Hoopla is finished! And so are the banners and the tunic!

Our Autumn Hoopla event was this past weekend, and as such the banners are finished! They turned out really well, I think, and people had a good time painting them. Here's some pictures of the finished projects:

I'll probably put up a permenant project guide in the near future. Its very simple. Just hem and paint :)

I also finished my tunic for Hoopla, which was my goal. I still need to go back and do something with the sleeves because even though they're selvage, they're fraying.

Not that great a picture of the tunic, but this is the best I've got so far. You can also see my cape! I'll probably put up instructions for this as well, when I get a chance.

Fur project ideas

Looking at the Markland Calendar, I discovered there's a war in MARCH. I REALLY wanna go and drag someone along with me, but its going to be REALLY cold. I saw this article a while ago about making a rabbit fur blanket and decided that may well be the answer to the problem of the REALLY cold-ness.

So now I am preparing to learn to sew furs. I've ordered myself a sewing awl and some thread, and am working on trying to get some cheap rabbit furs. So far my best bet has been Ebay - I've gotten a couple for $2 with free shipping. If you want to buy in bulk, you can also get hare skins at http://www.chichesterinc.com.

Tips I have discovered for sewing furs:
1) comb the fur out of the seam before you sew it.
2) if you are using a sewing machine, it will probably have to be an industrial machine. You will need to get a special presser foot and needle to sew the leather.
3) if you have problems with the leather getting stuck in the feed dogs, there is a kind of tape you can get to put between the fur and the machine
4) if sewing by hand (as I will be doing) you need to have an awl and some very sturdy thread
5) you can lay the leather edge to edge with no overlap and sew small X stitches. According to one ebayer, one stitch per inch should be enough to hold everything together.
6) with most sewing awls, you need access to both sides of the material, which is only an issue if you're making something complicated.

As for the pattern given on the website... I am not really planning on following it for two reasons - it'll cost too much to get that much fur, and I don't want as small a blanket as that turned out to be. I think I will be cutting squares of fur and sewing them together quilt-style. As my sewing machine isn't industrial, I intend to work by hand.

I will also most likely try to find myself a SMALL project to learn the skills I need before I try to make something as big as a blanket.

Heraldry Banners

I spent yesterday hemming banners. Got 30 done!

Our club is running an event in a little over a week. Its our annual welcome/recuitment event, and this year we're including a craft project. We decided to make banners so that we can use the money to get the club sewing machines, so we can better make garb and such.

The pattern looks like this, only with slightly curved lower corners:

I made the bottom edges of the banner slightly curved rather than having sharp corners, and I think its a nice effect. I am hemming them all with black thread, which gives a nice effect. I'll try to get the pattern and some more pics up ASAP. The goal is to let people paint them with heraldic images and take them home.

So, only 30 more to go!!!

Favors and Tokens

My roommate decided partway through this week that she wanted to run a workshop on making favors, so that our non-combatant members could have something to make them feel more involved in wars. So, she began researching, and decided to make a favor to give to me to carry into battle as well.

Much of what we could find on favors has to do with the practice of giving them in the SCA. In the SCA, there is actually a difference between favors and tokens. Favors are given between people who are romantically involved, and in SCA symbolize this involvement. Tokens, on the other hand, can be given to symbolize friendship, group membership, or a non-romantic connection. As best as I can tell, the only way to determine whether something is a token or a favor is by the way in which it is presented to the fighter.

Historically, a lady could support a knight or page through largess, which included gifts that would improve his ability to fight. This could be things like armor, horses, or gear. Gifts indicating a love relationship were not very common, but did certainly exist.

Some ideas for favors:
1) SCA uses small squares of fabric worn on the belt, but there is no historical evidence for this
2) handkerchief
3) sleeves (sleeves used to just tie on to a bodice)
4) jewelry
5) strings of beads
6) a glove (evidence for this from Upsala)
7) veils
8) shifts/chemises (how????!?!)
9) girdle (from the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight)
10) flags/banners

Where favors could be displayed:
hat (or hatband)
on a lance
pinned to a sleeve
rings on the little finger of the left hand
SCA tokens are worn on a belt

Women could also accept favors from men:
"The Countess of Champagne was also asked what gifts it was proper for ladies to accept from their lovers. To the man who asked this the Countess replied, 'A woman who loves may freely accept from her lover the following: a handkerchief, a fillet for the hair, a wreath of gold or silver, a breastpin, a mirror, a girdle, a purse, a tassel, a comb, sleeves, gloves, a ring, a compact, a picture, a wash basin, little dishes, trays, a flag as a souvenir, and to speak in general terms, a woman may accept from her lover any little gift which may be useful for the care of the person or pleasing to look at or which may call the lover to mind, if it is clear in accepting the gift she is free from all avarice.'" - Andreas Capellanus

