Award of Arms

Just for you guys to see... Both me and my husband have been lucky enough to get a few awards and were given scrolls for every one! So I thought I show them, as inspiration to others. I will take a few at a time, and thus begin with our AoA's.

Above is mine, illuminated by Adorian Piroska and calligrifed by Mäster Skafte Vaghorne.

And this is my husbands, entirely made by Ermingard Hawenthorn.

Upcoming project nr 1; the German 16th century Ärmelrock

Portrait of Dorothea Meyer, née Kannengiesser
1516, by Hans Holbein the younger.

My version of this dress will be without the embroidery, but it will be red! This is the dress I plan to enter the Arts and Science-competition on Drachenwald Kingdom University in November, I am still in the process of doing more research (thanks again Katheryn , I highly recommend reading her documentation of a very similar dress), gathering materials and musing over how to make the bodice (one seam in the back, whole back-piece?).

As with most of my garb, I will sew it together on the sewingmachine and the finish it by hand. I am also planning to make my own hooks and eyes (with some help from my dear husband), and I'm quite excited about that! I know its silly, but as I stated before, I love learning new things and I do aspire for a more period look in this dress.

The red wool is laying there waiting, and really soon I will begin this project. I am a bit miffed that I couldn't afford more 100% wool for the black parts and had to settle for wool with some polyester, but on the otherhand it looks good enough and since its not the main fabric it wont be sweaty either. I wanted to line the bodice with grey linen, couldn't find any I liked so I went for black instead. The choice of a dark colour is just practical, unbleached or white linen tend to look really yucky after a while!

Another Holbein-painting, which I seem to have forgotten to write down when its painted, but you can see more of the cuffs.

The Knight, the girl and Death by Hans Baldung. One of few paintings where you get too see the backside of an Ärmelrock.

I plan to at least make the headwear to go with the dress, even if only the dress will be entered in the competition, I would love to make the chemise too, but then I need to get hold of the right fabric and learn both embroidery and smocking. Oh well, there is a time for that too!

The Flemish 16th century apron

To complete my Brugel-outfit I needed an apron. Research done on paintings by Brugel, Aersten and Bueckelear (all 16th century Flemish/Dutch painters) show simple aprons made by a string around the waist and some fabric tucked in that piece of string. Knowing my self, that wasn't an option for me, thus I made my own version which looks ok when wearing it and I don't have to pull the fabric back very now and then. To get the right shape I made it like this:

First I made a rectangle, aproximately 60x80 cm (plus seamallowance), in the picture it is my first one, which I didn't hem all the way around. Stupid of me since I wash my garments in the washing machine and by now its serverly frayed. So if you want to make one, start by hemming the whole rectangle! I use a whipstitch, but use whatever seam you usually use when hemming.

Then cut out the upperpart, mine is the full width of the linen-fabric I used, more or less 150 cm (you do want it quite long to be able to knot it in your back) and 8-10 cm wide. I then sewed it to the rectangle, but leaving 15 cms of the rectangle on both sides. When this is done, fold the long piece, first in the middle and the fold in the seam-allowances on both sides, giving you a piece that is 3-4 cm wide. I opted for this method since the seam connecting the two pieces will be inside the long part, thus giving it a smooth look and a durable seam, also it is then possible to wear the apron inside out if necessary.

I used the sewing machine to sew the two pieces together, the rest is done by hand. It does help if you iron the long piece when you fold it, since the folds will stay almost without pinning, one of the best things with linen in my opinion.

(My green Brugel-dress, worn with a Tudor-shirt since the correct shirt was dirty.)

My research includes quite a lot of paintings, but these in particular;

A detail from Pieter Brugel the elder's "Children's games", 1559-60.

A detail from Pieter Brugel the elder's "The wedding dance in open air", 1566. I am actually planning to make both headwear and the blck partlet fron this one in the future too!



Feel free to ask if there is anything wrong with my description!

So this is me...

To take my sewing a bit further, as an exercise for my first participation in a kingdom arts and science-competition (Drachenwald Kingdom University, 11-13 of November this fall) and with a push from two Laurel friends I have decided to start a new blog. I have been blogging mundanely (and in Swedish) for almost a year, and i have found that it is a good way to think through my projects, and make them better and better.

My SCA-name is Mylla O'Reilly and I live in the prinicpality of Nordmark, Kingdom of Drachenwald (mundanely known as Sweden, Europe). I have been a member since 2002, and for me the most exciting part of the SCA is the research and improving both garments and skills.

Here I will present my way of doing stuff, it isn't always period (even if I aim higher for every project), much due to the fact that I do have a neckinjury which makes it near impossible for me to do everything by hand. By choice I have gone for using the sewing-machine to sew together a garment, but all finishing is done by hand, and I always whipstitch down all seams by hand too. When it comes to materials I do prefer wool and linen, but occasionally I take what I can afford or already have at home, i.e. cottonthread instead of linen and such. My favorite period right now is 1540-1580s Flemish, and that is the period of most of my garb, and will also be what I will write most about, but knowing myself I will stray a bit every now and then.

English is my second language, so please bear with me and if I am using the wrong word for anything, please feel free to tell me so! This blog is a learning project in itself too... The focus of this blog will be my sewing, but I think other SCA-stuff might show up ocasionally.

Test..

Just to check if it works.. more to come soon!