2020 costuming review

 I think I can easily say that just as for many of us 2020 didn't exactly turn out to be anything close to what I thought it would be when I posted my costume plans in early January. My plans were to make my 1520 Swedish courtgown, Princess Daisy from Supermario in winter attire, Enfys Nest and a Jedi librarian. 

What became obvious to me was that all inspiration for cosplay projects disappeared at the same rate that all events got cancelled. For cosplay I need an event to aim for. In the end the only cosplay related thing I did was to make a mudhorn egg for my jawa. Even that isn't totally finished since I need to add more paint and attach a string to carry it with.

It was easier to keep the inspiration going for historical projects, and there the Historical Sew Monthly (HSM) is a great inspiration with 12 challenges to complete during a year. My main costuming project that took the most time and energy was that I did manage to finished my court gown project, and I was lucky to get some wonderful photos of it as well.

The more unexpected costuming projects that I did year was when I on a whim decided to make a 1920's one hour dress, and take it to a workshop in educational time travel.

With all big events cancelled, one got to appreciate the smaller things you could do in the vicinity. Like when a friend posted on FB that she wanted to go to a local mansion that is from the early 1900s in period attired. I love 1910s fashion, so I finally added both underwear and outerwear to my Rilla corset from a couple of years ago.

The rest of the things I made were mostly smaller stuff, that fit in with the HSM challenges, so I will make a separate post with just a HSM20 recap.

HSM20 challenge 11 - the updated shift

 I had one challenge left to finish for HSM 2020 to make all 12, and fittingly enough I finished it on the morning of New Year's Eve. So that means I have done all 12 challenges this year, and this is the second time since the HSF/HSM started that I have managed that. Anyway, on the finished result.

November: Go Green Glow-Up: Be environmentally friendly and celebrate how your making skills have ‘glowed-up’ as you’ve used and practiced them by taking apart an early make of yours that no-longer represents your making skills, and re-making it so you’d be proud to use it. It can be as elaborate as a total re-make, or as simple as getting the ribbons or buttons you didn’t have time to source at first. You could even take something from a challenge made earlier in the year, and fix the tiny things you weren’t totally happy with.

I decided to redo my high-necked 1520's shift. That was made as challenge 2 in the HSM2018.

This wasn't my first attempt at 16th century, but it was my first attempt after I had decided to do it seriously. At the time I did not like blackwork, so instead I made a freehand smocking pattern using white wool yarn at the neck. For the cuffs I made just a single row of honeycomb smocking. 

Now almost three years later I have found a new appreciation for blackwork and I decided to redo the shift with proper embroideries. Something I have also realised since I made the shift is that the collar is quite commonly made as a separate piece, instead of gathering the full width of the fabric into the neck opening. I couldn't do that, but I decided to do the new embroidery as separate pieces that I then added above the gathered fabric. I have a post about just the embroidery here. With links to the pattern that I used, both the neck and cuff embroidery is from a patternbook published 1527-1529.

Then it was on to replacing the old embroidery and smocking with the new bands.

This was the old single row of honeycomb smocking, The smocking had not been enough to keep the cuff tight, so it had loosened a lot with use. For the cuffs I simply removed the smocking and redid the gathering threads as well. Nowadays I freehand the gathering so it doesn't take as long as when I did this originally and meticulously measured and made dots where I should put all the gathering stitches.

The remake also allowed me to make the "ruffle" below the cuff longer. I sewed the cuff on over the last row of gathering stitches. I tried to sew so that I attached every ridge of the gathered fabric to the cuff. On the inside I added a linen strip and sewed it on the same way. The original shift had just been pulled over the hands, now I needed a closure. On the Sture shirts from the 1560s there is a buttonhole on the cuff, but no button remains.

I made a buttonhole on the inner linen strip, and then I made a narrow linen ribbon that I attached to the other side of the cuff. It is now closed by pulling the linen ribbon through the buttonhole. I used a single ribbon, since then I can close it myself, if I had used two ribbons that would have been a lot harder. 

Then it was on to the collar. I started with removing the old embroidery. That hurt a bit, the embroidery wasn't bad, it just wasn't correct. The new collar was a bit more narrow than then old, so I kept the bottom and top row of original embroidery in order to keep the gathered fabric together. There is around 4,5 m of fabric, and unlike the cuffs I did not want to remake all that gathering. The collar also had a band of linen on the inside, so I removed that one as well. Then the embroidered band was attached just like the cuffs.

