HSM 2025 - Challenge 8 - Make do and mend

 As usual I come out of the summer season having produced things that I realize can fit with the HSM challenges. 

August: Make Do and Mend (2014, 5 th most popular): Get your historical wardrobe in order by fixing/mending something that has worn out or gone wrong. Alternatively, you could focus on the historical precedent of making-do by re-making an old garment or remaking something into a historical garment (ex: a chemise from old bedsheets). 

For this project it was time to fix my husbands landsknecht trousers, the short hose. 

 I felt from the start that they were a bit too baggy, I wanted them shorter and tighter.

I started with simply cutting off the lowest row of pieces. In the front that went well, in teh back I had to cut through some of the pieces. HEre you can see the shorter linen lining peaking through as well.

This was the result after cutting out and evening out the hose. I thought they looked perfect, but my husband complained that they were too short. He wouldn't be able to wear boxers under them, and he was not happy with my suggestion to buy briefs instead. ;) Well to make him more happy and comfortable in his new hose I went to look for some inspiration. 

This woodcut from 1510 has a a pair of nice short hose with a daggered hem to them. That is not something I have seen on many people, but I thought it would be a cute and fairly easy way of lengthening the hose.

I took the cut off material and I managed to  cut them into daggers.

I had to do some fiddling at the crotch. The hose had also split there so I needed to add a gore to make them larger. For that I had to use another piece of red wool, since I was out of the original, but piecing and mending is definitely accurate. 

To cover the seam between the square pieces and the points I tacked a grey wool ribbon over them. I didn't have time to do anything more. I do have a plan though to cover all the places where the seams meet up with bows, since I think there are not enough bows and rosettes on landsknecht reenactors.

The HSM facts

What the item is: A pair of short landsknecht hose
How it fits the challenge: I remade the first version into a more sleek shape
Material: The old pair of hose, 30 cm of new wool fabric
Pattern: Inspired by a woodcut from 1510
Year: 1510s
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? The hose with the square pieces are a mix of two images, one with the rectangles and one with the daggered hem, but still around 90%
Hours to complete: 10
First worn: At Medieval Week in Visby 2025
Total cost: $10 (the new fabric, I bought a meter even if I just used a scrap of it)

Post event-season costume care

 Yesterday we arrived home after Medieval Week in Visby. Medieval week is our main historical event of the year. I mostly spend time in the kitchen, and this year I hardly took any photos at all, also we didn't have any new clothes, even if I had fixed my husband's short hosen, so not much when it comes to costuming things to share here.

This was my look for most of the time, I wore my new under kirtle and then my giant apron, and as you can see, after a week cooking on an open hearth it was really dirty. The dirt doesn't come so much directly from the fire, but all the pots and pans that we need get very sooty, and even if they are cleaned on the inside on the outside they are dirty, and when you lift them and move the around, or brush against them, well the soot ends up on me.

We took the early morning ferry home from Gotland, which made me really tired, but coming home already around 3 pm meant that I had time to actually start caring for my things, and I had also taken today off from work for that. All our cutlery and kitchen stuff got in the dishwasher and could be packed away. I also prepared the linen and cotton clothing by putting them in a soak with water and some "galltvål" ( a brand of traditional washing soap). I had extra soap on all the major stains and the cuffs and collars as well. I don't have my own washing machine or balcony, but the shared washerroom in my building was free for the early morning pass. So I went up early, did some extra scrubbing on the stains and then put the linen and cottons in the machine. I also put our wool socks in the machine, on a wool program, to get them really clean.

Then I occupied the grass and patio area of my house block. The white linens were put on the grass to get bleached by the sun and grass, it was a bit cloudy so didn't get the best effect. The cottons and non-white linens were hung up to dry and the wools were aired. I kept everything there for a couple of hours, until my nose deemed that the wool didn't stink anymore and the linen stuff was dry. The beige underkirtle had some soot stains on it at the hem, but I spot cleaned that with spirit vinegar (ättika) and that was enough.

Then it was my husband's time to do his part, which is to care for the shoes before they are put away. The were cleaned and treated and the shoe blocks were put in. For his cowmule shoes he doesn't have shoe blocks that are square, but he uses regular shoe blocks and stuffs the toes with some scraps of fabric to fill them out.

