Elisheva's Kitchen

Fingers crossed for something new.

2012-02-01T15:07:00.004+01:00

I've been waiting for an opportunity to try my hands on something new, namely Italian cross stitch. The opportunity came with something my friend G asked me to do. He needs the arms of Knight's Crossing to wear when he's fighting. He does mainly German things, but didn't specify it, so he'll get a little something Italian...

Silk on linen, Italian cross stitch.

Detail:

I don't particularly like counted stitch embroidery, but this wasn't too bad.

Golden Roses

2012-01-20T10:23:00.004+01:00

I embroidered some leaves. That means I embroidered 12 names of the beautiful Roses of Drachenwald so that other people can sew these leaves on the Order of the Rose wall hanging.

Here they are still all in one:

Here are some of them in detail:

The Garden of Earthly Delights

2011-10-24T16:27:00.004+02:00

I spent last weekend in Miltenberg at the Garden of Earthly Delights event. It was an arts and sciences event where sca artisans showcased theid work and shared knowledge. I met many new and old fiends from all over Europe, learned new things and got to teach other people on the fine art of embroidery. Merry time was had by all. I sincerely recommend this event in the future for all who want to share knowledge on A&S and meet like minded artisans.

This was my table. I got to choose my table first from all available tables, and choose one in the corner where there was light due to a huge window. After I put my display up, someone moved three big piles of chairs right in front of me, so I was kind of hidden in the corner. But I had light to do some embroidery, so I didn't mind.

Katheryne's Pouch

2011-10-24T12:11:00.004+02:00

I had the opportunity to give this present to Katheryne in person, when she visited the Garden of Earthly Delights event. That is the best part of this - giving the final product away and making someone happy. It was nice to have an excuse to give her something. ;)

Here is first a picture of the second finished embroidery (as always, click to have a closer look.):

A detail, I'm very happy about the way the pelican turned out. Unfortunately the shine of the white silk doesn't show well in pictures:

The finished thing, both sides:

Embroidered with silk on linen, split stitch and laid work. The upper part of the pouch as well as it's lining are silk. The cord is also made with silk. I run out of silk thread, so I could not make nicer finger loop braiding cords. Some tassels would have been nice as well, but it'll do without them. The size of the pouch is about 15x22cm

Let's put the gear on reverse.

2011-10-13T14:58:00.003+02:00

I had a discussion with a friend of mine about the reverse sides of embroideries. He was upset, that people were looking at the backsides of embroideries to determine the quality of work. His oppinion is, that one should not judge the backside, because surviving period embroideries usually have a very messy backside. I would like to discuss this.

What we can see, when we look at the backside of an embroidery? Sometimes it is "messy" with threads going here and there and knots sprinkled all over. Sometimes it is almost as neat as the right side of the work and no knots anywhere. Which one is better? And is it at all relevant?

The reverse side can tell a lot about the embroidery. How are the stitches really made? Is the work done systematically or has the embroiderer jumped from one corner to another? Is there excessive use of thread where no-one can see it (waste of money!)?

But is a messy backside a flaw? If the right side is beautiful, why should we be concerned about the backside when we know that medieval people were not? Of cource, if there is too much material on the backside of the work, it can make a difference on how the embroidery appears on the finished piece.

It all comes down to one question: Which is more important factor, authenticity or craftmanship? If authenticity is more important, we should indeed try to make the backsides of our embroideries messy! If craftmanship is considered to be the more important factor, we should also take a look at the backside to give us more information of the actual work process.

Is a neat backside better? In my oppinion it doesn't matter. I try to keep the backsides of my embroideries neat, but that is just the way I like it. And judging the work by it's backside? The judging criteria include many things. The quality of the work is only one of them. And the backside of an embroidery is only one little piece of the thing called the quality of work.

So by all means take a look at the backside of an embroidery, if it is not covered. But do not judge a work by the appearance of it's backside!

