making your own medieval dress pins

Dress pins are a must have for the person wearing veils and wimples and so. But they are surprisingly expensive for what they are. I do understand why but still, I am a student and sometimes it is hard on the wallet to pay around four to five Euro for one single dress pin.

A metal working friend of mine said “well do them yourself, they are really not that hard to make”. But I did not really believe her, nothing is hard when you already have the skills of the material.
But when cleaning my worktable I found a piece of silver wire I bought a few year ago to wire wrap some jewellery and I thought that I can try it anyway. You can not really do anything worse then failing and if you do you don not have to tell anyone that you even tried.

But really, they ARE NOT that hard to make. It took me around 20 minutes to complete my first two needles, they are not all that pretty, but they are not ugly and works perfectly. And they cost me virtually nothing at all and are in fancy real silver.

A popular type of pin heads are the wire wrap and there are a lot of extant medieval pins found with this type of heads.

I started with a piece of wire, it is quite soft at the moment but don’t worry, we will harden it later.

Using a round nose pliers I started to make the wire wrap.

Keep twisting the loose tail around.

Here are my tools, the small pilers are a bit to small to be easy to use, but I got them ages ago and they were dirt cheap. The big one is just a ordinary wire cutter.

Work your heads and try to make them look even and nice. When you have finished the wrap, cut the remaining tail of.

I make two pins at the same time, to save time.

On my tiny anvil I hammer the thread with a hammer. Any hard surface will work, but there can be marks on it after so use nothing to fancy. The hammer is just an ordinary builders hammer nothing fancy at all. We hammer the thread to make it harder, as it first was to soft to be able to use as pins.

I try to hammer the thread all around, it will become a bit flat but we will sand it later so no worries.

Sand it down with a piece of fine sand paper.

Then cut the pin in two, try to cut at an angle. This will save you time later.

When just cut the end are a bit to blunt to be used as they are.

I use a file to file the ends to sharp points.

See the difference.

And that was that, they are now ready to be used as dress pins.

 

open hood with card / tablet woven edge

Last year I wanted to make a open hood with the silly hook on to top, but when I did a toille it looked really off and I decided to make a buttoned hood with liripipe in stead. But at last summers medieval week I saw Saras red open hood I was really inspired and decided to make one for this summer.
There is so many different variety of open hood in the pictures, I have based mine of several picture and these are some of them.
Here are some on my Medieval pinterest board

One with very wide “wings”
A few with that silly hook
One more with a hook
And some with longer “tails”

I also love Isis black open hood

Using my liripipe pattern as a guide I made a toille for a open hood and it did not take long before a pattern was made.
This kind of hood does not require a lot of fabric so it is a great way to use scraps. It was also a really fast project, started on a Thursday and completely finished on the Sunday after, with not that many active sewing hours.

I wanted to make it in wool and lined in wool so I took some scraps from my liripipe for the gray lining and some left overs from my new yellow dress I am making for the shell fabric.
I wanted to tablet weave the edge of this hood and these fabric is slightly fulled so there is minimal fraying of the fabric and that is nice.

When cutting the pieces out I put them all together.

So that the linings right sides are out and the shell fabrics right sides are facing each other.

Using a chalk crayon I mark where I want to sew.

I use a back stitch when sewing all the layers together, all at the same time. I sew with small stitches using a waxed linen tread. When hand sewing I try to make as small stitches as I use when sewing on the machine.

Then I cut some of the seam allowance away on my lining. This is so that it will not poke out when we are going to cast down the edges and it also makes the seam allowances smoother since it thins it out a bit.

Then I press this seam apart, I was travelling by train when I was sewing this so they are just basted down in my pictures, it works just as fine as long as you press your seams later.
I now sew the seam allowances down, I use filler threads when sewing down the seam allowances. They protects the open edge of the fabric and keeps it from fraying and it also looks really pretty and neat. This is a technique found of the garments from Greenland and is described in my favourite book about medieval textiles “Woven into the Earth” by Else Østergård.
I take care and make sure that the stitches only goes through the lining and not the shell fabric.

I do not split my seam allowances all the way. In the hook part I cut the seam allowance down a bit and also cut some notches so the curve does not pull and then I press it apart.
But sewing it down is not necessary, it only adds bulk and it will never be seen anyway.

Then I turn my hood right side facing out. I smooth out the fabric and baste the edges together. Here you can see that my edges have shifted a bit when sewing the top seam.

I trim that off.

Now you can edge your hood any way you want to, but I wanted to show you how to card weave/ tablet weave the edges.
There is no need for fancy materials to do card weaving, I bought my beautiful wooden cards from http://ampstrike.etsy.com but you can use a sturdy cardboard to make your cards. The size and thickness is all personal preferences, I like to use thin smaller cards.

