Spranging on

 Sprang is totally addictive due to two things. I can see a result almost straight away, and it is something I can do with the TV in the background our talking to someone. So of course I couldn't keep myself from testing more things. I set up a warp for a male hairnet of 44 loops and 35 cm in length. Carol James had a suggestin for 44 loops and 30 cm for a 16th century male bonnet, since my husband has a really large head I increased it to 35 cm. I made what she calls the "double grid" stitch, that is also called "holes all over" in my book about sprang. It was a fairly easy way of working, the hardest thing was to remember which part of the cycle I was in, the pattern consists of a cycle of four rows. I did  miss in at least one place and got a row with double sized holes in it.

The hairnet worked but was too tight, so the next time I am going to make it both wider and longer, yes my husband has a really large head. I felt confident enough to order a nice coloured wool yarn to make a proper hairnet though.

But I couldn't wait for the yarn to arrive, especially when I found that I actually had two colours of yarn that I hadn't used, but now I have gone through my whole limited yarn stash. In the book by Tine Abrahamsson there was a pattern to make mittens which didn't seem to be too complicated, if I skipped the diagonal geometric pattern in them. The pattern called for 22+16+22 loops, I increased that to 28+20+28, since I thought my yarn was thinner than the one in the pattner, but most of the measurements in length was made by siimply holding up my hands to see if it looked about the same size.

The warp consists of three indivdual warps, that you will join together after a while. Two longer ones, that will be the hand of the mitten, and one shorter part in the middle that will be thumb.. I also decided to try making horizontally stripes. As usual it took me longer to actually set up the warp than to get going. I worked the basic intertwining stitch all the way. It was a bit tricky to start, where you have to sort the two different yarns so that you separate one colour for upper and one colour for the lower thread.

After having worked the three warps separately they were joined together, with a row starting with picking up  two threads at the start. It worked fine, but after having finished it was clear that there were quite loose loops at the joining of the warps, and that after having joined the warps together my overall tension got looser. I worked as far down as I could, with the last few rows being taken in by treating two threads as one, and starting with either two or four threads. I would have liked to make the mittens longer, but my frame is too short for that.

This was the finished pieces after blocking. The bottom was ended with a fringe, and the tops were chained together. I also found that it was a lot easier to chain when I first put a safety line through the top and took them off the sticks to chain them. It's also obvious that the bottom part of the weave has gotten larger, also probably having to do with difference in tension and that it's easier to pack the top part tighter than the lower one.

When you fold tie piece in half you get a mitten with a thumb. The sides were whipped together and the rest of the threads were weaved into the whipped seam. For the larger mitten I felt it was too big, so I took it in by making a dart and closing it by weaving a thread through the weave. It got a bit clumpsy on the inside, but looked a lot better on the outside.

The finished pair of open mittens. This was a project where I learnt to make stripes, adding width and taking in width but also to make a fringed endings. I would have preferred to make them longer, I love wearing cuff warmers since my wrists do get cold, but for that to work with my short frame I would need to make them shorter, probably starting by the thumb instead a covering the fingers. Or I need to find a way to make a bigger fram. 

All in all it took me one day to make the mittens, so I think they are nice projects to start learning new techniques and maybe even patterns, if I make more cuff warmers then I acutally get something I can use, instead of making an endless supply of hairnets that I only use in historical recreations.

Sprang - an actual result

 Well I couldn't wait to try more sprang. I found that I had a purple yarn of unknown fiber in my very small yarn stash. It felt like wool and it was definitely thicker than the red and brown yarns I had tried in the first projects. So I set up a new warp, once again winding it around the plastic board for the picture frame. I also decided to go back to the basic sprang stitch, not the one making larger holes. I felt that I needed to understand better what was going on, and I needed to learn how to deal with the sticks and endings, and with the basic pattern I could concentrate on that. I also tried to once again make a wider pieces, so I used 60 loops again.

The first rounds didn't go well. I got large holes and I tried to work with lifelines rather than sticks, but kept on failing. The 60 loops just fit my hands when working on them. Then something fell into place and I understood how the threads were supposed to be moving around each other, with the thread that I picked up tugging on two treads and not just one. With that I started to get row after row without having to redo as much. I gave up on the lifelines, but I could use just four sticks, which what was I had in knitting needles, for this piece the chop sticks were too short. Also when I made a mistake I could see it and if it wasn't too close to the start I didn't have to unravel the whole row but could just go back to the mistake.

Here is as far as I could work the piece. On the last row I did drop a few threads because it was too fiddly to work them, so I decided to quit. When the threads started to get tight I worked with one of the sticks that I removed and then I twisted a few threads, put the stick there, went on another few threads and so on. I had a tendence to make mistakes and drop threads when I took a bread to insert the stick and then continue, but it made it possible to work until there were only a few cm between the top and bottom. I then chained the bottom, top and middle to prevent everything from unraveling. After some wriggling with the piece the weave evened out, so that there were no large holes in the middle.

