leather costrel

Last medieval week I ran around with a plastic bottle in my bag, since drinking water is important but plastic bottles are not all that fun I decided to make a leather bottle in stead.

Looking around there is two options, the bottle looking kind and the one that looks like a small barrel. As I do both medieval and 16 century stuff I wanted a bottle that I could use for both. Leather costrels seems to have been around forever, a quick google search found me both museum pictures of costrels from the late 1300 and from 1500 and they were in use at least up until the 18th century.

I also found a picture of huntsmen with costrels.

So I decided on a costrel, I like the idea that it could easily be made so that it would stand on its on to. I looked around at different techniques, some people use wooden moulds but I don’t want to bother with mould making so I went with the sand version. Haandkrafts beautiful costrel gave me lots of help figuring out how to actually make one.
I chose to take away some of the layers that he used, and it worked fine anyway.

Here is the pattern for it, it is in cm and I made one difference from my original costrel, it is only that the outer seam allowance is 0,5cm in stead of 1cm on the sides. There is no difference in function only the look. You need to use vegetable tanned leather for this project. Chrome tanned leather is never healthy, especially not if you use it for storing water that you want to drink. I worked with 3mm thick leather and found that it was perfect thickness for me. This costrel holds 9 dl of water or any other liquid.

Using an awl I made all the holes for the main part. I do not make any holes in the sides, they will be made as we go along with the sewing. Make sure that the holes in the top part matches, count them and make sure, you are sewing these together so they need to be the same amount and at the same places.

I have also prepared for the decoration, using a knife I have cut the decoration into the leather, but only 1mm deep. Mu decoration is based on this costrel but with my initials on it.

I started with sewing to top together, I use blunt needles and waxed flax thread.

Making it look like a small leather tent.

Take one side piece and wet the edges shape it with your hands, you might want to take some of the corners of, but don not cut away to much, it might cause the corstel to leak.

I have marked out where the top and bottom are supposed to be, so put the side piece into the “tent”. As I have not made any holes in the side piece, you will need to make these as you go along. Just put your awl in one of the holes in the main bottle piece and push it through the side piece as well, but watch your fingers.

I start in the centre bottom, with the seam that is farthest from the edge. I sew it from the middle to the top on both sides. I don’t knot any threads, I fasten them by making them overlap by three stitches.

I try to not end in the centre top, it is tricky to sew there anyway so I fasten the seams by overlapping a bit down on the sides as you can see it you look closely on this picture.
Sew the other seam, closest to the edge and sew the other side on. It is important to have two seams , it will make you costrel less prone to leaking.

Cut out holes for carrying straps.

Now submerge your half finished costrel in lukewarm water and let it stay there for at least some hours. Then you can force the leather to make the opening, my pattern will give you a opening that is just so wide that you can use a cut of plastic bottle as a funnel. It is also a width of opening that we are all used to. The water will come out just as well as from a ordinary water bottle.

Now you stuff it full of sand. Pour first dry sand into it. When it is full, add some water. Then you continue to stuff it with sand until it can not take no more and feels solid.

Now you can make the pattern if you want to, you will feel if the leather is to wet, then the pattern will not be as distinct. If this is the case, wait a day or so and try again.
I use a modelling tool for leather but you don’t really need any special tools, use what you have around you, a nice rounded stick, a fork to make a pattern with.
I don’t have any leather stamps so I used a edge cutter to make the dotted pattern.

One side done, one to go!

Now let your costrel sit and dry, this might take some time. I put mine in a sunny window and it helps to pour out sand as you go along.

When it is completely dry and all the sand is removed it is time to pour wax into it.
I used beeswax. Melt it carefully, get a old sauce pan from the thrift shop since the pan you use will forever be your bees wax pan.
Pour the warm wax into the bottle (wax is WARM so use caution) you should fill it at least until it is half full. Put a cork into it and move the wax around and make sure to cover all of the inside, it is easy to miss so make sure that the ceiling of the costrel is covered.
When you have done this you can pour the wax out again, pour small amounts into moulds made of of old plastic cups and you will have sewing wax for later. and it is easier to melt if you need more wax some other time.

