Something modern for a change.

When I was embroidering those small pouches a friend of mine liked them so much, that he wanted to have one of his own. So I obliged and made one for him. It was an experiment for me as well, since I have never tried to make an embroidery from a photograf before. He is a storm chaser, so I choose the picture accordingly. Where the previous pouches took perhaps two days of work each, this one took about thrice that amount of time. Again linen fabric and cotton mouline threads (Anchor) with some added fake silver thread (DMC) for the lightning.

Panic!

I'm going to an SCA event in the beginning of November. Panic! Because of our move all of my garbs were still in boxes and I dug them out of their hiding place just to notice, that they had all mysteriously got smaller while there. Must be due to contact with cardboard or something...

I got this marvelous idea of an embroidered garb in the style of The Eagle Dalmatic and started embroidering. Bad idea, as I noticed quite soon. I have no way in hell time to finish that one in time for the event. I love the idea, though, and will continue doing about a hundred or so small embroidered badges to be sewn on a silk dress sometime in the future, but I still need a garb in November!

So, I took an old garb that I had originally bought from my friend as well as my Lord's tunic, bought from the same friend and made of the same fabric. I have never used that garb, since it had a hideous polyester lining that I took away, and never finished the deed with a new lining. The fabric is very itchy wool, so I could not use it without a lining of some sort.

Ahead with the story! I brutally murdered the tunic (not my Lord's favourites, because of the itching fabric.) and cut it to pieces. The garb was opened at it's seams and I sew on pieces of the tunic to make the garb a little wider. Good, lets try it on!

Damn! Still a little tight here and there, specially around the hips. Damn, damn, damn! It'll have to do anyway. I'll not be able to use an underdress, so I just have to do with an itching garb. Perhaps I can use a corset? Now of to make lining to the huge sleeves from a fabric I bought a little too hastely. More of that later.

Pictures too might, or might not appear in this blog later.

Oh, did I mention, that I gave my sewing machine to my sister when we moved, so I have to do everything with only a needle and a thread. It would not be panic time if I hade a machine...

What made me start doing hand crafts again after two years of doing nothing?

SCA group Aarnimetsä's embrodery quild introduced it's first challenge! Thank you ladies! I have had many very incoherent years in my life when I have become a mother twice, moved to the other side of Europe, learned new languages and customs and been alltogether not very relaxed at all.

And suddenly there it was! A challenge I could not pass. We were supposed to embroider small pouches to be given as gifts to SCA queens in Pensic. Dear me! I could think nothing more than embroidery for a whole week! I even skipped school to sit at home embroidering those pouches. A monster had been unleashed! Here is a picture of my four pouches. Detailed pictures of each can be found here and here.

They are made of linen fabric with cotton and faux-silk threads using split and back stitches. As my old skills came back with every new pouch, I kind of got hooked to it and now I'm seeking more opportunities to use Opus Anglicanum. Though it is very beautiful when done with care, it is not particulary useful style of embroidery when you would like to do something bigger. Anything bigger with that style would take years to make and be too expencive to do with authentic materials, meaning silk and gold.

Wellcome, can I offer you some coffee or tea?

We don't have any cookies though. I'm on low-carb-kosher-allergies-diet, so we will have no cakes. Sorry.

Anyway. Let me introduce myself. I live in Germany (I'm not German though.) and I have done medieval re-enactment for about fourteen years. I am interested in many kinds of hand crafts, so much so, that I know little of much and not much of anything. Well, perhaps a little bit more about medieval cooking and opus anglicanum embroidery.

I wanted to have a place to boost my self esteem by posting my work for others to see, so I changed this blog from what it previously was to my own private show room. I tend to have very high-flying ideas for hand crafts, so sometimes they will progress very slowly.