Then it was up to the attic to sort everything into the storage. My system is that I keep on plastic box for each subtype of clothing, so one box for shirts, one for underkirltes, one for headwear and so on. His landsknecht outfit all gets into the same box though, to keep it all together. I also have cedar wood balls in all the boxes, to protect the clothes. Then I stack them on top of each other, but now I can't fit more boxes into the space so we will see what happens if I make new clothes.

And with that it was done, and I think this is a new record for me to get everything packed away after Medieval Week.

Resources for Leia and Padme costumes

 At Närcon this weekend I talked a lot to a person about Padmé and Leia costumes, and I realized that simply due to the fact that I was around while the Padmé costumes were being analyzed and before social media, I have a lot of information about them, since I followed the progress of my fellow costumers. Today there is a lot of info social media, but it's usually hard to sort through social media posts to find clear and structured information on the costumes. Thankfully though a lot of the early research was done on forums and websites that are still around, if you know where to look, and this post is my way of trying to gather them in one place. So yes, if you want to make one of these costumes, but especially Padmé's, then I really recommend taking the time to read up on old internet post and on forums that were made before the advent of everyone posting videos and short clips of what they are doing.

First of all if you want to make a Padmé or Leia costume, the best way to start is over at the rebellegion. The Rebel Legion standards are lists of required elements if you want to become a member of the Rebel Legion, even if you don't want to become a member those lists are clear instructions on what parts the costumes are made up of. The Rebel Legion also has a forum, where persons making their version of the costumes have posted and are posting their progess, so you can see how other people has tackled a specific costume. Those forums can be found here: Rebel Legion Royalty/Senatorial forums

The most comprehensive website out there for Padmé, and Leia and generic jedi costumes, is Padawan's guide. Maggie, who ran the site, did and amazing job of collecting all available info on the costumes, and it is split between reference images, fanmakes and construcions tips for each costume. She basically summed up all the research that was done and made sure it was available in one place. That it is still alive, even if it hasn't been updated in many years, is a great gift from Maggie to all Star Wars costumers out there today.

A lot of what Maggie posted were summaries on what was discussed on the Jedi Council forums' Costuming and Props board. Back in the early 2000s this was the place where all Padmé costumers gathered and discussed their costumes, and posted their progress. All the Padmé Amidala costumes have their own tag in the forum - so that can be found here. Most of the threads are locked nowadays due to having been inactive for too long, but they are still there and are fill with information. Leia's costumes can be found here.

One costume that I get asked about is the iconic red gown from Episode one, also know among costumers as the "red invasion" costume. Back when blogs were a big thing on the internet Naergi from Germany did an extensive analysis, and the best recreation of the gown I have seen. If you are interested in doing that costume, you need to read her blog post. She also has other Star Wars costumes on her blog, so can be worth looking into for other characters as well. 

With this piece of internet archaeology I hope I can help some people who wants to make their own Padmé Amidala costume, and don't know where to start. Compared to Leia's costumes, that were basically made for a low budget film, all of Padmé's costumes are complicated, either in cut and construction or in materials, or in both so making one will always involve a lot of work and usually quite a lot of money as well. 

16th century underkirtle

 Back in March I posted about constructing a new supportive underkirtle, using the barra system. Back then I only had some fiddling to do, and I hoped to have it finished in time for Leksand's Medieval Market. Well that didn't happen. With Project Toad going on I have had the project on the backburner, picking it up from time to time, but now it is finished as well.

I started with bodice. It's made from wool and with a linen lining. It closes at the sides with spiral lacing.

I was worried on how hard it would be to close it by myself, but when I switched the lacing from being laced up, as I normally do with frontlacing gowns, to lacing it down it was a lot easier. The laces are temporary, I will switch them for more historical ones before packing for Visby.

The skirt is cut in gores, and to be honest I mostly winged them, rather than following a pattern. That also to do with my getting some really low blood sugar while cutting them out, and low blood sugar leads to some strange decisions, but once done I couldn't change them..

I added the skirt, that was still wide enough that I needed to gather it to the bodice, and then I could try the whole kirtle on - and I was so dissappointed. Even if I had taken in the front seam some more, there was no support, even if it felt snug under the bust. The problem was that the straps were too long though, so when I shortened the straps, I finally got some support.

