HSM Challenge 10 - get crafty

 This is the October challenge, so it felt good to actually finish it in the right month. This was also a total 180 degrees from my big Celebration project. This was small, cheap and quick.

October: Get Crafty: Make use of your own skills or learn a new one to make something from scratch rather than buy material. The possibilities for learning and applying new skills and techniques are endless. Lace, pleated self-fabric trim, knotted fly trim, embroidery, dyeing, knitting your own corset laces, hand painting your own fabric…

I decided to make cloth buttons, so that I don't have to rely on bought hooks and eyes for closure of my 16th century things. 

 The fabric for the buttons started out as a wool skirt I found in a second hand store. In 2016 it was turned into my first dreadful attempt at a 16th century teller barret, and quick guards for my undergown to turn more into an outer garment. I didn't have an outer gown at the time.

Back in 2016

I never used the hat again, and earlier this year I cut it up. There was still pretty large pieces of wool, so I've kept them for small things. Like buttons. The buttons are made from this tutorial. When I use them I will probably cover them with thread, but I won't do that until I know what I'm going to use them for, so that I can match them to the project. For now they are going into the regular button box.

The Challenge: October - get crafty

Material: scraps of reen wool

Pattern:  this tutorial. 

Year: medieval

Notions: waxed linen thread

How historically accurate is it? They are so basic so they are definitely very accurate, 95% or so

Hours to complete: less than an hour

First worn: not yet

Total cost: all from stash, but probably less than $5

HSM 20: Challenge - Celebration

 This is a summary of the work with my 1520's court gown. It's been a long project. I wrote in my HSM costuming plans for 2016 that I wanted to make this gown, and now it's almost 5 years later. The years really developed my skills as a seamstress, so I'm happy that I waited until now to make it. The work on this project can be found with the tags 1520's or 1520's court gown. I've worked on the project so long that I haven't had a consistent tagging for it.

Anyway the theme for August was Celebration: 

Make something for a specific historical celebration, make something generally celebration worthy, make something that celebrates a historical hero, or just make something that celebrates some new skills you’ve learned.

This ticks all the boxes. It is a gown that was made to be something that could have been worn at the coronation of Christian II in Sweden in 1520. The guests definitely thought it was something to celebrate, before the coronation was turned into the Bloodbath of Stockholm.  It is also a gown that is based on something that Christina Gyllenstierna could have worn. She is definitely one of my heroes, and she has a wiki article here if you want to read a short summary of her life. It leaves out a lot, especially in her later life, but it's enough to show what a fascinating character she is. Thirdly this project made learn goldwork, so it celebrates those skills. I still have a long way to go until I master it, but it is definitely a new skill for me.

The inspiration for the gown is the figure of Christina Gyllenstierna on the main altar piece in Västerås' Cathedral, Sweden, the only available image that was done in her lifetime. It's from 1516.

Since the cape covers so much of the figure I've also used this altarpiece from 1506 by Lucas Cranach as inspiration, not the least for the headpiece. It's available in high resolution from the digital Lucas Cranach Archive. The painting dates a bit earlier, to 1506, but it is the only one I've found with a very similar headpiece, and the simple style of the dress, without slashing, wasn't out of fashion in 1520.

I also used the Maria von Habsburg (Mary of Hapsburg as most internet sources say) gown that is dated to 1520 and has been preserved in Hungary. It's not only on display but has detailed descriptions of the pattern and the constrution published online. I couldn't quite use it straight off though, since I didn't want that open front, from what I can see of the figure there is nothing suggesting that is open in the front.

As underwear I'm using a basic shift, with an attached gold ribbon. This is a temporary solution and I am working on a new, embroidered shift. The next layer is my mustard kirtle. 

The kirtle when worn as an outer gown

The kirtle makes this a really warm costume, but it is necessary in order to make the skirt stand out from the legs, and not just hang limply.