Tunics and Shirts

Well... its now about 6 months later since my last post. We never did have that tunic workshop. However, my roommate went to the city for the day, so I took the time to make me some new garb :)

My first project was another skirt, on the same pattern I've used before. Its Simplicity 9966, which is unfortunately out of print but an awesome pattern if you can find it. As you can see, its intended as a costume pattern, not anything with historical accuracy, but I still LOVE the pattern. My copy is in marker on an old newspaper :P

Alright, back to the current topic - skirt! The skirt is this pattern is REALLY easy to make - 4 quarters, a waist band, and you hem it and you're done. AND its big enough to fit over my 4-hoop skirt.

NOTE: if you're going to wear this over a hoop skirt, you may need to lengthen the skirt by about 2 inches.

So my first project for today was to make a wool skirt. I'd found a 5 yd. piece of wool plaid fabric in my closet at my mothers, and after freezing my butt off at one of the summer wars, decided it should be another layer of skirt. And it IS warm - I was cooking with the fabric in my lap while I was working on it.

NOTE: As far as I know, if the elastic waist of the skirt is replaced with a drawstring, its nearly perfectly period. And the drawstring is (in my opinion) more comfortable, too!

__________________________________

My second project for the day was to attempt a T-tunic. We have a TON of new freshmen, and I'd like to see everyone have a tunic at least by feast time (Nov. 1) so I figured I'd better at least make sure I can make a tunic.

I wanted something quick since there may not be much time for a workshop, and found these two links:

1) http://thescholarsgarret.com/northernshores/tunic1.html - How to make a T-tunic

2) http://www.sca.org.au/blessed_herman/articles/t_tunics.htm - How to make it look nice

I started off with some random gray fabric I had gotten for $1 a yard to try out my bodice pattern. (I realized after buying the fabric that it wouldn't work because there's a little too much stretch in the weave) I successfully made this into a tunic in about 30 min. following the instructions from #1. Its the most comfy thing EVER! With the possible exception of my chemise.

I finished it, tried it on, and realized it was pretty darn see-through. So I dove back into my fabric box and found a yard of muslin that *might* have been a corset if I had ever gotten around to that. As is, I have ordered a custom corset and am waiting for it to arrive, so the muslin was up for grabs for this project. I basically made a shorter tunic and used it as a liner for the larger one. I cut the neck hole in the muslin small so the edges could fold over the raw edge of the gray fabric at the neckline. The I cut out a piece of maroon fabric to accent the neck area and did the same thing in the opposite direction, so the muslin cannot be seen from the outside.

This took me 1.5 hours. For a tunic that took 30 min. to make. *sigh*

I still have to finish attaching the maroon neck piece and hem the cuffs and bottom edge. But this shall happen another day, when my eyes don't hurt so much from staring at one thing too long. All in all, the tunic in and of itself was a success.

NOTE: if you try this, use seam binding for the neck. And make sure your fabric isn't see-through.

"Simple" tunics

We've asked for funding from the college to buy wool for club cloaks, so making cloaks is on hold at least for a couple weeks. We also asked for money to make new tabards for our war. In the meantime we're working on planning a medieval wedding, which shall be amazing.

Which brings us to our next project: tunics! Our guys have very little, if any garb. The nice thing about tunics is that they can be thrown on over pj pants and look somewhat period. Note here - we're not worrying about historical accuracy for this project (much) we just want something these dudes can wear to events. I found two notable patterns:
1) Anglo-saxon tunic - http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML
2) T tunic with contrasting sleeves - http://www.reddawn.net/costume/tunic.htm
3) viking tunics - http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/viktunic.html

I think we will be using the anglo-saxon pattern as it looks do-able, but still comfortable. We're probably going to make these out of cheap cotton (gotta love Walmart's $1 rack!) or blends. The plan was to have to workshop Sat., but given our track record with these workshops, we'll see how that goes.

Just kidding

So apparently you cannot buy warm wool fabric in Febuary, you can only get it in the fall. All the stores are now carrying their summer fabrics.
The conclusion is thus that we will be ordering coat-weight wool online for these cloaks.
And thus have yet to actually make them.
The drama continues!

