Starting a landsknecht outfit

 After the big parade of landsknechtsbig parade of landsknechts last year in Stockholm David really wanted a landsknecht outfit. First he talked about making it himself, by Christmas we had both realised that wouldn't be feasible. I have spent a lot of time in the winter trying to drape a pair of hose for him, and now with less than two months to go until Medieval Week in Visby it was time to for me to really start. Early May we also visited friends in Borås and could pass some of the fabric shops to actually pick ut fabric. This also meant a redesign, since he had talked about wanting a pink costume, but here we found a beautiufl red so then he wanted red with pink lining, to be seen through the slashes.

The fabric that will be used, red wool, pink wool and a linen lining.

One reason why it has taken me so long to start is that I am really unsure about making male clothing, and that I couldn't decide on a design. I did want to make something fairly easy, but at the same time it is a landsknecht so it has to be flamboyant. There are also so many variations on decorations and models that it was simply hard to choose. I am not going to make an exact reproduction, so in the end these are some of my inspirations

Matthäus Schwars was a man in Augsburg that made a book with all the outfits he had worn throughout his life. This is from 1524. This was when I finally got something that I felt was a good inspiration. It's a fairly simple outfit, but the doublet has massive sleeves, and then the hose are not as heavily slashed and decorated as for example Urs Graf's Swiss mercenaries.

This painting had been an early inspiration when David said he wanted a pink outfit. The pink and red remains as colour inspiration.

Another original inspiration was this soldier that's on a mural in Lojo church in Finland, dated to around 1510-1520. His clothes are a bit more 15th century, but I liked the pattern of the hose.

Since the hose is going to be at least striped I realised that it would be better to start with the doublet, since the sleeves will take the largest single pieces of fabric, and once I have that done I could use the rest to created stripes for the hosen. Since the double isn't going to be as fitted as the hose I also felt it would be easier to start with it.

I have started with cutting out the bodice of the double. It consists of three parts. A full back and two fronts. The larger front will be overlapping the smaller piece, and that is why the smaller isn't a full piece, only the side going up to the shoulder and a flap that will be tied to the other piece to keep it in position.

HSM Challenge 2024: Made to move - a generous apron

 At the moment I don't have any "fine" aprons, because all my 16th century aprons have been used when cooking and doing work in camp. They have stains and holes in them and look generally worn out. I'm also worried that the gowns that I wear get stains as well from workin, so I decided to make a big apron to really protect all my clothing.

In late 15th century and early 16th century art you see this kind of apron quite a lot.

Among reenactors it's commonly called a "midwife's apron", but this kind of apron shows up on people in a variety of occupations, even men. 

On a trip down further south I passed by a fabric outlet that had hemp fabric for sale and I bought 2 m of it for a bargain. I then started with cutting off a strip of fabric that I could use for the strap.

It's not cut on the bias, so the the strap doesn't curve perfectly, but here it was more about not wasting fabric. What was left of the fabric after the strap was simply cut in half to form the front and back pieces.

The fabric was marked and pleated one one side to the width I wanted it to have. I then hemmed the sides and sewed them together. It was simple trial and error to get the side seam as long as I wanted it.

The strap is one continous piece, with the top of the back and front sewn into the strap. This was also a trial and error to make the strap long enough. Since the late 15th and early 16th century is all about large headwear it is i mportant to make the head opening large enough to be able to get a wulsthaube through it. I might have done mine a tad too small. The front and  back are exactly the same.

Looking at the finished apron it looks a bit too wide, maybe I should have used less fabric? On the other hand all my wool gowns have skirt with a cirumference at the hem of at least 3 meters, so I don't want an apron that is much narrower than that at the hem. A thinner fabric might be better to get those soft folds that are seen in the art, but this is definitely an apron that will give a very full coverage over my wool gowns.

