Occasionally I realize that I have totally lost my mind.  Clearly this is one of those times. 

Last year I decided I wanted to come up with a super easy, one layer sort of loose garment that I could do in linen that is more period than my typical bog dresses.  (My "bog dress" is a modified version of the typical two-flap style that involves less fabric, less bunching, and some pleats for better drape.  It is plausible, but is "inspired by" rather than based on an actual extant piece.  My instructions are here: http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/sca-standards-the-bog-dress) awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/sca-standards-the-bog-dress

I prefer linen at War, but the issue with linen is that its drape does not lend well to garments that have a lot of fabric bunched up at the waist.  Linen has a very beautiful crisp hand, and tends to fall away from the body rather than flow over it.  Linen is also typically a tabby weave.  Tabby also tends to fall away from the body, whereas a twill will better flow.

Both linen and wool are wonderful, as are both twill and tabby.  They, however, have very different looks and are suited to different things.  For me personally the linen tabby does not make me happy with a Huldremose or Zweeloo style bog dress because it is simply too much cloth (that does not flow well) gathered in at the waist.

I recalled awhile ago that I was deciding on what to do with some lovely mid-weight wool, twill plaid, and tested a very hypothetical garment out in that cloth.  The bulk was too much, but just maybe it would work with this mid-weight linen...
​

  
In my massive stash of books and articles I have one entitled "Visions of Dress. Recreating Bronze Age Clothing from the Danube Region".  This is by Karina Grömer, Lise Bender Jørgensen and Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer.  I tend to collect articles by certain authors, in this case it was Bender Jørgensen that is responsible for this one being in my stash.  It discusses a fantastic find from the Bronze Age in Austria and what the plausible costume construction for the fantastic (and dangerous, lol) jewelry could have been.

One of the options (Variant 4: Pustopolje type) is a very simple wrapped garment made from a rectangle of cloth.  I have to take a moment here and note that it is expressly stated in the article that "none of the recreated outfits can be considered as 'the truth'".  This is very key, they are all exceptionally hypothetical (and the methodology is laid out in the document itself, which I shall link further down).  It does, however, work amazingly well and is quite beautiful in the linen that I tested!  (There really is not enough to back this, even with this article, to give this garment enough to pass muster as an A&S project, but it certainly works for events like Pennsic, where I want to stay cool and comfy!)
​https://www.academia.edu/10762573/Visions_of_Dress._Recreating_Bronze_Age_Clothing_from_the_Danube_Regionwww.academia.edu/10762573/Visions_of_Dress._Recreating_Bronze_Age_Clothing_from_the_Danube_Region

Below are some tests I did.  This is 2 yards of 5.3oz linen, un cut and unhemmed.  I tried it with and without a belt and both styles are secure.  I can walk, climb stairs, get up and down off the ground and chase cats in it.  For this test I simply used kilt pins.  In reality I will hem the cloth and use my Crafty Celts Belt and Fibula set (which dates several hundred years after this, but I have it and it is stunning).

The only issue I have so far found at all was that the top-front (neckline) tends to ride a little high on me.  That can be easily fixed with a small brooch or fibula in the front that would serve to gather  just a bit of that fabric (pulling it a bit lower).

I know that I wanted to over complicate this exceptionally simple garment, and was pleased when I figured it out exactly how easy it was.  Below are steps to complete this look yourself.  Note that the fabric requirement will change with size and body type!  

I love doing research, and love compiling documentation.  Yes, it actually might be one of my favorite parts of doing what I do.  I always learn new ways to improve my documentation every time I produce something, and I want to share one item that really changed now only how I document a project, but how I THINK about a project.

Mistress Ragnveig Snorradottir shared with me some of her documentation for a pentathlon competition.  At the end of her documentation there was a chart, a decision making matrix (which was actually suggested to her by Mistress Sigrid Briansdotter).  It allows you to readily lay out all project details for the benefit of the judges.  I have discovered that using a chart like this actually helps me to organize a project, and keep track of the most relevant details.  This allows me to not only have a quick reference for my own work, but it sometimes makes me stop and thing about my choices as I work.