A preview for you

2011-09-26T16:56:00.003+02:00

Here is a peek of what I'm doing at the moment. I had a very lazy summer, but now I'm working again. I'm embroidering a heraldic pouch. It'll be a present again, this time for Mistress/Mistress Katheryn Hebenstreitz. The first side is finished, and it bears her device. On the other side will be a pelican in piety surrounded with a laurel wreath. I decided to use my old style on this, because I wanted to have a work to calm my mood and make me happy. (Embroidery Zen...) Silk on linen, split stitch and laid work, 15x15cm.

What do you think? Should the stems be a little thicker?

Die Schultüte, the old German tradition

2011-09-12T21:34:00.006+02:00

My daughter will go to school tomorrow. First day, first class. She is very excited, as you may well imagine. When we moved to Germany, I learned about an old German tradition of a big bag, cone shaped, that one gives to a child on their first school day - die Schultüte. It was traditionally filled with candy and toys to make the school taste sweet. Nowadays there is more school things and toys than candy, but the tradition lives well and good. So this immigrant mom made one for her own child. They are used only one day, so these bags are usually made of cardboard and paper. What do I do? Shall I cut and paste a DIY kit which are sold everywhere? Nope! I bought a brown cardboard cone, and embroidered a cover for it! Here are the pattern and the finished Schultüte.

Serious business, this photographing thing. (Picture taken with an empty schultüte, she'll get the filled one in the morning.)

I boldly ripped the pictures from free colouring page pictures that I found from the net. As the fabric I used an old baby bed linen, that gave me a ready made nice border on the open edge. The weave of the fabric was too tight for embroidery, so I had to fight to get the needle through with every stitch. Annoying. I used split stitch and running stitch with some old fake silk threads that I had once bought from a flea market. The unicorn and the fairy's tiaras are embroidered with fake gold surface couched with white sewing thread. Every fairy princess has her own colouring.

Proud Mama Vol II

2011-08-29T15:11:00.003+02:00

My 5-years-old daughter finished her embroidery, which she started last November. Isn't it fine? :-D Embroidered on cotton with cotton and polyester threads and glas beads.

The other side. Surprizingly neat.

I'm such a proud mama at the moment. I need to first iron this and then frame it.

A present to my dear friend: A Sweete bag

2011-08-29T11:05:00.004+02:00

I haven't posted much for a while, because I have more than one project on the making, and not many of them are ready. But this is. I wanted to give a present to a dear friend. So I spied what color her new Tudor garb will be, and made a sweete bag to match it. This is my inspiration picture:

Then my version of it. A little bit simpler, and the materials are not the same. This is emroidered on silk with fake gold, glas beads and silk thread. The same embroidery is on both sides of the bag.

A close-up of the emroidery:

And the side seam is covered with the same "gold" thread:

I'm very satisfied at the result. I had done beads only once before, and this was my first attempt on Elizabethan gold embroidery. I liked working on this one, and I'll propably do more of the same style later. It took me all together one week to make this.

I haz cookies

2011-04-15T16:55:00.005+02:00

At the Crown Tourney I got some cookies. Here it is, isn't it beautiful? This scroll was made by Sayidda Amal binti Hamid and it is based on a 15th C MS from A Stitch Out of Time.

I also got a ring, that is close to a Lindquistringes ring, but not quite. A couple of pictures of the ring in here: Dragon's Den. My ring already lost one of it's eyes, because I managed to drop it and it hit the stone floor cracking the red eye into pieces. :-(

Drachenwald Archery Champion embroidery

2011-04-06T19:52:00.004+02:00

This was also a commission from Her Majesty Eleanora von Ratzeburg, Queen of Drachenwald, like the dancing champion badges I made before. This will be attached on a tabbard.

Embroidered on linen with cotton using split stitch.

The pencil is there to show you the scale of the work.

A detail.

I want to stop using cotton now. And I found a good source for silks, so I'll be using my stock pile of cottons to embroider less important things.

