A male 16th century hairnet

 I decided again to try and make a hairnet for my husband, to see if I could maybe get something working by really maxing out the size of my frame.

I made the sprang with 72 loops and a length of 50 cm. The the threads were kept quite loose, which I thought would make it more stretchier, but I think that is the reason that the top and bottom half got so uneven. Despite really trying to pack the bottom half the size difference between the rows is quite obvious. It is made in a double grid, and I started with the instructions that I had seen on Sally Pointer's youtube tutorial, but I lost track somewhere after 10 rows or so. I found it easier to come back and get back into the rythm with Carol James' pattern in her paper on renaissance hairnets. After blocking the length was 46 cm.. Lesson learnt is that the next time I will only go after Carol James' pattern from the start.

David got to try on the blocked net that I had gathered at the short sides. To close the largest gap in the middle I also made a second row of chaining across. The size was good, I think thought that it wouldn't be wrong to maybe go up to 80 loops for a new net, and then I could use shorter warp threads and keep the tension higher.

To get the lines across I did horizontal twining, once again from the description in Carol James' paper. I used double threads, so four threads in total to get a visible line.

To get a ribbon for the edge of the net I made a tablet band. I am new to this and the band is definitely very thick. To be able to tie the band in the back I finished the band with a long fingerloop braid. By this stage I was also out of yellow yarn so that is why the band is red and white.

The band was sewn on and I am quite happy with the shape and size of the hairnet.

I am not happy with the bulky and loose tablet band though. This was only my second try at tablet weaving, and I can't say I am a fan. I have gotten it pointed out that it is better to use rigid heddle loom (bandgrind) instead, since that will make a flatter and not so bulky band.

The good thing is that if I get a better band then it will be easy to remove this one, I just need to get hold of a heddle loom and learn how to use it first. 

For now I will take a break in my sprang adventures though. It's been fun, but I think that in order to continue my journey I really need to get a larger frame, and start trying out with finer yarn, and I really want to try with silk now. I have ran out of the yarns I have used for these last projects, so I have to think what I will order. 

2026 costume plans

 So it is time again to think about what I want to make this year, some of it will happen, and some won't. Nowadays I do tend to make more general plans, and not so many specific garments. The thing is I realized last year that I can wring out a costume, either cosplay or historical, fairly easily these days, but I do miss some of the excitement of making something that is really challenging. Last year the most challenging thing I did were the Toad hats, but that whole project was more of a "fun" project so I didn't care if they didn't end up perfect, which they didn't since I don't work that well with foam. They were good enough and I am happy with them though. 

This year I want to dive into a project where "good enough" isn't good enough, I want to make it really good, and I want to challenge myself again as well. So I have decided that my main project this year will be to recreate Mon Mothma's senatorial outfit from season 2 of Andor. 

To make things a bit more complicated is that she is wearing two different versions, one with with trousers and flat shoes and one with a skirt and high heels. Should I do both?  I have started with buying a pair of trousers and I have the material for the inner pleated shirt. I have also found a good match for the coat fabric, but that will be many meters, and a cost that I need to plan when I can take. I will also need to learn how to style the short wig to get it right. The coat and undergarments will also need quite some time for patterndrafting to make them correct. Still my goal is to make the costume in time for Stockholm ComicCon in early November. 

The first event coming up is that I want to go to a 1620s event in late April. I do have a basic outfit that works for early 17th century, but I want to add accessories in the form of a partlet, better apron and some kind of coif/headwear that is more simple compared to the laced veil I did last year. I would also like to add a skirt in a darker fabric. The jacket wasn't really finished when I wore it in August, so the first thing I am going to do is to finish the sleeves and fix the fit over the bust.

When it comes to 16th century things I will focus on accessories. In 2027 there will be a big event, and I want to have a new outfit for that, and I think that it will be best to start with the accessories, which would include and embroidered partlet, possibly a new shift and the most important thing will be to see if I can make a nice hairnet or two, both for me and my husband.

So those are my general plans, but who knows what other things I might get inspired to do in 2026.

2025 a recap part 3 - the historical costuming

 As I said in my last post, my historical costuming projects tend to be smaller but I do more of them, since they are usually more about adding pieces to my wardrobe, rathern than creating a new wardrobe. Going into 2025 my main project when it came to historical projects was to make a Lengberg bra/supportive kirtle and a schaube for my husband. Well I did neither.

I started drafting a lengberg bra, but while doing that I realised that wearing a bra, a shift and two wool kirtles/gowns would simply be too bulky. The Lengberg bra also is more correct for the late 15th century silhouette, and after all I do mostly early 16th century. Instead I started focusing on making a supportive wool kirtle, that wouldn't need a bra under it. I did make the kirtle using Matthew Gnagy's barra system, which was a new thing for me, but something that I really enjoyed and that I think I will really be able to use in the future. It was a bit stupid to make an underkirtle in cream, since I had to be really careful when wearing only the kirtle in the camp kitchen when cooking. The full post on the kirtle is here.