Fabric Run and Cloak Making Workshop #1

I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was. Today I am running/hosting a cloak making workshop. In about an hour, we're leaving for JoAnn's Fabrics to try and get some wool fabric, since they don't sell it at Walmart and we want to be warm.
We will be working off of this pattern: http://home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak02.html
Using the cutting technique explained at the bottom of the page.
A friend who has used this pattern has told me that the hood pattern doesn't work and that the neck hole on this pattern is not in the appropriate place - it needs to be farther back. I am going to draft a new hood pattern based on my favorite hoody and put this on my cloak. As for the neck hole, it will be trial and error. Clasps will be hand sewn on. Hems will either be done with seam binding or just normally, depending on the fabric and what the person wants.
I am also thinking it would be nice to make a little overlap in the front, cuz when its really cold and windy having that gap can be chilly.
Anyhow, off to prepare for the adventure!

Postponing things

Well... I spent the last 4 days quarantined in the hospital, so the cloak workshop for next weekend is being postponed.
If you want a concise summary of my coif research from before, I wrote an article for AC here: www.associatedcontent.com/article/568275/an_introduction_to_the_coif_medieval.html
I may have missed some of the points I hit here, but it covers most of it and in a much more coherent fashion than this blog does. Check it out!

Group Cloak Making

Well, I'm preparing to run a cloak sewing workshop for the Order of the Golden Lion two weekends from now. Looks like I'll be making my own cloak sooner than I'd expected. The basic pattern we intend to use is here:
http://home.clara.net/arianrhod/Aldebaran/DoItYourself/Cloak02.html
The Pres. tried this pattern and has a gorgeous cloak. She had to make a few huge changes though. For one, the neck hole should not be semicircular. It should be moved back to be more of a complete circle. This keeps the cloak from choking you. Secondly, the hood provided with this cape is totally ineffective. I'm going to try to find a new hood pattern for my group.
I read "What Fabric Should I Use?" and "Colors for Lower-Class Elizabethan Clothing" here: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/
Since we actually spend a fair amount of time outside, we're all leaning toward wool cloaks for warmth. Some of the group members are also talking about lining their cloaks with satin, cotton, or a blend. One guy wants a reversible cloak. Some of us will be hemming the edges, while others intend to use seam binding.
As far as clasps go, I think most of us are planning on sewing on frogs. The dude with the reversible cloak will be sewing a cord into the neck that can be tied. This lets the cloak be totally reversible. Also convenient if anyone ever gets annoyed with him :)
I shall post a hood pattern when I get one. This whole project is going to be very fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants. Sure, I can teach 10 people to sew at the same time while keeping track of 4 different machines! It shall be a true adventure!

Cloaks!

I decided to be a bum and buy a cloak so that I'll have something until I get the time to make my own. The primary issue I ran into with this is that I want something functional, not just pretty. A lot of cloaks, especially costume cloaks, are made out of very thin fabric, and this will not work for me. What I settled on was this:

Its not perfect, but I like it. Its a vintage navy cloak and it should be about knee length on me.
Pros - It has a nice woven look, it should be warm, it has an AWESOME clasp (its a two-headed sea serpent)
Cons - Its blue (which was a difficult color to obtain unless you were very wealthy), it has velcro around the clasp, it is actually a synthetic

I'm debating lining it when I recieve it. Is that horrible to do to a vintage cloak? It probably kinda is, but if its not warm enough I'll do it anyhow. All in all though, I'm very excited about getting this :)

Ideas for a Lined Coif

Although my first coif is bangin', I'm going to try a slight variation on it today. As I stated before, it was not uncommon for a lady of wealth and status to have an embroidered silk coif. This would often be lined because the silk was not washable. It kept hair oil off of the silk. I am going to attmept a lined coif. My outer layer is going to be an offwhite woven material with an ivy pattern. I chose this material because the pattern reminded me of the embroidery on some of the silk coifs seen here. While my material is not silk (its more like wool, which would be period) it is not washable, so it needs to be lined. For the lining, I'm going to use the same white mystery fabric I used on my other coif. I will also be adding a white lace edging. Historically, edging could be white, offwhite, black, or metalic. If you plan to use lace, I reccomend you look at pictures to try and get a feel for what the laces of the time looked like.