Spring Crown Tourney Feast IV - "Fish pie" and cabbage pastries

2011-04-04T19:05:00.003+02:00

The third and last remove was "fish pie" and cabbage pastries. The pie was actually apple pie, but some people didn't even taste it because it was decorated with fish! Their loss. The cabbage pastries were the only thing that really was what it's name said, but instead of savory cabbage, they were sweet. Surprize!

(The picture is from a left over pie after transport, so the crust is a little damaged.)

The Fish pie:

Crust (American measurements, because I got the recipe from my friend):

2 cups flour

2/3 cups fat (butter or vegetable)

6-7 table spoons water (cold!)

Cut the fat and flour together, add water. Make the bottom from about 2/3 of the dough, the rest will make the lid.

Filling:

about 7dl apple puree (preferably without sugar, mine was self made)

cinnamon

cardamon

1 dl bread crumbs

(sugar, if you want it sweeter)

Mix the ingredients together, let it stand for at least 20 minutes. Make the crust, fill it and make the lid. Decorate with small fish made of rests of the dough. Bake in 180°C for about an hour or until golden.

The cabbage pastries:

Filling:

cabbage

sugar

cinnamon

cardamon

oil/fat

Cut the cabbage to small pieces, the thinner the better. Fry them in oil/fat on a frying pan until soft. Add sugar and spices to taste. Mix in some oil/fat if too dry.

Dough: (sorry about the Finnish way of measuring in decilitres)

Makes 32 pastries.

1/2l water

40g fresh yeast

1 tea spoon salt

1 1/2 dl (about 140g) sugar

50 g vegetable fat (or butter)

12 dl (about 720g) flour

Mix the yeast to luke warm water. Add salt and sugar and the flour gradually. Finally add the melted fat. Let the dough rise to double size, knead it well and make pastries with the filling. Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes or until golden.

Spring Crown Tourney Feast III - "Sausages and parsley stew"

2011-04-04T14:57:00.007+02:00

This is the second remove. The "parsley stew" was originally ment to be "parsley sauce", but because of a mishap there was not enough parsley on them to cover the dish and I changed the name just before serving. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it.

But first the "sausages":

This was one of the two dishes that caused most confusion, and with a good reason!

These sausages are made of rice pudding in natural sausage casing. The recipe makes about 100 sausages!

2l water

500g rice (porridge type)

3 eggs

1 table spoon cinnamon (fine powder)

2 table spoons cardamon (coarce powder)

1 1/2 dl sugar

sausage casings

Cook the rice slowly in the water for about 30 min (make sure that it won't boil dry), let it stand under a lid for 10 minutes. Add the spices and let it cool down. Add the eggs and mix well.

Fill the rice in sausage casings to make sausages. Tie the sausages with a string, because just rolling them won't be enough since they will not be as firm as real sausages. Cook the sausages carefully in simmering water for 3-4 minutes, be sure to prick them with a needle before and during the cooking. They will burst easily, be careful.

I had my sausages in the freezer for three weeks before the event, and that seemed to do them good. They were much firmer after they were defrosted than before freezing. I warmed them in warm water (70°C), be careful not to break them again.

Here's a picture to show you how real they looked like. The ones on the right are real bratwurst (uncooked) and the ones on the left are my "sausages". No wonder that people though they were real! The texture can annoy some people, but they taste good.

A "making of" picture. It took some time, since I did not have a machine to use, only the old fashioned meat grinder.

"The Parsley stew"

This is my version of a recipe in Platina's De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine, Book VI, recipe 16.

Chicken thighs

white wine vinegar

water

salt

sugar

pepper

ginger

parsley

Cut the thighs in halves at the joint. Boil the meat in 2/3 vinegar and 1/3 water with some salt until done, takes about 30 minutes. Put the meat on a serving dish with some of the cooking liquid and sprinkle the spices on top. There should be enough parsley to hide the meat, something we did not have at the event because of a mistake.

Most of the people really liked the chicken. This was the most asked for recipe after the feast.