Some fill the bottle completely with wax and put it in the oven on low heat, then they remove it when they see the wax seeping through on the outside of the bottle.

Now you can test your bottle by simply pouring water into it. You will quickly see if you need to redo the waxing part.


I coloured my costrel with modern leather dye. and this is how it turned out.
I added a carrying straps to be able to put it on my belt. I also carried it a lot as a small silly handbag ;)

A kind of a toggle lock, for quick removal from the belt.

A wooden cork attached with a thinner leather string.

It was SO useful to be able to carry around water with me the whole week without any problems, just remember to store it without the cork in to prevent it from moulding.
The first day of use the water tasted very much of honey, it might had been nice it if the water had been something else then sun warm ;)

 

the bone dress, or the Mucha/Gaudi dress

In school we had a project where we should find an architect/building to take our inspiration from. I have had a picture of Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí in my inspiration folder for ages so I choose to go with Gaudí as my inspiration. And then down the road in the research process I found Mucha, how could I have missed Alphonse Mucha for all these years.

I wanted to use the bone like pillars that hold up Gaudís buildings and the draped fabric and flowing hair of Mucha to make a dress.

paper bones to play around with the bone design.

several toilles was made to make sure that it fitted my friend Isabell that had promised me to model it for me. It is interesting that a small bust is in need of so much work with the toille, and that that work is in such a different way from a large bust which is what I normally work with.

The bones that I used is chicken bones that is leftovers from a bunch of nice meals. They have been cooked and cleaned and here they are drying, later I painted them and lacquered them. I could have bleached them as you normally do, but chicken bones are so brittle so I did not want them to be more fragile then what they already was.

To be able to sew them onto the dress they have been filed down to be flat on the backs and thinner and the small holes was drilled to enable the sewing.

The top of the dress is made out of white leather that is prepared with a new kind of tanning process called “wet white”. It is a organic tanning process which is much better for the environment than ordinary chrome tanning. Where chromed tanned leather can make it’s wearer allergic and is highly environment damaging, wet white leather can be recycled and it can also used as fertiliser if prepared right. Another plus is that it comes in white naturally, chrome tanned leathers are grey, vegetable tanned leathers are a really light brown at best. To achieve white the leather these must be finished heavily which makes it loose a lot of leather character and almost always turns out looking like plastic.
Another plus is that it is not as sensitive as vegetable tanned leather, I was able to press the seams with with a hot iron, something that a vegetable tanned leather really do not appreciate.

The leather is amazingly soft and drapes just like fabric, it is truly amazing. One downside is that people do not think it is leather at all due to it looking so soft and white without a coating.
I have lined the top part of the dress with cotton coutil, to make sure that it holds the breast in place and do not stretch the leather and making it to big.

The bottom part is a really light and see-through silk fabric and the skirt has about 8 meters of fabric in it, I wanted it to be light and flowing.

All the pictures are taken by me in an abandoned house that is just around the corner from where I live, click them so see them in a larger format.
Model: Isabell

 

bära bäras

not 100% sure how to translate the title of the project, “bära” is Swedish for carry, but also to wear, and “bäras” is to be carried, oh well we’ll just leave it at that I think. This is the big project of the autumn.

So this project was about being inspired by a character or a fairy tale/folklore, and then make one garment for protection, one practical accessory  and one jewellery for beauty.

This is what I wrote about my work:

One reality
I have picked the best from fairy tales, folk costumes and turn of the century (1900). To reflect on a person from my world, “make pretend land”.

My reality created to be worn in your reality.

This is how it looked at out exhibition, at least my corner.

I decided not to pick a specific fairytale or person but to make my own character and I also wrote some text to it and made an actual book that I illustrated.