I am going to use two cards for my weave, each card have four holes in it so I will need eight warp threads. Using my mothers kitchen chairs I warp the threads to get the same length and to get them sorted out. This is more important if you have a complicated weave, but I do it this way anyway.
The length of your threads are the length you want to edge and then I always add half a meter more, to be on the really safe side, and then a bit more to not come out short in the end.
I just tie the thread to the leg of a chair that is turned upside down.

I put the other chairs the distance apart that I need to warp.

I go around the leg of that chair.

When I come back to the first chair I make sure to go on the other side of the leg.

And the around the first leg again So that you create a crossing of the threads.

Then I do that until I have the right number of threads.

The crossing of the threads is important, it makes sure that you can see in what order you warped the threads.

How it look on the other chair.

We like long kitchens when warping.

I want to save the crossing of the treads for later, so I make this cardboard divider.

Like this.

If you are a bit short on space, this is a good way of warping.

The important this is to get the crossing of the threads.

Or like this.

I tie a knot around the warp threads to keep the end together.

And then I take it of the chair leg.

I tie a slip knot in the end.

And then hand crochet the warp threads loosely to keep them neatly together.

Leave a part to weave with loose and just tie a simple bow around the last loop to keep it from unravelling and then you can take it of the other chair to.

Now cut the end of the loose end above the crossing of threads part.

Now it is time to tread the cards, they are threaded in this order and is threaded from the back to the front.

Now you can see the use of saving the crossing of the threads. You can easily see which is the next thread to thread.

Now I have threaded both my cards.

I now want to put them together, I put them back to back or face to face. I was going to have one more card I would put it back to back with the last card. This is to get a well balanced weave.

I use two safety pins to keep my cards from turning around and getting tangled. I put these in whenever I am going to do something with my project that might make me loose the order of my cards, just to be sure.

At the far end before your crochet braid I make a slip knot, I will put this on my foot.

I put it on my foot and make sure that the warp treads are equally long. Then I tie a ordinary knot in the front after the cards. I attach this to a belt in some way, this is just temporary so I just tie it of with a piece of yarn.

Ready to weave.

For the beginning you are just going to weave a ordinary ribbon. Take out the safety pins, put in a thread, and turn both cards at the same time, it does not matter if you turn them from you or towards you. Turn them one step and as long as you keep tuning them in the same direction. When you turn the cards the threads shift and the thread is secured.

You can now put in the tread from the other side, pull it snugly and then turn the cards again, turn the cars in the same direction as the first time.
Keep doing this for a while and you will not have a ribbon. Remember to turn the cards in the same direction all the time.

It is now time to start the edging, I start in the back somewhere where it will be less visible. Thread the piece of yarn in a needle. Now, in stead of just putting the thread from one side to another, we are also making a stitch in the fabric.

Pull it tight to the braid.

Turn the cards.

Put the thread through.

Turn the cards.

Put the tread through and take a stitch and pull it tight to the braid.

Turn the cards.

Put the thread through.

Turn the cards.

To keep the warp with enough tension you need to keep the warp threads at a good length. I tie the warp thread to my foot or whatever is available, the knobs to hang your purse on the train, the leg of a table.

After you woven a while you want to move where your project is attached to your belt. I use a kilt needle and put it in the middle of the braid and then attach it to my belt.

When you come to a corner you want to just weave a bit of braid to get you round the corner.

After the corner I usually wait with attaching the kilt needle for about five cm, I use my fingers to hold it for a while to get a bit of braid. I find that this gives me nice corners

This is how I do then I want to take a break from the weaving without having it get messed up and tangled.

This is how it looks from the side when turning the cards once.

After a while you will notice that your warp threads are getting really twisted from you turning the cards the same way all the time.

You need to change direction of the turning of the cards sometimes to get the twist out, this is best to do at either places where it will not be seen or where it looks nice anyway, since the changing of the direction will be visible.

When I run out of thread, this is how I do. This is seen from the backside. Leave the thread from the stitch hanging, turn your cards and just start with a new tread. We will fasten these later on.

When I have woven all around and get to the last stitch I do as in the beginning. I just weave a bit of ordinary braid.

I got quite a bit left on the warp, I will save this in my stash, it might get some use if I need to edge something smaller sometime.

Then I cut the cards of.

Now it is time to fasten loose threads.

I tie a double knot as close to the braid as I can.

Then I use a needle to thread the end of the thread trough the braid.

One end in each direction.

Cut the ends of and it is almost invisible!

At the end of the weaving, I cut of the ends, fold them in and sew it all shut. Raw ends enclosed.

Then I take all the basting away and press the seams, the edges and the hood itself. And then you are done!

This is how it looks on, both with veil and wimple, and also with just my Birgitta cap.

And as always, here is the pattern, it is made in cm as usual.