The main gown consists of a bodice, S-sleeves that are cut off at the middle and tied together and a full circle skirt, that has been pieced to make a full circle. The sleeves are tied together with black velvet ribbons. The fabric is a gold silk velvet from Beckford silk. The whole gown, including the skirt, is interlined in an unbleached linen fabric. This was the best way of making sure that the slippery velvet didn't move too much. The hem has a deep hemguard of wool broadcloth. This also helps the skirt to stand out from the feet and means it's possible to walk in it without having to use your hand to lift the skirt. The guards around the neckline, down the front and the cuffs is made from a reproduction polyester brocade from Sartor. 

As accessories I am using my rosary of coral and gold beads and my sweetbag with goldwork. The sweetbag is more similar to purses used in the late 16th century, but I need somewhere to keep my insulin and phone, with my app that monitors my glucose levels. 

The embroidered cap has its own tag here. It is made of fine linen, with an interlining of cotton canvas and a lining of heavier linen. The embroidery is mostly japanese gold thread and pearl purl in different sizes and colours. It is covered by a silk gauze veil that has been tied around the head with the ends tucked in under the cap.

I'm also wearing a reproduction of a necklace worn by Catherine of Aragon, dated to the 1520's, from the etsy seller TudorJewels and a 15th century ring from Historiska Fynd.

So just the facts, and this is for the gown only

The Challenge: August - Celebration

Material: 9 meters of silk velvet, 9 meters of unbleached linen, 1,5 m wool broacloth, 1m poly brocade

Pattern: My own, with inspiration from the cut of the skirt from Maria von Habsburgs gown

Year:  1516-1520

Notions: 3 m silk ribbons, silk sewing thread, linen sewing thread, silk buttonhole threads, a ball of wool yarn (for the braided lacing cord)

How historically accurate is it? I've tried my best, but I've had to take more modern short cuts, for example with the poly brocade, so I would say 80%

Hours to complete: I've worked on it on and off for 8 months

First worn: A photo session on October 24th

Total cost: $500

Cosplay Day in Avesta, 2020

 There was an actual cosplay event this year! Traditionally the small AvestaCon is held last weekend of October. With the current situation it would not be possible to have proper convention and follow the restrictions on attendance and distance. The municipality of Avesta was still eager to organize something, and instead of a convention they decidedto host theme days, one for cosplay and one for boardgames. It would be small, since only 50 guests would be allowed, butit would be something after everything had been cancelled. It was obvious that people are eager to go out in costume again, and we had a record attendance with the Nordic Legions when two person from Västerås and three from Stockholm wanted to join in as well. The whole day was really casual and fun. All the troopers were free to be out in costume as much as they wanted, Andrew spent the whole day building on his sandtrooper backpack in public and at 12 we had a small presentation where we talked about what the Nordic Legions is and how you can become a member. 

Darth Nihilus and Darth Vader had a raffling game of air hockey

The group photo with members from Nordic Reel Icons, Nordic Garrison and Nordic Base

Vader made sure everyone kept their distance and used the hand sanitizer

For the trooping I wore my Mon Mothma. It's easy and comfortable. The cheap fabric in the underdress has shrunk since I made it, so at midnight the night before I made a quickfix to lengthen it again by ripping up the waist seam and inserting a wide piece of fabric between the bodice and the skirt. It doesn't look good, but it's not shown so it doesn't matter. I also realised when I was there that the stitches holding the white overgown together at the sides had come undone, so intead of a gown it looked more lika poncho. I don't think anyone except me noticed though.

The reason why I've been stressing to finish the court gown though is that I had scheduled a time with the professional photographer that was there, to get some really nice photos of it. The huge slagbrick walls of Verket work fine as medieval stone walls. I haven't gotten those photos yet, but here are the photos that I took with my phone.

I am going to work on getting posts up about the finishing of both the gown and the hood in the coming days or weeks. I did take photos, but I didn't have time to make posts.

The skirt was a monster to make and hem, but I just love how it moves when I walk, and when I twirl.

Finishing stretches of the court gown

 So I am going to meet a photographer on Saturday, that means that I need to have the court gown in a wearable state.

Status report

Gown - I spent almost the whole weekend hemming it, it's not quite finished, but just one or two hours left to do.  I also need to permanently attach the velvet ribbons that tie the sleeves together, and add bead caps to them. 