What the item is: working apron, also called a midwife's apron
How it fits the challenge: I made it so large so that I could move around the hearth, without having my finer gowns that I wear under it bunch up under it.
Material: 2 m of hemp fabric
Pattern: my own
Year: Late 15th early 16th century
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? around 75%
Hours to complete: 24
First worn: not yet
Total cost: $25

HSM24: Challenge UFO spotter - an embroidered cap

 Back when I made my 1520s court gown I was quite a lot into embroidery, and I wanted to make an embroidered hood, that was not as fancy as my embroidered gold hood. In 2021 the Royal Armory made a challenge to take an object from their collections and turn it into an embroidery for World Embroidery day in August of 2021. 

One of their objects that I've always liked is this prayerbook, probably owned by Malin Sture, it's her family's coat of arms in the front and signed with by her siblings and cousins, she was cousin to the royal family. It is dated to the 1550s/1560s, so a bit later than my preferable time period, but I still took inspiration from the edge decorations and created a cross stitch pattern from it.

The photo above is dated to August 2021. I realized that I wouldn't finish it before the set date for the challenge, and since then it's been an ongoing project. I've packed it up with a plan to finish it, realized that I wouldn't do it and then I've packed it away again. It's also been a project that I've brought to our cosplay meets when I haven't had anything special to work on.

I had finsihed the bottom border just before Christmas 2022, but then I decided that it would look so much better if I doubled it, and then I packed the project away again. Finally I finished the whole embroidery in January 2024, only 2,5 years after I started it with a plan to have it done in a month or so. 

I felt that the empty spaces in the middle of the pattern should have something, and I had two different sets of metallic spangles. The larger ones were to big, but I added a small metallic spangle all the way.

I finally had a finsihed embroidery, with some extra bling. 

To protect the backside of the embroidery, both from wear and from my hair dye I added a strip of linen in the back. This can more easily be removed so that I can wash it if I need to.

Now came the rest of the challenge, and that was to remember how I had planned to make this project into a hood. 

I draped it over my wulsthaube, and it looked pretty good, but I felt that it was too bulky in the middle back ,and the result was also quite poofy, and I want a sleeker look for this hood.

Marlein - 16th century wardrobe has posted about three different kind of hoods, I don't quite understand her explanations, but I used her photos as inspiration for a new try.

I did remove quite a lot of fabric at the back corners to get rid of the bulk. I also hemmed all the edges, both because the fabric had started to fray at the sides during the handling of it over the years and because it means that I don't have to worry about finished them afterwards. It makes it easier to work from the outside.

I folded the fabric double and sewed the first 5 cm of the curved edge together.

The back of the cap, which shows the 5 cm ceam, but it's open above that. I also made eyelets along the edge under the seam, to be able to tighten the hood.

Then I decided to make an experiment and starch the hood before pleating the back. I don't know if hoods were starched, but starch was used for frilled veils in the 14th century, and I like the look and feel of starched linen. It also repels dirt. I used a medium starch, and dipped the hood while holding the embroidered border, I tried to avoid getting starch on the embroidery and spangles.

After pressing the hood it was time to pleat the back.

Folding the extra fabric and pleating it down doesn't have a specific formula. I try to work from the middle and get it even. Personally I like the look of a few larger pleats better than a more and narrower pleats. Since there are so few images of the backside of these kinds of hoods I don't know what was most common back in the day. The fabric was tucked in under the sewn seam in the back and the pleats were tacked in place.

This is what the inside looks like. I pleated the fabric from the outside, so you can see that it got twisted on the inside, but the important thing is that it looks good on the outside.

The hood is held tight by threading a ribbon through the eyelets and pulling it all together. The ribbon is tucked under the embroidered border, and that border is closed with a pin in the back. I used a satin ribbon, but might switch to a linen or silk ribbon later, but I didn't have one at home.

So here are the facts.

