The Apron - Day 1

I pulled out my white 5 oz weight linen tonight so I could start the cutting for my new apron. Since I will be smocking the top edge of the apron I needed it to be 50-66% wider then I intend the finished piece to be. As I want the finished top to be about 20 inches wide, I chose a starting width of 60 inches. The pleating will gather the beginning width into the much smaller finished width. For the waist to floor length I opted to use a known period loom width of about 32 inches.

To insure that I was cutting straight with the grain, I hand basted a black waste thread along one of the weft threads. I then cut the length I needed a half inch from the basting line.

That is all I got done for tonight... Tomorrow the basting stitches for the smocking.

A Pleated & Smocked Apron - The Plan

So, now that the holidays are over I am going to start working on my new garb.  The first project will be something small and hopefully quickly finished... an apron.

Aprons were very popular as they helped keep ones hard to clean clothes from getting soiled.  I personally like the look of smocked aprons and that is what I plan on making.  Below you can see a few of the paintings of which I am drawing my inspiration from.

The first three show the use of pleated aprons. In the Seated Woman by Durer you can see how the pleats have been drawn up tight at the top of the apron and then are allowed to hang down and become full.  I don't see any top stitching on the pleats in this image so the basting threads may have been left in to hold the pleats in place.

Seated Woman, Albrecht Durer, 1514

Presumed Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1517.

Portrait of a Woman, Albrecht Altdorfer,  1522.

(Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)

In Albrecht Durer's Melencolia I, you can clearly see a pattern at the top of the apron that could easily be honeycombed smocking.

Melencolia I , Albrecht Durer, 1514.

And again, below you can see what apears to be honeycomb at the top of the apron and maybe a simple line of embriodery or cutwork at the bottom too.

The Seamstress, Edward Schoen, 1535.

If I have time I would like to add some embroidery to the bottom of the apron as well.  Maybe some blackwork similar to what appears in this painting:

Unknown.

Well before my persona's life time there are many examples of pleated and/or smocked aprons.  Most notably, images found in the Luttrell Psalter from the 14th century.  Black embroidery of some kind is clearly seen at the tops of these gathered aprons.

And finally, about 60-70 years after my target time period, you can find many images of pleated, smocked and otherwise embroidered aprons in the Frauen-Trachten by Jost Amman published in 1586. The ones of greatest interest to me are among the images of the women of Frankfurt am Main, Germany the home of my persona, Elsbeth.

My new Inkle Loom!

My wonderful husband got me a Schacht Inkle Loom for Christmas this year! 

By Christmas afternoon I had created my heddles using crochet cotton, warped the loom with some found grey and pink wool/cotton blend yarns from my stash and had over eight inches of weaving done!  It is so much fun.  I quickly discovered I had an error in my warping which showed in the finished weave but as this is just a practice weave which will be a non-SCA belt for six year old "M" I opted to leave it as it was instead of rewarping the whole project.

Although this design of loom does not fall within the time period of the SCA the resulting Inkle, the woven belt or trim it creates, is documentable to the SCA time frame.  I have several projects I would like to use inkle weaving in:

1. Stocking garters
2. Woven Belt
3. possibly trim for my new hemd

The plan for new garb for me!

Now that the rush to make garb for the three kiddos is over I am excited to get on with the plans for a whole new set of garb for me!  My SCA Persona, Elsebeth, was born in Frankfurt, German in 1465.  My goal is to create period garb that falls between the years of 1485 to 1520 when I would have been an adult between 20-55 years old.  To that end, I want my first dress to be an everyday working dress similar to that seen in the images below:

Portrait of a Man and His Wife by Ulrich Apt the Elder, 1512.

Anna Barth? from the Lamberger Portrait Book, 1575-ish.

(Is fancier then I want and from a later period but nice to see the style didn't change much.)

Portrait of 34 year old women by Hans Holbien, 1517.

Portrait of Coloman Helmschmid and Agnes Breu by Jorg Breu the Elder, 1500-1505.

Portrait of a women by Wolf Traut, 1510.

To Do List:
1. Kleid (dress)
2. Hemd (smock)
3. Wulsthaube (headwear)
4. Goller (shoulder wrap/cape)
5. Apron
6. Hose (stockings)
7. Shoes (and maybe Pattens too)
8. Jewelry
9. Belt
10. Pouch

It is a long, somewhat overwhelming list!  I will take on one thing at a time but most likely not in the order listed above.  Many of the items I don't have at all and if added onto my current not period correct dress and chemise I will at least "look" more period-ly correct so I may work on those first just in case the dress doesn't get finished by the next event, Ymir, in February.

Learning Kumihimo

Tonight was our bi-monthly SCA Canton meeting.  I think the cold weather and closeness to the holidays kept most folks at home as it was just our family and two others that attended the meeting.

I was looking forward to the topic tonight, Kumihimo cord weaving.  I had seen several women making them while at Winter Solstice last week and was curious to learn more about it.  Kumihimo is an ancient Japanese form of braid-making.