Below is the chart as I used it in a competition entry for Atlantia's Kingdom Arts and Sciences Faire in 2016.  This specific one is from a woven Norse headcovering that I entered.  A link for the full documentation can be found below the chart. 

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.

I taught my Middle Eastern garb classes for the first time in a number of years yesterday.  I had a great time and the group of women gathered for the classes were positively lovely.  I am especially thrilled to hear that some were inspired to start sewing because of the class!

My class is actually in two parts.  The first is a sort of overview of what type of Middle and Near Eastern garb you see in the SCA and it includes tips on how to take some pieces from your own garb closet and make them more period.  I will be teaching this class at Pennsic (Wednesday of War Week at 10am).

The second part of the class isn't really one I can teach at War, because it requires more time and things like cutting tables and sewing machines.  But, in it I go into more detail about coats and construction and I help get people fitted for the garments. 

The documents for both classes are below (and have been updated on Scribd as well, in the event you had previously pulled them from that source).  If anyone opts to try to make a coat and needs help along the way, I can be reached at jennelfculler@yahoo.com !  :-)

One of my purposes with this site is to create a place to house all of my documents.  As I get each edited, I am going to load them here and they can all be found by selecting the "My Documents" category on the right.  I have had people ask me before how I decide what my next steps are when moving from "generic garb" to creating something more period and this document is a result of answering that question numerous times.  Research is, of course, the first step, but sometimes its not always to figure out how to start.  (This item was revised and published this summer in the Apple Press.)

I have always loved dance, in any form.  Unfortunately, I did not choose to pursue it with any level of seriousness until I was an adult (I always believed myself too awkward and clumsy to do so).  After I moved to Baltimore in the early 90s, I found a place to learn Irish Ceili dance (social dance similar to square dancing or English country dance) and from there I took up Irish step dancing.  I was in love!  The affair, however, ended rather tragically when my doctor informed me that all of the leaping and stomping had deteriorated the cartilage in my feet, knees and hips.  I had to stop in 2004 or I would have stood a really good chance of needing a knee replacement very early in life.

Fortunately, I had already been introduced to Middle Eastern dance and had dabbled in various local classes.  I also took any class offered on the subject at Pennsic or other SCA events.  After my doctor "banned" me from Irish dance, I started multiple classes a week in this very different art .  After years of work, I started performing at mundane dance events (mundane, for those who do not know, is the term used by members of the SCA to describe anything not SCA) and eventually began teaching at SCA events.

I love the dance, and love to share what I know about it.  I am, however, no dance historian.  My focus in research is more centered on textiles and garments than the dance itself, though I have read what materials I have been able to find on the subject.  In a nutshell, we know that dance was period for those in the Middle East, but we have little to go by that gives a real understanding on exactly what that dance entailed.

Master Asim al-Talib, a friend of mine, has some great information on his blog here:  http://asim.livejournal.com/64660.html?delayedid=

I believe he actually has documents stored online as well and I will post that link also when I can track it down again.

Despite of the lack of actual information, there is still an intense interest from so many people in the SCA, and so the dance persists.  There is nothing wrong with this at all.  I love how the dance works within the Society, in most cases.  Here it really exists as a social dance.  Yes, performance opportunities exist, but they are not overly common (at least in my area) and dance at events has become something that is open to all - regardless of skill level, what garb one is wearing, age, weight, gender or anything else.  Many people put a great deal of time and effort into making dance haflas and Middle Eastern events that are very inclusive.

Fortunately, most teachers I have come across in the SCA also do a good job of letting people know that it is for everyone.  If you want to dance around the fire at war, or dance at a hafla, you should.  There is no reason at all not too dance if you feel the urge.  It is, at its heart, a social experience and should be inclusive of everyone who wants to play.  In this respect, I think that haflas at SCA events are much closer to the spirit of what a halfa should be (as opposed to the haflas you often find in the mundane dance communities, which are most commonly staged shows).

This summer I altered the format of my SCA-based dance classes to try to really let people know that dancing at an event is not meant to be a show, and that any one can do it if they so choose.  Yes, it is often hard for a new dancer to get out on the floor, but I think if they are told early on that it is OK, even of they only know three moves and can't remember two of them.  With the right education, and delivery of the message that it is a social experience and not a show, they might just be a bit more likely to take that step.  Additionally, I let them know, that if they get up the courage to get out there, it is likely to inspire others to dance as well!

