Nothing is more fun than giving presents!

A very worthy lady in Aarnimetsä got elevated to the Order of the Laurel last weekend. Vivat! I wanted to make her a present. My package of silks arrived late, so I had only 9 days to make the pouch I was planning to do. I did it in 8 days! Go me! I must have some super powers.

Here are a couple of pictures. Green, orange, black and yellow silk on linen, gold thread (Not real gold, but very similar to it in feel) couched with red silk, glas beads sewn with white silk. The seams are sewn with waxed white linen thread. Stitches: Split stitch, surface couching, laid work. The braids over the seams (I don't know it's name) and the cords were also made with the same silk threads.

My short visit to Aarnimetsä was wonderfull. I met many dear old friends, and made some new dear friends as well. My luggage was delayed in Amsterdam and it must have crawled through northern Europe to get to me, only four hours before I headed home again. Great. At least I got it quickly out of the plane at home. I had to give my two classes without my notes, but they went quite well anyway.

Ja siellä kaikilla oli niin mukavaa...

Proud Mama

I am so proud of my little daughter! She is five years old, and this is the first time that I gave her a piece of fabric, a needle and a thread. She has used a needle before, but only on paper with mixed results. She likes to draw and paint, mainly princesses and pegasi. So, here is what she came up with! Tadah!

She embroidered a pegasos and a cat! The only thing I helped her with was to get more thread and opening a couple of knots. There was no drawing or patterns on the fabric, this is purely free hand. Her next project is a swan surrounded with stars that I drew on a piece of cotton. Embroidery - So easy a child of five can do it!

Renaming the Brown Silk

Here is the first sleeve embroidered. I hereby rename "The Brown Silk" as "The Gold Garb".

I embroidered all the flowers in all of the pieces first, because I'm not sure if I have time to embroider everything in time. Now I do the sleeves first and assemble the garb before embroidering the rest. The garb will not look too incomplete if I do the embroidery symmetricaly. I might not use this at Aarnimetsä Academy though, because I would like to reserve the wow-factor to when it is all done.

Oh. How long will this take? If I work hard and don't do much else, I can embroider a sleeve in two to two and a half days. That means that I'll be doing some embroidery for a long time, even though I know I'm fast.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol IX

Could I let it go yet? No indeed!

This is my last one, I promise. The Barony of Knight's Crossing, 20x20cm, cotton on linen, stem stitch and cloister stitch.

That stitch does not work very well with cotton, but it still looks good, so it'll do. I'll send this one with the others to be assembled by the lovely ladies of Nordmark.

And now back to that garb and some other things I want to finish before the Aarnimetsä Academy at the end of November. If that internet shop has time to send my order of silks and gold. At least they informed me that the package is late, sorry. Grr...

One more for the Kingdom

The deadline for the Kingdom Coats of Arms Wallhanging is looming closer and closer. There is still one patch that I feel MUST be included. Lady Hilmitrude has promised to make it, but since duplicates are welcome I'll stitch this one as well, so that it is not left out if there are any unexpected changes in her schedule.

So I'll make one more patch for the wallhanging: The Barony of Knight's Crossing

Fabric hoarding

I visited Vienna last weekend. Thank you Racaire! It was lovely to see you again. We also went to see marvelous paintings in the "Gemäldegalerie der bildenden Künste Wien". There are pictures in Racaire's blog.

I had heard about this fabric store outside of Vienna and Racaire took me there to look at what they have. Or had, since I was there with our car and could do some shopping. !!! OMG! I went nuts.

This is the whole pile. Linen, wool and some cotton. Together there is at least 140 meters of fabric. I think that I don't need all of it, so if someone is interested, I can sell some of it.

Here are all the wool fabrics. The quality is lovely. Most of this is very thin and soft and ah so pretty. A couple of rolls are for my friends, and the big roll (17m) of black wool is for my hubby.
Here are the linen fabrics. Mostly brown, but so thin and fine! I still need more white linen to do some shirts and under dresses though.
These two cotton fabrics I bought for the patterns. The blue one will make a beautiful doublet for my hubby and the green one will be an overdress for me.

Now Im a lot poorer and a lot happier. This week will also see a new sewing mashine. *Smile*

And I got a beautiful needle roll from Racaire! And very tasty jams and marmelades that she had made herself. *Hugs* *Pusi* Thank you, Sweetie!

The Brown Silk - Vol II

I'll post about the progress of my Brown Silk Garb here.