The original shift was closed with modern hook and eyes, since then I have also learnt that there are no extant examples that are closed that way. So to close the neck I made two buttonholes on each side of the opening, just like I had made one on the cuff. I then made a small fingerloop braid out of silk embroidery thread to close the neck.

The last thing to do was to remove all the gathering stitches, and the last wool threads, that were visible above and below the new collar and cuffs.

What the item is: A late 1520's shift
How it fits the challenge: This was a total remake of all the decorative elements. Instead of freehand embroidery in white wool yarn I used original patterns from the period in black silk. Instead of modern hooks and eyes for closure I made buttonholes (new skill), linen ribbons. and a fingerloop braid, (new skill).

Material: Linen fabric, silk embroidery thread
Pattern: The embroidery is from an original patternbook from 1527-1529
Year: Late 1520s-1530s
Notions: none
How historically accurate is it? I think it's still too much fabric in the shift, but probably around 80%

Hours to complete: A month
First worn: A quick New Year's greeting on New Year's Eve

Total cost: Everything was from my stash, but probably around $15, most of it for the silk thread.

Embroidered cuffs and collar for a 16th century shift

 After I had finished the cape I realized that I had done 11 out of the 12 HSM challenges, and I really wanted to finish all challenges this year. The challenge that I hadn't done was "go green glow-up", where you should take an old project and upgrade it to your current standards, rather than just making something new.

I decided to redo my smocked shift from 2018. At the time I had just started to dip my toes into 16th century costuming, and one thing I didn't like was blackwork. So instead I did a smocking pattern with white wool and some extra freshwater pearld.

Since then I have learnt to appreciate blackwork a lot more, and this last year I have restarted my interestest in cross stitch. I decided to redo the collar and cuffs, but with an accurate pattern, and in black silk instead of the white wool.

Instead of pattern darning, like I had done on my last shifts, I decided that it would be a lot easier to get a nice looking pattern if I did the cuffs and collar as a separate piece and then sewed it onto the shift. The patterns that I chose were both from a patternbook printed in Augsburg either 1527 or 1529, and it is available here. 

I started with the cuffs.

For the thread I'm using a very fine black silk yarn, it's more like a thick sewing thread than a yarn. I picked up a 1000 m roll from etsy last year when I wanted to try and do pattern darning with it. For the cuffs I went by it line by line, the full length of the cuff. The second cuff was much faster to make, since then I had learnt the pattern and I didn't have to count all the time. 

For the collar I decided to do the embroidery segment by segment. Above you can see that I have finished one segment and started on the second. This made it a lot easier and I got quicker and quicker when I got more familiar with the end result for each segment. When I stared the embroidery on the cuffs I also used a magnifying glass, but for the collar I had gotten so used to the size of the stitches that I didn't have to do that. One issue is that this embroidery is a lot narrower than the wool embroidery that's on the shift now, so I will see how I solve that. To make the embroidery a bit wider I added a straight line of stitches above and under the main embroidery, which is something you see on a lot of pattern.

Here are the finished cuffs and collar, now it's only the small issue of getting them onto the shift.

HSM challenge 12 - community

 This weekend was supposed to be the first time our 16th century guild would do a public event together. It was going to be partially outdoors, and it's December so I needed something warm. I decided to go for a furlined gollar or cape. The event was still planned in early November, but then the second covid wave hit and  it's been postponed. 

The pattern of the cape really shows how helpful it is to be part of a costuming community. I took a photo of a pattern that belong to Marlein, she has a post about it here. It was a fairly simple pattern, so I didn't copy it exactly. I then made a small pattern, basically just long enough to cover the shoulders, and that pattern I lent to Ann-Sofie and Monica. When it was time for me to actually make my cape, well Monica had my pattern, but I was having a crafting session together with Ann-Sofie, so I could use the pattern that she had drawn from my copy, that at the moment was with Monica. All of us now have made our versions of the cape, and I had looked forward to us all wearing it together showing how you can adapt a base pattern in many ways depending on what lenghts, fabrics, and linings you use. Well that will have to wait when it's possible to have an event together again.

The finished cape with the fur collar turned to the outside.

The back of the cape.

When it's really cold the collar can be turned up and really hug your neck with some gorgesous soft fur.

