Chirurgeon’s Baldrick

Th Great Northern War, I acted as a chirurgeon. This is not a familiar role, and not one I’ve done for the SCA before, but I have current first aid training for the first time since I was 15, so I figured it was a service that I was able to happily give. The only issue was, there was no regalia to be had. Hrothgar lent out his baldrick, but that was problematic in and of itself. Hrothgar is one of only 7 mentor chirurgeons in Lochac, and his regalia is bounded in gold, not white.

To this end, I decided to make some regalia. I intend to donate it to the first aid box at Riverhaven. This way, they will always have regalia for the chirurgeon on duty.

Chirurgeon’s baldrick

The embroidery has been done in cotton, stem stitch. The baldrick itself used some reasonably heavy-weight red cotton, bounded on each side of the fabric strip with white bias binding. It seemed easier to do it that way. I’ve simply stitched the inner, the outer and the white trim using a running stitch. This was great practice for me to get my stitches evenly spaced and consistent. I’ve already had someone tell me it looks like I used a sewing machine, which makes me most proud. It’s a bit ragged where I’ve stitched the white teardrop on, but I’m considering attaching the teardrop in a different manner for my next attempt (which will go to St Florian de la Rivere).

Because everyone should be able to tell who the first aider is at an event.

Checking back in…

It’s been quite some time since I blogged here, and I haven’t been going to many events due (mostly) to time constraints, but that doesn’t mean that all has been silent on the A&S front. This being AS 49, I decided I need to get up and moving on my 50 things project, and to do this, I need to get up to date with my list. I previously was at Breadth challenge #27, so here’s my list continuing on:

28. My songbook has now expanded to include 55 songs, some of which are period and some not. This has been a depth challenge for me (and will continue to be ongoing… there are a lot of songs available  and a lot of pages in my songbook which are yet to be filled in.) I’ve got a YouTube channel where I’m gradually adding content. Due in part to bad speakers, another part to poor microphones, and a third part to the fallibility of my vocal cords, the sound is not always the best, but I believe it’s probably sufficient for other bards to pick up a tune from what I’ve posted. You can listen to me on this channel:   https://www.youtube.com/user/RevKristine

29. My wedding dress. You’ve already seen the fabric, here and here… the final product was entirely hand stitched to my own design. It didn’t entirely work the way I wanted, due majorly to my weight (and size) jumping all over the place while I was making the dress. However, I’m (mostly) satisfied with what I made, and apart from some minor freakouts on the day and the groom having a broken leg (that’s a story unto itself), the wedding went well. I’ve since used the dress at an event, and now that I am fatter, it fits me a lot better.

My wedding dress, from my own design.

30. My wedding cake. This was made entirely of gingerbrede with marzipan icing. I will admit to buying the pink flowers on the cake, but am particularly proud of my own marzipan roses.

Wedding Cake

31. A painted buckler. I carried it into the wedding. For those who are curious, the text on the buckler is not period. It is, instead, made of Tengwar and written in Sindarin (one of the Elvish languages from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Middle Earth stories). The text reads “loving twin souls” and “eternity”. Note: I did not make the buckler (which was rehomed to us from a heavy fighter who could no longer fight due to chronic shoulder injury), I simply painted it.

 

 

A painted buckler

32. My wedding jewellery. Namely a strand of  black pearls, strung on silk, using a  toggle clasp.

A photo of me which displays my wedding jewellery

 

 

 

33. A naalbinded phone pouch.

Naalbinded pouch for my love’s phone

34. Turks-head knot balls. I gifted these to Stegby a while back so the canton can build a children’s play box. I don’t currently have a photo.

35. Naalbinded bag. I make a lot of bags and pouches, it seems. This one became my token display area.

36. Bone pendant. This was a wedding gift for a couple of friends. This pendant was quite challenging due to the intricacy of the design.

37. Cider. My dear husband has taken to brewing his own cider, and so I have dabbled alongside him. Chief among my accomplishments is a dry pomegranate cider (yum).

38. Mead. I managed to find a period recipe for “weak mead”, which I have used, drank, then used further as a base for…

39. I am unsure what to name this drink. It may be considered a melomel, or it may be considered an ale: I used a weak mead recipe as a base and added barley. The result was dry, with a lemony flavour and a lingering but not unpleasant aftertaste in the back of the throat. I may try it again sometime.

