Favorite photos of 2021

 Despite a pandemic there were still some events taking place, the biggest being Medieval Week in Visby and ComicCon in Stockholm. I also got better at taking photos by myself with a tripod and selftimer. So here are my favorite photos of 2021, without any specific order.

Looking back on 2021

 So what a year 2021 has been. I had some really big, or rather one really big thing happening to me, and that really affected my costuming.

If you don't know in 2021 I met the most wonderful guy in the world, and he's now my fiance and we are planning our wedding for 2022. That being said, I got some things done, even if most of it was before I stopped being single.

Going back my plans for 2021 was

• a wool nightgown
• a simple 16th century shift
• a pair of 16th century hose
• a regency outfit for a ball
• finishing the 1520s courtgown by making the cape
• Princess Daisy 
• Jedi librarian

The regency ball was cancelled due to the pandemic, so I didn't do anything regency related.

Out of the plans I did make the wool nightgown a simple standard medieval gown that will work medieval farmer from the viking age up until the renaissance. I just realized that I haven't posted about it all though.

The simple 16th century shift was made by remaking an older shift, it also fitted HSM challenge four. 

Me wearing the new shift

Princess Daisy was a success, when I finally finished her in time for ComicCon Stockholm.

Me and Tom/woodsling as Luigi and Daisy

I think my jedi librarian was my favorite project of the year though, and the one I'm most happy with. It also got approved as a jedi with the Rebel Legion.

As for things I hadn't planned, this is what I got done.

The winter started out with restrictions due to the pandemic, so we and my friends in our 16th century guild met up outside in the winter, and I needed something to keep warm.

The first thing I did was an historical jacket. I made it to be generic and fit most time periods from the 16th to the 18th century. It was mostly based on 16th and 17th century images though.

Worn with my mustard kirtle and one of my 16th century hoods, but without the wulst, I finally felt that I had something 17th century to wear, as I did at the annual Christmas fair at the Falun Mine.

I also made a hood out of black wool.

The most unexpected project was when I got picked as a pattern tester for the Selina blouse from Scroop Patterns.

I finished the pocket for my traditional costume, an embroidery that had been started more than 15 years ago.

This was finished in June, and then I wasn't single anymore, which explains the lack of updates for the rest of the year.

As for the HSM challenges I finished a few at least.

Challenge - on your head

Challenge - closures

Challenge - zero waste

Challenge - joy 

Challenge - purple

Challenge - the costumer's new look

I have also started a bunch of cross stitch embroidery projects for borders to 16th century shifts and veils, and it would be fun to finish them and actually use them for something.

The annual Christmas fair

 After a cancelled fair last year, due to the pandemic, work was back with a wonderful Christmas fair. I will say that it was the best weather in a very long time, it was really as romantic and picture perfect that you want a Christmas fair to be.

As usual my job was to make sure that there were historical characters running around. I first invited our 16th century guild, so they came and had a little camp on the outskirt of the market.

Then I was part of a group that recreated two scenes from the 17th century. And I was really happy to finally have clothes that I feel I can call 17th century without a bad conscience. I was using my yellow sleeveless kirtle and the reversible jacket that I made last winter and is a very generic 16th-18th century shape. I also wore the cap that I usually wear over my wulsthaube, and without the wulst it looked really good as a later cap. My goal for the year was to recreate a long cap seen in a drawing from the mine from 1683, but I simply didn't have thet time so that will be a future project.

Photo: Olle Ekman, Dalarnas Tidningar

This is from when we did our dramatized scenes. The other women have some decent clothes, except for the caps but I still felt the caps were better than just using a shawl, they are also sitting a bit strange since it was cold and they wanted to wear knitted caps under their white ones. The male costume needs to get a pair of warmer breeches to look better, it was too cold for the very thin breeches that we have in our little costume wardrobe.

This was from earlier in the week, when I didn't have time to put te neckerchief on.

Stockholm comicon report

 After almost 2 years it was finally time for proper convention again! There were fewer tickets, so the crowds were smaller, and you had to have a vaccine pass or negative test to get in, but otherwise it was as before. It was so much fun being back together with cosplay friends from Nordic Legions and just others you meet anyway.

One of the guests was Evanna Lync, Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, so of course I brought my Luna with me and had my photo taken with her. These kinds of photoshoot are one second affair, so you have to be prepared beforehand. I got a bit surprised when there was no plexiglass between us, so I lost some time and didn't exactly get the photo that I wanted, but it is good enough. She was really kind and it was she who placed herself really close to me and put her arm around me.

