When a Battle Raven is not a Battle Raven, because you're 5

We are going to ignore how long it has been since I have updated this blog. Thank you for joining me in the delusion as to my ability to document my projects in a timely manner. 

A friend of mine, Æsa feilinn Jossursdottir, was elevated to Pelican in February 2023 at the East Kingdom Rapier Champs hosted by Quintavia. 

So her elevation garments were being handled by her household, Darostur, but someone needed to do the garb for her child. And I, gentle reader, love making garb for children as I don't have to stress over it being destroyed on its first foray out, or outgrown after being worn once. Mom has an Icelandic persona, so we made a very tiny Smokkr or Hangerok (but we're going to use the more popular term in the SCA of apron dress) and panel. 

Finished Apron Dress and Panel

The Apron Dress

We used the left over wool from Mom's underdress and used the Vigdis Overdress pattern, just for someone under 3 feet tall. 

The dress itself was designed to have the apron panel overlap and snap together so that as her chest measurement expands the dress can grow with her for at least a couple seasons. I absolutely should have gotten pictures of how I did that, and I absolutely did not. 

Then thinking about seam treatments, I didn't really want to do embroidery on something that will likely get laundered often. I remembered reading about yard or cord being used to couch next to seams and found some delightful pink rattail (absolutely not period, but we're 5) and used a long zig-zag stitch to couch it down over the seams. I tried to make sure I was using long lengths of cord so there wasn't At the places where I had to start a new section of cord I first did  a few straight stitches down the length of the cord to anchor it down, then did a much tighter zig-zag at the start (basically a satin stitch) to ensure it would not come loose through wear. 

Close-up of couching on the pink cord

Stitching around the tips of the gores wasn't the easiest, but meant
that the tips wouldn't come loose and fray from wear and laundering

The Apron Panel

I wanted to make her an apron panel with a symbol all her own and looked at documentable symbols of the time. We are a big fan of Sesame Street and it came down to either Elmo modified from the Aarhus Runestone or Big Bird modified from the Raven Penny of Olaf Guthfrithson. The raven design also shows up on the Raven Banner Penny.

So I copied the raven design over and started to modify it to look like Big Bird with the 3 little head feathers, the more cartoon-y beak, fluffier tail feathers, and the distinctive banded legs. 

Sketch of the raven design with overlay of the modifications
 to bring some much needed Muppet to this anachronism

Sketched out the design on white linen

The finished design in reverse chain stitch

The finished apron panel with more couched pink cord and
a little scrap of woven trim to cover the machine-stitching on the hem

The apron panel finished had two little loops on the top to be attached to the tiny turtle brooches we had for her. The scrap of trim was too little to go on anything else, and thankfully was able to be used here. I also ironed on top of the design, the heat helps set the thread into the design and helps alleviate the curling that sometimes happens with chain stitch on tight curves. 

The Finished Garment

Turned out super cute and she had a great time twirling in it. I ended up making her several more dresses in the next few months as her Mom became Princess of the East about 3 months after this event....

Stay tuned for posts about those clothes as well. 

Going a-Viking with the Prince and Princess (post in progress)

In September a friend from the southern portion of my kingdom contacted me about commissioning a set of viking garb for himself and his lady for the East's big winter event Market Day at Birka.

He knows when to catch me in a moment of weakness and I agreed.

Crown Tournament seemed the best time to catch up and get measurements, but as he was competing I didn't want to get in his space beforehand so left it until after the fighting. We joked that this may become a royal commission if he won.

Joked. Ha ha. Hilarity ensues.

Then he won.

Queen Anna crowns Princess Honig

And there was no time to take measurements after the fact. So I met up with a very stunned Ioannes and an even more stunned Honig at a Dunkin Donuts in Maine to get measurements. We discussed a plan and I got to shopping.

I found the most GLORIOUS teal coat-weight wool at Sewfisticated in Framingham. They'd sold some to a local contestant on Project Runway but had enough for a caftan and Rus viking coat for me. Then I found for $2.99/yard ivory summer-weight wool for the hangerock/apron dress and used the Biking Red linen from Jo-ann's (thank you 60% off coupon).