So here is a picture of the silk fabric. The colour is a little bit off, it should be dark chocolate brown. See the pattern? It is (machine)embroidered in chain stitch. (Click it to make the picture bigger.) I'll put more gold on it, first the flowers, them stems and as much of the leaves as I have time for. One pattern section is about 30cm across.

Here is 1/2 of the pieces I cut today. The front piece is quite wide, but so am I. The sleeve is made from three parts, the small ones go to the sides of the sleeve. The tip of the gore will be set between the small corners of the sleeve under ones arm, creating a W pattern. That one is very usefull, as the seam will stretch. There will be only one gore on each side, so the hem is not very wide, but it will be an early period garb, so it doesn't matter. The sleeves are not going to be buttoned, since I want to be able to dress myself without extra help, but I can always make them tighter later, if I want to. This one being the outer layer, the sleeves should actually be wider and maybe lined.

Which reminds me, that I should start thinking about that under layer too.

New garb on the making

So it is time for a totally new garb. I searched the internet for fabric, but all suitable matherial was too expencive or I just didn't like internet shopping. Anyway. Yesterday I ran through every fabric store I could find in Nürnberg. The last one (Maderer) was the best, and I could find embroidered raw silk, even if they didn't have any silk brocades. The embroidery on it is quite simple, so I can improve it with my own. I think that that chocolate brown (my favourite colour, though not the best one for garb. They didn't have enough of the yellow version, which I still couldn't leave in the shop. I can do something with it later!) can benefit from lots of added gold.

They had only 2,2 meters of it, so I had to play some tetris. I'm planning on a garb based on the Tunic of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia. Mine will not have buttoned sleeves, and the cut is slightly different due to shortage of fabric, but something in that direction.

I made a test sample of my cutting plan from a plain cotton bed sheet yesterday, and it worked well. Only the hem was a little short, only to my ankles, but I'll add a border or a broad trim on it to fix that. (Propably with some embroideries.) Now I have cut the silk as well. I'll fix the edges first so that they will not fray, and then I'll do the embroidery. The pieces are easier to handle when they are not put together yet. I'll put the sleeves together first, though, since they are made from three pieces each. Unfortunately it was not possible to position the sleeve pieces on the fabric so that they would both have the same part of the embroidery on them, so the other sleeve will have embroidery in the middle and the other on the sides. Tough, it couldn't be helped.

And the picture in the beginning of this post? That is the leftover pieces of the 140x220cm fabric. I wonder if that is enough to make buttons for the sleeves, if I deside to make them tighter later?

Black Dragon Guard Embroidery

I made this for my friend Gottfried. It is the embroidery for a Black Dragon Guard tabard. The Dragon is about 25cm tall. Split stitch and couching with cotton and fake gold threads on linen. This piece took me about four weeks to make and I'm quite satisfied with it.

Other side:
Some details, as I had a new camera to play with:

Elisheva's Test Kitchen - "Apples"

Today I tested a medieval recipe from Harleian. It was supposed to be meatballs disguised as apples. The diner would bite a green apple and be surprized! The trickery! The cunning joke! Ah, we have to try this.

Here are the meatballs already cooked. The meat mix is made from ground beef, raisins, dates, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, eggs and ginger. The meatballs are then boiled.

Up next it colouring them green. We'll use parsley, finely chopped and minced and the juice is squeezed out to make a green liquid in the picture. That small amount of colour, about three table spoons, took a big bush of parsley.

Then a batter is made from flour, eggs and ginger and it is coloured green. The recipe tells us to use the whole eggs, but I'll use only the whites next time, as othervice it will be too yellow and the green will not be bright enough. Then the apples are fried and the dough is sprinkled on top of them. They should be roasted on a spit. I used a frying pan, and that showed.

Next time I should make the dough thicker, so that it can be molded on the meatballs, or deepfry them with the thinner batter. The colour was nice, light green, like apples.

And the taste? Delicious! Slightly sweet, spicy meatballs. I only have to get the dough right and these will be an exelent dish for a feast. And they are so filling, that if served first no-one will complain about smaller portions served later. I'll try using spinach for colour next time, it is cheaper, you can always find it frozen in grocery stores and it is already chopped, so I'll save time and energy.

Work Baby, work!

Why I allways notice a need for new garb right before an event?