What the item is: an embroidered hood
How it fits the challenge: I started it in 2021, and just finished it in 2024 after a lot of procrastination
Material: linen fabric, silk thread, metallic spangles
Pattern: My own
Year: 1540s
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? around 85%
Hours to complete: It's a UFO so way too many
First worn: At a dinner in January 2024 (making this post was also a UFO)
Total cost: $50

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Leksand medieval fair

 This weekend it was time for the first medieval event, and the second largest for me outside of Medieval week. In fact me and Emma realized we actually have to pack more stuff for this event than Visby, simply because we have to bring all kitchen utensils and foodstuff ourselves.

The event started on Friday, but we went up to Leksand after work on Thursday to set up camp.

The tent went up and for the first time I also used my firestand. It was really nice that it was so high up that you didn't have to bend down to just stir in the pot.

After three years with the tent we have come close to a really nice living situation. The bed is 120x170, which is perfect for us short girls to share, and have some room at the end of the bed for storage.  One day I should probably share the story of the bed, but let's just say that it is of a common reenactor design and it's a good thing that Emma's fiancé is a woodworker that saved it after we had tried to make it ourselves. The tent is really a once person tent, but it works for two, and two persons warm the area pretty well just with body heat. I have never slept so well in a camp like I did this weekend.

We share our camp site with our friends in the 16th century guild, so this is our whole campl, with signs to tell who we are and what we are doing. 

A big part of being in a camp for me is of course cooking and me and Emma have our routine where she handles the fire and then I can cook.

It was really warm, but that meant that we didn't freeze in the night. -On Saturday it wa 25 degrees C, so it was nice going down to the river to cool down.

The water wasn't warm enough for a bath though, since it still contains a lot of meltwater from the mountains.

Saturday was the main cooking day, so I made fried cheese sticks for lunch/afternoon snacks.

Then we put up a whole piece of meat and had it roasting for hours.

Together with a cabbage sallad and spicy raspberry sauce it was a real feast, even if the heat had taken it's toll on us and we were quite tired and went to bed early.

I was worthy a tiny cocktail after all the cooking though.

For costume I wore my remade pink gown, it's too big though even after my alterations. And interesting thing is that I had taken it in to make it smaller, but it had also gotten too long, so there was definitely excess fabric, I will see if I have time to fix that before Visby, or if I let it stay like this and make the alterations a winter project. In the heat it was quite nice to have a dress that wasn't tight at all.

Moulin Rouge dress along

 Some times it's so fun to just dress up. A month or so ago I saw an ad on Facebook about Moulin Rouge dress along, basically watch the film and do it dressed up. I just had to go, and remember how obsessed I was with this film as a student. Back in 2005 I sewed my first corset because I wanted to recreate Nini Legs-in-the-air's iconic red windmill gown.

It was made in cheap fabrics and I ill-fitting, I simply wasn't a very skilled seamstress back then. I think I have the petticoat still somewhere in a stash, but the rest of the gown went fairly early into the trash. Looking at it now I think the ruffle and the top trim looks good, but not the rest.

Anyway, for the dress along I went up to the attic to see what I could dig out. In my costume history I also have my cancan trooper outfit.

I knew that parts of it were ruined, the outer skirt has been thrown away and the corset had bones poking out from it. I was surprised that so many elements were there for it though. Still in order for the whole outfit to be wearable I would need to do some repair and remakes, and I didn't have the time for that, I also wanted to take inspiration from the film and go as a general cancan dancer. In the end I used the petticoat from the cancan trooper and a black corset from a ballgown from way back as well. 

At this point I should say that I was almost crying with happiness that I could fit in these pieces again, which is of course thanks to the gastric bypass I did in the autumn. My weight loss hasn't been the most dramatic, but I am back in a size where I can wear my costumes again, and I can feel beautiful.

Anyway since the petticoat and corset was black I went with a black and white theme by adding a white shirt from my husband, black bowtie and a top hat from my mother. To get some colour pops I used my 18th century red shoes and added a red fake flower to the top hat.

It was bright and sunny when me and my husband went to the event, and we made quite a striking silhouette.