Ophelia is my crack fabric-inspector

Now, let me just say here - none of this could have been accomplished without Lady Keziah Planchet. Keziah is a stitching STORM and did almost all the embroidery on Honig's coat and hangerock. She is amazing. Sagas should be written in her honor. BUT before she can embroidery anything - I have to pattern it out and sew it. Her blog is here.

For Honig I made three pieces and sourced a fourth:

1. Long red linen underdress - using the pattern from my Viking handout here
2. Ivory wool hangerock/apron dress - using the Vigdis pattern from my Viking handout here
3. Teal wool caftan with peacock embroidery - using a modified version of the Viking underdress from above and shaping the front opening to have a long V neck. 
4. A beautiful white fox pelt from Maine that I didn't want to give up and instead wear about always.

For Ioannes I made three pieces as well:

1. Red linen tunic with contrast ivory yoke with blue "runestone" Tygers
2. Brown linen viking pants
3. Teal Viking Rus-style coat with gold silk trim

I had never done split stitch embroidery before - so I learned something new

Images of the finished garments:

The court at Market Day at Birka
Photo by Jeff Morton

Her Highness in her full outfit (minus the fox)
Photo by Jenn L Miller

Tho and the dinosaur- a tale of joy and serendipity

Our gracious and wise queen Caoilfhionn inghean Fhaolain (KEE-lin, it's gaelic, ignore the letters they added for posterity) has issued a garb challenge for Market Day at Birka for the East Kingdom.

Lady Syele von Heidelberg announced the challenge on the East Kingdom Facebook on October 5th:

"Greetings, people of the East! Her most royal Majesty Caoilfhionn has issued a Garb Challenge to the good gentles attending the Market Day at Birka. She desires to see the skill with needle and thread of the populace in interpreting the theme, "Characters of Pixar."

If you must, turn yourselves Inside Out in order to find the perfect Toy, Story book, or other accessory to adequately display your Incredible interpretation of the challenge. Even if it seems you might hit a creative Wall-e, or you are afraid Monsters, Inc-luding laurels, squire brothers, and apprentice siblings may scorn you, you must be Brave, keep your chin Up, and stay strong by eating nourishing Ratatouille.

Although it is a Bug's Life out there for those artisans who think taking on challenges is like Finding Nemo, those wounds inflicted by pins, needles, and shears will soon turn to sCars of pride and victory!"

Full disclosure: House Strangewayes, my household, runs the fashion show at Birka and we're stupidly fond of puns.

Most of us are choosing to go with characters from Toy Story:

Myself as 1530's Italian Lotso Huggin' Bear (I'll make a separate post)
Syele as Saxon Jessie
Jeremy (Mr. Syele) as Polish Buzz Lightyear
Elvira as Crannach Sid
Bianca as 1560s Italian Bo Peep
Erdene as Mongolian Slink
and
Thothreker as Viking Rex

In this post I'm going to talk about Thothreker Ogaefa, or as we call him Tho. Tho is our resident viking. He's a simple guy who chose his persona by the strict criteria of what era would allow him to wear pants.

He doesn't sew, I'm making him an outfit fit for a King... well, a Rex.


Rex the lovable T-Rex from Toy Story


Now how do you interpret this into an outfit without it looking super-cheesy?


That's a lot of look.

Well, he needs a caftan, and a new tunic and probably some nice matching pants. Maybe, if we're ahead of shedule I'll make him a hat too.



Sketch for Tho's Birka outfit. 

The key here is going to be finding the right fabric that says "Dinosaur" without saying "GREEN AS ALL GET OUT".

So I went fabric shopping at my favorite store the Auburn Fabric Outlet where everything is $2.99 a yard!

I scored some amazing olive and tan wool, some green matelasse* and some lighter yellow rayon for the under tunic.

*Matelasse is a term for quilted upholstery fabric, not really suited for anything other than doublets or the occasional surcoat. It is usually quite stiff. A friend once made the mistake of ordering 8 yards from a home decor fabric website because she had never heard the term and thought it was a brand name of a designer.

The green diamond matelasse, yellow rayon and olive and tan wool diamond weave

This is another lesson in colors in pictures vs natural light. The first bolt is much brighter, the rayon more yellowy and the diamond weave looks brown here but is a distinctly olive green color in person.

