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.