A Hair-y Issue

 Let's talk about toppers! What should I wear on my head and/or how should I try to wear my hair for this upcoming event?

I'm aiming for a 10th century generic Scandinavian look, which ought to give me a number of options.   Bigger the place, the more stuff we have, right? Not exactly, no.

I decided to start my hair-dressing search with a dependable source, The Viking Answer Lady. The site creator, Gunnora, is a personal friend of mine and I've always admired her dedication to research. The page looks kind of dated, but she regularly updates the research and is absolutely willing to change her statements if she gets new information. The first thing I noticed is the collection of combs that she shows off in various museums. While many of the museum finds are ivory or bone, there is discussion of wooden combs in the same style. They looked really familiar and I knew I wanted one. I did a little poking around and discovered there are a number of shops on etsy that carry "beard combs". The same big tooth/ little tooth shape and small enough to fit in your hand but big enough to do the job. The prices range from about what I'd pay for a normal plastic comb all the way up to the super carved and personalized double digit ones. 

 

Yes, I know I'm not going to be wearing the comb, but it's a nice place to start ( oooh, new toy!). I could make one, thanks to this good 'ible over on Instructables. But I'm not very good at wood yet.  So I bought a nice hardwood comb and started using it as part of my nightly hair care routine. since it's not really safe to get a hair cut during the pandemic I've been growing my hair out for about 2 years. I had it trimmed in January of 2020, but it was roughly shoulder length at the time. Now it's gone to about the small of my back and I've been looking into ways to take care of it, so it will grow longer and so that I'm not being attacked by hair constantly and just wack it all off in a fit of pique. I found the Long Hair Community Forums and spent lots of time reading up. Wooden combs, braids, and head coverings are all hot topics of discussion there, as well as how and when to wash your hair and other useful topics.

 Previously I had made a "Dublin Cap"  using the information  and pattern direction provided by Jennifer Thies . While the cap came out ok, I didn't look very good in it. Turns out I have a very tiny head and a close fitting cap makes that look weird. I did use a fine linen instead of silk for the cap, but that didn't change the drape very much.

A little more searching brought me to Ciar's Stitch in Time blog post on Viking head coverings. I really appreciated how she listed the Who/What/When/Where of each one of her looks. Braids! Scarves! Pointy stick buns! All this plus an interesting and interactive comment section! I exclaimed a lot while I was reading. I really recommend it.

One of the commenters mentioned the Silkeborg Museum and added a link that at one point went to an article about the Elling woman. I poked around on that website but was unable to find the article in question. My Danish is non-existent, but Google was able to translate the page for me fairly well. Elling Woman was a bog body found in 1938 in Silkeborg, Denmark. Her estimated date of death was 280 B.C.E. which makes her far older than  the 10th century Norsewoman I'm trying to emulate. However, her hair was braided and twisted (and preserved) in a style that does look a bit like some of the Valkyrie figurines like that on the Osburg Cart.

So how to make the hair do that? I was very lucky to find a video by the talented Silvousplaits which has this exact hairstyle as the last one of three in a set.

She's an absolute gift to people like myself who literally can not understand written directions for hair. I need to see it happen, and then I need to see it again a few times just to make sure I can figure it out. I really enjoyed poking around on her other videos as well, since there are days I need a pinless bun or a four strand braid just for work.

It looks like I'll be trying out the Elling Woman braid, as modeled by Silvousplaits, and possibly covering it with one of Ciar's sexy scarf looks during the day. Thank you Internet for giving me some new things to do with my hair.

 

Not Exactly Norse

 I've been working on finishing things this week as I have an upcoming Norse themed event I want to attend. The more I research, the more I feel like there's no way to actually know for certain what a 9th or 10th century person might wear. It's easy to say "t-tunics and trews" but there's so many area and gender specific flourishes that I get bogged down. The fact that very little of the original items have survived is also majorly frustrating. My understanding is that many of the surviving pieces are wool, lined with linen or wool, trimmed with bands of silk. All of that is extremely warm in Texas.

In an effort to actually cover myself before the event, I threw research to the winds and decided to make an SCA standard apron dress. The place I'm going has a theme of blue and white, so I figured blue apron, white underdress, no problems.  Of course there were problems. I have no blue wool at all. I pulled every piece of blue linen I own off the shelves and none of them were large enough to make an apron dress, even when I decided to go for the knee-length version ( not historically supported). Eventually I rummaged the mending pile and pulled out a partially finished cotton/ linen skirt. If I seamed it carefully, it would work as a slightly odd apron dress. 

I did some figuring, and flipping, draping the fabric around me and pinning it into shape. Then I had my partner take some pictures of me from a distance so I could see how it would hang. Because of the strange patches in the skirt, I wound up having three triangular gores at the back of the apron dress, and two on each side. This put a seam directly down the middle of the front, unlike any apron dress I've ever seen, but it didn't look too bad.

Oh those old seams though! This poor old bit of fabric has been hard used. Back when I had been in the SCA for a handful of years I found a Wal-mart that was closing down it's fabric section, selling everything at a steep discount. I was super poor but they sold me a bolt of cotton/linen for about $2 a yard and I was so excited. My first period fabric! um...maybe. That fabric is probably more cotton then anything, the only linen quality it has is the ability to wrinkle if you look at it too hard and to fray in a gentle breeze. Over the years I've made tunics, over dresses, pants, and bags from that single bolt. At this point, all that's intact is this bit in the mending pile that had been on the way to becoming a skirt before I figured out there wasn't enough fabric left. The oldest seams were sewn by hand in black quilting thread, the newest ones sewn by machine in a sort of gray. I hand sewed the newest seams and flattened them, tucking the edges under and securing them with a whipstitch. I used a thread that matched the fabric pretty well, I couldn't see it on either side of the fabric.