Same fabric, different lighting.

I'm not sure which for the caftan I'll use, I'm going to let Tho look at them. I determined Rex's stomach is really a light yellow, not a green by looking at several screenshots.

Speaking of screenshots. Through my extensive Google Image Search research I discovered:



A Pixar short where Rex the dinosaur dresses like a viking!!!!!

How much more perfect could that get?!?!?!

We're trying to convince Iulia Agricola that we need R-E-X glass beads or maybe T-H-O glass beads. I did some research on period viking men's jewelry and found that they did not do the swags of beads, but occasionally grave finds would have 1-3 beads on a cord! Iulia is still needing some convincing but here's hoping.

Stay tuned for progress on Partysaurus Tho!

Pics or It Didn't Happen: The Viking Sailor Senshi at East Kingdom University

We set a goal of trying to get a lot of these dresses done by EKU in the Barony of Endewearde this past weekend. We are all mostly together and we had many of the Senshi attending.

A few of House Strangewayes:


From left to right: Lady Bianca Anguissola as Sailor Jupiter, Becca as Sailor Mars, Lady Fortune St Keyne as Sailor Moon, Jacquemine van der Bel as Sailor Mercury and Lady Cecily Windham as Sailor Neptune

And the very important shot of the bow!
 

Yeah, we are even more fun in person.

I taught a class on viking garb mostly using resources from previous classes on the apron dress and "Vigdis" style underdress. I also included a tutorial on wool felt applique and the Eura underdress.

It was a fantastic day as most East Kingdom University's are, full of learning, fellowship and laughter. The autocrats are super heroes, as the location changed less than 24 hours beforehand and aside from the map in the guidebook being wrong YOU COULDN'T TELL. Lady Yzabell du Perche the event steward and her team did an amazing job and Baroness Isabelle de Montreuil sur Mer who heads the EKU effort pulled off a miracle.


And a huge shout out to Morgan Donner and her 16th Century Sailor Moon! I had to pick myself up off the floor when I saw that you'd been inspired by this project. Full on swoon I tell you!

Even More Embellishment: The Wool Felt Appliques for Viking Sailor Moon

The SCA-style Wool Felt Applique-

How I do wool felt applique on viking dresses and caftans

 

I mean, they're gorgeous right? Those dresses with the massive deer leaping about the hem or peacock draped along the bottom of an apron dress but....  

They’re not period.

Mostly. They seem to have developed from archaeological telephone, where grave finds were described with having animal shaped applique in wool and silk and metal embroidery.

This does not mean that you shouldn’t do it. I’m a huge believer in knowing the rules, then figuring out how to break them.

 

Images:

 

Ordinarily I would look at runestones and Celtic manuscripts like the Book of Kells for inspiration.



But in this case I knew I was going to add massive moons to the dress as wool felt applique. I found the following image online and followed a few basic steps.

I look the image and blew it up in my good friend MS Paint, printed it out to scale and tape the bits together to make a template.

For less defined bordered images I find that if I print out the image, Sharpie around the outlines I’m going to use and then enlarge it with a copier it works best. I make several copies, so I can cut out pieces to use as templates.

Say I were really doing this image:

Dog from the Book of Kells c. 800 C.E.

 

I would have one piece for the background of my wolf, then pieces for each color. I label each section on a smaller "master" version of the image and then each piece with not only a number but with the color.

Supplies:

I use wool felt from Jo-Ann’s. Polyester felt pills and doesn’t hold shape the same way and if you’re going to the effort of embroidering around the edges, go for the wool felt.

***You could use linen, flannel or other fabrics but you will have to deal with the raw edges, generally by folding the edges under and stitching over it that way. If you choose to use iron-on adhesive web, you will need to cut the pieces individually approximately a quarter of an inch smaller around the edges. Don’t be a martyr unless there is something very specific you want to create.

Now, meet your friend – Heat n Bond Lite

See how that is in bold and underlined? IT’S THAT IMPORTANT. Different fusible webs have different weights and different instructions. I like Heat n Bond Lite best, it doesn’t require steam, it’s not that finicky and especially important: it allows the fabric to still drape.

And if you take nothing else away, take this away – Fuse your web onto your felt FIRST, then cut out your shapes.