Spring Crown Tourney Feast II - "The Apples and fruit puree"

2011-04-04T14:10:00.006+02:00

Here is the recipe for the first remove. I'm sorry if the recipes are vague. I lost my recipe notes two days before the feast and I had to cook by memory and taste, not that I would mind doing it. And it is very period, don't you think?

"Apples"

This recipe is a much changed version of a recipe I found in "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, vol II" (This is the only dish I had a precise recipe for, because I sent it to Alyna for them to do the meat balls before the event.)

1kg (2.2 lb) ground beef

100g (3.5 oz) dates, finely chopped

1/2 tea spoon cloves

1 tea spoon black pepper

1 tea spoon ginger

1 tea spoon cinnamon

1/2 tea spoon salt

Mix all together and make balls. Boil them in salted water for about 12-15 minutes, or until done.

The dough:

I don't have an exact amount of dough you need, because I made a lot of it in three batches and it also depends on how thick coating you make. You can start with this amount, it should be enough for the meatballs you get with the recipe above:

2 bunches of parsley

8 egg whites or 5 whole eggs (the color will be better, if you use whites only)

ginger

flour

Chop and grind the parsley very fine and squeeze it to get the green juice. (Save the rests for the chicken dish!) There will not be much of it, but it will give a lot of color. Mix the ginger with some of the flour and mix that with the eggs. Add the parsley juice and then keep adding flour until you get a dough that can be molded around the meat balls with floury hands. Cover the meat balls with the dough and boil them in water. It is best to put the balls in the pot carefully with a ladle and stir it often. The balls tend to stick to the bottom at first, but if you detach them with your ladle, they don't do that anymore during the cooking. They are ready when they raise on the surface. If your dough is very thick, it might need little more time to cook.

The meat "apples" can then be kept cool and warmed up before serving. They are even better the next day when the taste has had time to spread through the dough.

And here is what they really are...

The orange thing in the picture is my "Fruit puree":

Carrots, parsnips and rutabaga, more carrots than others.

salt

pepper

cloves

ginger

cinnamon

Peel the vegetables and cut them to pieces. Cook them in water until soft, drain. Puree the vegetables. Add spices to taste. Serve hot.

People seemed to like these. Some of them did not like the dough, though.

Spring Crown Tourney Feast I

2011-04-04T13:36:00.005+02:00

Last weekend I worked at the Crown Tourney in Turmstadt as the head cook. I had stressed about it for some time, but everything went well and according to my plans. I could enjoy the event and the cooking, and I got back some of the joy of cooking that I had lost a little while ago.

The theme was April's Fool, so I planned a feast of subtleties, or foods that look like something else than what they are. This was a risk, because a lot of people are picky of strange foods, but I was willing to risk it. The feast was supposed to be fun and surprizing and the food simple, tasty and plentiful.

My kitchen facilities were somewhat limited, so I had to make many things in advance, which in the end was very effective and gave me even time to rest on Saturday, something that is very unusual for the head cook. In this I also got help from a couple of marvelous people, Magdelene, who took care of the traveler's fare, breakfasts and lunch despite being busy with the tourney, and Alyna and Silvein, who were willing to make 300 meat balls and get them to the site on time. I can not thank them enough. Many more people helped me too, you know who you are, and I'm very thankful for your help.

I'm not the one to cook from precise recipes, that is why I like medieval cooking. As I know the medieval theory behind their recipes, I think that I can make my own medieval recipes without them losing being period enough. The theme and limited facilities that I had with this feast required me to tweak some of the existing resipes or invent new ones.

I'll post the recipes here one by one, but I would like to get feed back of the whole feast from those of my readers who were there. What went well and - most importantly - what could have been better?

Old work: The Tablero game board

2011-02-21T17:29:00.002+01:00

I was asked to post about this, so here I go. This is my first SCA embroidery, and about fourth embroidery in my life, if one does not count that monstrosity from fifth grade at elementary school. I have a vague memory of making this around 1999.