40. Sekanjabin. This is a period Middle Eastern drink of  vinegar and sugar, heated until it becomes syrupy, and used as a cordial. I use red wine vinegar, but my father tells me it’s quite nice using apple cider vineger.

41. Embroidered handkerchiefs. Carrying tissues around at an event is (while convenient) something that detracts from authenticity. To this end, I have embroidered some handkerchiefs so that I’m not dropping tissues whenever I happen to have a runny nose at an event.

42. Illumination.  This was the product of an A&S class at this year’s Great Northern War.

Illumination

43. Pilgrim bag for my father. Having at some stage read about Elizabethan era stitching techniques, and having a father who is about ready to entrust himself to the SCA and who accompanied me to Great Northern War, I decided he needed a pilgrim bag to put his feasting gear into. You can see the bag in the background of the below image. All fabric edges have been folded into a hem and secured with a running stitch, then seams have been whipstitched. I decided that, as the fabric I was using was unbleached calico and the stitches would be visible anyway, I would make the stitches become a feature of the bag. All stitching has been done in blue. I also followed this pattern with the strap, making the strap a long tube and placing the seam for the strap uppermost and in the middle rather than on one of the edges. I think this will probably add long term strength to the strap also.

My father. Note the bag on the table next to him.

That’s it for the moment. I’m so close to my 50! I do have a few projects on the go at the moment… one crewel work embroidery, a splitstitch embroidery, a blackwork collar, a girdlebook, and a carved spoon, which means that once they’re done, I have only two more items to manage for my list.

 

Breadth Challenge #26: Mittens!

I have, for the past couple of weeks, been recuperating from hand surgery.  I can’t do a hell of a lot with my right hand right now due to a lack of mobility, after stitches and a week in plaster left me with a stiff wrist.  Wanting to make sure I developed precision in my fingers once again, I’ve been reprising the stitch I mentioned in the last post (which has now been identified as buttonhole stitch), and have a variation which I’m currently looking up.  Sorry, guys, no process photos this time, but perhaps with my next post (which should be socks)

Mittens

So I got through the first mitten, and started thinking about the way I attached the thumbs.  I grew up with integrated thumbs on gloves, so it seemed like the most natural way of attaching them, but as I worked the mittens directly off my hands rather than any researched pattern, I really don’t know.  I think I’ll be going on a research binge over the next couple of days, because I really want to know now.

 

Breadth Challenge #25: A wee little baggie!

It’s some sort of strange thing, I always seem to end up making pouches/bags/other things-to-contain-stuff-in, etc., as my first piece of anything textile related.  And so it is in this case.

I’m not sure what the technique I used is called.  I came upon it in a dream, as many of my varied ideas do.  At first I was convinced it was a type of naalbinding.  Then, after reading up some more on naalbinding, my certainty wavered, even though it shares many hallmarks of said technique.  Having only attempted naalbinding once, and remembering only a mass of tangles from the attempt, all I can do is show what I have done and let other, more knowledgeable people work out what I’ve accomplished.

Starting position

Start by taking your piece of wool and wrapping it around your finger.  Add a half twist as shown.

Second step

Next, you want to run your long end under the loop on your finger, but over the long trailing end of your wool, as shown.

Pull the loop snug

This should make a single loop, which you should pull nice and snug.

A run of loops

Continue a run of loops, going under the finger loop and over the long length of wool, roughly 7 or 8 times.

Making your starting circle

Slip the loop off your finger.  Pulling on the short piece of wool that you originally started with will pull the loops into a circle.  From here on in, you will be forming a spiral.

Stitch into each progressive loop

Instead of stitching directly onto the finger loop, you’ll now be stitching into each of the loops you’ve already made.  To expand in a circle, add a second stitch to each second loop.  To make a tube, make only one stitch for each loop.

My stripes were made simply by alternating the colour of the wool I used, as this is a technique that requires you use short lengths.  I found any length longer than my arm span was too difficult to manage.

A quick eye will notice that I’ve added eyelets.  I thought for quite some time on how to do this.  In the end, I worked each one by skipping 4 loops, then stitching 4, then skipping four, etc., whilst only pulling the running thread tight enough to span the length of the four skipped loops.  When the spiral reached the skipped parts, I continued to loop onto the straight piece of thread as if it were the original finger loop, for four loops, then stitching normally for four loops, etc.

The drawstring is a simple four strand braid, as I covered here.

The resulting fabric is thick, springy and stiff.  It feels fabulously durable.  Note in the first picture that the bag (which is empty) is standing unaided, which should give an indication how stiff this fabric is.

