Because I enjoy pushing myself, I decided that my fourth weaving project would be fabric for a Norse aprondress.  This garment has become a ubiquitous Viking dress within the SCA.  Given that the garment is simple to make, comfortable in any weather (depending on materials) and flattering on most figures, it is no surprise that its popularity seems to grow each year.  I have made many such garments, and have even hand sewn and hand embellished several and was very much intrigued by the idea of weaving the fabric for one.

Because twills, of various sorts, were more common than tabby (plain) weave in Scandinavian finds of wool from the Viking Era (Welander, et al. 167-168), I chose a broken diamond twill weave structure from Birka that was common throughout the Viking world.

For yarn, I wanted to use singles as that was what was most commonly used in extant examples for garments. Singles are unfortunately not easy to find in the fine yarn I envisioned for the project.  I was got lucky enough, however, to have a friend gift me a very large cone of very fine weaving wool that was single ply (aprox. 20/1, maybe 24/1).  The color was a very pale green so I tried to purchase a similar color in the commercially available Borgs Faro yarn (6/1).  The color match was not as close as I had hoped for, but the two look nice together in the final fabric.  Note that many of the woolen twills available to reenactors have lovely contrasting colors in the warp and weft, but because this practice was uncommon in period, I did the best I could to use colors that were close in hue and value.

Even though the the base color was chosen for me, I also made sure that the color was attainable with period dyes.  Both Penelope Walton Rogers and Jenny Dean have demonstrated that there were yellows and blues  (weld, dyers broom and 'yellow x' for yellow and woad for blue) available in period and I know the two can be used together in an over dying process that allows for a range of greens. (Walton - Dyes, Dean)

In addition to my desire to use singles, I also knew that I wanted to reflect the disparity that was often seen in grist of the warp and weft yarns.  A thicker weft, as is common in Viking finds, allows the weaving to progress more quickly and allows one to use both a strong, fine, strong warp and a more softly woven weft (for added warmth as woolen style spinning allows air to be trapped in the fibers and offer more insulation).

In the end, I did opt to use the Faro yarn as the warp, rather then the weft (though the weaving would have gone quicker the other way) as the yarn that I was gifted had passed through several hands and I suspect that it is quite old.  I did not want to risk warping with that and discovering that it would start to fray or break.

I wound my warp on onto a warping board, chained it (in bundles of 60 threads) and transferred it to the loom when all 800 warp threads were ready.

There were two probable types of looms for fabric weaving available to the Viking-era Norse.  The first was a warp-weighted loom and the second a two-beam vertical loom.  The former is considered the most common given the number of loom weights that have been discovered at various Viking era sites.  Norway specifically has more discoveries of loomweights than any other country (dating from pre-history until the 16th century).  (Hoffman, 20)

Because I do not have a full-scale warp-weighted loom (see my article on this blog about my table-top version if you want to know more about these looms), I wove the fabric on my Oxaback Lilla countermarche loom.

I used four shafts on the loom and had a total of 800 heddles resulting in 20 epi for the warp.  My weft wove in at 32-34 ppi.  This, I feel, is about the low-middle end of the range for thread count in period grave burials.  There are extant examples of wool that can have a thread count of over 100 threads-per-inch in one system.   (Christensen and Nockert, p177-182). 

Below you can see the fabric on the loom and a detailed shot of the early stages of the weaving.

I experienced several issues during my weaving, most of which were due to inexperience.   The first problem that arose happened each time I would advance the warp.  The Faro yarn was exceptionally “sticky” wool that did not want to release and glide over the lease sticks.   I found that inserting a pick-up stick and lifting the top layer of warp (every other thread) helped me to advance the thread properly with no breaks.  And speaking of breaks, I had four threads break during the course of the weaving and learned how to repair the breaks but tying in new warp threads that were suspended from the back beam with metal clips as weights.  I also have one spot where I lost my place in the pattern.  The thread was too fine and too sticky to undo the six rows without risking breaks so I left the weaving error as it was.

The other major issue I had was with tension along the right hand side of the loom.  I adjusted it several times as I went by slipping folded paper into the warp, but the final fabric had a ripple to that edge because of that issue.