This is the finished piece after blocking it. There are holes in it, especially the large on in the middle of the first rows, before I had understood how the threads were supposed to move. There are also holes close to the middle, and that is where I dropped threads when it got too fiddly, the next time I can probably finish even earlier and the weave will still even out. I did close the large hole by just tying it together with more of the same yarn. I then treaded the bottom edge with a piece of yarn to gather it together, and used the same yarn piece to whipstitch the sides together, but not quite to the end of the side.

The finished net cap, sitting on my very small styrofoam head. I have threaded a fingerloop braid through the corners of the front edge so that I can close it. The length is probably good enough that I would be able to use it with a wulst under it, but it is too narrow for that. I can get it around my head, but I would not be able to have anything under it. Now when wearing it it feels a bit like a net gnome cap, since I don't have enough hair to fill out the bag part.

So the next thing I need to do is come up with a way of making a wider piece.

Sprang - learning a new craft

 I have forced myself to a hiaturs in sewing projects, since I need to finish a non-sewing related thing. So what did I do instead, well I've been trying out different kind of yarn and string crafts instead. So yes the deadline for that other thing is approaching and I haven't worked as much as I should on it. After a Sunday with a lot of wasted yarn trying to come to terms with braiding garters, weaving ribbons and making string I decided to pick up this book that I have had in my shelf for many, many years.

I had read through it, but without really understanding the instructions. The last 5 years språngning, or sprang in English, has really picked up steam within the crafting and historical recreating community, so nowadays there are also a lot of tutorials out there. My biggest help was this tutorial by Sally Pointer - "Make a sprang bag with handles"

The book and tutorials made me confident to set up a test piece on an embroidery frame and with some acrylic yarn. And this was the result

Yes it is totally uneven, but I could see that I had figured out the principles, and compared to the string making and braiding I could see a result forming fairly quickly.

The next thing was to get hold of a loom that was a bit sturdier than the the wobbly embroidery fram. And for that I went to the second hand store across the street.

A large picture frame, some knitting needles and chop sticks and I was ready to set up my first bigger sprang project.

Ha, or so I thought. In my overconfidence I spent two days warping 72 pairs of string, that turned into a total twisted and knotted mess. The problem was the tension. On my first text piece I had had a tight tension and it had become impossible to continue the sprang quite far off from the end, so this time I thought it might work to have a looser tension, but it was too loose for my skills obviously. I gave up and removed it. I then found this tutorial on how to warp on a board. And that made it so much easier. The clear plastic that had been in the frame worked perfectly, and was of course in a good size for the frame. Or so I thought.

When I put the warp on the frame it was once again too loose. I removed it (again) and made a new warp, but this time on the short side of the plastic, and finally I had a good tension on the frame. The short side was also exactly the length that I had planned from the start. This time I also cut back on the number of threads, making 60 loops instead of 72, so that it would be easier to keep track of them, but still getting a width on the finished piece that could hopefully be used for something.

So I started spranging, and soon I once again had a bit of a mess. I totally understand that I would miss some threads, but I thought it was fixable. Reading up on this tutorial on "sprang errors and how to fix them" I understood that dropping threads must be corrected by unraveling. So I unraveled everything and took really good care to make sure that I would have the correct number of threads and twists on each row,  and not thinking that was something that could be fixed in the next row.

Here is my current status. It is working. The first rows were definitely tricky so I had to undo several and go back, making sure that I had not dropped a thread. After a while and with good tension on the warp it has started to become easier. The blue knitting needles that are holding the warp are not just tied on to the frame, they are winded up, so I can keep a good tension and when it gets too tight I can just unwind them a bit to make it easier to handle the threads. I haven't seen this solution so there might be some downfall to it that I discover when I'm done, but it works fine for me so far.

I actually got in quite a nice flow and felt that I got a nice net structure going - and then two things happened. I felt that the sticks were in the way for my hands, not between the warp threads but rather where I kept the palms of the hands while the fingers were working, and my mother called. Somewhere here I totally lost track of where I was. I tried to repair it, I tried to switch to lifelines rather than sticks and felt that it might work. But then the bottom of the warp fell of the whole knitting needle. With the mess that it was in I decided to stop.

This is what I could salvage, what is basically the top part. Yu can see that I had some net structure, but then I started to make really big holes. Well instead of getting something usefull I have to consider this another practice piece.

I'm not giving up yet though. For my next piece I want to try with a thicker yarn, I probably have to go to the expensive traditional craft store and get suggestions on what to use, and I want to see if I feel that it works with lifelines rather than sticks, once I have gotten the starting rows correct. I also need to work some with how I position myself so that I don't get such a stiff neck after a while. Well, well, maybe I can get a usable net out of the next piece.