In the spring I got invited to a 17th century event, a time period that I had eyed a bit but never seriously considered. At Medieval Week I also found this gorgous raspberry red wool, and I bought enough to make a jacket. I made the jacket into a very generic shape that works from the 16th to the 18th century though. The post about the jacket is here. The event also ginally gave me a reason to make one of these long, flowing headpieces that were used, but are not very common among recreators of the 17th century. The post about that is here.

Then in the autumn I felt that what I really wanted was a 16th century hairnet, and I decided that instead of buying it, I should learn how to do them myself. And thus started my adventures in sprang. This is the first craft with yarn as a base that I have enjoyed. When I also got tablets for tablet weaving in an advent calendar I also set up to learn tablet weaving. I feel that I can now make a wearable net and I see this hairnet as a proof of concept, now I need to learn to work with finer yarns, and decide if I want to make my own tablet band as a decoration, or if I should simply buy one.

And with that I have summarized my crafting year 2025, and now it's time to look into what I want to do in 2026.

2025 recap part 2 - the cosplay projects

 I am not as productive when it comes to cosplay, but that is also because when I make a cosplay project just one project involves everything from top to toe, so it's hard to make just small and quick cosplay projects. For 2025 my plan was to finish my female tusken raider and to make a Toadette cosplay from Supermario. 

The tusken female had been an on and off project for more than a decade, so it was really time to finish it. I got it done in early spring and had it approved in both legions by the summer, so that I could use it for trooping for the first time at Stockholm Comiccon. I really like the costume and it is quite comfortable for being a masked costume. There are quite a lot of posts about the projects here.

The plan to make Toadette for NärCon turned out to be a bigger project than I had planned when my husband agreed to come with me to NärCon and to wear cosplay for the first time. The whole project ballooned, literally when it came to our hats, and in the end it wasn't such a small and easy project, but it was fun and my husband loved it and wore his Toadbert costume more than I wore Toadette. The project posts are here

My husband even got so hooked on cosplay that for comiccon he wanted to go in cosplay, even if I couldn't fit the Toadbert hats in our luggage. The answer was for him to grab his bathrobe, a towel and a tea mug and go as Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. And yes he proved more popular and people recognized him more in his 5 minute closet cosplay than my painstakingly researched and quite expensive Tusken.

2025 recap part 1 - a year of 1930s and yarn

 2025 took a strange turn for my costuming and crafting. Before going into this year the 1930s was a decade that I considered had a lot of elegant clothes, but not a style that would suit my body type. I also was still firm in my opinion that I really disliked working with yarn. Now looking back this is the year when I started bying yarn and most of my projects were 1930s related. I will split this recap into three parts, everday wear, cosplay projects and historical costuming. Since as usual it felt like I didn't do much, but when starting to summarize the post turned out to be too long.

My costume plans for 2025 were 

• more cuff warmers
• one or two tops or blouses for everyday wear
• Toadette from Supermario
• A lengberg bra/supportive kirtle
• Female tusken raider
• and for my husband a 16th century shaube

I also went into 2025 with a challenge to myself to see if I could go a year without buying any new clothes, with the exception for clothes that I can't make myself. I didn't really make this public, since I didn't want to make it into a big thing, and also to not be too disappointed if I didn't succeed. Now I can say though that the only pieces of clothings that I bought this year were a pair of jeans (I can't make them) and sports wear. I did make quite a few pieces or my self to wear for everyday wear, and that is definitely a new category of sewing for me.

I started out the year with a gothrough of my stash and UFO pile. Before my weight started to fluctuate I had cut out the pattern pieces for this dress. Today it would probably not have been a fabric that I had chosen and the pattern included very large ruffled sleeves. I used the sleeves to cut out some narrower sleeve and a waistband to make it longer in the bodice, and this turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of clothing of the whole year. - The post about the dress

When summer came along I really wanted a new summer dress, so I made this. I still think it's very cute, but the fabric was a bit too prone to wrinkling and wasn't as comfy as I thought, so this became more of a special occasion dress than the carefree summer dress that I had planned. I am still happy with the result. The post about the dress.

I wanted to find an easy, but still a bit special, top/blouse pattern that I could make a lot of variations from, and still look more unique than if I had bought. The Ngaio blouse pattern from Scroop Patterns turned out to be like that and in the end I made four different tops, that I used a lot the whole year from it. the favorite being the long sleeved version. I made a post about the first blouse, but not the others.

The pattern also led me into 1930s fashion, and I also added a 1930s black skirt, that turned out to be the year I used all summer long at work. The post about the skirt.

I finished the year with a festive 1930s blouse from a vintage pattern. The post about the blouse

As for the cuff warmers that were also on my list, well I did make a pair of cuff warmers, but not the embroidered ones that I had planned, but rather a pair using sprang technique.

I can also add this sprang cap/hat to the list of items that I did for everyday wear. The post about the hat

As I sad I would never have thought that I would do this much 1930s clothing and then add some pieces in sprang, meaning that I who have always hated knitting and crocheting all of a sudden found myself enjoying working with yarn.