A quick hairpiece under the hainet

 When trying out my 16th century hairnet I realised that my own hair wouldn't be enough to fill it out. I have quite long and thick hair, but each hairstrand is so thin that when I braid it the braids ends up as tiny stumps. Good when you are wearing a full wig, bad when you want to a hairnet without just a lot of air inside it. I decided to make a hairpiece that I can easily put on and wear under the hair net. Since this is a piece that's supposed to go under the net I also felt that I didn't have to be too picky about it, loose strands and uneveness would be hidden anyway. This is also good because since I switch haircolour from time to time, even if it's within the red spectra, I didn't have to worry about an exact colour match, this is just for volume.

Back in 2016, for Star Wars Celebration in London, I made this Tudor version of princess Leia, and I still had those red hairpieces that I had used for the buns.

For the hairpiece I used the two old hairpieces and a long piece of cotton tape.

I combined the two hairpieces into one and braided them together with the cotton tape. I started in the middle and braided outwards from that.

Then it was just playing around with the shape of the braids until had a bun that I was happy with.

The bun was sewn into shape with some thick thread. I also found a some extra hair tuffs that I twisted together and added to the middle of the bun.

The finished piece was dosed with a generous amound of hairspray. When wearing it I tie the tape around my hair, and then I do my usual braiding of my own hair, which is also braided with some tape, and then my own braids are laid around the fake bun. 

This is a quick test of the bun, when wearing it properly I will make sure that I use black tape for my own hair as well. I'm also thinking that if I want to make the bun wider I can add the hairpiece and then use my own hair to make two buns on the side of the hairpiece. All in all it took me around 30 minutes to make this hairpiece, it's not the most tidy and perfect, but for volume under a hairnet it will do.

HSM25 challenge "tops and toes" - a Christmas hat

 After having made my cute sprang mittens I wanted a cap that would match them, and my sprang book had a pattern for a cap with an interesting pattern made from switching from s to z twists, crearting diamonds and diagonal shapes. Should be easy peasy, or so I thought.

I followed the pattern, and there were 128 loops, and I could just barely fit that many loops on my frame. Going from z to s twists shouldn't be too hard, but I found it hard to do the edges. I also didn't have enough of the yarn that I used for the mittens, so in the end I used four different yarns, all with different stretch on them. In the end I kept dropping threads all the time, I really wasn't happy with the result. While I was working I couldn't really see any pattern forming either. Well I finished it, cut it off from the frame and realised that it was huuuuuge. I didn't want to waste all the yarn and time though and wanted to turn it into something I could wear.

I had looked around at quite a lot of 1930s fashion, preparing to make the Christmas blouse, and just with all the wonderful sleeves the 1930s also had quite a huge variety of fun hats. I didn't have a specific hat or pattern, but by folding the too lare bottom of the cap up to create a brim and adding some gathering threads in the back I could create a hat instead.

The final touch was to add a big yarn ball on top.

What the item is: a soft 1930s hat
How it fits the challenge: A hat to go on top of everything else
Material: Yarns in mostly wool, but probably some cotton as well
Pattern: The basic cap from Tine Abrahamsson's book "Språngning", but the shape was free handed by me
Year: 1930s
Notions: none
How historically accurate is it? It is inspred by the shape and style of hats in the 1930s, but I have never seen or heard about a hat made in sprang in that time period. Since it's inspired by I would set it around 20%
Hours to complete: Several weeks
First worn: On Christmas.
Total cost: All yarns were raided from my mother's yarn stash

HSM challenge "accessorize" - a 16th century hairnet

 The reason I started sprang is that I really want to have a hairnet similar to the one worn in the portrait of Katarina on Bora, wife of Martin Luther, in her portrait by Cranach.

I set out to try and make my own hairnet, after having failed on the male nets. I made mine in black wook, and it was quite a lot harder to work black compared to yarn in brighter colours. I got a net done, with just one row of mistakes. I still consider this as a proof of concept and that I can continue working on it, most importantly I want to make it in a finer yarn.

For the ribbon at the edge I decided to learn a new skill and that is tablet weaving. I had gotten a set of tablets in Christmas craft calender so I felt that I was a sign to actually try making my own ribbon.

Warping took longer than actually making the ribbon. It's definitely wonky, but it is a first try so if I want to I can make a tablet woven band in the future. I also liked that I found this pattern with squares in stade of the more normal v-shapes that are common in tablet weaving.

The band was sewn on to the sprang net for 2/3 of the way around, and for the final third I added a fingerlop braid that I weaved through the loops of the sprang, so that I could tie it in the back and adjust the size.

 

Just slapping the net on to my head made me really happy, even if it's just a text piece it actually gave me the shape I wanted and I could definitely see me wearing this at a 16th century event. I need to wear something under it to fill out the hairnet, my own hair is not enough.

Here is what it looks like on my tiny styrofoam head.

