A few words

 I had the most wonderful aunt. An aunt that made sure to take me to medieval fairs and markets when I was younger. An aunt that was the only one in the family that knew about the band Eluveitie and in her work as a priest led many teenagers through their confirmation by being a game master and doing role playing games. ( I was really envious that we didn't have that kind of confirmation studies around here). She knew her Tolkien by heart and since she read Harry Potter in Swedish, two days after the final book had been released in English she phoned me up and said "I know that you don't read the books, but I know that  your friends read them in English so now you have to tell me who survives and how it all ends". 

So many rounds of shopping, going to concerts, opera and the movies. And as a niece in the same size and with a shared love of pink I was lucky to get so much clothes from her. I am sad that she didn't move back to Falun earlier so we could have had some more time, I had even planned to bring Bilbo and read it loud for her, despite me not liking Tolkien at all. But the smile when we greeted her when she arrived and we told her that was home in Falun, even on the same street where she lived when she lived here, and when you in a sudden burst of clarity said "how long should I have it like this" makes me think that she decided to let go, now that she had come home and was sure that she had us around not just for yourself but for her husband as well. And of course with her sense of humour and being an Uppsala person at heart she made sure to hold out and not leave on the last of April, but a few hours in on May 1st.

As a costumer she also meant something for my development. This is a photo from the midnight premiere of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I am wearing an ill-fitting  dress made out of cheap cotton. She was dressed as a hobbit.

This is her at her Lord of Rings-themed 50th birthday party a few years later, and I made Eowyn's moruning gown for her (she didn't want the high neck or veil though). This velvet dress and the Arwen dress that I made for myself was the first time that I realized how important being careful when cutting and pressing seams were, that sewing was something more than just feeding pieces of fabric through a machine. When we cleared out their apartment two years ago I found this dress, even if it was missing the gold underskirt, so I brought it home and have it among my costumes as a very loving memory of her.

HSM challenge 4: Out of your comfort zone - a 17th century cap

 Last year I finally did a loose 17th century hood for a small 17th century event in my hometown. Well that got me inspired to take part in the main event focused on the 17th century in Sweden.

Every year in April the Vadstena castle hosts a Weekend of Military history, based on the fact that the castle was finished in 1620. Now with good enough 17th century clothes and having met some of the people that take part in it I felt that I really wanted to go this year. And of course I wanted to update my wardrobe. 

The first step was to make new headwear. I have my beautiful loose hood, but it is a bit fancy and unpractical, and I wanted something that was more common and easier to work in. Now finding images of Swedish 17th century women isn't that easy. Most reenactors, or at least people that post tutorials and information, are focused on the English Civil War, and I am weary of just taking English sources as a base. Still for the headwear we have a few portraits of wives of priests in Sweden.

Portrait of Margareta Hansdotter (1594-1657)

There definietly seems to be a standard dress for these women, with a white crosscloth, a  tightfitting cap in white and then a black cap over it. I decided to use this style as the base.

As a crosscloth I simply made a triangle in linen and addet two pieces of tape. I am not sure if there is any evidence for a triangular forcloth in Sweden, for later periods there have been simple bands used for the same function. Still since I dye my hair all my linens tend to become discoloured, and having a larger, and simpler piece of fabric to protect the next layer is a good thing.

For the cap I started with the instructions from the guidelines of The Marquess of Winchester's regiment, an English Civil War group. I used the pattern for coif 4. I actually started with coif 2, but wasn't happy with a seam in the top, I preferred to have the seam at the back.

This was the result, and I felt that it was too big. I tried it on and simply put a pin where I wanted the cap to end, and then I simply cut the front shorter.

I attached two pieces of cape to the back corner of the front piece. For the back I simply pinned pleats in place until it was a good size and then I sewed the pleats in place.

This was the finished result. A bit looser than I had hoped for, but it gives me a good idea on how to work with a pattern for the outer wool cap.

Here I am wearing the white cap under my black cap.