You will ruin your iron, your ironing board, and your peace of mind if you don’t do this.

Doing a simple image like the moon I only added fusible web to the gold felt. If I were doing the above dog from the Book of Kells, I would fuse my colors then add them of a gold or ivory background, embroider, then cut out something similar to the background and add that to it and embroider around.

Sailors Jupiter and Venus both made this mistake with oak leaves and hearts and their appliques took a little longer.



Moon applique in progress



I then blanket stitched around the moon in blue with whipped contrast of red. I was trying to make sure that I had as much contrast as possible. Our mid-level service award in the East is called a Silver Crescent and I didn't want anyone thinking I was implying a level to which I have not been formally recognized.

The Butt Bow: the pièce de résistance

I also patterned a large swirling ribbon butt bow out of red felt. Sadly, the images are on my iPad and not my phone so I only have an in progress shot of it being done at my desk.

The inspiration sketch

Working at my desk, because I have a cat to feed

I didn't want to do the blanket stitch on this portion, so I went back to the whipped stem stitch on the Mammen finds. Well. I hate stem stitch, but I do a mean back stitch, and if you whip that it looks very similar and it comes out GORGEOUS.

Whipped Backstitch with special guest Hoity Toity

I look like an embroidery goddess and I'm not that good. This is my new favorite stitch to use work. It's replacing couching on my projects.

Again, better pictures to come, as they are on the iPad.

This is how it came out:

The finished back applique at EKU April 2015 in the Barony of Endewearde (Bangor, ME)

I had many many compliments on it and my fellow Sailor Senshi were a vowing to add butt bows to their creations.



Fancy Finishes: Embroidering The Sailor Moon Viking Dress

Let's get down to business. To defeat, this dress!

Embroidery:

Now, I've done seam treatments on viking dresses before using the herringbone stitch and someone who I'm sure didn't mean to say in the way it was taken (peer-like qualities Fortune, try to see the best in people) looked at my dress and remarked how interesting it was to see only one line of herringbone stitches...

Well. F'nah. So this dress I intended to do two lines of red and yellow interwoven herringbone stitches to the seams. Because I like to work with the garment as flat as possible I did this before sewing the back two trapezoids to the front.

Here is how the herringbone stitch works by itself:

Also called a catch stitch, this was used primarily as a decorative seam treatment, occasionally as a hemming stitch in period.

I fell in LOVE with a website showing all the different "Dark Ages" stitches from Viking and Saxon garb that was extant. http://nvg.org.au/documents/other/stitches.pdf Research heaven.

Detail of one of the seams:

Seam Treatement Detail of Viking Sailor Moon

The other stitch I used extensively was the blanket stitch. Now, I'd been told time and time again that the blanket stitch is not period. Well, time and time again I'd been lied to. Thanks to the above link I found no only was the buttonhole stitch used in period but it was used to apply bands of silk tablet woven trim to fabric. Used to apply bands of trim you say? Like on the under dress?

Red "glove" bands on the under tunic dress

One way to procrastinate finishing your underdress is to research a variety of blanket stitches.

So I did:

http://www.needlenthread.com/2012/06/up-down-buttonhole-stitch-video.html

https://www.coletterie.com/tutorials-tips-tricks/tutorial-5-simple-blanket-stitch-variations

http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/stitch/blanket-stitch/double-blanket-stitch/

http://sarahwhittle.blogspot.com/2010/07/blanket-stitch-variations.html

I also got fancy and whipped a line of blue along the blanket stitch. The finds at Bjerringhøj (Mammen parish, Denmark) known as the Mammen finds show whipped stem stitch, so creatively and anachronistically a whipped blanket stitch isn't such a stretch right?

I also did this detail on the faced collar.

I'm a little punchy at this point

 At some point I will do an entire post on the faced collars, but the detail pictures are all on my iPad.

Here is the finished underdress:

Sailor Moon Underdress

 

The other stitch I used extensively on this project was a whipped backstitch on the butt bow detail. Pictures of which are in the wool applique post.

