I decided to fix that.”This was quite a long running project. I had a hood for several years that I was avoiding wearing, because it fit oddly, and I’d just found the leftover fabric from making it while tidying up, so I decided to fix that.
“I dismembered the hood, and played with pins and basting till I had an adjusted design that I liked. I then cut the old hood pieces to the new shape, and from the found fabric cut front panels and also a detachable liripipe (detachable, because around the start of this project I read in an article that there were sumptuary laws about women having liripipes, and so detachable ones became a brief trend which struck me as delightfully silly – but the article in question is eluding me now, so I can’t provide a link) “I dismembered the hood, and played with pins and basting till I had an adjusted design that I liked. I then cut the old hood pieces to the new shape, and from the found fabric cut front panels and also a detachable liripipe (detachable, because around the start of this project I read in an article that there were sumptuary laws about women having liripipes, and so detachable ones became a brief trend which struck me as delightfully silly – but the article in question is eluding me now, so I can’t provide a link)
“I then used those pieces to cut a lining in a combination of silk and linen, using the silk where it would show, and look fancy, and not matter that it’s slippy, and the linen everywhere else to help the hood stay on my head.
“I then sewed the outer back together and, because most of the time I want to wear a hood it’s because I’m outside watching a tourney, and because I am honoured to have Master Richard fight for me at those times, I appliqued fleur de lis in white velvet (donated by the wonderful Lady Margretta), outlined with DMC Perle cotton around the base of the hood.
“I then attached the lining, as seen below. Testing has shown that the lining does work as intended – the linen does help with stability and the silk does look very pretty when it shows.
“I was going to add buttons, also with fleur de lys, to help the hood stay on in the wind, and make it thus a little warmer, but I ‘borrowed’ the buttons for another hood remodel and the replacement ones have not yet arrived.”I was going to add buttons, also with fleur de lys, to help the hood stay on in the wind, and make it thus a little warmer, but I ‘borrowed’ the buttons for another hood remodel and the replacement ones have not yet arrived.”
Entered in Degustation, Astrid describes her entry:
“I have been interested in trying to make a lemon mead for a while as our household loves mead and limoncello. Unfortunately, I have been having trouble finding a proper period recipe. There are a few mentions in “Sima – a festive drink made with natures ingredients” by Seija Irmeli Kulmala about it being a favourite of King Gustav I of Sweden (early 1500’s) after he tasted it on a visit to Turku, a town that was then part of Sweden, but is now part of Finland. It was an imported drink from Riga and Lubeck (Latvia and Germany) and seems to have had a long history from there before it turned up in Finland of the future.
“The 16thC version of the drink was a honey-based mead and much higher alcohol content compared to the barely alcoholic sugar-based lemonade (like our homemade ginger beer) of modern Finnish Sima. So, more research to do, but I was excited to try my own version. I used a sack mead recipe of 2 parts water to one part honey with the juice and rind of 6 largish lemons making up a portion of the water allowance. It worked out that each cup of water was 8ml of lemon juice, and about 242ml of water. I used my usual mead making process, in that I heated the water, honey, lemon juice and rind, and let it get hot enough for the wax to scum (usually 65 to 70 degrees). Once any ickies are scooped off the top – I use my mums finest left over, crystalised, odd bits of honey from her last year’s hive takings, so there are usually fun particulates – I taste it, leave it to cool and then put it in a demijohn with some yeast. I was quite lucky in that the largest container of honey had a citrusy taste.
“The yeast is currently past its frat party phase and is now studiously munching its way through the sugar. I have a few weeks to go before I find out if it is going to be great, ok, or a complete disaster.”
Shared as an example of transformation, Christian writes:
“I had brought a small piece of this gorgeous silk in the Los Angeles fabric district some years ago. By the time I found it at the end of the day, I had only a little left in my budget, so could only afford to buy a small piece. I didn’t have a project for this, but I couldn’t not buy this beautiful fabric.
“I made a simple garment out of this piece but I was never very happy with it. Fast forward two years and I’m back in the LA Fabric District. And the same shop. And there is the same fabric. In a city of 4 million, in a metropolitan area of 14 million, commonly visited by other SCA folk and the film industry, my fabric had waited 2 years for me. I brought another piece and stashed that away for that future project.
“Last years Granada event proved the perfect event for me to finally create something with my fabric. The pomegranate, with which the fabric is embroidered, is the symbol of Granada, and red and gold were the colours we based the event decor upon. The previous garment presented some challenges for cutting the new, but i managed to make this work well for an early 16thC Portuguese gown, which was perfect for the event theme.”
EEEEC: Magdalena de Narbonne’s Viking Garb for winter
Completed in preparation for winter, Magdalena writes about the Viking garb she made for use at Yule/winter events
“An entire outfit sewn in wool (or wool-rich at the very least!) fabrics, to keep me cozy but mobile at the midwinter Yule event. These are all very simple garments, made for a typical sca style Viking-ish look rather than being an attempt at a historically accurate ensemble. The tunic is a basic long sleeved tunic with gores in the sides, and a keyhole neckline. The trousers are a very voluminous style with Eid legs cut straight and then gathered to a waistband with a drawstring, and small bands for the cuffs to help corral said volume – the legs were each cut the full width of the fabric, so the only fabric waste from this is the little crotch-seam curves, and I could fit it all in a single handful! The cloak is simply a rectangle of wool hemmed along the cut edges. And that’s that! Simple, easy, and I just add a belt and my embroidered hood (separated entry), boots and I’m good to go 🙂 “
Sometimes I don’t like to take my whole setup to a camping event. Or my usual rugs are just too unwieldy to pack for a bunkroom. To that end I purchased a light and inexpensive fabric rug. However, despite having a lovely pseudo-fleur de lys design, it was rather obnoxiously black and white. This stark contrast needed to be corrected.
I started by painting the background green (to echo my heraldry), then adding the gold details (also to match my heraldry) before reassessing the situation and adding the brown to mute the overall look (and cunningly avoid any white areas that would be a nuisance to keep clean).
The paint used was cheap acrylic, to which I added product designed to make it better suited for use on fabric. I also added a tiny drop of water to further thin it out and improve paint adhesion.