The rest of the Harry Potter cosplayers from Dalarna took a few round around the hall before I was going to be in the Nordic Legions' booth. I was in the booth with my jedi, but I kept the Luna wig since my hair wouldn't exactly look the best after quite a few hours under a wig.

I thought the blone looked quite ok as well. The jedi was really comfortable to wear at a convention. The only bad thing was that I had forgotten the belt that I hang my pouch from so I couldn't wear it. 

Saturday I started off as a jedi again, but this time in my own hair so no wig. We had some Nordic Base photos taken, and then a huge group photo in front of the replica of the Millenium Falcon (The Swedish Falcon) that premiered at the convention.

Then after lunch I switched to Princess Daisy, and it was soo much fun. She was fun to pose with, easy to wear, and it was pretty fun to take photos with more "serious" princesses.

On Sunday it was Daisy again, and now my friend Tom went as Luigi, we actually found quite a few cosplayers from Nintendo. Even if there were generally fewer cosplayers on Sunday than on Saturday.

All in all Daisy was a success, and it was sooooo great meeting all friends from the Nordic Legions again. I also managed to have three costumes, that all had very comfortable shoes. Daisy's orange sneakers were the best though.

Feet get tired even in comfy shoes though, and Milou was a bit sceptic when it came to the smell. Can't be worse than the stormtrooper armours in the changing room though.

A travel case for my lightsabre

 So I needed some way to transport my lightsabre for my jedi librarian. I found that I had a poster tube that I could extend enought to carry the blade, but not the blade and hilt together. So I decided to sew a little case to keep the lightsabre safe in my bag.

The outside was made by quilting two layers of wool together, all from scraps so the outside was pretty patched together, but I felt that it added some character to it.

I lined the inside with some cotton sateen, and made a pouch both at the top and the bottom so that the lightsabre won't fall out.

The case is simply rolled up and held together with some pieces of string.

Daisy crown and jewellery

 Of course Daisy needs a crown, earrings and brooch. This is where I got a lot of helps from my friends.  First Tom printed the crown, after a thingiverse design.

He also helped with finalizing the scale of the crown. Then I had to come up with a way to keep the crown on the head. My solution was to drill holes in the crown and attach thread loops through them. Then  I made a fingerloop braid that goes through the loops and that I can pin to through to fix it to my head. In hindsight I should have put the holes a bit further down on the crown, but I was worried that I would crack it if I put them too close to the edge.

This was a quick test to prove that it would work. Inside the crown I also have a hair donut, so I started with pinning that to my head, then I squeezd the crown over the donut, and the last pins are through the braid and into the donut. 

My friend Robin helped with casting the jewels in resin. The flowers are made out of 2 mm foam that were simply painted white. For the large brooch I reinforced it with a layer of worbla in the back, and I sandwiched a magnet between the worbla and the foam so that I can attach it to the dress. 

Finally the crown was painted gold with acrylic paint.

I also made a travelbox from cardboard and duct tape to keep it in.

Daisy's collar

 For the collar for Daisy I used two layers of fabric, a cotton sateen as backing and poly satin for the outer fabric.

This is the base layer, it's not a complete circle. I sewed the two layers together along the outer edge to stabilize them. Then I freehanded the petalshape of the collar and sewed the layers together at those lines.

I cut out the new shape of the collar, turned it right side out and pressed it.

I unfortunately foegot that I was working with poly satin and put the iron on my regular wool setting.  Oops. I didn't want to redo the collar, so I think I will be able tobhide that little mishap.

I also topstitched all along the edges of the collar.

I sewed the collar on to the dress byvhabd aling the topstitching. 

Resurrecting Princess Daisy

 I stopped working on Princess Daisy back in the winter, but with Stockholm Comicon coming up in November it is time to finish her.

The dress needed sleeves and a collar, I needed accessories and a crown.

I will come back to the sleeves later. My friend Tom has printed the crown for me so I need to find a way of keeping it on my head and then it's on to painting it.

I have painted a tennis racket orange and a baseball bat yellow.

Now I need to make earrings and the front brooch and I think I won't be too stressed to finish it.

Photos from the silver smelting plant in Falun

 Today I worked with guiding and lecturing at the silver smelting plant that is still intact in Falun. Well I also went there an hour before I needed so that I could take some fun photos in a really exciting location.

I used a variation of my jedi, with black pants and visible boots instead of the long skirt. It was hard with a phone and selftimer to work with the light, with the lightsabre, so it was more fun to play around outside of the slmeting plant.

I'm thinking that I should return and take some photos from the other side of the wall as well, to make a sequence that looks like I'm jumping over the wall.

I've also realized that I only have photos of myself in costume, so I decided to take some of myself in more regular clothes, that I can use when people want photos of me.