After the weaving was complete, I cut the fabric from the loom and wet-finished it in warm water and then pressed it with an iron.  I did not use exceptionally hot water, nor did I agitate it, as I did not want to start the fulling process as fulling did not become common until after the Viking age. (Walton - Coppergate, p 94)

My final fabric was by no means perfect, but I learned a great deal throughout the process and am happy to have, at last, woven my own fabric for a garment.

Unfortunately, history gives us little with which to work when it comes to this particular article of clothing.  Archeological finds have left us only minute scraps of textile, often only in the form of loops, attached to the backs of brooches (which helped preserve them).  Because of the loops and layered fragments behind these pieces of metal, we know that clothing in period was often worn in layers. (Thunem; Hägg).  In addition to the textile remnants, bits of tapestry depicting human figures and from art such as the silver figurines from the 9th and 10th centuries also suggest costumes with multiple layers.  We also know that many women across the time/places where the Vikings lived were often buried with a pair of brooches at their shoulders.  (Hägg; Geijer)

The loops preserved within the brooches suggest they held up a garment (or garments), rather than than having a garment pinned through a solid piece of fabric (though it is possible that earlier in history -or even during the Viking Era in Finland- that these brooches fastened a peplos style garment - the possible predecessor of the hangerock).   Often brooches, such as one set found in Birka, as well as those from a Scandinavian woman buried in South Yorkshire, have a pair of loops on each brooch, one at the lower end of the pin, and one at the top.  (Speed and Walton, 76)  Sometimes there were multiple sets of loops, which could be evidence of a wrapped garment or of cords that suspended tools from the brooches.

Beyond the preserved loops and small textile fragments, the only large historic remnant we have of what is believed to be a tailored apron dress is from Haithabu Harbor (dated to the late 10th century).  Beyond the Haithabu fragment, there are and two pieces of dresses from Pskov and Kostrup - but neither show any evidence of being a fitted garment - and there are very small pieces from other finds such as that in Birka (dated to the 10th century). (Thunem)  The fabric from Haithabu is cut and pieced in a manner that suggests it was fitted to the wearer's figure, and has the addition of vertical darts that would allow for further tailoring. 

As the Haithabu pattern piece is one of the more complete pieces (allowing one to extrapolate construction theory), I often use this as a starting point for my recreations of this garment.

In an effort to explore some of the speculations regarding the constructions of the Haithabu dress, I have experimented with a variety of pattern shapes. My reasoning for not always recreating what exactly I felt this dress looked like is that there was more than one manner of cutting a tunic in period, and likely, there was more than one manner of cutting the elusive apron dress as well.  Further, there is so little we know about the Haithabu fabric in terms of placement, number of pieces, and additional pattern pieces that even the typical representations of the garment are based largely on speculation.

I prefer aprondresses that have simple cuts that make excellent use of fabric with minimal waste.  Additionally, I try to use pieces and shapes that can be arranged in a manner that makes best use of the wide fabric one could weave on a wide warp-weighted loom. (Fabric on these looms could be as much as 2 ells - or 90 inches wide – during the Viking Age). (Simpson 63) 

Aside from the Haithabu dress remnant, there are also what appear to be seams on two separate textile fragments of apron dresses from the Birka grave finds.  Some recreationists have made the assumption that these are side seams.  Depending on the size of the wearer, this is possible, though it is just as likely that  because the seams are placed not far from the brooch, closer to the front of the garment, they might actually mark the edges of a center front panel rather than the sides of the garments.  I recreate garments based on both theories.

For this particular garment, I have chosen a cutting diagram that involves very minimal waste as I believe that during the Viking era that would have been a of exceptional importance.  When using the cutting diagram below, the dress is cut from minimal fabric with very little waste.  Because of several weaving errors, however, I chose to use the same shapes, but arrange the cutting differently to allow me to make best use of the better portions of my fabric.