Once upon a time there was a girl that had no clear place in our world.
-Home is where my heart is. She said to the white bunny.
-The life of a rose seem so dull, a rosebud is always forced to become a rose. What if actually want to become a dandelion?
- A rose is never just a rose my friend. There are not two roses that are exactly the same; they are all different extraordinary individuals.
Answered the white bunny.

She was a traveller, always on her way somewhere but never in a hurry.
Taking the time to see every flower and stone she passed on her way, always willing to take a break and lay on her back and listen to the world around her.
-Dear Mr. Fox, I do so wish that one could take a photograph of a feeling. That way one could go back and feel the same thing again and again. That way one could always be happy.
-If that was possible, some people would always be sad my dear friend. Said Mr. Fox

She was a peaceful being both in her mind and heart. Always trying to treat all beings with respect and curtsey
-Dear Calf, sometimes I think that everything around me is moving so fast. That people are living their lives only to get to the next day, weekend or year. How do the people have the time to even breathe today when they are so stressed about tomorrow?
-Yes Dearest said the calf. Very many people in our world need to learn that today is just as important as tomorrow. That living everyday full out and not just live to come to tomorrow is important. You can never get back a lost day, living everyday gives you the opportunity to actually live a full life. If one is not careful one will perhaps end up with having lived only half a life.

-Dear foxes, I am so truly happy. Here we are with the opportunity to lie on the grass and breathe fresh air. There is nothing more in life that I wish for than happiness.
-We are fortunate in this part of the world to have that opportunity. Remember that not everyone is as lucky as we. Answered the foxes.

Only people without imagination escape into reality

And here are my pieces, I did more pieces then what we were asked to create.

A bodice made out of 1,5mm vegetable tanned leather that first have had a lace fabric pressed into it with a hydraulic press and then colours and distressed.

The coat is made out of wool and have a skirt that one can drape if one want it. It also have the same kind of leather that have been through the same process as the bodice. The leather parts have been hand sewn onto the coat.

The dress is made out of cotton have have a lot of different lace sewn onto it. It is meant to be like a diary, that the lace have been collected over time and that the dress is not finished yet.

The bracelet is made out of two silver spoons and leather. I wanted to use metal in my project but as I don’t know anything about working in metal I chose to go with the theme of collecting things.

The glove is made out of wool and is edged with white rabbit fur, the embroidery is also in wool and the motive is inspired by Scandinavian folk costumes

The fox collar is made out of a real fox. It is a wild Swedish fox hunted by a Swedish hunter, it does NOT come from a fur farm.
I understand that fur upsets a lot of people, I understand peoples reasons and I probably shares a lot of those arguments. But I ask of you not to scream murderer at me or write abusive things to me about it. This is a animal that have lived happy in the forest all its life and is is shot by a trained hunter. Please understand that hunting does not work the same way in all countries, keep in mind that Sweden is a small country and that we have very strict rules about animals and hunting. And because we are such a small country it is so much easier to enforce the laws then for example in such a big country as the united states.

The face had been destroyed in the tanning process so I decided to embroider the face with small glass pearls in stead. Every pearl have been sewn on by hand, one at a time. The fox have also been sewn so that it lays again the body in a good way.

 

a whole bunch of dresses, and some more

I am really LOUSY at keeping this blog updated, sorry as usual, but at least I KNOW I’m lousy at it.  ;)
But I bring lots of new photos now, because it is not like I haven’t done anything during my blog silence.

So I begin with the striped dress.

This dress is made out of striped stretch tulle, really nice and heavy thing, not all that stiff as tulle use to be. And there were a LOT of ruffling involved in this dress and a lot of fabric, about 10 meters of fabric, that is about 10,9 yards

The hem of the dress is about 22 meters (about 24 yards) totally crazy!

The good thing about the tulle is that you don’t have to hem it at all, the edges stay clan and crisp anyway.

Another good thing about the dress is that since it is only made out of tulle, one can have it all year round.  It is cool in the summer with just a under dress or as this, with a polo and wool tights in the winter.

On to my favourite dress at the moment, a long maxi dress with empire waist.