If anyone knows if this is naalbinding or some other form of textile, please let me know, as I’d like to be able to put a name to what I’m doing.

Breadth Challenge #21: Mouse Pouch

I completed my first mouse pouch today.

Actually, amend that to almost completed.  There’s a story there.

I spent the day at The Battle of Bottony Cross, an annual event held by the Barony of St Florian De La Riviere.  The current king, King Cornelius III, made a presentation to the newest member of the Mouseguard.  Unfortunately, he had left some items at home, including the mouse pouch he had intended to give out.  So I watched King Cornelius III give out his own belt pouch in lieu of a mouse pouch.

While the battle was going on, I had been keeping my hands busy with a mouse pouch, and had, only 20 minutes prior to court, just sewn in the lining.  I was terribly proud of my work:  a white felt mouse appliquéd onto a red felt pouch with blanket stitched white silk, his tail stitched in chain stitch, the cords of woollen braid I had finished on my trip to Stegby passing through eyelets stitched in red silk, and the cotton lining, stitched separately and added at the last so that it could be turned out easily (kids do tend to accumulate nasties in the corners of pouches, if my childhood is anything to go by).  The only thing it lacked was a means to attach it to the child… either a shoulder strap or a belt loop.

Immediately as court was finished, I went to my bag to retrieve the (almost) completed pouch.  It would not do to have our king losing his valuables for lack of a belt pouch.  It seemed almost to be fate.  So I presented it to him, sans belt loop, and explained the situation.  Luckily the lady next to him happened to be the mother of the boy who had just received his new commission, and she readily agreed to adding the necessary attachment.  I do believe our king was extremely grateful to be able to retrieve his pouch, especially as it seemed to be a rather exquisite (and sturdy) pouch.

This does leave me with the unfortunate situation of not having taken a photograph of the finished item.  However, good things come in threes, and I have another two pouches on the way.  The photograph below (taken from an angle, I’m afraid) is one of the upcoming pouches, as yet incomplete, but which can give a reasonable idea of how the first looks.

Mouseguard pouch #2, nearing completion

Breadth Challenge #17: A favour for my beloved

This is, sadly, the second favour that I’ve had to make for my beloved to fight in combat with.  The first (rather heavily embroidered) favour disappeared, along with his fighting shirt, from the fighter’s tent at Great Northern War, and has not turned up amongst lost property, nor has anyone responded to my plea sent out on the Shambles list.  Our belief is that it was accidentally packed with another fighters gear; one who left on the Saturday evening, or the Sunday, as my partner took a day off from fighting, and the disappearance wasn’t noticed until the Monday.

This left me feeling that I was under-represented on the field.  A ribbon just doesn’t cut the mustard as far as I’m concerned, he needs a favour that shouts out that he’s fighting for me.

So, I set out to create a new embroidery for him.  I have, in the time since the first embroidery was done, decided on charge and colours for my heraldry, and I’ve only got to re-submit my device (the first submission drew one conflict, so I’ve altered my design slightly), so I’ve used the charge I’ve decided upon, which won’t change, no matter how many heraldic permutations I have to wade through.

A token of my favour

This favour is made of a square of muslin, hemmed by hand.  A white scorpion, outlined in purple, is embroidered into the corner, and along two sides is a purple line of running stitch.  The favour was then folded and stitched at the back, so that a loop is formed.  This should secure the favour much more stoutly than my previous man-hankie sized one that simply tied onto his armour.  If this one disappears, it will be because someone took his favour belt.

 

Breadth Challenge #16: Hennin

I find myself rather suddenly in need of headwear for Abbey, my snood being elsewhere due to a miscommunication about garb I lent out.  So, last night I searched the internet for 15th Century headwear, intending to make something to fit with my 15th Century Italian gown.

I found the hennin,  many pictured on ladies wearing gowns very similar to the cut of my own.

The classic image of the princess wearing a pointy hat with a long, flowing scarf trailing from the tip is the example most people are familiar with.  Some hennins are portrayed as being conical, others as heart shaped, but the one I have made is a truncated cone.

I had absolutely no idea where to begin, so I searched Google for a “how to” guide, and found this.  Whoever wrote that guide is forever golden in my eyes, because it took me only a few hours to get a wearable hennin, and most of that was taken up in hand sewing.  After wearing it for the past 2 1/2 hours, I can quite honestly say it’s possibly the most comfortable headwear I’ve ever worn.