For my sewing thread, I chose to use the remaining weft yarn from my weaving project.  On seams that will have no stress, and for overcasting the edges to prevent fraying, I used the yarn as-is.  For the body, I over spun the yarn (Z direction) using a spinning wheel and then S-plied it. 2-ply is an appropriate choice as it was one type of thread used in the Viborg shirt.  (Fentz)

The stitch types I chose were all present in various archeological finds.  I overcast the edges of the fabric with a whipstitch to prevent fraying.  A running stitch was employed to fold the edges of each cut panel. The joining seam is a butted seam, completed in small overcast stitches placed close together.  These seams can be stress points and I prefer them stronger than the stitches I used for the folded edges mentioned above. The double fold hems are completed with a running stitch.  (Baker)

For Pennsic 41 I completed a handsewn aprondress in a red wool twill.  Information (that varies from the garment above) is included below.

My cutting diagram for this dress is based heavily on finds from Birka, and the spacing between the brooches and seams.  This makes the idea of a dress constructed of four panels quite conceivable.

Materials:

Below, I present to you a list of materials used in my recreation of an apron dress.  With each item is the rationale for that specific choice.

The fabric is a modern machine-woven Shetland wool.

The weave is a 2/2 twill.  Examples of this can be found from Scandinavia to the British Isles. (Walton - Coppergate 1749; Christensen and Nockert 177-182)  Twills, of various sorts, were more common than tabby (plain) weave in Scandinavian finds from the Viking Era.  (Welander, et al. 167-168)

While it is certainly possible to find nice twills, both diamond twills and herringbone fabrics today are hard to come by, tend to be expensive and often have the warp and weft in different colors allowing the pattern to be more visible.  This practice of multiple colors in a weave, however, was not overly common in period textiles I have seen or researched.  Based on all of this, I chose a common period weave that I could readily get in a monochromatic fabric at reasonable cost.

On my fabric, there are approximately 25 ends per inch on both the warp and the weft. This falls within the low end of the range for the textiles from the Oseberg ship, as well as other finds (Christensen and Nockert 177-182).  Anne-Stine Ingstad noted that typical of Viking era fabrics to have a higher thread count (and finer fibre) for the warp than the weft.  Unfortunately, this is not something you can commonly find in mass-produced fabrics today.

The color for this dress is a brilliant red.  When selecting my fabric I took care to look for a color that would have existed in the Viking Era and that had been available to the Scandinavian Vikings (whether by the fact that the dye stuffs were grown there, or could have been imported).  I chose a red because both madder and bedstraw were used to dye some of the garments/fragments from actual archeological sites (Walton - Dyes 14-20).

Jenny Dean, author of the book Wild Colour, has also studied dyes used by the Anglo-Saxons (contemporaries to the Vikings) and has experimented with the colors they yield.  All colors I used for the project were rendered in her experiments.

Stitching thread used for sewing the seams is a modern wool/acrylic thread used in tailoring wool suits.  I chose this primarily because I wanted something a bit stronger than the more loosely woven threads I purchased for the decorative stitching.  It is also stronger and easier to work with than the woolen threads I attempted to unweave from the garment fabric itself to use.  Wool, linen or silk thread could have been used in period.  (Jones).  The chosen thread is, however, 2-ply which was a period-appropriate choice as it was one type of thread used in the Viborg shirt.  (Fentz)

Decorative yarn used for seam finishing was left over from a tablet woven band I created that will later be applied to the dress.  For the weaving, I choose to work with a fine crewel wool produced by Renaissance Dyeing.  Their yarns are all hand dyed with fresh or dried plant materials and mordanted, when necessary, with alum (a mordant used in the Viking era). (Dean)  

The yellow yarn was dyed with weld, which was known in period, but note that yellow during the Viking age could also have come from other sources. The blue yarn was produced with indigo dye, though in period the blue would likely have been achieved with woad (a relative of indigo that grows throughout Scandinavia and the British Isles).  (Walton - Dyes)

Stitch types I chose were all present in various archeological finds.  I used a running stitch at the edges (which were folded in to prevent fraying) in the weld dyed crewel wool.  Had the fabric been more tightly woven or fulled, I would not have had to turn these edges under. (Baker)   The joining seam is a butted seam, completed in small overcast stitches placed close together.  These seams can be stress points and I prefer them stronger than the stitches I used for the folded edges mentioned above. (Baker)

The small, decorative Xs along the seams were made from the blue crewel wool left from the warp ends of my tablet weaving.  Spinning, dyeing and weaving were such labor-intensive endeavors in period that little would be left to waste, even scraps of thread less than a foot long.  It stands to reason that they could be used for decorative measures even if they are not long enough for another more practical purpose.  Seams are tied off at the ends as was proper for the period.  