HSM 2025: Foundations - mending my favorite shift

 The theme for November 2025 is foundations

Make something that is the foundation of a period outfit. This can be a literal foundation (ex: a shirt, stockings or stays) or an item that is a “foundation piece” in your wardrobe (ex: a garment or accessory that can be styled in many different ways). Get creative with your interpretation!

For this I chose to go back to the foundation piece of my 16th century wardrobe, my favorite shift.

This was the first iteration of it, back in 2016 when I posted it for the HSM challenge "tucks and pleats". This really is my favorite shift, it's so comfortable and the linen is so light and soft against the skin. Since I made that first version I quite soon made the neck opening smaller, so I didn't have that very wide opening. I did that by simply making the smocking on it tighter.

Back in 2023 I replaced the worn out facings on the cuffs and neckline, and made proper cloth buttons for closing the cuffs, it went with the HSM challenge "back to the beginnings"

I should probably have gone over the shift even more back in 2023, because this summer I realised that quite a few of the seams had started to go up, and the hem was definitely held in place by just a few struggling stitches. So I took an evening and mended all the holes and rehemmed it. I didn't take a phot of the shift, it looks exactly as before, just not as torn and worn as before.

What the item is: a 16th century smocked shift
How it fits the challenge: The shift is the foundation of all costumes, and this was also the first one I made so it is the foundation that I have based all my other 16th century pieces on. For this challenge I simply mended the worn out seams and rehemmed it.
Material: linen thread from the stash
Pattern: none
Year: 16th century
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? Mending is always historically accurate
Hours to complete: 2 hours
First worn: - 
Total cost: nothing, just some hours of work and thread from the stash

HSM 2025 February: Under it all - a 16th century underkirtle

 February: Under It All (2013 & 2014, 11th and 3rd most popular respectively): Make something that goes under your outer garments, to protect them from sweat/grime or provide the right shape/support.

During most of the winter and spring I worked on a new supporting underkirtle for my 16th century wear. This post is a summary of the individual posts that I have made during the project. 

It started out with a day of constructing the pattern using the bara system as developed by Mathew Gnagy - the Modern maker.   I detailed the work in this post. But basically the system allowed me to make a better fitting bodice than ever before. It still needed quite a lot of adjustments to make it sit tight enough though, this has a lot to do with my bust shape.

This is the work on the pattern, making sure that I get a deep neckline.

The construction of the kirtle can be found in this post. The kirtle was constructed from one layer of wool and one layer of linen. I opted for side closures, to make sure that it fit really well over the bust. The skirt was cut in gores. I had to keep adjusting the straps to give support to the bust, but I finally had a well fitting bodice and skirt.

AFter that it was only the hemming left, and I used a fairly wide strip of wool to make a hem facing, to give the hem a bit of body and make it stand out from the legs.

I started using the kirtle during the medieval week in Visby, but since it's an underkirtle it's been hard finding photos of me where it's not hidden under my outer gown or my big work apron, I found this photo of me and my husband though.

Just the HSM facts

What the item is: a supportive underkirtle
How it fits the challenge: It's the supporting garment that makes sure that everything else sits nice on the body
Material: 4 m of wool, 1 m of linen
Pattern: Constructed using the bara system by the Modern Maker and the pattern by Magnifica Sylvie La Chardonniere based on that system
Year: first half of the 16th century
Notions:linen thread, lacing cord
How historically accurate is it? Around 80%
Hours to complete: A month, it was an on and off project
First worn: Medieval Week in Visby
Total cost: $2500 for the wool and linen

HSM 25 april: Procrastination - a 17th century loose hood

April: Procrastination (2016, 9th most popular): Complete a garment you have been putting off finishing. Or make something you have been avoiding starting.

I tried to find a post about it, but I am pretty sure that I started thinking about making a loose 17th century hood some time back in 2017 or 2018, when I was asked to dress historically at the annual Christmas fair at Falu Gruva. Most paintings and drawings of 17th century women show a tight hood, but I have always wanted to recreate this image from the margins of a map over Falun mine in 1683.

That loose hood or veil is quite distinct, the artist was local so he has probably used the local residents as models. I was also very happy when I found this extant example of a loose hood at the V&A museum. It is dated to 1610-1620, so earlier than the image of the map, but I still decided that they are so similar that I would use it as a model.

I found that I had some very fine linen in my stash, but the main issue was finding insertion lace. All the laces for sale in the (few) craft stores here only had cotton lace for edging, so with points. I also only found lace that was too wide to look good.

The solution was to go to second hand stores, and in the final one (ironically the smallest one and the one just across the street from where I live) I found a table cloth with white work embroidery, and handmade lace at the border.

I ripped off the lace border, and then I cut it in two to get a really nice and narrow lace that I could use.