It was a dark and stormy night, like always, when I got a sudden idea of after a couple of mundane cross stitch embroideries to try a stitch I had seen pictures of years ago. I grabbed a piece of cloth and some thread that I had and started stitching. I don't remember how long it took to make this. I tried many different stitches out of my head, no sources or anything, and added pieces of fabric to it as I went stitching. After it was finished, I tried to write a documentation for it, with mixed results.

Cotton on linen, at least 8 different stitches, mainly satin stitch and bokhara couching. 32x32cm

The whole game board with dice. My husband made the dice from rose wood.

A close up near the centre.

A detail from one of the corners. There are seams under the light brown embroidery.

The back side. Quite neat, if I say so myself. There is not a single knot in this work. Now I need a lot of coins to start playing! There is a drinking game version of the game, so I have 7 neat little cups made out of rose wood to finish this set.

I have entered this in Arts and Sciences competitions a couple of times. I have got critique because of it being an embroidered game board, when those were supposed to be made out of wood, and because of the lack of knots (!).

Fit for champions

2011-02-18T17:55:00.003+01:00

This is a commission from Her Majesty Eleanora von Ratzeburg, Queen of Drachenwald. These Dancing champion badges will be attached to arm bands. They are both 10cm across and embroidered on linen with silk thread using split stitch.

Both still on the frame. (My new frame that I got from Aarnimetsä. I love it!)

A close-up of one of the dragons.

I could not keep myself from playing with the split stitch a little. It reflects light differently if worked in different angles, and it produces a subtle shading if looked from the side.

Now I'll give these to Lady Magdelena Grace Vane, who will finish the arm bands. New pictures when that is done.

My New Eye-Dazzling Silk Tent

2011-01-20T08:50:00.005+01:00

I'm slowly getting started with my new "garberobe". Here is something I finished yesterday after some stitching frenzy.

First a basic under layer. Wool. The pattern is Herjolfsnes nr 39 with lacing added to the front. The sleeves are done without gussets, a mistake I will not repeat. The next one I'll make shall be more tight-fitting. This one doesn't give any support for the bust.

Then the outer layer. Machine embroidered silk, linen lining. The pattern is somewhat similar to the one above, except for the sleeves, of course. I had to cut it differently to get the embroideries parallel to each other, though. I was so careful not to make it too small, that it became way too big and is like a tent. It's too wide under the arms and at the back. I wonder how could I best fix it. Do I have to open it up and take it in at the seams or would some lacing on the sides be enough? Would that even be period for an outer layer? Or should I just get a pretty belt?

Here you can see the sleeves a little bit better. The veil is a fast fix for the pictures, usually I wear a little more elaborate one with a chin piece.

This must be the most comfortable garb I have ever had. Perhaps I shall keep it as it is, the tent and all?

A Christmas present

2011-01-12T16:55:00.004+01:00

I wanted to make a christmas present for a friend of mine. He really likes the drum playing skeleton by Hans Holbein (see for example this page, detail in here.), so I embroidered him a needle roll. (He makes awesome garb, by the way.)

Cotton on linen with split stitch and whatever stitch for detail.

The other side, where you keep your needles, is wool, there is a couple of layers of it to make it thicker.

The strings ended up being a little bit too short, but one can still tie it up, so no harm done. He recieved his gift and liked it. And I liked making it. It was a new experience. I've never embroidered line drawings this fine before and the details made it hard to transfer the design on the fabric, but the result looks much better than I had hoped for. This took all together two days to make.

Nothing is more fun than giving presents!

2010-11-29T11:32:00.005+01:00

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

2010-11-18T09:39:00.004+01:00

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

2010-11-03T09:45:00.004+01:00

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

2010-10-27T19:52:00.003+02:00

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

2010-10-13T13:14:00.003+02:00

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

2010-10-11T16:51:00.005+02:00

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

2010-09-15T21:13:00.003+02:00

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

2010-09-15T14:06:00.004+02:00

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

2010-09-13T22:22:00.004+02:00

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"

2010-09-09T21:30:00.004+02:00

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!

2010-09-04T00:57:00.008+02:00

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.