Red shoes to break off the black and white theme

I had made a bunch of fingercurls in my hair and swooped it up into a ponytail in the back

The whole outfit

My husband was very handsome and stylish in his white tie with a borrowed top had and a gorgeous embroiedred vest that he had in his wardrobe.

The event itself was really fun. It was held at Bio Capitol - bistro and bar, which combines a 1926 cinema with a restaurant and bar. So the bar opened an hour before the film started.

The event was hosted by Miss Diamond burlesqe, and there were burlesqe performers mingling with the crowds.

The cocktail of the night was absinthe-based, but of course a modern absinthe and not the crazy stuff of 1900s Paris. It was green, nice and good.

During the film there were live performances by Miss Diamond and her crew during some of the songs.

Most of the other guests wore attire more suitable for burlesque and the roaring 20s parties, but there were two green fairies from the film there.

All in all it was a great night and I am definitely going to be on the lookout for more events at Bio Capitol in the future. And I am definitely contemplating if I shouldn't make another try of Nini's windmill dress, but now of course I am a better seamstress but I also see all the details and how complicated it really is.

Female tusken mask build

 So back in 2013 I posted about my Female Tusken and that I had sold the mask and that my main goal was to build a new mask and start using the costume again in 2014.

My old female tusken costume

Since then I have sold the mask and bag, lost the bracelet and gotten rid of the underdress. So what I have left is a leatherbag, without the bone clasp, gloves and armwraps, boots and the hood. Now I think that I will remake the hood anyway for this new project, but my first priority is to make a new mask, and in fact I bought a mask kit in 2012. It is not available anymore, it was a run of masks made for people in Denver, Colorado, and I got in on the last remaining one after the Denver build. I have started the mask a few times, but I have been a bit too worried about my skill in building and then I've quit the project.

Now I really want to finish it so I hauled out my mask, and realized that in my start with the kit so many years ago I had made a few things I would not have don today. I had made cuts in some of the bricks to what I then thought would make them align better with each other, I had also cut out and clued the white, flat "bone"s to some of the pieces. In doing that I had cut them shorter than I would have preferred today, but I don't know what kind of glue I used I simply couldn't get them off without risking the integrity of the pieces. So I had to continue where I left off.

The first I did was to paint the main pieces. For a base layer I used the brand Cospaint in espresso gold. The good thing with cospaint is that it is a bit flexible and it also works as a primer so you can paint directly on foam with it, you don't need to seal the foam first. 

I felt that the espresso gold was too brown though, so I dry brushed a layer of antique gold acrylic paint on top of the espresso gold. This gave it a beautiful brass colour. Now if you follow the 501st legion CRL for this costume they have an example of a mask that is very brown copper, but if you look at the reference pictures of the actual costumes they are much more brass than copper.

With that all the base paint was done. 

I then sanded off the paint on the pieces that I was going to glue to the connecting "bone" pieces. For glueing I used contact cement.

Where I glued the "bones" to the square pieces I got a bit of a gap. As I mentioned the "bone" pieces were done back in 2014 or so, today I wouldn't have assembled them like that. The gap was filled in with foam clay. And the good thing with cospaint working on foam is that I could then paint the foam directly once it was dry.

The squares, and bones, were glued to a backing piece of canvas using contact cement. I also had to bend the top bone pieces so that they can fit to the curved mask. Here is where I noticed that when I cut the bones I hadn't taken the curve into account, so today I would have cut them longer.

Once the glue had dried I cut the backing canvas to just follow the outline of the harder mask. Then it was time for the fun that is weathering. I dry brushed a mix of verdigris and ivory black acrylic paint, I also used a paper towel to wipe off excess paint when it was on. In some places I felt that I went a bit overboard and then I dry brushed some more antique gold acrylic and cosplaint in copper over that.

And with that the mask is finished and ready to assemble so I can wear it, and then it's time to start on the hood itself.