The hems use a running stitch and are also completed in the weld dyed crewel wool.  The top hem, under the trim, is a single fold with running stitch and the bottom hem is a double fold with running stitch.  I opted to use a blanket/buttonhole, also used in period, stitch on the straps/loops because I wanted something a bit more decorative.  (Baker)   And overcast stitch was used to apply the trim.

Trim for the dress historically would have been either tablet-woven bands or imported silk samite strips.  Both were types of items found in the Oseberg ship burial and at other Norse gravesites.  (Christensen and Nockert 383-398; Larsson 182)  It is possible that small pieces of tablet-woven bands found near the brooches in graves might actually have been remnants of the tablet weaving used at the beginning of the process of creating fabric on a warp-weighted loom.  It is also entirely possible that woven bands were created specifically to decorate the top of an apron dress.  Without intact examples, we cannot know if either or both were options.   Note that the pattern I used here, as a tablet weaving novice it is the best example of a Scandinavian-style motif (even though I feel the yarn used may have been of an acceptable quality and weight). 

Baker, Jennifer. "Stitches and Seam Techniques." 2009.

Christensen, Arne Emil and Nockert, Margareta. Osebergfunnet: bind iv, Tekstilene (Universitetet i Oslo), 2006.

Fentz, Mytte. "An 11th Century Linen Shirt from Viborg." 1992.

http://forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Viborg/VIBORG.HTM

Geijer, Agnes.  Birka III, Die Textilefunde aus Den Grabern.  Uppsala,1938.

Hägg, Inga.  Die Textilefunde aus der Siedlung und us den Gräbern von Haithabu (Karl Wachlotz Verlag). 1991.

Harte, N.B. and Ponting, K.G.  Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe, (Heinemann Educational Books), 1984.

Hoffman, Marta. Warp Weighted Loom (Scandinavian University Press), 1975.

Jones, Heather Rose. "Archeological Sewing". 2004.  http://heatherrosejones.com/archaeologicalsewing/wool.html

Larsson, Annika. "Viking Age Textiles". The Viking World (Routledge), 2011.

McKenna, Nancy, Chairperson.  Medievaltextiles.org.

Simpson, Jacqueline.  Everyday Life in the Viking Age (Hippocrene Books), 1967.

Speed, Greg and Walton, Penelope. "A Burial of a VikingWoman at Adwick-le-Street, South Yorkshire". Journal of Medieval Archeology, Volume 48.  2004.  51-90.

Thunem, Hilde.  "Viking Women: Aprondress."  January 2011. <http://urd.priv.no/viking/smokkr.html>

Walton, P. "Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate." The Archaeology of York Volume 17: The Small Finds.  1977.

Walton, P. "Dyes of the Viking Age: a summary of recent work." Dyes in History and Archaeology" (Papers Presented at the 7th Annual Meeting, York 1988), 1988. 14-20.

Welander, RDE, Bateyt, Colleen and Cowie, T.G. "A Viking burial from Kneep, Uig, Isle of Lewis," Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. 1987. 149-174.

Andersonn, Eva. Tools for Textile Production from Birka and Hedeby (The Birka Project for Riksantikvarieambetet), 2003.

Beatson, Peter and Ferguson, Christobel. "Reconstructing a Viking Hanging Dress from Haithabu." 2008. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/hangerock/hangerock.htm

Carlson, Jennifer. "Sewing Stitches Used in Medieval Clothing". 2002. http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/stitches.htm

Dean, Jenny. Wild Color (Potter Craft), 2010.

Graham-Campbell, James. Viking Artefacts (British Museum Publications), 1980.

Hägg, Inga.  Die Textilefunde aus dem Hafen von Haithabu (Karl Wachlotz Verlag). 1984.