2010-08-28T13:49:00.006+02:00

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

2010-08-25T09:57:00.005+02:00

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

2010-08-01T13:57:00.004+02:00

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

2010-06-28T17:33:00.004+02:00

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

2010-05-05T17:16:00.003+02:00

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.

2010-04-30T16:25:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-27T11:15:00.006+02:00

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

2010-04-26T21:42:00.005+02:00

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

2010-04-15T21:58:00.006+02:00

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

2010-04-14T17:21:00.005+02:00

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

2010-04-12T13:38:00.005+02:00

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

2010-04-08T13:57:00.006+02:00

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

2010-04-05T16:18:00.005+02:00

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.

2010-04-02T09:57:00.009+02:00

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?

Elisheva's Test Kitchen - Macaroni and cheese goes cabbage

2010-02-21T10:15:00.005+01:00

I tested an idea, that I got a couple of days ago. There is the American national food macaroni and cheese, right? What if we do the impossible and make something low carb and actually tasty from it? Let's try!

Here it is! Looks mushy and a little bit like cheese potatoes or a potato salad or something. But, believe it or not, it is made of cabbage and cheese and is delicious!

Macaroni and cheese goes cabbage

To do a big amount of the stuff:

Take a small cabbage (about 1,5kg) and chop it. Boil it in water until done, drain. While the cabbage is boiling take 100 grams of mild cheese and grate it. Take also 200 grams of soft goat cheese and chop it. When the cabbage is done and drained, add all the cheese and 50 grams of butter and 1/2 dl of cream (optional). Stir until the cheese has melted. Add some tarragon, black pepper and salt to taste.

Serve hot as a side dish with anything you happen to have. I would use this with fish, as it has milk in it. Beware, this if very hardy dish and will make you very full with only a small serving.

Poterous: A New Hope

2010-01-20T22:16:00.005+01:00

So, a new try on Poterous.

This time I used finer and hotter salt. My mistake was to re-use some salt from the last time. It turned brown in the oven, but it made it look more period, so no problem. The result was not as pretty as last time.

Here is the salt ready to be put in the oven to heat it up. Still white...

And here is what will be put inside it. Just plain eggs, no spices.

And out of the oven! It made some bubbles, so the result is not as pretty as it could be. The salt turned brown and there is not those big and pretty chrystals as before. I wonder if I should add some more coarse salt on the rim, just to decorate.

On the serving plate. I made it with only three eggs in order to save our tasters (me and hubby) from too much food.

The results. The finer (and hotter, mind you) salt did not make the crust thinner, quite the opposite! But it made it hard and dry, so it was easy to eat only the eggs and leave the salt crust on the plate. You can see the crust in the middle of the picture, with the already "loosened" eggs on top of it. Too bad that the recipe doesn't tell us anything about how the dish should be eaten, but I would bet they left the crust un-eaten.

I am now sertain, that the original recipe mentions "the coffin" only because of "the pie crust" formed by the salt. There is no dough involved!

This dish could be used as a part of a feast, but you would have to mention to the guests that they are not supposed to eat all that salt!

Oh, and during the cooking my hubby complained about the slight smell of hydrochloric acid in the air. He said it is propably caused by salt and acids from the eggs being heated together. I hope there was not too much of it.

Poterous

2010-01-17T15:33:00.004+01:00

So I tried this recipe from Harleian - Poterous. It is basically eggs that are broken onto a VERY hot salt bed to cook.

Original recipe in clear English: Take a shovel of iron & heat it burning hot; & then take it out of the fire, & fill it full of salt; then make a pit in the salt all hollow, the shape of a wooden dish; & set the pan & the salt over the fire again, till the salt is burning hot; & then cast thine white & the yolks of eggs into the hole of the salt, & let seethe over the fire till it is half hard; & then put a dish half full of salt; & then take a dresser knife, & put underneath the salt in the pan, & heave it up so fair, that the coffin with the eggs break not; then set it on the dish with the salt, & then serve it forth.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, since I was so eager to taste it. But believe me, the dish is very pretty. I'll post a picture when I try it again in a couple of days. (Running out of salt...)