Let's make an under dress or a shirt to my Eura Garb. I had just replaced all of our old bed linen with new ones, and so I had a lot of off-white cotton material. This took 1 1/4 bed sheets, that's about 3,1 meters of fabric. The pattern is clever and uses all of the matherial, leaving no leftover pieces. I made use of my needle and finished this one in just two days. I'm very proud of myself. 11 meters of seam. Damn I'm fast!

The neck is very wide, but not from side to side. Instead it is wide from front to back, making it very practical for breast feeding. Not that I need that practicality anymore.

Two of the six long seams, the middle seams of the gores, are bag seams.

The other seams are pictured above. I have no idea what is the name of this seam type. (EDIT: The name is felled seam.)

As you can see, I could cut the fabric in a way that left me no edges to be hemmed. Sweet.

Now I'm off to bed. I'm leaving to that event in the morning, and it is already 1:17 am.

I hear bells ringing at a flea market.

Did I already mention, that I love flea markets and secondhand shops? Well, I do. I try not to buy too many things, like feast gear and the like, but sometimes there are things that scream your name so loud, that you can't leave them there.

Like those 12 rolls of linen sewing thread I bought some time ago. Or today's treasure:

They are bells. They make quite pretty and clear sound. They were not cheap, but not too expensive either. They are about 3cm across. And - There are 25 of them! Can someone say "a Belt"? Anyone? Medieval blingbling.

Silver Guard Token

I embroidered a Silver Guard token, because those are so hard to get and Meisterinne Katheryn Hebenstreitz suggested that the tokens could be embroidered.

It became quite big (9x150cm), because I thought that it should be long enough to be tied on top of one's armor. I'll make them smaller, if I'll do any more of them.

Linen embroidered with black (split stitch for durability) and pale yellow (running stitch) cotton and fake silver (couching). The yellow is underneath the silver, in case the silver wears off. The ink that I used to transfer the picture on the fabrik bled a little and is visible specially around the ears. The grey spot on the bigger picture is not on the token, my camera just does that, old thing.

I'm satisfied that the dragon came out this pretty. Let's make it a little smaller next time though.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol VIII

This one I made a while ago, but I forgot to post about it. Here is Drei Eichen. Again it is embroidered on linen with cotton using split stitch and laid work:

I'll send all my patches to the Embroidery Guild's Mistress. If there is need for more patches, I can make them fast if asked, but othervice I'm doing something else now.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol VII

I did some more of these patches. I took them with me on my holiday trip, which was a very good idea, since I would othervice have had it quite boring in the hotel when the kids were having their naps. Fortunately there was National Geographic channel and embroidery.

Here is the Shire of Turmstadt. My home shire at the moment. There is wrong information about this device in the internet. This is the design that is at the moment going through the last stages of SCA registration process. Cotton on linen, split stitch and laid work (surprize...).

And here is the Shire of Isengau. I was planning on doing it on herring bone stitch, but I ended up experimenting with my needle and the result is a net-like surface. It looks cool, but I don't know how medieval it is. Cotton on linen, stem stitch and "netting".

I'm continuing again on this project to fill in for Germany. I'll do Drei Eichen next.

Miniature thingies 1

I have to share this with you all. I'm so childishly proud of these!

Yes, they are boxes. Small ones. I found an old wooden box that will become a miniature room box containing three rooms. I decided to make a storage house in it. Every room will show one part of our present home, mainly the storage spaces. It'll be a memory of what a cluttered place this is! It will take a lot of time to finish, because I have to learn all the skills needed as I go, so don't hold your breath.

These boxes are miniature replicas of the ones we have at our attic. 1:24 (half inch) scale. (Most used dollhouse scale is 1:12, but 1:24 is also in use. Play scale would be 1:6)

More practising on miniatures.

I'm trying more miniatures. Here is one and a half socks. Embroidery needles with polymer clay handles did not work very well, so I ended up buying the finest knitting needles I could easily find (size 1,5). The knitting went quite well, but I still need finer needles. I'll use these untill I can find better ones.

The miniature needles are made of polymer clay in a hurry. They need sharper points. Now they just look like spaghetti. Actually spaghetti might be good for this, if it can be sharpened. Polymer clay does not break as easily though.

The unfinished sock is fixed with glue, so that the needles won't slip away. The fifth needle can be removed. The yard ball is fixed as well.

Now I need to get more colours. The yarn is ment to be used for fixing well worn old knitware. It was the only one I could find that's thin enough and still looks like knitting yarn. Unfortunately there is not much colour choises available.