The top of the dress is made out a tin wool fabric, I just love this fabric it is so thin that you can wear it in the summer and since it is wool you do not have to wash it at all, one just needs to hang it out to air and it becomes all fresh again. Wool is really a fabulous material.

The bottom is a thin cotton fabric.

I got this fabric from a old lady who had bought it in when she was young, I just love it.

The buttons in the back is covered in the same fabric as in the skirt.

As I liked the long dress so much I decided to make a short version of it to.

The skirt fabric is an old curtain.

I miscalculated the skirt part so it ended up to tight, so I solved the problem by putting in a half circle in the back, made out of the same fabric as the top.

I need more casual dresses so I made this one.
It is made out of jersey fabric for the top and the bottom is actually a skirt I have had in my wardrobe for ages but never use.

The jumpsuit is something I wanted to to last summer, but never got around to it. It is made in a wool fabric, but a thicker one so it is a bit to warm for summer, but good for rainy summer days, or autumn, this will be GREAT this autumn.

One can pull it up to, then it looks just like a dress.

As I don’t have a serger at the moment I’m encasing all my seam allowances in bias tape, I love how clean it gets

The last dress was something I made for myself but that I miscalculated so gravely that it ended up being something like three sizes to small, it just sat really funny on my body.

My dear little sister was nice and helped me get some nice photos of it.

It is made out of a thin viscose fabric and a lot of satin bias tape.

The inspiration to it comes from the 18th century “chemise a la reine” and one can choose where to tie the removable band, in the waist or under the bust; wherever you feel like.

The chain in the back prevents the dress from falling of the shoulders due to the low back and the full sleeves, it is totally removable to make washing easy.

Late nights when I try to sleep but can not, I sometimes make these small notes on sewing for myself to remember good ideas that would disappear after a good nights sleep. This note is about how to sew the ruffles onto the dress so that the raw edges gets encased at the same time.

And at last, I remembered that I had not yet showed the smocked leather belt on a real person yet, so here you have it on a body!

 

Horns

The second big party in school had the theme “circus/freak show” I made myself a pair of horns, put on a tutu and the striped corset.

The horns are made of 1,5mm vegetable tanned cowhide that I have formed while wet and then coloured.

 

The Xena skirt

Here comes an in depth post about my Xena skirt.

The skirt is made up with both long pieces that are rounded in the bottom, and small pieces that also have a rounded bottom, the small pieces are riveted together by hand and overlap the long stips.
They are all hand cut from a vegetable tanned cowhide and then coloured with leather colour.

The fact that they are riveted makes them able to move a bit, not really sure that it is a good thing ;)

The pieces are riveted to a underskirt in the top, the do not go up entirely to the top since I am wearing a corset over it so I don’t want unnecessary bulk added on my hips.

In the front I have a loop to put my whip in, and a hook to put mychakram on, I have a leather sting to secure it to the hook, since I am not using it and I don’t want it to fall of while wearing the costume. The holders are also both riveted to the skirt, the loop for the whip have a snap closure, so it is easy to just secure the whip, and also easy to just pull it of.

The underskirt is made out of a scrap hide, I got if for no money at all and it was an ugly grey green colour. It have been cut in two and have been coloured and then I sewed darts in the waist, just like I would do on a regular skirt front and back.

It also have a waistband made out of Petersham ribbon. Since it is leather the waist would naturally have stretched, a non stretchy waistband prevents this. It is also the waistband that holds the back and front piece together.

It closes at one side with press buttons, the leather overlaps a bit.

 

2009

So one is supposed to summon up the year that have passed and here comes my 2009

January

I came up with a new version of my burned books necklace, did some embroidery. I started on a pair of stays and pocket hoops but it took me quite some time to finish them up.

February

I made a steampunk inspired shirt, finished my striped jacket, became 21 and therefore made a cake, posted my panties tutorial, printed on fabric, made a gray wool dress and thought that I would finish the pair of stays soon. (it is not done yet ;))

March

I started march out with making a summer dress, then I made another dress to, I had a mini photo shoot all by myself on my balcony, I covered a corset in vintage buttons, I posted my “Victorian skirt” tutorial, I made more pretty necklaces, I wrote about the school I studied at and I also made some bows and purses.