The HSM facts:

What the item is: linen cap and forecloth
How it fits the challenge: The 17th century is a new era for me, and is definitely out of my comfort zone.
Material: 0,5 linen
Pattern: coif 4 according to the instrucion on The Winchester regiment's guide - https://www.marquisofwinchesters.co.uk/living-history-guide-coifs-and-hair/
Year: 1620s
Notions: line thread, a piece of cotton tape for the forcloth
How historically accurate is it? 90%
Hours to complete: an evening
First worn: At Vadstena military days 17-19th of April
Total cost: $10

Photos of my 17th century (1620s) costume

 I didn't get so many good photos of myself in my outfit when I was in Vadstena, so before it was time to pack it up into storage I decided to go out and have a photo shoot with my husband. The 17th century is the first time period when it's starting to get easier to find good locations around here. As a friend who works as an antiquarian at the county museum once said "we don't really care about wooden houses unless the are earlier than the 17th century, because there are so many of them". I decided to go to nearby Gamla Staberg, eventhough the main building and garden is mostly late 17th and 18th century, there are still some older buildings around that made a  nice background for the photos.

HSM challenge 3 - a 17th century hip roll

 This is how to get big hips, and it's all lies. HSM challenge 3 was "comfort at home"

Make something to wear around the (historical) home or that would be generally only seen within the household (informal at-home wear, nightwear, undergarments).

I figured a hip roll, that would only be seen with the household could fit. Now when I started thinking about early 17th century I first didn't think about doing underwear, for a more simple look suitable for a farmer or some poor townspeople you don't really need them. But the more I thought about I wanted to make a proper hip roll to just get that typical silhouette.

Matthew Gnagy, the Modern Maker, has an instruction video on how to make the hip roll, and since I have his Modern Maker volume 2 with the pattern I decided to make one. The hip roll video is part of a series on how to construct a woman's full ensemble, and I really recommend watching it all. I used it to make my skirt, and I have been listening to them all and he gives really good advice on pattern making, fitting and how to make everything come together, even if you are not doing an exact copy of what he is making in the series.

One thing he mentions in the video is his argument for why this kind of construction is more likely than simply cutting out a tube or large crescent shaped pattern. The pattern is in his book and you need 16 pieces, something he mentions. Each piece is fairly small though so it was easy to cut it out from scrap pieces. I used a sturdy evenweave cotton, which was good because I couldn't get all pieces on the same grain, so some are cut on the cross grain as well. It is a modern fabric, and I decided to make the hip roll on the machine, since nobody will see it anyway.

I started out with sewing the piecces together, first 1x1, then 2x2 and so on.

All the pieces were sewn together, I used the wrong side of the fabric to not have such a loud colour pattern visible. I topstitched all the seams down to one side, to make them a bit sturdier. For a while I had thought about maybe using them as channels for boning, but I used too small of a seam allowance to be able to do that.

Then it was time to stuff the roll. Matthew Gnagy warns against using poly filling, since it usually gets warmer than using wool or cotton, but poly batting was what I had at hand, and this is a scrap project. I first rolled the batting into a roll before pushing it in. It was a bit complicated to get the filling in, I worked from both sides so that filling would meet in the middle.

I didn't stuff the roll very hard, both because I don't want an extreme roll and becausue it was so fiddly to get the filling into it.

The ends were gathered together and sewn shut. I also added two pieces of cotton tape to tie it in place.

Me wearing the roll. I got a bit surprised first that I had made it too big, then I realised that I had put around the waist, when I put it on the hips it fit perfectly.

Here I am wearing it under my supportive kirtle and to the right is the kirtle without the hip roll, to oshow the difference in the silhouette that it gives, but not too much difference in length of the kirtle.

I wore the hip roll at the 1620's weekend in Vadstena. I found that it felt like it was going to slide down all the time. Most of the time it stayed in place, but I had to push it up a few times. I am wondering if it would stay better put if I switch from tieing the tapes to having them fastened with a button instead?. The tapes were hard to get quite as tight, and I had to retie them from time to time, a button might keep everything more firmly in place.

Here are photos of me wearing the roll under the rest of my 1620s outfit.

