Photos of my 17th century (1620s) costume

 I didn't get so many good photos of myself in my outfit when I was in Vadstena, so before it was time to pack it up into storage I decided to go out and have a photo shoot with my husband. The 17th century is the first time period when it's starting to get easier to find good locations around here. As a friend who works as an antiquarian at the county museum once said "we don't really care about wooden houses unless the are earlier than the 17th century, because there are so many of them". I decided to go to nearby Gamla Staberg, eventhough the main building and garden is mostly late 17th and 18th century, there are still some older buildings around that made a  nice background for the photos.

1620's weekend in Vadstena

Every year Vadstena castle, which was finished in 1621, has a military weekend with and invites reenactors to recreate the 1620s. The focus is military, but there was a camp to show off the cooking and crafts as well. I had met some of the people organizing it last year and decided to go. The 17th century is a new era for me, even if I had dipped my toes into it, but for this event I felt that I had to up my game, since the other recreators are really good. 

I will post more about my clothes as individual posts, but this was the full ensemble.

I had brought things with me so that I could show what a table in a tavern, and the ingredients that they used, looked like. It is based on an archaeological excavation in Falun, and I have written more about it here. 

For my own main meal on Saturday I didn't cook anything but had brought with me a mix of pickled vegetables, greens and meats to make what was called a "grand sallet" in the time period in England.

What is really nice with the event is that we were allowed to be in the casle at night, and if you had the proper gear you could even sleep in one of the towers. I bought a modern airbed with me though so I slept in a modern part of the castle.

The focus was on the military though and there were people from Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands there, and it was impressive to see such a large group of infantry working together.

There were also some musketeers, and two horses but I didn't get any good photos of the cavalry.

It was a really nice experience going to an even that is so limited in time, and everyone were really dressed up in clothes from the same era, early 16th century.

Still I'm not a big fan of the 17th century, and I didn't go from the event inspired to make a lot of new clothes, except that it would be nice to have a nice apron and not the worn and dirty that I have. Still I will definitely try to make it to Vadstena if the event returns next year because it was a great weekend.

Leksand medieval fair

 Over Ascension day it was the Medieval fair in Leksand and me and my 16th century group in Dalarna were there. For the first time my husband also joined us and slept in a tent. I didn't bring any new clothes, instead this year the focus was on getting the interior of the tent more practical.

This is one half of the tent. The new addition was that I had bought a big basket, where you could put your clothes when undressing, that way they were all in the same spot instead of being spread all over the floor.

The other part of the tent and I am so happy with my new pantry/food storage.

It started out as this bathroom shelf (Råggrund from IKEA). I then covered the sides in a linen curtain. In the shelves I could have everything in plastic containers with good lids to keep bugs and other stuff out. The top pegs in the corners also worked great to hang aprons and handkerchiefs from. It's not historically correct in any way, more of a LARP standard, but it worked and I'm happy with it. I can't do carpentry work, but I am good at assembing IKEA furniture and sewing, so I used the skills I have to make something that cleared up a lot of floor space in the tent and that felt a lot more hygienic.

I was so happy that my husband enjoyed the experience, and he said that he slept like a baby. One thing is sure as much as I like my friend Emma, who I usually share the bed with, it was nice to have a husband (and a lot of wool blankets) to snuggle up to when the temperature dropped to around 4 degrees in the night. The trick to keep the heat was one duvet, four wool blankets a hot water bottle between us, and to sleep in a modern but warm hoodie and flanell trousers set.

Much of my time was spent cooking food. I usually use Leksand to try some medieval recipes that I've made in my modern kitchen, before I make them in a larger scale in Visby. This time there were some success - my homemade gnocchi, chicken in cumin sauce and the fish stew, and some total failures - when I tried to make cheese with rennet and it refused to curdle. 

Keep an eye out on my historical food blog for more information about the food.

My 2024 costuming year in review

 So it's time to look back on the year and see what I have made. When I think back to this year it feels as if I didn't do a lot of things for myself, since my main focus was on my husband's landsknecht costume, then I realise that I still got quite a lot of things done.

This is my favorite photo of us from Medieval week in Visby, which was my main costume even this year. I made all the clothes that my husband is wearing, I remade my pink gown totally and I am wearing a new hat and new socks.

This was another of our events, a 1524 evening feast, and here I am wearing my blackwork cap that I finally finished and a whitework apron that was also totally new, and my husband got a new pair of hose more fitting for a burgher.

When it came to my cosplay, rather than 16th century, projects I did make my winter version of Princess Daisy from Supermario.

It was a fun and cozy costume, but my computer was dead when I made it so I never got to post any in progress posts about it.

With my changing body after my gastric bypass I could make a comeback with a lot of my older costumes.

In May I once again wore TFA General Leia at ComicCon Summer in Stockholm

And both at NärCon and Bokmässan I wore my admiral Daala

Bokmässan, which is the biggest literature event in Northern Europe was a new experience, and the most fun part was that I could share it with my husband, who was there as a writer.

Then, as is quite usual I think, in the autumn some new unplanned projects came along. I got the chance to patten test the new 1916 Seatoun skirt from Scroop patterns.

It was fun to dress up in 1910s fashion again, it is one of my favorite fashion eras but I simply don't get the chance to dress in it enough.

I also started to make everyday clothes, something I haven't done a lot of previously, but I started with the Summit dress from Scroop Patterns

And after the Seatoun I also made both modern versions of the skirt pattern, the Tara with and without pinafore.