A Good Time: 10th Century Sailor Senshi

I haven't mentioned anything about my SCA household so far really. I'm a member of House Strangewayes. We're out of the East Kingdom and most of us live in the beautiful Shire of Quintavia (Central Massachusetts). We're a service household, we're constantly helping run events, gates, dayboards, feasts, retaining and creating things for our Kingdom.

I love my Household, we're a big dysfunctional family, we dress alike, we have our own vocabulary (F'nah), and we love stupid jokes and puns. (Exhibit A: the Sequin Rose Incident)

Which brings us to.... Sailor Moon.

 The Inner Senshi: Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus

 

The Idea:

 

Yes. I did say SCA earlier. I know what you're thinking. Many of the household have otaku and cosplay roots and most of us have seen quite of bit of the series. It was hard to avoid as a nerdy girl of a certain age.

 

So when Elvira, who gets very sudden and very intense ideas, messaged the ladies of the Household in late December about a Sailor Senshi themed group costume challenge it was embraced immediately. Almost too quickly for a pack of late 20's, early 30's ladies who may have just finally grasped their chances to be magical girls and defeat the Negaverse.

 

The Design:

 

Sailor Moons Says: This is a ridiculous idea!

 

How to interpret this for a large group with vastly different levels of sewing prowess? Easy, 10th century Viking dresses. They are easy to construct, easy to embellish, and in the SCA we often do large felt applique on this style of dress.  

 

The thing about Sailor Moon unlike other superheros is that they all dress in the same base outfit of Japanese school girl outfits/sailor suits with color variations. Each Senshi also has the astrological symbol, in some cases slightly modified, to represent their planet as well. At various points during the series, movies, manga et cetera they get powers or other representations.

 

So, I chose Sailor Moon, because I'm blonde and Sailor Venus was taken. (No one is bitter Elvira)

 

In my case, Sailor Moon is red and blue and has the gold crescent moon symbol. 

 

The Plan: For the underdress I am planning on a white linen base, with a blue linen facing on the neckline for her sailor collar and two red guards on the cuffs to represent the red accent on her gloves.

Underdress

Apron Dress

 

The apron dress is cobalt blue linen with red and gold contrast stitching on the seam lines in interwoven herringbone stitch and will have a red ribbon of wool felt around the base and pale gold crescent moons on each of the three panels. (I don't want the moons too yellow, but we have a kingdom level award for service called the silver crescent and I also do not want to be mistaken for falsely advertising my accomplishments)

 

To top it off crescent moon pins and red beads to represent the front bow. I may also do a back bow appliqued on in wool felt to start the red ribbon that undulates around the hem, I haven't decided yet. I'm trying to walk to line of inspiration vs literal interpretation.

 

Supplies Needed:

• White Linen - 4 1/5 yards
• Blue Linen - 4 yards
• Red Linen - 1/2 yard (I could probably have gotten away with 1/4 yard)
• Red Wool Felt - 2/12 yards
• Pale Yellow Felt - 1/2 yard
• DMC #321 (red) - 4 skeins
• DMC #729 (gold) - 4 skeins
• DMC #796 (blue) - 4 skeins
 

Using the modified Vigdis underdress pattern from this post and the apron dress pattern from this post I cut out my fabric.

 

Then I realized something. My blue linen was thinner than the usual 58" wide that I use. Which led to adding a second gore at the front and a small gore at the top:

Pretty sneaky if I do say so myself.

 

 

Next time: Embellishing the outfit!



Viking: A Quick and Dirty Tutorial Viking Apron Dress or “Smokkr”

Viking Apron Dress or “Smokkr”

 

This dress is also called a Hangerok, but it is thought that term is from after the time when these dresses were worn. For an evolution of the Viking Apron Dress see Compleat Anachronist #59.

The pattern here is for the fitted 10th Century version of the dress. This is only one version of the apron dress pattern. There are others. This one is the best I've found for fabric usage and ease of sewing. Again, this pattern comes from Hefdharfru Vigdís Vestfirzka http://www.silverdor.org/viking/vikingad.html

Here's what it will look like when complete:

 

 

 

 

Measurements:

 

 

 

 



1.            Bust  + 6 times your seam allowance (around the biggest part of you between your waist and underarms)

2.            Chest to Waist + 1in(from where you want the top of the apron to where you want the flare to start)

3.            Waist to Hem (from where your flare starts to however long you want, generally below the knee to mid-calf)

 

Yardage:

You’ll need a piece of fabric that is as wide around as measurement (1). The length will be measurements (2)+(3)+(3). This is the bodice plus twice the skirt.