Dollshouse miniature embroideries

I wanted to try making miniature textiles. This is my first try. I made three small embroideries and made them look like they would still be on emboidery hoops.

A heart

A flower
And a duck

I tried cross stitch first, as it is easy. Any suggestions what to try next? I have an idea about miniature knitting, but I have to make the knitting needles first. I'll use a pair of bigger embroidery needles and make handles for them out of polymer clay. I'll put the embroideries on E-bay to see if anyone is willing to pay for them and how much that would be. Then I just might start doing more of these.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol VI

And here we are. With the sixth one. This time the Kingdom coat of arms, twice the size of the previous ones, so I was able to play a little with the details.

Here we go, first step: Transfer the picture on the fabric.

The next step: Embroider the thing.

Step three: Try not to think of the other side.

The stretching of the fabric made the picture bigger than what I had drawn, hence the black stripes outside of the embroidery. I'll take a break with the wall hanging project and do some other things for now. I'll jump back onboard if I'm needed again.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol V

And the next one. The Shire of Aventiure. Made on linen, with linen and cotton threads. Techniques include aplique, intarsia and embroidery with split stitch. I've never done the first two techniques before, so I'm not sure if they are exactly as they should, but it works nevertheless.

And the back side:

The traces of yellow on the second picture are left over fibers of a thread I used to help me keep the stars on place during the work.

I've noticed that my camera has started to leave a grey spot in the pictures. Not nice.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol IV

And another. I'm getting quite boring.

The Canton of Kaarnemaa. Linen and cotton, split stitch and Klosterstich.

And the back side:
I desided to try Klosterstich, since I had not tried it before. It used noticeably less thread than other techniques I had used for the other patches. I run out of black thread in the middle of the bird. You can notice it, if you know it, but othervice one black is like another. It doesn't matter, but it bothers me nonetheless. Embroideries are the only things with which I tend to be a pain in the butt perfectionist. That is also why I make so small stitches. I'm incapable of making them bigger. I have tried...

Now what to do next? I'll think about it. I have a plan, though. I'll try if it works first.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol III

And here is the Canton of Torna. Linen and cotton, split stitch and laid work (or refilsaum or bayeux stitch or what ever you happen to call it. We need a Stitch Dictionary! An idea for a guild project?).

I'll move just a little southwards on the map and make the coat of arms of Kaarnemaa next. Kaarnemaa was my home when I started my SCA hobby in 1993. Oh that time when we were happy to have a polyester garb, because then we would at least HAVE a garb, or to eat with a wooden spoon instead of a metal one, and when we used novels as our reference literature. Happy days, they were.

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol II

Another one for the Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging. Canton of Unikankare. The place and it's people mean a lot to me.

Linen and cotton, split stitch and laid work. I love the way that tower turned out to be. I should have done the "tiles" more even though. I'll tackle Torna next. That is one place I have feelings for, and I've had my best SCA moment this far while at an event in Torna. Nope, not at a court, in the kitchen!

Drachenwald Kingdom Wall Hanging Vol I

Since I got my embroidery gear on full speed, I made my first contribution to the Kingdom Coats of Arms Wall Hanging Project. This is the Shire of Ma'ale Giborim. I love this coat of arms. It is very beautiful. This one took me three days to make. I had a lot of time on my hands, because of Easter and one kid being ill, and therefore we stayed inside the whole holiday. Linen and cotton, split stitch and laid work, 10x10cm:

Resistance is futile, they will be assimilated.

I had made a tunic for my son. He needs one this summer, when we will take him to his first SCA event. I have not embroidered this myself. I had once bought an old dress from a small shop in the old town of Jerusalem, and since it was now too small for me, I made it to a child sized tunic and a cloak. It looks now a hundred times better than when it was a dress. It's red cotton cross stitch on thick dark blue polyester fabric. (Click the pictures to make them bigger.)

When my son had the tunic, I had to do something for my daughter as well! She has the same reason to need a new SCA garb. So one sunday morning I decided to embroider something for her. It became a collar that can be sewn to what ever dress I end up making for her, and it can be resewn to new dresses when she grows. She picked the flower colours herself! 12 days later I can now proudly present this one. Cotton, polyested, what ever threads, stem stitch and laid work on white cotton (old bed linen).

And some details, front and back:

This was very fun to make. I had not done something this free for ages! I just made up the pattern as I went, and used a bag of left overs and flea market threads. And she loves it! Perhaps I'll make other decorations to match this in the future, maybe on the sleeves?