Just the facts

What the item is: a stuffed hip roll
How it fits the challenge: It should only be seen while undressing at home
Material: scraps of cotton, probably less than 1 m in total
Pattern: Matthew Gnagy The Modern Maker volume 2
Year: early 17th century
Notions: poly batting, cotton tape
How historically accurate is it? There are no surviving patterns, but Matthew Gnagy gives a good reason on why he thinks this is a good pattern, also all the materials are modern and it is machine sewn so 30%
Hours to complete: It was quick and fun so max 3 hours
First worn: At Vadstena Military Days 17-19th of April
Total cost: really a scrap project, the fabric were from a pair of curtains that I got from work when they were switched for other ones. Maybe it would have cost around $15 to buy everything new.

Better fit for my 17th century jacket

 When I wore this jacket for the 17th century event last year I had not had time to finish it properly. Also since making it I have changed how I want to wear it. I thought of it more as a jacket to wear over other clothes, as a last warm layer, and I made it quite loose to fit over a my long sleeved green wool gown. Now I see this more as a jacket to wear on its own, and with that I want to make it more fittet.

The most blatant problem though was my mistake with the sleeves, cutting out two of the same side and then having to recut one of them, so it was clearly shorter than the other one.

So the first thing that I had to do was make them equal. So I simply cut off the longer sleeve. Then both of the sleeves were too short, so I had to add some cuffs.

I tested a cuff shape with scrap fabric first until I was happy with the shape. Cut out four pieces and sewed them together before adding them to the end of the sleeve. The sleeve is a bit larger than fashionable at the time, so the cuffs are also a bit on the larger side, but I did not feel like taking them, rather keeping the loose fit.

The next step was to take in the front, quite a lot, to get a better fit. Thankfully all the hooks and eyes were sewn to a separate piece of fabric that I had attached to the main fabric like a facing and then added the lining over. 

So I opened up that seam took out the strips with the hooks and eyes and then I could take in the front seam, by simply trying it on. I can't get a perfect fit in this way, not like when you take in both the front and side seams, or even better make a better fitting bodice from the start, but I could at least make it less loose in the front.

The final alteration was to add shoulder wings. This is a very typical feature for clothes in the late 16th and early 17th century, so adding them permanently would place this jacket firmly in this time period, but I made them detachable so I can take them off, and that will make the jacket more of a generic style that works for a longer time period.

The size of the shoulder wing was tried with a scrap piece first.

I cut them out in two layers and sewed them together. The rounded edge is then sewn to the the shoulder seam, but with quite large stitches so that they will be easy to take off I want to. In hindsight I should probably have made the wings a little larger, they are on the small side, but this was really the last scrap of fabric that I had. Here are photos of the new fit of the jacket.

1620's weekend in Vadstena

Every year Vadstena castle, which was finished in 1621, has a military weekend with and invites reenactors to recreate the 1620s. The focus is military, but there was a camp to show off the cooking and crafts as well. I had met some of the people organizing it last year and decided to go. The 17th century is a new era for me, even if I had dipped my toes into it, but for this event I felt that I had to up my game, since the other recreators are really good. 

I will post more about my clothes as individual posts, but this was the full ensemble.

I had brought things with me so that I could show what a table in a tavern, and the ingredients that they used, looked like. It is based on an archaeological excavation in Falun, and I have written more about it here. 

For my own main meal on Saturday I didn't cook anything but had brought with me a mix of pickled vegetables, greens and meats to make what was called a "grand sallet" in the time period in England.

What is really nice with the event is that we were allowed to be in the casle at night, and if you had the proper gear you could even sleep in one of the towers. I bought a modern airbed with me though so I slept in a modern part of the castle.

The focus was on the military though and there were people from Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands there, and it was impressive to see such a large group of infantry working together.

There were also some musketeers, and two horses but I didn't get any good photos of the cavalry.

It was a really nice experience going to an even that is so limited in time, and everyone were really dressed up in clothes from the same era, early 16th century.

Still I'm not a big fan of the 17th century, and I didn't go from the event inspired to make a lot of new clothes, except that it would be nice to have a nice apron and not the worn and dirty that I have. Still I will definitely try to make it to Vadstena if the event returns next year because it was a great weekend.