This is the good part of bellydance in the SCA.  There is also, unfortunately, a down side and many other things I feel that new dancers in the SCA should be told. 

Those who dabble in dance at Pennsic or other events are very likely to go out in the mundane world looking for more.  This is a good thing (even a necessary thing if one really wants to improve as a dancer).  Many people want to go beyond dancing socially, or at least want to know how to better interpret music and be able to better improv as they dance around the fire. To take these next steps, to progress and grow in the dance, you quire simply have to learn more than the SCA environment alone can offer.  Given the popularity of this dance form right now, most people are able to leave Pennsic, go home, and find a class.

Sometimes, though, a dancer leaves Pennsic, goes home and searches for a dance class and can't find one.  What do they do?  They start their own.  Yes, it happens.  Sometimes there even is a local class, but they feel it is not to their tastes, or its not enough like what they learned at War, and so they still choose to start their own class. 

New dancers don't often understand that it takes years and years (and years) of very hard work to get to a level where one should even consider teaching.  One needs real classes and contact with real teachers and one needs loads of very real feedback.  One also needs what one of my teachers calls "realistic self-assessment".  One needs to know when it is time to move forward and when it is time to just keep working on improving at the stage one is currently in.  One really needs to know that there is more out there than what you can learn in a two week long SCA event.

Yes, dancers outside of the SCA are certainly guilty of this as well, but shows up often enough within the SCA dance culture that I feel the need to mention it.

Maybe some of this happens because, the SCA has seems to have spawned it's own form of bellydance --  another friend of mind refers dancers who have only had SCA experience as "Pennsic Dancers".  You can tell who has never (or rarely) studied outside of SCA events as there is a definitely "style" that shows up in those who have been around for awhile.  It is not bad, in fact it is lovely and serves the purpose of dancing at events very well.  But it is also very limited, especially when it comes to real-world dancing, performing and teaching.

Simply put?  Being told at a hafla or around the fire that you are an amazing dancer is not a complete assessment of your skills.  And please, please consider finding quality teachers and taking classes on a regular basis (and practicing hard) before putting yourself out as a professional dancer or teacher. I've seen this enough that I mention it in the new handout I use for my SCA-based dance classes.  

The summary?  Everyone should dance if they so choose, but know that if you plan to dance in more than a social context, you really need to study and work hard to acquire, and hone, the skills necessary for those endeavours.

Beyond the above personal pet peeve, there is often much other confusion that occurs when the mundane and SCA dance cultures collide.  SCA Haflas are very different from those often hosted by mundane dance teachers.  Additionally, many mundane dance costumes (especially glittery bedlah) are very inappropriate for SCA events.  Because people usually do not go to a dance class to hear a long discussion, I point a few of these things out in the handout I distribute in my SCA dance classes.  The document is linked below if you would like to see it!

When I first went to Pennsic, I had merely 3 outfits for SCA events.  That is definitely not enough for a week spent at a hot, humid event.  (And yes, I know that in period three might well have been more than and individual had, but this IS The-Middle-Ages-As-They-Should-Have-Been... plus, I don't care to spend my entire vacation doing laundry.)

The woman in charge of my group assured us that it was easy to get garbed up for a long event as we could just make a bunch of plaid "Bog Dresses".

Please understand that this all happened before internet took over the world.  Back then, there was no quick way to do a bit of online research before embarking on a project. I merely took her word that this was an early Celtic garment and set off to make my dresses.  I first gathered yards of plaid from the quilting section of Joanns (you know, those dusty looking cottons that are used make curtains for country kitchens?  That is what we used, in great quantity!).  I was instructed to take two rectangles of fabric, tack them at the shoulders and belt at the waist and you have an instant dress.  You could have a folded flap in the front and back at the top, or not. 

Let me just sat that trying to keep those on, belted properly (with the same cord usually used as curtain ties) and not flapping around showing your bits was not a joy.  We did have variety of dresses though (budding Pennsic fashionistas that we were!) - we had some that pinned at both shoulders, some that had flaps, some that only pinned at one shoulder, long ones, short ones, and I even tried to pleat some at the shoulders to get something that looked less like a grain sack.