April

I made a rag rug, my sister turned 13 so I made her a cake, I was busy working with a final collection in school, I entered a competition and won my own sewing machine and I started to weave damask a technique that I totally loved.

May

May was a bad month for me, my father passed away and that made me tired and I had no energy, to be able to keep the school work up I did not tell my teachers or classmates about it either, I had no time for being sad or being treated different since we were at the end of the term. I did some some things this month, I posted a tutorial on how I sew my corsets which is the thing that is most visited post in my entire blog and I covered a second corset with buttons.

June

This month was mostly about dresses! I made a swim dress, we had a fashion show in school, I made a organic cotton jersey dress, I started on a new damask fabric, I made a dress for my fathers funeral, I made a dress out of the damask fabric I made, I made a dress with cherries on it, I made a carpet bag and I finally got around to taking pictures of the finished panniers.

July

I worked all of July so there was not really a creative month for me but I managed to make a tutorial on how to make a balloon skirt, drafted my first corset pattern for someone else then me and I also made steampunk hearts.

August
I did not make anything this month, but I moved and started a new school.

September

This month I did not make anything either, I felt bad about it and made a tutorial on how to make a pencil skirt and a tutorial for a really simple skirt.

October

My new school started in the end of august but I ha no time blogging about stuff until October, crazy crazy but fun fun! I tried out hands on new machines, made a leather rose, I made a green dress, I started on and almost finished a striped corset, I learned leather working techniques and how to colour leather, I made a wool balloon dress that became my definite favourite this year, I made a apron out of moose leather, I started some projects I never finished as this ruffle petticoat and this wool dress and I tried my hands on book binding.

November

Busy in school making stuff I had no time for blogging but I managed to post about how to turn leather scraps into useful things, I also translated my corset sewing tutorial to Swedish and made a peter pan collar drafting tutorial.

December

In December I made a lot of stuff but I have not posted about all I made yet. I did make a Xena outfit for a costume party at school, I did a lot of Christmas related stuff, chocolate, gift wrapping and “knäck”. I also made a gray dupion corset. built stuff out of cardboard, a Christmas dress, I finished the striped corset, I smocked a lot of fabric, and some leather to and then I also bought a kick ass pitcher that costed so much more then I could actually afford as a poor student.

 

smocking leather

After the week with the guest teacher we were supposed to translate the techniques we learned into our own materials, leather.
I chose to work with a nappa leather, the colour is called “petrol” and was quite hard to catch on photo.

As the smocking was my favourite technique I decided to work with that, I worked with 2*2 cm (0,8*0,8 inches) squares.
I wanted to make a product in stead of just a test square so I decided to make a belt thing.

In progress

I have a waistband in it so that you can wear it without it dropping down due to the stretch of the smocking.

Close up

I really like how it turned out.

 

Xena-warrior princess

The first big themed party at school had the theme series. I went as Xena.
I made all the stuff just for this event, and all the leather things except the corset is made out of vegetable tanned cowhide from Italy.
The arm braces have a tooled pattern on them, so does the shoulder piece and arm rings.

Before tooling

Halfway done

All done

All the pieces have been cut by hand and there are a LOT of rivets in that skirt.
The corset is one layer coutil and one layer of soft leather from a old jacket I had laying around.

All lain out on the table

I made the shakra out of paper clay which I put tinfoil on with decoupage technique.

I also braided a bull whip out of leftovers from my moose apron.

The arm braces are coloured, hand painted and then shaped with water to make them sit nicely around the arms.

Small buckles keep them on.

Arm rings.

Shoulder piece.

It have also been coloured, hand painted and moulded to fit the body while wet.

A iron bra made out of wire. This one I ended up not using since it fitted so badly when I got the corset on.

Sadly I do not have any pictures of it on me.

 

horror

stuff I do when I am bored