I will be using my adaption (its resized) of this pattern. Steps will be as follows:
1) Cut out pattern from both fabrics
2) Hem curved edges and bottom
3) Pin the two pieces with wrong sides together
4) Sew together 1/4" from bottom edge
5) Sew another seam 3/4" above the bottom edge. This will create a drawstring channel.
6) With the two pieces together, gather stitch across the top from 5" from one edge to 5" from the other edge 1/2" down from the top of the fabric. Stitches should be 1/4" in length. These should be done by hand. Leave about 6" extra thread on each end of your line of stitches.
7) Repeat above 1/4" from top of fabric
8) Fold the piece in half with the lining to the outside. Pin together.
9) Sew the top together 1/2" from the top from the curved edge to 1/2" in front of the gather stitching.
10) Pin the lace into the curved edges between the two layers of fabric. Sew. (this might need to be done by hand - it will be fussy on machine) Be certain not to sew closed the drawstring channel.
11) Pull the gather stitches as tight as you can and tie the ends together. Make sure the gather ends up on the lining side of the hat.
12) Thread the drawstring through the channel.
This should finish it. We'll see how it goes.

Some links I didn't post before:
1) How to wear the coif: http://www.extremecostuming.com/articlesii/howtowearthecoif.html
2) Amazing Reproduction V&A coif: http://www.extremecostuming.com/reproductions/vacoift281975.html

Coifs (also called Biggins)

EDIT: Coherent summary of my coif research available here

I spent this afternoon researching and making a coif (pronounced kwaf, I'm told). Coifs were little skullcaps worn by both men and women in the medieval times. It served the purpose of both keeping one's hair out of the way (and probably keeping lice under control) and of helping to keep one warm. Coifs were traditionally white or off white and could be made out of linen, silk or similar fabric. However, upper class ladies could occasionally have a colored coif. Colors became more common as time progressed, but were always the exception, not the norm.

The coif pattern is almost always depicted in drawings as though it were more than piece. However, the remaining historical coifs are ALL once piece, so the idea of a two or three piece pattern is probably not historically accurate. The extant coifs all date from the late 1500s or later, most being from the 1600s with a few from the early 1700s. My personal time period of interest is the early 1500s, specifically 1523. However, there are to my knowledge no coifs existing from that time period. The earliest depiction of a woman's coif (that I am aware of) is in a picture of a woman that is alledgedly Anne Boelyn (but it might be another woman - more on that another day).

This was analyized as a coif with a band tied around the head. The clips on the ear flaps are suspected to be metal, possibly used to hold on a gable hood. But I digress.
I found several coif patterns online:
1) both a one and 3 piece pattern with chin strap: http://www.virtue.to/articles/coif.html
2) a one piece pattern without chin strap: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/headwear/coifmake.html
3) another three piece pattern: http://www.margospatterns.com/coif_manual.pdf

Trying to be historically accurate, I opted for pattern #2, the one piece coif with no chin strap. I made it out of a mystery remnant. My best guess is that it is all or mostly cotton. I had to adjust the size of this pattern greatly, adding two inches to the folded edge and an inch and a half to the top, but I'm not totally sure my printer didn't resize the pattern. I will post my pattern as a pdf so others can use it in the next couple days.

Once the pattern was appropriately resized, this was a fairly easy project. The directions on elizabethancostume.net were a bit confusing and hard to follow in places, but I came out with a very nice coif that fits my head quite well. It has no chin strap, but the gather at the back of the neck pulls the coif tightly over my ears, fitting it closely to my head and keeping it on well. This was a pleasant surprise, as one site I'd read (see source 2 below) spoke of how reenactors often have difficulty keeping coifs on without bobbypins or elastic. With the drawstring pulled up, mine fits well enough that I think it would stay on no matter what I was doing. Which makes me happy because I don't have to use a historically inaccurate method.

My notes on this pattern are:
1) check the sizing
2) when I sewed the top together, it came to a sharp point - the curved edges should be flattened a bit at the top to make this more of a smooth curve
3) I used a ribbon for the drawstring. Very period, not all that practical - it must be double-knotted to hold.

other resources:
1) coif embroidery: http://www.geocities.com/aenor_anjou/coif.htm

2) an amazing article on a reproduction one piece coif (no pattern): http://www.elizabethancostume.net/headwear/coifmake.html

3) wikipedia - the source of all knowledge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coif

4) Tudor and Elizabethan coifs: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/headwear/coif.html

5) Extant 16th and 17th century coifs: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/headwear/coifpics.html

6) Reproduction embroidered coif picture: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/images/pkcoif1.jpg

7) Talks a bit about a coif under "construction": http://www.modehistorique.com/elizabethan/coif.html

8) Coifs from the V&A museum: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/va/coifs.html

There was also a magnificent article on how the hair was worn under the coif that I can no longer find... Will post it if it reappears.

interesting:

1) astronaut wearing a coif under his spacesuit in 1975: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-000993.jpg

Pics of my coif and a pattern will be coming soon!