Repairing Lady Poe for work

Sometimes I think about how I started as a costumer, and how important it was for me to not start another project before I had finished the one I was working on. That's not exactly the case anymore. I would also say that with more historical wardrobes I have found more opportunities to wear them and that means that I keep doing smaller projects while working on my main one. So I have finished the lacng holes for the sleeves of my court gown, but this weekend instead of finishing the sleeves I brought my Lady Poe down from storage.

You might remember how all the trim frayed liked crazy and I felt it was a bit of a disaster when I wore it for the ball last June.

This was the state of the trim, and I was spreading silk everywhere. Now I went over all the edges with my pinking shears again, but this time I painted all the edges with heavy starch. I made it from 1 tablespoon of potatoe starch and 400 ml of water. It was a gooey mess, but I painted it on with a brush, and the day after I pressed it.

This is the new trim edges. They do still fray a little bit, but it's not a disaster. I probably need to go over all the edges when I'm going to wear it and make sure that there are no loose threads that can start to unravel. The trim feels very papery, but there are no stains from the starch on the silk.

For fun I diluted the heavy start in more water and also starched my smallest cap, a petticoat and linen veil with it, just to see what would happen. I love the feeling of the starched petticoat, so I think I need to go over all my petticoats and starch them from now on

Why did I do all this? Well at work we needed to do a fun thing for social media about the middle of the 18th century, and of course I volunteered to dress up apropriately for the time period. It was also a chance for me to get photos where I'm standing in a place that's normally closed off.

For my hair I took the time to sleep on pin curls for the front of the head, but the back was just allowed to dry naturally. I then used cold cream and hair powder and made a tete de mouton hairstyle. The back hair was just braided in two braids that were looped up, and all the hairpins are hidden under the cap.

The social media thing will go online in the end of June.

Shopping/wish list for the 1520s gown

I'm working really slow right now. I always have trouble really finishing something, because as I near the end I'm worried that I will screw it all up and destroy all the work I've done and end up with something I'm not satisfied with. A thing that gets me motiated to finish though is that I want to go on to the next part of the project.

And the next part of the project is to make a new wulsthaube, so that I can make a new hood that I can embroider. I also want to decorate one of my belts with a lot of mounts, and then comes the cape. I also need a new shift, but I will push that one back to last.

I will need to buy quite a lot of hardware, and even if every individual item isn't too expensive in the end it all ads up, so this is a post where I try to just make a wish list so that I can plan my budget. This is definitely a wishlist, and I will probably have to cut down on it.

For the goldwork hood I will order my supplies from Golden-Hinde.UK, but there are a few things I need from other places. On the hood that I'm using as inspiration there are a lot of stones in settings. They look very much like these

Trulyhats.Net is an American site though, and with the current state of the world I'm not sure that I can trust that they would come here within a decent time.

Gothic-Cast has these buttons, dated to 1400-1500 in their inventory. They are more rounded that then other option, but on the other hand the stones are made from enamel and are not faceted which is more correct than the first choice. A bonus is also that these buttons are made from a Swedish find, so they would definitely be correct for my Swedish court gown. They are available with red, dark blue and green stones and with a gilded or silver finish. They cost around €4 each with a gilded finish, and I need a bunch of them, so probably around 500 SEK just for the buttons.

Gothic-Cast also has these other things I would like

A pendant for 1470-1520 €45

A molten chain 14th-17th century around €50

A clasp to close the cape 1400-1500, €22.50

Already there I'm into quite a lot of money and that is before I have started to look at mounts to decorate the belt. Still it's fun drooling over all the beautiful jewellery.

A viking day

With all big events of the summer cancelled, you have to create your own opportunities to wear costumes and have fun. Up in Rättvik two women, who had planned to spend the summer on tour to different viking markets and events to sell their goods, have instead put up a viking camp that you can visit and experience the viking life. This weekend they had a bit of soft opening, meaning that everything is ready but they won't welcome visitors until next weekend. Even if the viking age isn't a focus area for me, I do have my quick viking and of couse I jumped at the chance to cook historical food on open fire again.

The weather on the morning was dreadful, with really heavy rain, but I trusted the weather forecast that said that it would get better, and after lunch it cleared up and I set off to Vikarbyn outside Rättvik. Ok, technically it's Öja, on the outskirts of Vikarbyn, outside Rättvik.

Me in front of their big, main tent that act as a viking hall. 

Together with my viking outfit I'm wearing some accessories that are good examples of why it's good to have a few "time-travelling" garments that you can use for almost anything. I'm using my standard unsmocked, linen apron, last used for an 1897 photo shoot,  for shoes I'm using a very neutral pair of black slip on shoes in fake leather. They are so non-descript that I can use them for all eras where I don't have proper shoes. On my head I'm wearing my 16th century veil that I usually tie around my wulsthaube, but now I just tied in the back of my head. Viking women didn't have to cover their hair out of modesty, but I think it's a nice and practical way to keep the hair out of the way. Im also very happy with my new glasses that I have bought to be less visible when I'm costume. The frames are so thin that they are hardly visible in photos, compared to my standard thick, red frames. Later when it got a bit chilly I also wore my Skjöldehamn hood.

The camp is situated with a lovely view over Lake Siljan The only thing marring the historical feeling is the blue plastic balls for straw that the neighbouring farmer has set up, and they can't be totally covered by the wooden fence. They also have sheep, with very newborn lambs, goats and hens around.

The center of the camp is the open hearth. In the background you can also see several smaller tents.

After having a look around the camp and just sitting and talking around the fire it was time to get cooking, with historical food on open fire there is no such thing as a quick meal.

Basting the steak with the marinade

For the food recipes I haven't used any primary sources, instead relying on the recipes from Ribe Viking Center in Denmark, available in both Danish, English and German, and Fotevikens museum, available in Swedish and English.

The main dish was an alemarinated pork steak. The Ribe recipe called for regular lager, but I switched it for an ale instead. The pork had marinated for 24 hours, and it took almost 3 hours to cook over the fire. When it was ready it was delicious, you could really feel the ale flavour through the meat, and the pork was just done so it was tender but not so much that it fell into pieces. It could probably be on for even longer if you want it more tender.

Some were more eager to eat than others

With the steak we had buttermilk flatbreads. Basically buttermilk, coarse ryeflour and some salt mixed together to form a firm dough. I made the dough in the morning, and then we baked it in the evening. The idea is to let the buttermilk and rye interact and turn sour and create a natural leavening. The effect was small, but it was there. Since you can't buy buttermilk in Sweden I had to make my own butter in order to get buttermilk. For the butter I used 700 ml of cream and whisked it until I got butter, I used my very modern stand mixer for the whisking. The butter was then flavoured with salt and a teaspoon or so with honey, while I used the buttermilk for the bread.

I also had some turnips that we put in the embers. They tasted good, but it was a bit hard to remove the charred outer skins from the turnips. Finally on the way to Rättvik I had passed my mother and picked up a big, bunch of nettles, so we made nettle soup. The nettle soup didn't have any recipe but it was nettles, some small yellow onions and a small parsnip, cooked until tender in stock (we used a modern stock cube).

All in all it was a real viking age feast, and a great escape from 2020. I will probably go up and visit more times in the summer. If you want to visit the camp it is open weekends the whole summer, but you need to prebook your visit, in order to be able to maintain social distancing they can't have too many visitors at once. Learn more at Ingvara.se, the site is in both Swedish and English.