I also made some small things for the HSM 24 challenges, that I have posted about in a previous post. So all in all it was a pretty productive year, even if I am missing the big impactful costumes for myself, the landsknecht was pretty impressive though.

Melisandre out at night

 This weekend the county museum, Dalarnas museum, organised "Dalarna fantasy and folklore festival" and for the Saturday evening the Cosplay Dalarna group was inviter to mingla in costumes that fit the theme.

I really just have one fantasy costume so of course I brought Melisandre. I even upgraded my torch with some red LED lighta that I simply hid at the base of the flames. 

The best indoor photo setting was the preserved library of Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. 

I did take a selfie with the best of Selma outside the room.

Most fun though was to take photos outside in the dark, even if it was quite cold in this costume.

After all the night is dark and filled with terrorn.

The Seatoun 1916 skirt

 Did I have the time to thrown in a random project last month? No. Could I stop myself when Leimomi Oakes of TheDreamstress and Scroop Patterns asked for pattern testers for a mid-1910s skirt? Also no. I already have the Scroop Patterns corset, petticoat and blouse for the time period and this would be perfect to get a whole outfit finished. The fashion 1915-1917 with the crinoline revival and swishy skirts is probably my absolute favorite historical era, after all it's no coincidence that I modelled my wedding gown after it. 

Leimomi said that it took her around 4,5 hours to make the skirt, so I figured it would a fairly straightforward project, and it was. It would have been even easier if I had chosen another fabric. I used a very dark navy herringbone twill in cotton, and it was so dark that all the seams simply disappeared. I couldn't see them, which led to me chosing a simpler finish on the long seams and missing some when installing the placket. I really like Scroop Patterns because of the instructions though, they are so so easy to follow and I know that even if something feels daunting I could just take a breath and follow the instructions step by step and I will end up with a nice end result.

The changes I made to this pattern was that shortened the skirt with 6 cm at the hem and I used slightly larger seam allowances on the waist belt. I made a size 42 and my belt ended up 92 cm instead of the 91,5 if I had made the pattern with the indicated seam allowances. 

Another thing that I changed was that I raised the pockets. Mostly to make them reachable for my arms, but it also had the bonus of covering my wonky sewing at the bottom of the placket. In order to mark the new placement for the pockets I simply cut out the pocket placement marking from the pattern and placed it on the skirt until I was happy with where it was, then I marked it on the skirt and sewed the pocket on.

I am wearing the skirt with a Wearing Historys combinations, the Rilla corset, the Ettie Petticoat, my own pattern of a corset cover and the Selina blouse. This combination of clothes really illustrates the changes my body has gone through the last few years. The Rilla from 2017 is size 44 and it is slightly too large now, I had to fully close it in the back and I could have cinched it some more if I could have. The Ettie is made in size 48 or 50, and in order for it to stay up I made a hole in the casing for the elastic and then shortened the elastic quite a lot. This large Ettie was maybe a bit too large to get all the fabric properly under the skirt, it felt a bit bulky, especially since it is starched. The Selina is a size 46 and it definitely feels too big now. The hat is a summer straw hat from H&M that I've simply added a giant bow and some feathers to.

The pattern is now launched at Scroop Patterns and it also comes with a modernised version, the Tara skirt and pinafore. I was so happy with the Seatoun that I have already bought fabric so that I can make the Tara versions to use as everyday wear.

A 1520s master miner/burgher couple

 Since I first started to make 16th century clothing I have wanted to make clothes that could have been worn by the master miners in Falun. Master miners were part owners of the mine and owned their own smelting furnaces where they produced copper, they then sold it. There was a wide variety of economical rank and they can be compared to landed gentry, with some being very rich and some just scraping buy. Over all they can be compared in wealth to the burghers of the towns around the Baltic sea.

My impression of a master miner's daughter back in 2018

When David entered my life I started out with making him a coat, but then we have concentrated more on the landsknecht style, not the least because he really wanted a landsknecht outfit and I mostly do events with the landsknecht group Stockholmsfänikan. 

Anyway this weekend Stockholmsfänikan and Proknekt had a party, and even if it was landsknecht themed, we decided to go as master miners, also because it's October and David didn't want to wear shorts and I felt that I for once could wear my longsleeved green gown without dying from the heat. Also for once I was not cooking so I could wear my blackwork cap and a white apron without risk of putting stains or scorch marks from the fire on them.

I have made a new best apron, that is white and with both whitework and blackwork and I wore my blackwork cap and black furline partlet. For David I had made a new pair of long hose, and instead of his usual blingy hat he got to borrow my red and more simple hat. A good reason to have accessories that you can mix up, and his headsize is the same as mine when I'm wearing a wulsthaube so that works out really well. He is also wearing the hairnet that I am wearing in the top photo from 2018, once again accessories are so good for changing up your costume.

The hose are mainly machine sewed from a quite small piece of wool. I used the pattern for the landknecht shorts but simply lengthened it. I am glad that my husband is fairly short, and still the hose legs just reaches his ankles. I will see if I can piece together the scraps that are left to make them go down a bit over the foot, even if there isn't enough fabric to make them footed hose. I have alsoe piecred the fabric up under the bum and the codpiece and flag that its attached to to make it work. They are held up by being connected to a sleevless doublet, I might add sleeves to it in the future but it is quite comfy to have just the west under the coat. It's up to him to fix a pair of proper shoes though, that isn't something I can make for him.