For example:

My bust measurement is 55 inches.

My bodice is 10 inches.
My skirt is 40 inches.

 

Therefore, I will need a piece of fabric 58 inches wide by 90 inches long.

I can get a whole calf-length apron dress out of 2 1/5 yards of 55" or 60" wide fabric. Which is nice considering how expensive wool is!

I will end up cutting a 2 inch strip off the side which I will use as the straps. If you are exactly the same measurement around as the fabric you are using, you will need about 4 inches more fabric length for the straps (or you can use some card or inkle weaving).

To cut out your fabric:

You will need a yard stick/measuring tape/piece of string for this as well as a piece of chalk that contrasts with your fabric.

Take your big rectangle of fabric, fold it in half long-ways and spread it out flat with the selvedges touching (the finished edge of the fabric as it comes off the bolt)

Mark the lines according to the above layout in chalk then cut out along the chalk lines. Be sure not the cut the fold!

 

 

If you lay them all out, you'll then have pieces like this:

 

Sewing the Body

 

1.      Attach the smaller triangles to the side back pieces.

2.      Sew the pieces in the above order.  Side back 1, Gore, Front, Gore, Side back 2, Gore

• Note: When sewing the gores (the larger triangles) be sure to align the tops first when doing the back, you can always even the hem later, but if the seams are not aligned they cannot be hidden. Especially if you want to do some embroidery!

3.      Sew the last seam to form the dress into a flared tube. You may need to take in the waist part a bit, if you have more of an hourglass shape.

4.      Fold the top edge over 1 inch and sew down. I like using a bit of decorative stitching to do this to embellish the seam. If you are adding tablet weaving or trim at the top add that now.

5.      Trim the bottom edge of the dress so it is even, then hem it. 

 

Once the pieces are all together you should be able to pull the dress on over your head. It should fit around your bust and flare right over your hips. Test this. Test this before putting trim on. There is no crying in historical reenactment sewing, unless you don't try things on while sewing.

Straps:

To make straps, take 2 strips of fabric about 18 inches long by 4 inches wide. (mine are 2 inches wide, which just means I don’t fold them)

Fold them into tubes right-side in, stitch, turn right-side out and press.

Turn in the ends and stitch down so the tubes are closed.

To place the straps, pin them in place 1-2 inches on either side of the center back seam and sew them down

They should go inside the dress, not outside.

The front end of the straps are best left loose and fastened with your brooches. This way you can adjust the fit, a good idea because linen has a tendency to “grow” in heat.

 

Strap Variation:

You can also make smaller tubes (1/2 inch when finished) of fabric and make doubled straps.

This way you are not piercing the fabric with your brooches but attaching them to the loop at the front of your dress and through the loop of the doubled strap.

You will have two long loops which will come over your shoulders and two short loops at the front of the dress.

You will have to more precise with your strap measurement with this method.

I suggest stitching down one side of the tube of each strap and adjusting the other with a safety pin until it is correct.

You can also attach the back of the loops at the center back or one of the ends of the loop at the center back and one straight making an M shape. These variations are especially useful if you have sloped shoulders and straps tend to slide off.

*DING* Dress is done!

Further Resources:

• þora Sharptooth: http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikresource.html

• Gunnora Hallakarva:   http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/

• Ellisif Flakkari:  http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/mjc/sca/aprond.html

• Thorson & Svava’s website: http://thorsonandsvava.sccspirit.com/viking_resources/index.htm

• Another verison of the Viking dress: http://www.caitlinsclothing.com/viking.html

• Overview on one extant apron dress (author calls it a pinafore)http://www.shelaghlewins.com/reenactment/hedeby_apron/hedeby_apron.htm

• Other extant finds: http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~hmg/lrp/kostyme/viking/v-k-forklekjole.html

• More information on underdresses and men’s garb from extant finds: http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~hmg/lrp/kostyme/viking/v-k-underkjole.html

• Viking Embroidery: http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikembroid.html