Here I am midway in the project, and you can see the pieces of the hood. The original V&A hood only has the gore inserted in a slit, but I cut a separate front piece. I was sure that there was a seam all the way, so this is a lesson to actually look at images on the computer, and not just on your phone when doing decisions like that. So instead of just one piece with inserted gores I had a straight front piece, two gores and two curved back pieces that I sewed together to shape the hood. All the seams had lace insertions.

For the edging of the hood I was in a dilemma, I had a nice off white lace in my stash but it wasn't enough. And when I went to the craft store the only options was to buy either a bright white or ecru coloured lace. It was very good that I had brought the hood with me to hold up against the lace. I would probably have bought the white lace white, but when I held it to the hood it was glaringly white compared to the rest, so the ecru coloured lace was much nice. It was also daintier and more delicate than the white. Even if it isn't the same colour as the rest of the hood, the effect was quite nice and they went really well together.

When finished the hood was really soft and nice, so before wearing it I starched it, I am not sure yet if I prefer the look of the soft fabric or the starched, so I might destarch it before I wear it the next time.

This is me wearing the hood last Saturday at an event where my group demonstrated early 17th century.

I am actually pretty happy with my impression of the woman on the top image.

So here are the HSM facts

What the item is: A loose hood from the 17th century
How it fits the challenge: I had planned and talked about doing this style of hood for at least 5-6 years, and when I was finally getting the chance to attend a 17th century event it was time to make it.
Material: 1 m of fine linen, 1 lace edged table cloth, that I ripped the lace off to use as insertion lace in the hood
Pattern: My own, based on a hood in the V&A collections
Year: 1610-1690 (the hood is dated 1610-1620, I have based my costume on an image from 1683)
Notions: linen thread, 2,5 m of cotton edge lacing
How historically accurate is it? This is pretty close, both when it comes to materials and techniques so around 90%, (deductions for the machinemade edge lace and the quality of my stitches)
Hours to complete: 1 week
First worn: September 30th when celebrating the 400th anniversary of our local regiment
Total cost: linen from stash but $7 for the table cloth and $13 for the edge lace.

A 17th century jacket

 As soon as I got home from Medieval Week I knew that I had only two weeks until I was going to take part in a 17th century event, so I saw this as my chance to finally make an outfit based on an image from Falun in 1683. I had much more ambitious plans, but I had to realize that  wouldn't be able to finish things for both me and my husband. The plan had been to make at least a shirt for him, but no, he had to make do with what he already had, which made hm look enough like a generic early 17th century farmer.

The first thing was to make a jacket. I found this gorgeous fabric in Visby, that I fell in love with, and even if my plan had been to make a brown jacket, red it was. I also wanted the jacket to be fairly generic, so that I would be able to use it for basically all time periods from the 16th century until today when I'd like to wear it with my folk costume. Jackets with skirts do occur in all time periods, and even if there are changes, I tried to make it without clear signs of belonging to a certain era, so for example no wings or rolls at the shoulders, which would have been the best thing to add if I wanted it to be a distinct early 17th century jacket.

For the pattern I decided to frankepattern it from what I had, rather than going all in for drafting a new pattern.

I started with the pattern that I made for my 16th century supporting kirtle. I did add som in all directions though, since I wanted to be able to wear it as an outer garment, over my longsleeved 16th century gowns for example. Here I did make a bit of mistake and added a bit too much at the bust, so it is rather large there, or rather it is a clear difference when I'm not wearing a very full 16th century shift and don't have a lot of fabric filling out the bust line.

The outer fabric is wool and I used linen for a lining.

When sewing I used a technique that I learnt when sewing 18th century, I'm not sure that it's correct for earlier periods. But basically I put one layer of fabric and lining together and treat them as one, I then sew that to a piece of the outer fabric, and I use the final lining piece to cover the seams and make sure that there are no raw edges.

For the sleeves I used my largest S-sleeve pattern. Now this pattern was way too large for the armscye. To make this look good I sewed the sleeve to the lining of the bodice. Instead of trying to pleat or gather the full sleevehead to the armscye I simply pinned the two pieces together where they fit, and then I cut off the excess fabric. I then used the outer fabric of the sleeve to cover the raw edges and first seam.

For the skirt portion I started out with a simple half circle skirt pattern. I cut this piece into four pieces, two fronts and two backs, and at those seams I angled them slightly outwards. Since the front has a distinct V-shape I also had to adjust the length in the front and back so that they would be even.

This is the back piece at the top and the front piece at the bottom. The skirt was also lined in linen, and to hem it I added a strip of wool to help it keep its shape a bit better. The final touch was to add hooks and eyes to close the jacket. 

Here I am wearing the jacket with 16th century underkirtle, my jedi skirt, my generic linen apron and a new hood, I will make a separate post about that. 

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.