At the moment I have not added any closures at the opening. When I've tried it on the cape hangs in position by itself, and I could decide if I would add the closures to get the cape to close totally, or with the fur visible. 

The side seam has a slit so that I can get my arms through and work with them, while still keeping the cape on. That will make it a lot easier when working and moving around.

The length of the side seam is 60 cm, this is a bit on the shorter side. I would probably have liked another 10 cm, but then I'm not sure I would have had enough fur to line the whole cape.

The finished cape with the scraps of fur that were left. 

I have more posts about the construction here: A proper winter gollar, and here: The collar of the gollar

Some comments on the the historical accuracy. The pattner is accurate and the fabric is a felted wool similar to the kind that would have been available. I chose a pale pink colour because I didn't want to have a brown cape, but I also wanted a cape that would be suitable for a middleclass kind of person, so I didn't want to use a colour that was too strong like red or black. In local texts from the 1520s there are complaints about clothes being "too colorful", and I didn't want to go in that territory. 

The fur that I've used for lining is from a vintage fur coat and it's mink. The mink is a North American species and would not have been available the time in Sweden. The furs that are talked about in the upper classes are usually squirrel, marten and for the really exclusive clothes sable. Squirrels were definitely hunted here in the area. Since I don't want to use "new" fur I had to go with the available fur and then I went with mink. Also about halfway into the project I got the chance to hear a lecture on the reuse of clothes in the 16th century Swedish court. And there I learnt that fur linings were always detachable, they were probably never even stored together with the outer fabric. So my version of attaching the fur directly to the outer wool fabric is totally wrong. 

In the end I have a piece of clothing that looks good, and will be really nice and warm, but I am a bit unsure on how accurate it actually is.

Anyway, here are just the facts.

The Challenge: Community

Material:  1 m of pink melton wool, 1 vintage fur coat (approximate size XL)

Pattern: A schaublein from "Drei Schnittbücher"

Year: First half of the 16th century

Notions: Linen and silk thread to sew with

How historically accurate is it? The overall look is very accurate, but it is the wrong kind of fur (mink wasn't around then) and the construction of adding the fur directly to the main fabric is wrong, the time period it would have been made as a detachable lining. I would say 50%

Hours to complete: 2 weeks, most of it was about piecing the fur scraps together to get them to cover the whole cape.

First worn: Not yet

Total cost:  $60 (half of it fabric half of it for the coat)

The collar of the gollar

 It sounds fun, but really collar and gollar are the same word, even more obvious in Swedish where gollar in the 16th century was probably called a "kraga", and collar in modern Swedish is "krage".

Anyway for a proper winter gollar I wanted a nice high collar as well.

This is the shape of the collar. The important thing is that the bottom of the collar is the measurement that you want your finished backpiece to have. The backpiece of the main gollar is then pleated to the gollar to give it the right measurement.

That the backpiece is pleated to the gollar makes it quite bulky. For that reason it was a good thing that the fur lining didn't go all the way up to the top of the backpiece. Now I only pleated the wool pieces together, and afterwards I covered the gap with a piece of fur that I put in over the gap.

This is what the inside of the gollar looked like when I had attached the larger pieces of fur. From this I had to patch the rest with all the pieces that I could get. I was also very lucky in that I could cover the collar with the collar piece from the furcoat, since that was a piece of fur that was definitely of a different and higher quality than the rest of the coat.

At about this stage I got the chance to listen to a talk on the re-use of clothes and textiles at the Swedish court in the middle and late 16th century. And I can only say that my method of attaching the fur lining is totally wrong. Originally the fur lining was sewn together separately and then quite loosely attached to the outer fabric. It was easy to separate the lining from the main fabric, and it's very probably that they were stored separately. I should not have attached the fur directly to the outer wool fabric. 

Another note about construction is that I'm using fairly large stitches when I'm sewing the fur. I don't know if that was how it was done, but it's a habit I have from sewing leather and fake leather on the machine, where all the instructions call for using large stitches so that you don't weaken the leather.

When all the fur was attached I finished by taking off the excess fur that was peaking out. When working with fur, also with fake fur, I'm using a scalpel. I've also heard from people that have used a razor blade. The important thing is that you cut through the leather, but not the fur itself. With a pair of scissors you would cut everything, and that leads a to a lot more loose fluff that you need to clean up. You still get some fluff, but it's a lot less since you haven't cut it.