Hayeur-Smith, Michele. “Dressing the Dead: Gender, Identity, and Adornment in Viking-Age Iceland”, Vinland Revisited, the Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium, 2003.

Ingstad, Anne Stein.  "The Textiles in the Oseberg Ship". http://forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Oseberg/textiles/TEXTILE.HTM 

Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (Boydell Press), 2005.

Jenkins, David. The Cambridge History of Western Textiles (Cambridge University Press), 2003.

Pritchard, Frances. “Aspects of the Wool Textiles from Viking Age Dublin,” Archeological Textiles in Northern Europe (NEASAT 4), 1992.

Priest-Dorman, Carolyn.  "Colors, Dyestuffs, and Mordants of the Viking Age: An Introduction." 1999. http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikdyes.html

Skre, Dagfinn.  Things from the Town: Artefacts and Inhabitants in Viking-Age Kaupang (Aarhus University Press), 2011.

The wool diamond-twill fabric is finished!  I pulled it off of the loom Saturday and wet-finished it by soaking it in warm water with a little Dawn and then carefully rinsing.

In retrospect, I wish I had gone for warmer (or even hot) water, as the fibers did not lock together as well as they had in my sample.  I, of course, did not discover this until I cut it, so I will now just have to be careful that everything is very well overcast to prevent fraying.

I ended up with 3'10" before wet-finishing and a little less after.  The sett is 20epi and the weft had about 33-34ppi.  I am happy with that as it is in line with the both yarn gauge and the disparity in warp and weft in some extant fabric samples.

And here it is laid out on the floor for cutting :-)  On the left side I had some tension issues, which are evident in the way the fabric is wumpled in the photo.  I also had a few errors along the way, so carefully cut around those by using a paper pattern for my hangerock.  (Typically, I do not use patterns for my early period garb, I know the measurements, cut everything a touch large and individually fit each garment too me.  Because I was cutting around some spots where the weave was loose, I did opt to make a pattern for this project.)

Tonight I will spin the very fine wool singles yarn that I used for the weft into sewing thread for this project and hopefully I can complete this garment prior to Pennsic!

It was absolutely lovely to spend the entire day with friends I don't often see AND with the new friends I made!

I had not finished the project I had planned for A&S entry (with the theme of new-to-you projects for the past year), but at the last minute I opted to put out the handwoven fabric I made in December.  There were some nice comments and favors left for my entry so I am glad I chose to put it out there.

I even finished the centerpieces Friday night in time to get a fair amount of sleep before the event.  To the left you can see the one I assembled for High Table.  There were smaller ones elsewhere in the site and at troll.

Below are photos of one of two hanging gilded pinecone "chandeliers", the napkins with lampwork bead napkin rings (I purchased the beads as I do not do glasswork) and the placemats made for High Table.  I did not get a great image of the entire table, but the final picture below shows at least a bit of the tablecloth (as well as some of the lovely Shire women serving the Royals).

Unfortunately, there were no good photos of me (that I have yet seen) or my garb (sorry for those who have asked).  I guess that will wait for another day.  The one to the left is of myself and her Highness Liadain ni Dheirdre Chaomhanaigh.  She had given me her favor and thanked me for my work creating the items used to decorate High Table.

Below is a detail of the embroidery that I took the following morning.  Unfortunately, my silver jewelry lost its tarnish onto my light colored dress.  I have to now figure out how to clean that. 

And the very last photo is of the lovely handmade pottery piece that Lady Marija gave me!  She does lovely work and I had admired this piece when she posted it online not long ago.  She gifted it to me at the end of the day!  (And she was an awesome sneak-out-to-Dairy-Queen companion!)

The 12th Night dress is done.  I did not get the applique work even started, but the embroidery is done and it is pretty.  I can add the leaves at a later date.  I even got the underdress completed.  I am glad that I took the time to finish the neck, sleeves and hem by hand, as they always lay better than when I use machine stitching (even a nice machine-stitched blind hem does not lay was well as one by hand).

AND, I also finished the linens for High Table for 12th Night.  The only thing I have left to do is assemble the centerpieces the night before the event (and that would be tomorrow night).  I am very looking forward to it!