 

Lengberg Castle brassiere

From the first time I saw the Lengberg Castle underwear I knew that I would want to make something similar. Having big breasts complicates things, I would prefer not to wear modern bras with my medieval clothes. But there is no chance that I can get away with not wearing anything at all. The fitted front dresses might work, but I prefer to use ease in my garments and I am not all that fond of the shape my breasts would get in that kind of fitted underwear.

So the Lengberg Castle brassiere was perfect, it is just like a modern bra, but with more coverage and in linen.

There are quite a few interesting articles on the net already, you should check them out in stead of me trying to communicate what they are about.

Medieval supportive underwear at Medieval Silkwork
Supportive underwear in written sources at Medieval Silkwork
About medieval bra(shirt)s and other underwear by Isis Sturtewagen
The “Invention” of Needle-lace in East Tyrol? – University of Innsbruck

I used a lot of needles and draped this pattern on my self wearing my regular bra. It is really hard to drape on yourself so I recommend that you get a friend to help you. But after a evening of contortionism I had a pattern.

It might be the silliest looking pattern I have ever made.

One of my favourite things to do is actually sewing eyelets, my brassiere have 6-7 at each side and is spiral laced.

The lacing I used is lucet braided wool.

The result is this, the seams are made with felled seams that are placed on the outside, to make it as smooth as possible for the skin.

It feels good to wear. I wore it for a full day in school and the only thing was that the bottom edge raised up under my bust but I will be attaching a skirt to and that might fix that problem. Also, My breast went kind of droopy with not as much lift as I am used to with my modern bra at the end of the day. But the linen I worked with is really thin and I will make a try with some sturdier linen and that might keep them up and happy all day. But it was really comfy even if they “sank” in height during the day.

This pattern is made after my body, so a mock up is very important. But I thought that there is always nice to see how the pattern looks, as a starting point for your own pattern.
I wear a European size 80H according to the label in my bra that is a 95H in France and 36H in UK, sorry you US ladies but I have no idea what that translates to. But my body measurements are: Bust 120cm and underbust 96cm.
As usual my pattern diagrams are in cm

 

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 ;)

 

frilled veil

When I saw Elina at Neulakko post about her new frilled veil, and that my veil sparked the idea for it I realized that I have not yet shown mine in close up.

It is made out of long strips of linen that are 8cm wide that when hemmed turned out 6cm. I think I had 4 widths of fabric for it, that would make it 6 meters long. The strips are then sewed together with a very small felled seam, as small as I could manage.
Then it was some hemming to do. The linen is medeltidsmode.se thinnest bleached linen, that sadly is not on the webshop at the moment. I hope she gets more of it, it is fantastic so I bought extra much of it last time to have for my summer sewing.

Then the strips was folded in half and gathered with two rows of running stitches. I was not really that precise with my stitches. I made sure that the stitches was parallel to each other, but I did not mark out how long they should be. But I tried to make them 1 cm long. A 1cm stitched gathered tightly gives you a frill that is 0,5 cm thick. I did as my English smocking, and picked just a few threads before the new stitch.

Then I secured the treads and enclosed the bottom with a straight on the grain piece of linen, like binding any edge; so that the frills will keep in place.
I wanted to make this frill like a separate piece, so that you can just baste it on whatever shape of veil you feel like for the day.

Then I spreaded the frills, the fact that the frills are so short (just 3cm in total, and of that 3 cm only 1,5cm is the frill), and gathered so tightly makes these frills holds up without starching. Even in rainy weather!

The frill is kind of heavy and falls nicely and holds a nice shape.

And here it is on a veil and on me, I like it best with a wimple, and I need just four needles to keep it in place all day, one in the wimple and three in the veil.
I also wear Birgitta cap under, to pin the veil and wimple on.

 

My green dress

I realized that I have not really shown you my green dress, except for in a few pictures.
It is made out of a thinner tabby weave green wool from medeltidsmode.se and is completely hand sewn with linen thread.

I have based my model on Herjolfsnes no.38 from Greenland. I am not a fan of the GFD dresses but still wanted a dress that follows my body so this model with lots of panels in the side seemed perfect for the shaping over the bust. I Know that the original herjolfsnes dress was not made as a tight garment but I choose to make it tight anyway.
The reason for not liking the GFD is that I do not like how really tight they are, in my world clothing needs ease. A garment that have no ease tend to look like it is to small for the wearer. I have seen a lot of really nice GFD but with my bust size it tends to look like a over stuffed sausage. And also I prefer to have the front edge straight on the grain, that way I know that it will not warp under pressure and most GFD use the fitted front. My green dress is tight but not so tight as the GFD. I wear a modern bra under my dresses because I need that support but do not want to wear a dress that is that tight.