Hennin Components: clockwise from left, the cage, the sleeve, the comb, the scarf, and the U-needle

There are 5 pieces to this rather elaborate hat.

• The comb, which sits around your head and is tied in the back to fit snugly.
• The cage, which ties directly onto the comb.  This is the structural assembly that holds it all up.
• The U-needle, which hooks onto the comb and allows for forward adjustment at any time you feel your hennin may be slipping backwards.
• The sleeve, which fits over the cage and hides all that wire.
• The scarf, to drape over the entire lot.

Me wearing my new piece of garb

The trickiest part in the entire thing is the cage, but a little perseverance will get you there eventually.  My hennin is slightly lopsided, but I don’t think anyone except me will ever look that closely at it to notice.

Breadth challenge #13: Sleeves

I finished these a few days ago, but I’m only just getting around to posting about it.  Sleeves, for this dress.

Sleeves for a teenage re-enactor

The pattern is fairly easy.  I’ve measured in 6 places on the arm.  Tip of the shoulder to the wrist, under the arm to the wrist, tip of the elbow to the wrist, around the upper arm, around the elbow, around the widest part of the hand.  Please refer to my lovely little scanned diagram below.

Generic sleeve pattern

This dress is using a detached sleeve.  This greatly increases its wearability, especially somewhere like Australia, where the heat in Summer can really make you wish you were wearing short sleeves, but the cold of Winter means you want that extra warm garb.

I’ve made the sleeves to tie on, attaching just once to the bodice at the shoulder, and tied three times along the length of the arm.  This should leave plenty of room for growth, offering some small amount of leeway for arm length and width.  Ribbons can be replaced, but adding fabric where there is none to spare is somewhat difficult.

I’ve also slit the elbows.  Hopefully this will allow her a greater amount of movement, teens being teens.

My partner’s daughter has been thrilled with the costume so far.  I have yet to see her with the sleeves on, as she’s been spending school holidays with another relative.  This weekend will be her first time wearing the complete outfit.  But the day she tried on the chemise with the dress, she didn’t want to take it off.  I think it’s a hit.

 

Dying my fabric

Remember the doona cover I had snaffled from a second hand shop?  Let me refresh your memory here.

I dyed it last night.

I’ve never dyed anything before, so it was somewhat with trepidation.  Especially as I couldn’t find a dye designed to give me the colour I originally wanted (a pale peach would have been nice, but I was always willing to change my mind).  Instead, I settled on Aztec Gold (from the iDye range).

As the fabric was a cotton/poly blend, and the dye I used was solely for natural fibres, it’s picked out the pattern nicely.

The two faces of my fabric, along with the cotton I'll be using for the skirt.

The plain cotton I’m using for the skirt will probably get dyed again, as there are a number of spots where the dye hasn’t taken properly.  My hope is to also get the plain fabric a little darker.  I’m happy with the shade for the patterned fabric, though, and will be starting to put together a plan for the pattern sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Item 9: A Cordial & Item 10: A Kirtle

I’m going for a two-fer here.  Two disparate items, both of them actually late in the offering.

Item 9, a cordial:

This is a mandarine liquor, or cordial, or whatever you wish to call it.  It’s made on vodka.  I’ve taken the rind of two small mandarines, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp cloves, and 1/2 stick of cinnamon, and I’ve filtered a bottle of vodka through these ingredients with a coffee filter multiple times.  Then I’ve taken fresh ingredients, and I’ve let them steep in the bottom of the bottle for around 3 weeks.  Today I decanted it into smaller bottles, as I intend to take a small amount with me to Great Northern War.  It’s got a lovely flavour, it’a a very deep citrus, the cardamom notes come out strongly, there’s just the tiniest note of bitterness on the back edge.  I’m rather happy with this attempt, as it’s entirely my creation.  I’ve never ventured beyond Ypocras and Claree before this, and those were working from redactions.

Citrussy Goodness

Item 10 is a kirtle.

I picked the material up from Rowany Festival, and always knew that it would become a kirtle.  I actually finished this dress about a week ago, but I’ve only just got around to photographing it.  I’m sorry, I don’t remember where I got the instructions for making it.  I do recall that I edited it heavily though, and did things in a very different way to the initial instruction.  I would not be able to replicate it, I think.

Mmm, I like green.

This brings me to the completion of my first fifth of my challenge.  Yay!