Gold hood - 

I have one section left, it is outside of the frame so I couldn't do it while the whole piece waas still attached. I have now removed the fabric from the frame, and realised just how heavy all the gold thread is. I need to finish the secion, and then add a border to all the edges. I have added some semi-precious stones (garnet and carneol) after insipration from the Cranach painting, but I'm really unsure if I like them or not.

Shift - I need to wear a shift underneath it all. I have started on a shift with silk embroideries, but for the photoshoot on Saturday I'm thinking of repurposing one of my old shift, and I need to decide if I have time to upcycle it a bit more.

 

Cape - the cape needs its fur lining. I haven't posted about it yet, I'm planning to put everything with the cape in one post in the future. I don't thinkthe cape is necessary though so I will only finish it if I get all the other stuff done first. 

Sometimes it feels good to redo things

 In my last update I posted a photo of where I was with the embroidery and that I was using double couching.

That was basically me trying to convince myself that it looked good. Tonight I finshed the first shape, and I simply wasn't happy with it. So I simply took away the double couching thread, and it hurt to do that when I only have a limited supply of the thread. I tried to save as much as I could, but a lot of it was destroyed. 

Without the double couching the gold thread lies much smoother and I'm much happier with it, even if I now have to figure out how I'm going to make sure that the threads don't move when they don't have the extra couching thread on them.

Still it actually felt good to rip out and go back to what it was before I did the double couching.

The golden cap - attaching it to the frame and starting the embroidery

 In order to be able to stretch the fabric while I do the embroidery I bought an interlocking square embroidery frame. You buy two sets of two sides and click them together in the corners, this means that you can buy different sized sets and combine them together to get the frame you want. I bought the largest sets I could find, but it turns out I would not have needed a set that was this tall, only the length was needed. For this frame it's recommended that you tack the fabrick down with nails, but I chose to tie it on with strings instead. 

I started with sewing on strips of a sturdy fabrics to the canvas layer of the fabric that I'm going to embroider. The canvas is cotton, and it only covers the area that needs to be reinforced for the shaping and the embroidery, not where I'm going to fold and pleat the fabric in the back.

The canvas and the linen layers are held together by the stitches I used to sew the felt padding on. Each shape consists of a base layer of black heavy felt, and then a top layer of wool fabric in the same colour as the thread I'm going to use. So dark yellow for the gold ad white for the silver threads. My pattern is a mix of my two inspiration sources. I'm using the alternating colour scheme from the Cranach painting, but the shapes are more like the rows of rectangles that are on the Västerås sculpture.

The thread and wire that I'm using were very much dependent on what I could get hold of. I made a big order from the Golden Hinde in the UK, but when it arrived I realised that it would not be enough. Due to COVID-19 the shipping time from the UK had taken so long that I needed to find Swedish suppliers. The Swedish suppliers didn't have much to offer, but I found a supplier of Jap Gold size 16 and pearl purl in size 1, I would have preferred to work with pearl purl 3 and gold passing in size 8-10. 

For the silver pattern I used cut work to attach the copper and silver pearl purl size 3 and inbetween I have couched down silver pearl purl 1, since I couldn't find a needle that was small enough to thread through the thinner purl. The silhouette is made with 3 ply silver twist that is couhed down. For the gold parts I have divded the bigger parts in section with 3 ply gold twist that is couched down. I've then plunged down row after row of jap gold, and in order to attach them I have couched a thread of gold passing 6 over the jap gold threads. In my booklet about medieval embroidery this is called a double couching technique.

The couched passing thread is important to create different heights on the jap gold threads, and it affects the reflection of the thread a lot. In the photo above you can see that the top section of jap gold, that I haven't couched down yet, is a lot darker than the sections under it, because the even laying threads all catch the light in the same way, compared to the distortion that is made with the passing thread.

Mixing the two pieces that were my inspiration, and using techniques that were mostly used in silk embroidery, the double couching, means that it is a bit unclear how accurate this is. This is where I have to remember that I am recreating a wooden sculpture, and even if it has a lot of details, this is very much going to be my interpretation to get the result that I want.