What the item is: a 16th century hairnet
How it fits the challenge: It is an accessory
Material: 2 ply wool yarn
Pattern: My own, but very much from the instructions by Carol James' paper on 16th century hairnets
Year: 1530s
Notions: Just the yarn
How historically accurate is it? I think it's mostly a matter of me lacking the skills so far that really make it into something that would fit in the 16th century, but the materials and techniques are all accurate, so 85%?
Hours to complete: 3 days
First worn: Not yet, this is more a proof of concept until I dare doing this in finer and more expensive materials.
Total cost:

Further adventures in sprang

 I really haven't updated my further sprang works. Well after the last post about it I felt that I was ready to make proper 16th century hairnets, and I started with making male ones, since I figured it would be easier to work with bases that were smaller than what is needed for a female net, where I need to have space for a wulst under it. I also wanted to explore different stripes.

Here I have the male nets that I made, and they are all too small for my husband, I felt like tried to make them bigger and bigger, but as soon as I started to sew them together and add some of the shaping, they shrank too much. I simply think that I have reached the end of what I can make with my small sprang frame. Also the yarn, a pure 2ply wool, is a bit too thick.

I also tried to make another set of fingerless mittens, and I got really happy with them. It's obvious that the bottom half of the sprang weave is a lot looser though, because that mitten ended up a lot larger than the one made on the top half.

With me being restricted by my sprang frame, I also felt that I needed to simply learn more about techniques and simply being able to make different thing than a basic net. So I bought a pdf-book "Sprang Unsprung" by Carol James and for Christmas I bought some reflective yarn so that I could make smaller reflectors, them being text pieces but still being useful.

These are all made in different sprang weaves, and I felt that I am more happy with making holes than working with s and z twists to create fabric patterns. It was definitely good for me to do these.

And with that I do have made some pieces that I will post about in further posts. I still feel that I need to get myself a larger sprang loom though to be able to fully explore and continue working on larger projects.

HSM25 bonus challenge - "as seen on screen"

 This was a bonus challenge, picked up because it was the worst challenge of all time, with just five entries. 

Make something inspired by something you’ve seen on screen, whether it’s film, television, or YouTube.

This is really an inspired by, rather than an exact copy of something. This year I saw the wonderful series "Outrageous", about the fascinating Mitford sisters.

 The sisters moved around in the highest society and the whole series is filled with wonderufl 1930s costumes. Up until this year I hadn't really  been into the 1930s, I always felt that it was a decade that didn't suit my body type, since to me 1930s was a lot about slinky, bias cut dress that really only fit slim figures. Now I realised that all the draping  and crazy sleeves, I don't think I've ever seen a decade with such a variety of sleeve shapes, would definitely be something that I could make. Now Diana Mitford was a terrible person, but beautiful and her dresses and outfits were the most interesting. Unfortunately my ost faorite outfit of her was the one she wore when she got married to Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader, and with Adolf Hitler as a witness. I really didn't want to make her wedding outfit.

I tried to take a screencap of it, and to me the destinguishin features were the huge sleves and the draping on the bodice, together with a tight fit over the waist and hips.

I found this pattern by Lady Marlowe, both available as a download pattern and going up to XL in size, it't not easy finding patterns larger than M when you want vintage patterns.

I used 3 m of a green viscose satin, making it a nice Christmas blouse. Now figuring out my size according to to the measurements wasn't easy. The size chart had my hips being too large for the largest size, but just, so I went with that size and cut some extra large seam allowances in order to have more margins to work with. The instructions for the pattern were quite bare, but easy to follow. If you have sewn garments before it shouldn't be a problem following them, but it's maybe not something for a beginner, especially since slinky, satin fabrics can be tricky in themselves.

In the end I probably picked it a size too large. I found that I could pull it over my head without a problem, which on the other hand meant that I didn't have to fiddle with a tricky and visible size closure. I felt that there was a bit too much fabric ove the bust though. For the sleeves to stay up it's necessary to have the lower part be really tight, and I had to take that in a few times on one side. Overall I should probably have shortened the upper sleeve a bit, but still the sleeves are my favorite part of the pattern. For a pattern like this the right underwear is also important. When I worked on it and fitted it I wore my normal underwear, and then I had to take in the waist but use a tiny seam allowance to make the hip area bigger. When I wore the blouse on Christmas I wore it together with some shapewear, and then it was obvious that I could have kept the regular seam allowance. I have cut out the pattern in another fabric as well, so I need to remember these alterations when I sew it up.

The finished blouse

Me wearing the blouse together with the skirt I made for the "black & white" challenge earlier this year, and my Irregular Choice Christmas shoes.

What the item is: A 1930s blouse
How it fits the challenge: Inspired by the costumes from the 1930s set tv series "Outrageous"
Material: 3 m green viscose satin
Pattern: Lady Marlowe 8380
Year: 1936-1938
Notions: sewing thread, poly satin binding
How historically accurate is it? Pretty accurate, it should have been proper silk satin, but that's too expensive, the pattern and the methods are correct though, so 90%
Hours to complete: 2 days
First worn: On Christmas Eve
Total cost: $40 for the fabric