A proper winter gollar

 Winter is coming, and I need something to wear with my 16th century clothes. I decided to make a longer gollar, than my short red one. I wanted a gollar, or cape, that covered the whole upper body, and I wanted to line it with fur to make it really warm and cozy. I started to look around auction sites and second hand stores for some old furcoats that I could use for lining. I don't mind wearing fur if it's old or antique, but I don't want to buy new fur and encourage the fur industry. I didn't find anything, but I still needed the cape, so I decided to start with it anyway. For the wool outside I picked a new melton wool, which is lately felted. It's from Medeltidsmode. The fabric arrived, I cut it out, and then I forgot that I had made a bid on a mink coat on an auction site and got really surprised when I got the mail that I had won the auction. I got it dirt cheap.

The pattern for the cape is fairly simple, I have gotten it from Marlein. It's a half circle for the back piece, and the front is basically a quarter circle cut in half, so you get two 8th of a circle. There is an opening in the seam between the fronts and the back piece, so you can stick your hands out through it. 

To reuse a furcoat isn't totally easy. First I had to remove the two layers of lining, and then cut it up into pieces that were as large as possible, basically most of the fronts and the back piece. I decided to use the largest pieces of fur for the front, where they might be visible. And tht is what you can see in the photo above. 

Then I got a lot of small pieces and scraps. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough fur to line the whole cape. But I put everything out and from what I can see there should be enough fur to fully line it. I still haven't cut up the sleeves, I'm first of all planning on using them for the collar, and then as reserve pieces if I can't cover the whole inside of the cape. If you are taller than me, or want a longer cape, you might need two furcoats or a furcoat and some extra pieces. 

I started with attaching the front pieces and then the biggest pieces in the back. I'm using silk thread, and big stitchies, to make as little strucural damage to the fur as possible. I sew the pieces on by hand, and I pull the thread through part of the wool, but not all the way to the other side. The seams are not toally invisible, but the there is no thread visible on the front. This would probably have been easier if I had used a dark fabri and a thread in a similar colour.

Despite trying my best to pin everything in place I noticed that the outer fabric had gotten all these folds, it had obviously moved when I sewed the large piee of fur on. The solution was to rip up the seam fixing the fur to the wool at the neck opening and then stretch the wool upwards to get rid of the wrinkles at the bottom.

I also made sure to do this when the cape was hanging on my dressform, to mae sure that the fabric was hanging like it would when I wear it. In the photo above you can see the difference from before. 

This is how much I had to stretch the wool, from the start the fur was sewn on just 0,5 cm from the edge of the wool. This doesn't matter since I will be able to over it with the fur from the collar when I sew it on.

I still haven't gotten the inside fully covered in fur, but the next step is to make the collar and line that with fur, so that I then know exactly how much fur I will have left.

Photos for an exhbition

 On December 5th the county museum, Dalarnas museum, opens and exhibition Gustav Vasa. Gustav Vasa's adventures through Dalarna on his quest to gather followers and oust the Danish king is a big thing in Swedish history, but even more so in Dalarna. It is an ingrained part of the folk memory an folk traditions in the region, no matter if they are true or not. Then of course Gustav Vasa is seen as the creator of the modern national state of Sweden, despite also being a terrible tyrant. Anyway, there are actually two exhibits. One is a travelling exhibition about Gustav Vasa and the quest for power, the other is made by the museum and is about the myths and legends in Dalarna. our 16th century guild, that is aiming to recreate the time of Gustav Vasa was asked if we could help out with showing how people would have been dressed in the time period. And earlier this week, myself, Linnea and Kål Henrik went down to the museum and had a quick photosession.

To represent the more local people in Dalarna at the time, I'm wearing my mustard kirtle, standard apron and new linen hood, over my smallest wulsthaube. We think this could werk well with a rich farmer or smaller master miner. Kål Henrik is showing off his footsoldier/farmer soldier, and Linnea is using her German town clothing to represent a woman from the top master miners' families.

We also brought our landsknecht garb with us to show off the contrast between the local people and those foreign people who were also in the country, mostly in the hunt for Gustav Vasa. 

I usually don't do landsknecht, but it was fun to dress up. I need to redo quite a few things on my green dress that I'm not happy with, but instead of remaking it into a more local fashion I'm thinking that I will keep it as a trossfrau gown so that I have an option for doing landsknecht when it's needed.

It will be fun to see how they use our photos in the exhibitions.