I had hoped to have my loom warped with it's second project, but unfortunately, I did not purchase enough of the Shetland wool I had hoped to use for warp.  MLK weekend is a long one for me, and only a few weeks away, so I will order more and warp and weave that weekend.  I hope to have that project completed in February and start to warp for some rugs to use in our tents at Pennsic.

What else am I doing?  Planning this years projects!  I very much hope to draft a new undergown pattern based on the Hedeby fragment.  I am going to make some new "upgraded" tunics for my BF.  I have a ton of linen to be worked up into Pennsic garments. 

I am deliberating methods to better organize my research.  Index cards aren't cutting it for me these days, but given that I am without a computer a couple days each week, compiling items into one format is not easy.  Looking at apps and seriously considering getting a tablet of some sort to help me organize my mess of notes and articles.

In addition to that, I have also started to revise my instruction documents that I have used to teach people how to make garb.  My bog dress instructions are done and was posted on this blog not long ago, and a revision of my tunic document is also in the works.  After that will come my Middle Eastern coat pattern and the document I use for my classes about making your Middle Eastern garb more period.

When first I sat down to revise the tunic document, I paused for a moment to think about it.  Was it really necessary to even put it out there?  After looking at it for a bit, I think that yes, it is.  There are many great sets of directions online for making garb.  However, some people can better learn from one type of instruction than another.  I personally have fumbled a project with one style of instruction, but had amazing results with another.  Hopefully, someone somewhere will find something in my documents that will aid them in taking a step further on their garb journey.

The embroidery is underway!  (My design inspiration can be found in an earlier post here http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/1/category/12th%20night/1.html )

I can do hand embroidery, but often do not choose too.  Part of the reason is an issue I have with my hands, though I can still sew by hand for short spells at a time.  The larger issue though, is with my head.  ;-)

See, I am a perfectionist about the things that I make and while I love the look of hand sewing and hand embroidery, my hand work does not live up to my own expectations.

Yes, I know, practice makes perfect, but I also have a hard time sitting around making "practice pieces" just for the heck of it.  If I spend time on it I want to use it, right?

At some point though, I decided to get over myself and do what hand work I could.  Ironically, the more I do, the less I feel it needs to be visually perfect.  I am starting to love the more organic nature of handwork and to me it now looks more real.

For this piece, the pattern was drawn first on paper and I had indended to use a transfer paper to shift the design to the fabric.  Unfortunately, my transfer sheets eluded me.  Instead, I took a pin, poked a series of holes along the design line, laid it on the fabric and drew over it with a chalk pencil.  After removing the stencil, I sketched over my lines and started stitching. 

Stitches used here are chain, split and stem (all worked in Renaissance Dyeing's crewel wool).

This project is not progressing quick enough!

Part of the problem is just a general lack of time, but another part is medical.  I started having some issues with my hands in January.  Numbness, lack of blood flow, too much blood and bursting veins, pain... After visiting several specialists we learned it was actually an issue with the muscles in my neck reacting to certain tasks and/or stress.  The result of this is that I can not sit for any length of time doing one thing (which happens to coincide nicely with my typical ADHD mental state). 

What does this mean for my projects?  Well, I can only work on any given item for a short span of time - typically less than half an hour - before I need to stretch and work on something else.

The apron dress, thus far, is pictured above.  The color is off, its a pale green color called Willow by the shop from which it came.  I wish I had time to hand sewing this garment, but with real-world-work being exceptionally busy, there was just not time for it.  Seams are done with the sewing machine but the surface stitching (which is finally finished) is done by hand with the crewel wool I love so much from Renaissance Dyeing.

The next step is to cut the silk into strips and applique it to the top edge of the garment.  The particular silk I will be using falls into the UWYH (Use What You Have) category.

In period the the vikings would take imported silks (samite specifically), cut it into strips and apply them to their garments as trim.  I do not have any access to samite, so opted to search out other silks that might have patterns that look at lease somewhat similar to those found on period samite (which often came from Byzantium,Central Asia or Asia).  Many of the extant pieces, such as the one above, featured rondel motifs that repeat. 