So. I put a lot of coarse sea salt in a pot with another pot on top to make a round hole in the salt. Heated it in the oven to 250°C. Broke some eggs in a bowl without braking the yolks. Removed the mould pot from the salt. Poured the eggs in the hole. (Makes a nise hissing sound. ;) ) Cooked the whole thing in the oven untill the eggs were half hard. And finally lifted the "egg pie" from the pot to a serving plate with the thin salt crust it had created.

The result is a pretty "pie" with yellow yolks showing through the solid whites. And the most beautiful thing is the diamond-like chrystals of salt on the rim. The taste was that of normal eggs, but VERY salty.

I'll try it next with finer salt, so that the salt crust should be thinner. Or one could try to scrape of the eccess salt before serving. The modern adaptation of the recipe by Cindy Renfrow in her book "Take a thousand eggs or more" used a pie crust to cook the eggs in and had salt only on the rim for decoration, but that is not according to the original recipe.

Okay, the original mentions once "a coffin", which usually means a pie crust, but it can also mean the hole in the salt, indeed shaped like "a coffin", or the salt crust that forms around the eggs. And the original clearly states to cast the eggs "into the hole of salt". I really don't think they use any pie crusts in this! And since the result is very pretty, the taste is a secondary issue. ;)

Sources online

2009-11-25T19:24:00.005+01:00

I just found this lovely place. Books, books and books, free downloads or reading in the internet. Love it! I searched for cookery, and found these. Original texts in PDF. Thank you internet!

The best one of them all: Two fifteenth-century cookery-books, Harleian ms. 279 (ab.1430) & Harl. ms. 4016 (ab. 1450) with extracts from Ashmole ms. 1429, Laud ms. 553 & Douce ms. 55

I'm in love.

I actually already have a book that contains Harleian recipes, but I'm not sure if they are all there and in original form. I'm disagreeing with one interpretation the author has made of a recipe, so I have to try it both ways and try to dig a little deeper. That shall be my first A&S50 challenge entry.

Arts&Sciences 50 Challenge

2009-11-25T12:23:00.005+01:00

I decided to participate in A&S50 challenge. I will try a depth challenge, since I'm not yet up to doing a breadth challenge. Perhaps later though...

So. I'm going to try 50 new (to me, that is) original recipes and document them. I will present them here in my blog in the order I make them.

Pictures

2009-11-22T11:34:00.003+01:00

I like Racaire's museum pictures in Flickr, and would like to do the same for my museum pictures. To put them in the internet, that is. So I created an account for that ("ladypetronilla"). The upload limit of 100MB is totally too small! I'll have to upgrade soon.

What you can find on a flea market?

2009-11-20T11:28:00.006+01:00

Lovely things, these flea markets. Some of the nice things I have found on them are a bag full of linen sewing thread and a huge book, The Museums in Germany. The book changed owner for a good price of 0,50€. Inside it was a treasure! A colour photograf of an embroidered pouch I've been looking for for a little while. I have a picture of the same pouch in another book, but this time it was a photo of the other side of it! I've made a replica of the other side, and now I can do the same of the other, and combine them to a complete pouch! Wehee! Joy!

The Book:

Here's the picture inside the book (scanned with a good resolution for details):

Here's the picture I already had:

Here's my version of it:

The first one took about 240 hours of work, so I'm not counting of this being ready soon. I hope I have some of the same fabric still left somewhere, not to mention the same threads and gold!

Note to self: Garum

2009-11-17T15:24:00.002+01:00

The books I have on this subject, what they use for Garum/Liquamen

De re coquinaria - Roomalainen keittokirja ("Roman cookbook") translated by Tuulikki Elo, Heikki Laakkonen and Eero Valjakka, The Finnish Literature Society, ISBN 951-746-360-X

-> Nuok mam sauce, Vietnamese.