Outside of apron dress

Inside of apron dress

Then, I added a strip of handwoven trim. This isn't a fancy trim, but it was also one of the first ones I ever made. It's been kicking around for over 10 years waiting on me to find a good project for it. This is a real historical piece, but only in my own history.

Finally, I added straps and put it up on my dress form, Janey, to see how it looked altogether.

I haven't had a chance to wear it, but I don't think it'll be too bad. I do have broaches and a really nice festoon to wear with it. I don't currently have a belt that will work, but I'm hoping to figure out the 12 strand flat braid belt before next week (HA!).

I still haven't finished the saffron color underdress, so I'll wear one of my older white ones. It's a heavier weight linen with a small amount of chain stitch embroidery around the collar and cuffs. If I get frustrated with the dress again, I might just lay out and frame up a fancy collar on an embroidery frame.

I did also finish up my very first pair of stranded colorwork mittens as well. These are in no way historical, but I liked them and thought they were cute. I did the first one very quickly, but the second one sat while I played with other projects. When I picked it back up, I wasn't exactly sure where I was in the pattern, which is why they aren't identical. They are fraternal twin mittens we'll say.

Pattern is Owl in Forest on Ravelry

Considering how random the weather is this year, I might be wearing them to the event anyway. 

I started knitting a new cardigan as well. This is Eirwen over on Knitty.com. I've never done a cardi before, but I feel a great need for this one. It's knit from the top down so hopefully I'll be able to see how it's going to fit as I'm working on it. I've already had to switch to a smaller needle size then what's recommended to get gauge, which seems rather odd to me. I want my gold star for swatching though! I did actually swatch, twice! Perhaps next week, I'll have enough to show you, right now I'm only on row 8.

Sew here we are again

Here we are, in the Year of Our Pandemic 2022, and things are a bit of a mess. Still, we're learning and sewing more all the time. 

So let's take a look at what projects are currently on the work bench. First there's the Subtle Dress. This is a very thin cotton in what I mentally have dubbed SCA Period-oid style, Ye Olde Faire Clothes if you will. The silhouette is sort of generally 15th century Florentine and I suspect that's what I'll accessorize it towards.

Clearly, the reason it's subtle is the delicate print. You'd hardly even notice the HUGE WHOPPING BIRD on it. I got the fabric from Cok Guzel over on etsy and it's totally worth it. 

 The gown itself is based loosely on Jen Thompson's 1480's Florentine Gown, but not closely enough you'd see the resemblance I think. Her write-up is great though.I really want to do more of these just for the experience, but the dress diaries do lure me down so many rabbit holes.

The next thing that's been taking up space in my brain is a piece I'd like to enter into a competition, assuming it ever gets finished. I'm making a 10th Century Norse linen underdress for a woman. It is saffron-colored ( modern dyes are MUCH cheaper thanks), and hand-sewn on all the seams. I'm using a very tiny running back stitch where I take about three stitches onto my needle at once, pull through, and then do a small back stitch to anchor it. Then, once the seams are done, I'll go back over them and finish them using a whipstitch on folded over seam allowances.

 I could opt to flatten the seams and use a thread of wool to whipstitch in a filler thread, but my test piece itched me pretty badly. I think that technique will need to wait for an over garment. Many of the techniques I'm trying are documented in Woven Into the Earth by Else Ostergaard and in Medieval Garments Reconstucted by Anna Norgard and Lilli Fransen, as mentioned by Morgan Donner in the Sexy Potato video. Both of these books are on my personal wish list and I've been reduced to borrowing them to read furiously before returning them to their owners. I've also used the website Needlework in the Viking Age for some good reminders.

 One of the items of frustration and then moments of inspiration that occurred during this build was based entirely on bad math. My brain had read (somewhere) that period looms tend to max out on weaving width about 22 inches (55cm) wide. So I cut my rectangles on that assumption and started stitching away. After I'd done one arm and a very nice neck hole all the way, I saw a video by the accomplished Opus Elenae that reminded me not to finish the seams totally until the garment is done. This helps keep the stress on the seams balanced, so they don't wind up pulling in odd directions. It's a good thing I didn't finish them all the way. Pulling the partially sewn garment on to make sure I had the side gores in the right spot showed me that there was no possible way this thing would fit me. There was a fair amount of swearing and some hasty re-mathing.

 After a sulk I had some time to think. IF a loom was 22 in wide, then there was no way I could cut a width wider then that and neither could anyone in period. I realized I've NEVER seen documentation on that loom width in a book, but if it occurred then piecing was the only reasonable option. So, the sleeves came off this morning and I'm going to add extra thin rectangles of material down the sides to extend it. The sleeves themselves fit just fine, but the tightness of the chest and back made the gown much too short. I'm hopeful that little quirk will be worked out when I get the extra piecing added.It occurs to me that will lengthen the arms a bit, so there will be nice deep cuffs to add weight. Perhaps they need some embroidery?

 The other thing that I've been working away on trying to work my way up to goldwork embroidery. I've done some goldwork and silverwork in the past ( the difference is the materials, not the techniques)and I know I want to practice before I spend so much money. One of my worst problems is I've never properly dressed a frame or hoop and my fabric tends to be horribly droopy and sloppy. I've also not had a lot of practice with laying tools ( I don't own any). Here's a guide to laying tools that I drool over sometimes. I don't want to buy a bunch of silks to work with and then find out I can't use them, so I'm started working my way through some tutorials. I downloaded a Tudor Rose Roundel pattern from NeedlenThread.com and I'm slowly filling it in with chain, stem, and satin stitch. It's been in progress for over 2 years now, but so has the rest of the world.

I hope the world is bright on your end and you always know where your seam ripper is currently.