Tessa had brought a few CDs that she had cut slots around the edges to hold the strings.  She taught us a basic 2 color, 8 string weaving pattern.  It turns out that the two colors of crochet weight string were not of the same size which made for an interesting pattern on mine.  It was lots of fun to learn and I look forward to finishing my cord.  It will most likely by used as a pouch drawstring someday.

Winter Solstice

What a wonderful fun event Winter Solstice turned out to be! Good food, music, dancing, games and new friends.

There were some minor garb issues... A gusset seam split on baby T's dress, E's pants lost it's drawstring so he had to wear his mundane jeans for half the day and I just didn't get anything new made for me... still, a good day and I was pleased the kids had such a good time.


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Location:Winston-Salem, NC

The linen has arrived!

How crisp and nice it feels too!  The 5 oz is in the wash right now.  The 3.5 oz will get washed soon.

I finished the second sleeve on "T"'s gown this morning.  I looks good on her.... a bit loose but I meant to do that for growing room.  Now I just need to hem it and embroider the neckline.

Oh, I was so excited today to finally find a source for solid brass lacing rings!  I have been searching online for a week now with no luck.  I need them for "M"'s bodice on her dress and more projects in the future I am sure.  I found them at Renaissance Fabrics.  I also purchased some brass buttons, lacing and trim from here as well. The shopping cart wasn't working but I sent them an email with what I wanted and she is going to invoice me.  Yeah!

Change of plans...

Well, maybe not a change of plans.  More like an addition!

I had originally thought I would make "T" a copy of the Holbein's daughter's hemd and sleeveless dress.  Then it occurred to me that the Winter Solstice event is in December and it might be a wee bit chilly.  So, in doing a bit more research on children's clothes I came across the Herjolfsnes finds.  Herjolfsnes 44 is a child's gown with long sleeves and originally made out of wool.

So based on their layout I pattern drafted it out to be sized for almost 2 year old "T" with a bit of growing room as well.  I had some cast off "first garb" blue linen pants that had been given to me and I cut them apart for this project.  I had just enough to piece this dress together.

I got most of it sewed tonight.  I have one sleeve left to attach and then the hemming.  I lined the collar with the oatmeal linen I used as guarding on "M"'s dress.  If I have time I would like to do some simple embroidery at the collar to hold the lining in place.

I also finally settled on who to order my wool flannel from: The Wool Connection.  Once the wool comes in I can start on "E"'s tunic and maybe a few other projects as well.

Linen is on it's way...

I ordered linen online tonight.  They didn't have any colors that called out to me so I just got some white linen in 3.5oz and 5oz for the kid's hemds, coifs and possibly an apron and headcloth of some sort for me.  I ordered it from fabric-store.com.  Can't wait for it to get here so I can start sewing.

Inspiration for children's garb

So, in preparation for the German themed Winter Solstice event on December 11th I need to sew garb for the kids.  Calum and I have garb we can wear for this event (although I would love to make some new items for me as well) but the kids have no garb to wear at all.  Searching the internet I found a few inspirational images...

The painting "The Artist's Family" by Holbein in 1528 shows a toddler in a simple short sleaved hemd and sleaveless gown.  This should be easy enough to duplicate for our 23 month old daughter, "T".  I will use linen or a linen/cotton blend.  The hemd will be white and the dress whatever period color I can find.  I will probally do hook and eye closure on the bodice instead of spiral lacing.

For "M", our 6 year old daughter, I will make a campfrua overdress using the pattern from Reconstructing History #504 as a general guidline.  I have some pieces of linen (deep red and oatmeal) in my stash that I hope will be large enough to use for her dress.  The hemd will be from white linen and drafted from the Reconstructing History #505 pattern..  If I have time I would like to experiment with pleating and smocking the neckline in a honeycomb stitch.

Finally, "E" is our 8 year old son.  He is not so keen on dressing up so I need to make something simple and not to weird looking for him.  The plan is to make a plain white linen shirt, linen or wool T-Tunic in red (his favorite color) and flannel loose pants.  I plan to follow the T-Tunic pattern from "Practical Worksheet for Tunic Construction" by Cynthia Virtue.

For all the kids I would like to make linen 3 piece coifs but not sure any but "M" will actually wear them.  Cynthia Virtue also had great write up on Coif construction at "How to make a coif: 1 and 3 piece patterns".

So, that is my starting plan.  I am sure it will evolve as time goes on.

And so it begins... again!

My husband Calum Mackay (SCA name) and I met almost ten years ago while both involved in the SCA in the East Kingdom.  Calum had been a Scadian for many years and I was a just getting into it.  We both really enjoyed it but within 2 years of becoming a couple we found ourselves in a new state, with a new baby, in a new Kingdom.  After we got settled we tried to get in with the local group but it wasn't the same for us without our friends there.  We had busy lives and just kept telling ourselves that one day we would be back to the SCA again.

So eight years, a move to yet another state and two more kids later, here we are... ready to take the leap and become true Scadians once more.  I have contacted the local Canton of Buckston on Eno (Durham, NC) and their next regular meeting is on November 23.  We plan to be there!