If you want to see applied silks on an extant Viking textile, an image of the Lund find is here:  http://www.netvike.com/VIKINGS/VIKINGHISTORY/VIKINGCLOTHING/CLOTHING1011AD/CLOTHPICS/LUNDSILK1.png

While I could not find many (inexpensive) silks that featured rondels, I did find a few that have large repeating patterns that will work nicely when sliced into strips.  Both of the above were purchased on Etsy as fat quarters.

Unfortunately, as I was choosing my silks, the "Oooo Shiny" mentality struck and I ended up with several items that I just chose because of I liked them and they were silk and pretty and whatever, rather than because they were the best choice for my projects.  This is where UWYH comes into play.  I've already bought and paid for them so I will just use the items as best I can and just be more careful in my choosing next time.

To the left is the silk I will be hacking up for this dress.  Paisley?   Not a good choice at all, but when I cut the fabric into strips I will do it in such a way that the actual pattern can not be determined.

If I had an unlimited amount of time, I would finish every bit of garb I own by hand.  Hell, I would likely be hand sewing most of my garb as well.  My day-job, unfortunately, interferes with this dream.

To take up the slack (and fill my need for lushly embellished garb) I employ my machine to do some decorative finishing for me.

I tried, only a few times, to use the machine's built-in stitches to finish the edges of garments.  I was never happy with the results, they always looked machine made. 

Then I discovered Madeira's Lana Wool machine embroidery thread and I was blown away with the handcrafted look that you can get by using these threads.

I have done some embroidery with the thread, but the machine is temperamental about using the thread.  You really have to tweak the designs to get them to work and you definitely need the titanium needles made specifically for these threads.  I hope to eventually get the bugs worked out and be able to do some very hand crafted larger pieces of embroidery at some point.

What does seem to work well is decorative stitching.  Not every stitch works well with the thread, and of those, not all aesthetically work for garb.  Above is the border of a linen Norse coat I made this year for my boyfriend.  This arrow-stitch seems to work very well on earlier period garb.

My wool embroidery thread has arrived!  Unfortunately, the darkest green was supposed to have been 250m, not 25m, in length so I am now waiting for a response from the company so that I can get the rest of my supplies.  I hope it does not take too long.

I guess I will at least start drafting out the actual embroidery designs this week!

(I heard back from the company this morning and they put the missing yarn in the mail today!  YAY!)

My local Shire is again hosting the Kingdom 12th Night.  This makes me happy because it means the event will be easy to get too and that I will know many of the people there.  It makes me even happier that it is going to have a Viking theme!

I have a considerable bit of Viking garb already, but I am dying to do some different hand embellishments on one, so my 12th Night garb will be the ideal candidate for that experimentation.

I already have a wool aprondress, but sometimes even indoor events can be warm so I am planning for another linen dress for this project.

Now, my personal opinion is that most outer garments (not considering outdoor items such as coats, caftans, or mantles) were probably wool.  Despite that, I do most of my garb as layers of linen because I am more active at events in the warmer seasons and I like to get as much wear out of my items as possible.

I also love ornamentation on garb, but I do try to keep my pieces within the realm of plausible for the period and culture involved. For this dress, I have a very pale green linen and a small piece of red-violet silk with an olive pattern on it as the start of my materials. 

I started using silk to decorate garb this year at Pennsic and I love the way the clothes turned out.  (It was not uncommon in period to use strips of silk samite to ornament Norse garb.)  Some of my early silk choices were likely not the best, but I have since picked up a few pieces that have more of a look that fits in with period samite.

Unfortunately, the silk for this has a more modern Indian pattern.  Because I will be cutting the silk into a very narrow strip to adorn the top of the dress, that pattern will not be recognizable for what it is and given that I love the color and already have the fabric, I plan to use it and make the best of it.

In addition to the narrow band of silk, I plan to use an decorative scrolling motif similar one found in the Oseberg burial for embroidery and will add appliqued silk leaves (also found in Oseberg).  Hopefully I will be able to start this project soon, that I may get it done in time for the event.  I have already ordered naturally-dyed wool for embroidery from Renaissance Dyeing (http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/) for my needlework.