The result of the shortened strap is that it doesn't sit perfet at the back where it joins the back piece, but it is good enough.

Now it felt a lot better, and then it was only the hemming left.

The hem is done by adding a long strip of wool as a hem facing, that is my favorite way of making hems. I really like the extra stiffness it gives to the hem.

The finished kirtle, which ends at around midcalf.

Finishing Project Toad

 So as usual in the end stage of a project I'm not as good with documenting what I'm doing, but the project is finished and I will try to scramble up some finishing details.

In the last post I had just made the hats wearable, and it was only on to adding the big white circles on them. I cut out round shapes and then I glued them on, and that is where I hit a snag, and why you should always test things before going all in.

The textile glue bled all through the white lycra and I got really ugly stains, since I had just randomly squeezed the glue on. It being glue it was really stuck though so there was no way I could remove he spotted fabric. Thankfully I had some extra white lycra left, since I had bought too much, and I could just eke out five new circles. I had thankfully only done one hat at a time so for Toadette I knew it wouldn't work. I simply had to handsew the circles on to the hat. I can say handsewing on the big unwieldy hats was not comfortable at all, so it took me a whole day for one hat, because I had to take breaks. It took me some time to get energy to redo the blue hat. I was thinking about if I had to cut out an interlayer to prevent the stains from showing through, but in the end I was too lazy for that and I just sewed the new fabric on top of the old

This is the end result. The stains are faintly visible, but most people won't think about it, so I will keep it at that.

For Toadette's ball plaits I bought styrofoam balls and covered them in the same fabric as the rest of the outfit. Around the balls I have made a net of fishingline, that interweaves with the fabric, that way the weight of the ball is not just hanging from a thread at the top. The fishing line is almost invisible, and I have sewn it onto the main hat. My idea with the glued on hooks didn't work, when I noticed that one of the hooks had already gotten loose. I guess that they were made for static weight, not for the swinging of three balls hanging from it. I have sewn through the foam, but to prevent the fishing line from cutting into the foam I have looped it around empty plastic thread rolls on the inside, to distribute the weight better.

With the balls done I could make a first costume test, because I had sewn the dress inbetween working on the hats. The dress was simple in construction, but lycra is not a forgiving material to work with.

The pattern for the dress is a simple A-line. I made it by tracing a top, to get the neckline and sleeves good, and then to make it wider I added one triangular gore on each side. I then traced the finished dress to make a pattern for the vest. The vest was cut in one back and two fronts edged with a premade gold bias tape. To finish the raw edges of the sleeveholes, but on the dress and the vest I sewed them together and turned the vest to the front.

My dress was finished and it was time to make his vest, and apparently I didn't take any photos of that process. It was a simply e-pattern for a man's vest that I fond on etsy. The outer fabric was lycra, but to stabilize it the lining is a blue cotton canvas. Here the lycra came to the rescue. When I measured my husband the pattern was made according to his chest measurements, but it was too small at the waist. I solved that by removing the shaping darts at the front of the cotton lining, but I could keep them in the lycra, which is also made it stretch really taught and nice over the lining, and looks really good. I skipped the finer details, like welts and buttonholes so the vest is closed with some snaps on the inside instead

Wearable Toad hats

 The hats have been covered, but are still missing the white rounds on them.

We have discovered that it is impossible to fit the whole hat in a selfie, and that we can't kiss when wearing them. The following images are some taken when working on the blue version and some of the pink version.

With the growing size I realized it wouldn't be enough to just trust a good sized head opening to keep them on the head.

The solution was to make a liner out of grosgrain ribbons. That also means that the opening didn't have to fit very tight, since the liner would still keep it from sliding down.

I sewed the lining on to the foam base, with thick buttonhole thread and big stitches, to avoid weaking the foam with the stitches. I then folded the fabric and the foam over the edge and sewed that to the grosgrain ribbon as well.