Never again for me! While I do see the advantage of that particular rendition for people new to the SCA and sewing and who need garb in bulk for their first Pennsic, I am glad I have moved beyond those garments.  (I am, however, dreaming of the day I can do a reproduction one, in handspun, handwoven fabric.  However, even this would be more for my own educational purposes than because I want to wear it.)

I actually wish I could have taken the class about these types of costumes that was offered this year at War because I would love to know more about what is and what isn't authentic regarding these dresses.  Maybe next year!

More forward a bit in time and there were a couple of years I was unable to go to Pennsic.  During that time there was a hurricane that caused flooding at my house, effectively destroying all of my garb.  When I went back in 2005, I had to recreate wardrobes for myself, my boyfriend, my friend Galyana (who often shares my clothes) and another friend and her husband.  I put together then necessaries and we all enjoyed that war and then next as both had fairly temperate weather.  The year following those saw extreme heat and humidity and I started to plot garments that would be passable in the SCA that would use little fabric and have little bulk.

I revamped one of my early Pennsic bog dresses and came up with something that suits the purposes of Reasonable Attempt (at being period) and is also cheap and quick to complete (even given that I hand sew mine). 

Want to learn how to make Elf's rendition of a bog dress?  Just click here:

The bog dresses I make for myself are entirely hand sewn (as detailed in the  document above).  I do however, want to note that if you see me in one, it is likely embellished.  And yes, I "cheated" for that. 

I have an embroidery machine and have been experimenting with couched designs in yarn.  From a few feet away they look quite believable.

The yarn is Caron Country - a Merino/Acrylic blend, stitched to linen fabric.  http://www.naturallycaron.com/shade_cards/country_sh.html  It is a delight to work with on the machine.

I was drawn to the Middle Eastern arts from the moment I was introduced to the SCA.  I loved the costumes and the dance, even if I really didn't understand either in a more proper historical context.  Actually, at that time, there weren't many individuals who really did... Ghawazee coats were considered period, as were harem pants and I actually heard ATS styling defended by more than a few on the basis of the fact that cholis are period for India.

Thanks in part to the internet, and to the years since then that people have had to research these things, there is a better understanding of correct costuming for the cultures of the Near and Middle East. An entire community and culture has grown up in the SCA around this facet of the Society.  At last, newcomers have access to good examples and good teachers to help them find their path (something I didn't have at that point in time).

Please don't think I feel that Ghawazee coats and traditional ATS costume and dance have no place in the SCA, I actually think they do.  The Society requires that one make an "attempt" and I feel very much that both of those meet that criteria.  I do believe in honesty though, and in knowing what it is that you are wearing/doing and where it came from.  This way, if asked, you can state that it's not period, but it's perhaps something you already had or something you thought might work for nights at Pennsic.  It helps prevent further confusion.  More on all this later at a later date, as I actually have a lot more to say on the subject.

The point of this bit of background is that in the early days there were not a lot of resources at events like Pennsic and it was often hard to wade through the massive class list to find exactly what you wanted and even more difficult to find locations for classes in private camps.  I remember those early Pennsics where I roamed around the lake for hours trying to find Orluk Oasis and the classes that were being held there.  It was frustrating.

That all changed about five or so years ago, when a friend asked for help putting together a Middle Eastern supplement for the official Pennsic Schedule. There were some issues that were going to prevent all of the classes from being published and he wanted to make sure that good things did not get missed.

I offered to do the task and to that end I created Haberci... a flyer not only of the official classes on the Middle Eastern track, but also an unofficial schedule of haflas, roundtables, henna parties and the like.  The publication (which is available for free on site at Your Inner Vagabond and at Touch the Earth) was such a hit that I have continued the tradition.  Haberci even went to Gulf Wars this year, thanks to another enthusiastic individual!  It is my hope that there will be non-War Haberci issue this winter.  Maybe it will be Haberci: The Peace Edition.

For those interested in learning more, check out the Facebook page for Haberci news: https://www.facebook.com/PennsicHaberci

For those who want to see the last few issues, click below :-)