UFO: I just couldn't wait Archives - Barony of Southron Gaard

Lady Tove Eríksdóttir enters her pre-sixteenth century sandals

Entered in the categories:

I just couldn’t wait! A project that has been used unfinished, which has now finally been finished

Tove writes:

“These are my hand made shoes, they take Inspiration from a few different style of pre 16th century shoe.

“I initially started these in 2024, I was determined to make my self a pair of more period style shoes to wear around. I researched into different styles of sandal and found some scrap leather. I cut and laced the leather up creating the first part of it. I was so keen to show them off. One might say I just couldn’t wait to wear them. I wanted to put a sole on them but being purely a beginner to leather work and with limited resources and budget, I proceeded to use them and wore them to 2025 Faire…. as you can imagine the sole of the leather was rather thin without thicker hardened leather on the base, Faire being on a rather stony and rocky area, the lack of padding was painful to say the least. From there I left them to sit in my wardrobe and I ignored them.

“In some whirlwind boost of dopamine, determination and motivation I decided I would have the soles finished for 2026 Faire. I can happily say as of tonight I have completed them with some blisters from stitching the leather and many curses to the gods I have a pair of period style shoes that I will definitely be wearing at Faire.

“At one point I even took a Sandal making workshop with my hamlet with the stipulation that my fellow SCAdians should be warned about the thinness of the leather. At times I had considered bastardising a pair of crappy jandals for their sole and glue them on. However I knew I would not be satisfied with nice leather sandals and a bloody rubber sole. With my leather work skills still very rudimentary I settled on making rope from hessian twine (hence where most of the cursing and swearing happened) rolling it and stitching it together to form a comfortable sole for my shoe.

“Oh, I also re-laced these things more times that I would like to admit.”

Read more about the UFO Challenge and the entry categories here.

Isabel Maria shares a fringed brocade tablecloth as a newly completed item in Southron Gaard’s UFO Challenge.

Entered in the categories:

I just couldn’t wait (a project that has been used unfinished, which has finally been finished)

In Isabel Maria’s words:

“Many years ago, I ran across a sample of a beautiful, but discontinued furnishing brocade. It reminded me of various tablecloths I had admired in my youth, and was just the right size to fit the folding table I use at Canterbury Faire, so I snapped it up. The plan was to hem it (to hide the nylon-thread overlocking) and to add a weighty fringed hem.

“While I started the hemming process well before the Covid lockdowns, I did not finish it until June 2024. During the intervening years I was unable to find a fringe that really suited the fabric – some didn’t have the necessary weight, others were a colour that seemed to drain the life out of the brocade. So, once I completed the hemming, rather than put the project away because it wasn’t fully finished, I started using the tablecloth as is. It was too pretty to leave folded in a cupboard for any longer.

“After using the cloth at Baronial Anniversary, I found a fringe that was the right weight, and a suitable colour. A little hand-sewing later, to secure both the top and bottom of the fringe band, I have the tablecloth I originally envisioned. And I love it!”