I have also chosen to make more of a grande assiette type of sleeve as the Moy bog dress, just because I wanted to try it out. I have also made e two part sleeve with the so called “elbow hinge” from the pourpoint of Charles de Blois that cottesimple.com describes.

In the making my armholes turned out to big. But sewing some gartering threads and then using steam on it solved this problem a bit, I love wool.

I have also chosen to make it with buttons as the Moy bog dress, because buttons are pretty and I like sewing buttonholes.

Lots and lots of buttons!

This was my first medieval dress ever and I wanted to try out everything I had read about ;)

Under it I wear a simple linen under dress, It might look a tad bit short, but with this length you don’t get the problem with a wet linen hem against your skin when walking in wet grass or on rainy days. Wet linen is not that nice.

There are some things that I am not 100% satisfied with on this dress. The fit in the armhole is one, but after a few times wear it moulded to my body and looks better then from the beginning. So I really like this dress, it is my first try but the shape of it works well on my body and the many panels in the sides makes it easy to fit.
I love the amount of width in the bottom that is due to the panels. One might think that it is wasteful to make but when cutting it out there was a minimal amount of waste. When laid out on the fabric correctly the only scraps you get is in the neck hole, armhole and thin strips in between the pattern pieces.

 

medeltidsveckan 2011

Promise to say Hi! to me at medeltidsveckan if you see me.

 

Wulsthaube

Every one needs silly things to wear on your head, so to my kampfrau outfit I wanted a wulsthaube. It was super simple to do, I used these instructions but the triangular part I cut on the bias and sewed on a band that was on straight grain. That way it would drape over my bump nicely whilst still having it fit snugly around my head. If I would not have then band the area around my face would stretch over time and it would be to big. I also wanted it to be a complete thing, and not in parts. I want to be able to put it on without lots of needles or an under cap.

My roll was also cut on the bias, to make the curving nicer, and then it is stuffed with wool.

I draped it in pleats it in the back like in this painting by Hans Baldung Grien from 1505 It will also have the square detail in the back as in the pictures, to cover up the edges of the pleated fabric.
Now it just needs some hand sewing to keep the folds and everything else in place, Ill put up some pictures of the finished thing soon.

 

The striped kampfrau

This year is the first year in my life to go to Medeltidsveckan (medieval week) on Gotland and since I have NO medieval clothing what so ever this spring have been very much about making a few outfits for me to wear. My favourite fashion turned out to be the German kampfrau fashion. It just fits me so well and I just love it and I am well in the way of making my first dress.
But I just had to convince Bella (the girl in the pictures of my last post) who is also going to medeltidsveckan for her first time that she totally needed to be a kampfrau to. That was SO easy especially as I offered to actually sew her outfit for her and that it could be black, striped and not that colourful. She does not wear colour that much and sticks to the black outfits with mixed in grey tones.

The outfit is very much inspired by this painting by Bonifacio Veronese from around 1540

So what I made for her is a three part outfit; skirt, blouse and a bodice. All machine sewn, historical accuracy was not the important thing but a pretty dress that when worn looked correct.

The blouse is a really simple one, made up after a pattern you can find here (is is in Swedish)
It is made in a nice white linen fabric from Medeltidsmode, they have the best collection of wool and linen fabrics I have found in Sweden so far, and the woman who runs it is so nice and really cares about her customers.
The neck and sleeves gathers with a cord, so super simple but still nice.

The skirt is made out of wool, also from Medeltidsmode.se, it is just strips that have been sewn together to form the skirt and then pleated onto a waistband, the skirt is lined with the same linen fabric as in the blouse. I know that it should feature a under skirt in stead of a lining, but Bella wanted a low maintenance outfit, so I decided on less thing to put on is a good thing, so therefore a lined skirt. The waistband is really thick due to the many layers of wool.

Another thing that is not accurate with this skirt is that it features a hidden pocket in the opening of the skirt, Bella wanted a safe pocket to put her phone and money in.

I bribed my little sister to model Bellas skirt and blouse for me “if you do this you can borrow my red nail polish”.

The bodice was to small for my little sister so you just get to see it flat on my bed in stead.It is made out of wool and lined in linen.

It has a hidden lacing in the front, spiral lacing of course and reinforced with two strips of flat steel boning. Ignore the wonky seam on the side of the boning, I stitched in the ditch in the front and that is how it ended up.

To not make it gap when worn, is is fastened with small stitches here and there in between the lacing.

Detail of the sleeves.

It have been slashed at the elbow.

And this is how it might look when worn, the front looks uneven but is is not, I was lazy and only tied the bodice together with a string in two of the holes and because it is spiral lacing it goes uneven when just tied in two holes. Better pictures will probably be taken in week 32 at Gotland so you will see the finished outfit on Bella after that.