Time for a fit check. With the ribbon and the fabric folded into it, the size of the had opening had gotten quite a lot smaller. I had to do some cuts in the foam for his hat. For my own hat I wanted to be preemptive and I cut the hole bigger. In fact it got too big, and with a too big headopening the hat slides around too much. It was easier to fix that by simply adding more wadding to the edge, and then removing bits of it until the hat sat snug, but not too tight. On this stage it is important that you don't feel any pain or pinching, I hope my husband was honest when he said it was comfortable (but heavy). If it feels just a tiny bit uncomfortable during the fitting will only get worse when wearing it for a longer time period

Toadette will also have her braids/balls hanging from the hat. For that I have attached clear plastic hooks on the foam base, so that I can attach them to that. I'm hoping that the glue will be strong enough to hold them. Since the lycra doesn't fray I will simply cut a hole for the hook in the outer fabric when it's time to attach the braids.

The final closing and adjustment of the fabric to make it lie as flat as possible was done by hand. It gives a bit of Frankenstein feeling to the seamms, but on the top most of it will be hidden by the white roundel.

Toadette also needs her ballbraids, and with the main hat finished I cut out paper templates to check what size they should have.

And with that it is time to also start on the clothes for Toadbert and Toadette. All in all after the inital building of the hats, the rest has been a more smooth experience than I thought it would be. 

A cute summer dress - Burda 6133

 Sometimes it's fun to just do something without a great plan or deadline. Since I have said that I will try to not buy any clothes this year and summer seems to be finally showing up I really wanted a new summer dress. My favorite dress of the last few summers is definitely too big now, I can wear it belted and I will see if I can take it in, so when I set out to buy wadding for project Toad in the only fairly local fabric store, I also decided to pick up something that would make a nice dress.

First I needed to find a pattern. I wanted a base pattern that wasn't too complicated, but still more interesting than just a sack with a belt. I also wanted a pattern that I could see myself modyfing and working with to make other dresses. In the end I went with Burda 6133. I liked the flare sleeves, but I could also see how I could change them for more regular sleeves. The panels in the skirt and the bodice also added interested and I could see how I could combine different fabrics for the bodice and the skirt for example.

I picked up the fabric in the store, and this is what really is the joy of physical shopping. I am normally not very fond of florals, but this was a more modern floral, and the colours matched my har perfectly.

The pattern was a dream to work with. Burda nowadays does a lot of its patterns as e-patterns, so I bought it and printed it. The pieces weren't terrible large, so I didn't have to tape too many pages together at ones, that also meant that it was fairly easy to place on the fabric and cut out as well. The only thing I will say about the pattern is that I didn't see, or I missed the notches for the front and back of the sleeve.

The fit of the pattern was interesting, especially for me that hasn't worked with a big pattern company pattern in a long time. I bought the pattern in the size that I have when buying clothes, which was the largest available for this pattern. Then I took a look at the measurments given, and according to them I should have a size 2-3 sizes bigger, my waist measuremnts was almost 10 cm larger than what was recommended on the pattern. commercial patterns have a lot of ease in them, and in the end the waist fit perfectly. The only thing is that it is slightly tight over the bust. For future use I will probably just use a slightly smaller seam allowance at the front bodice seam. I used 1,5 cm and 1 cm would probably have made it even better. One things about the pattern is that unlike all other commercial patterns I've worked with it didn't include any seam or hem allowances, so I had to add them in myself. For the length of the skirt I used the B length, but I added 4 cm, which made it end up somewhere between the A and B length.

The pattern was really easy to sew. I don't think I even looked at the pattern instructions. The most complicated thing is to install the invisible zipper in the back. The one thing I changed from the pattern was that I didn't close the slit in the front, instead kept it open, and I used bias tape as a hem facing instead of regular double folded hem. In all it took me one evening to cut out the pattern, both from paper and fabric, one day to sew the dress, I then had it hang over night before hemming the skirt and sleeves.

For once I actually took care to make sure that inside looked nice as well, normally I just zigzag the edges on the inside. I want this to stand up to a lot of wear and washing, so for this I encased all the seam allowances. Where I could I used french seams, which is starting to get a favorite seam of mine. It doesn't take much longer than first sewing the seam and then overcasting it, especially on straight seams, and almost all seams are straight on the pattern. Where I could I rolled the seam allowances up and sewed them so that now raw edges were visible.

All in all it was a fun and easy project I can definitely see myself using this pattern more and make dresses in different lengths and with different sleeves from it.