Herkullista Historiaa ("Delicious History"), Andreo Larsen, Liisa Savunen and Risto Valjus, Villa Lanten ystävät ry, ISBN 951-0-28256-1

-> Nam Pla sauce, Thailandish.

-> Nuok nam sauce, Vietnamese.

At the University

2009-11-17T13:40:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I was at the Drachenwald Kingdom University in Two Seas, Northern Germany. It was a marvelous event. There was so many interesting classes that I could not take part in all, since there was not enough time for that. I did end up in the kitchen, but only on Friday. (I managed to get a bad blister on my hand then, and decided not to make it any worse. Note to self: Do not, ever, leave your own knives at home, even when you do not plan to work in the kitchen!)

Classes I participated:

- Drafting a sleeve pattern, by Katherina Mornewegh

A very useful class on how to make a tight sleeve to a tight dress and still be able to move your arms while wearing it.

- Klosterstich, by Racaire

A class about a practical and thread saving embroidery technique. It is also faster to do than my usual style, so I might adopt this one for bigger projects in the future.

- The Square Aramaic Script of the Hebrews, by Lady Lyonet de Covenham

An interesting class on Hebrew calligraphy. I have never done calligraphy, so this really was an experience for me. The letters were surprisingly easy to write with a quill and ink, and they turned out quite pretty. Since I already knew the letters, I managed to write my own (SCA) name on a parchment while the others practiced the easier ones.

- Cooking over an open fire, by Thomas Flamanc of Kelsale

I love open fire cooking! This class was about the very basics, but I managed to get my hands dirty, ruin the spice coating on the meat and get useful tips on how to build all the equipment you need to cook over an open fire.

- Apicius revealed Roman cookery, by Duke Alaric

Another one I dearly like, Roman cookery! And Duke Alaric is such an expert. Before the class I had a very interesting discussion with him about the finer points of Garum. The best part of this class was when he compared Roman cookery to fine single malt whisky, you get all those different tastes one after another by just taking one bite of a dish. Wonderful!

The classes I did not have time to participate, but would have liked to: Making fire with flint and steel, Introductory calligraphy, Introduction to middle&late period Persian Clothing, Make your own silk banner, Burgundian woven Necklace, Embroidery Guild meeting and all three classes on dancing, though I got to dance in the evening after the feast.

The court was as a court is. The King was handsome and wise and the Queen beautiful and graceful. I think I have never seen a royal couple more royal than this one. The Pelican elevation was not very subtle in it's religious connotations, which didn't bother me overmuch, but I would not like to see it performed like this every time.

Then there was of cource the feast. I had mentioned in my reservation, that I do not eat pork, but that information did not reach the cook and all meat dishes had some pork in them (no wonder when one knows the quality of beef one can find in this country!). So I said that he should not stress about it, I'll eat what I can, no prob! During the feast I was very positively surprised when I got my own beef dish! The cook had got extra beef from somewhere and made me a meat dish of my own! I am so very grateful! Master Giano Ballestiere will be from now on my hero.

After the feast there was a lot of talking, dancing and general merry making. No sauna though. *snif*

During the weekend I met some people that I already knew and made many lovely new friends. I enjoyed the event very much indeed!

The Panic Garb

2009-11-10T11:55:00.007+01:00

The SCA event I wrote about is taking place this weekend. I managed to get that garb done and I'm now sewing hastely some veil pieces and a small cap.

Here's the garb. You can see a lot of small wedges on the hem and on the sides as well, to make it wide enough for me to wear. The lining on the sleeves looks pretty good.

I added some of the small badges I had made for another garb (see a previous entry about those) to this one to make it look less grey. They are easy to move to another garb if needed. Handy!

I wrote about the lining having problems. The problem was, that I did no think about the pattern in the fabric when I counted how much of it is needed for the sleeves. So I almost ended up with sleeves having patterns in different directions. I had to cut the fabric differently and add some seams in the middle, so that the pieces where the pattern is upside down are hidden inside the sleeves. Here is one of them turned inside out. Yes, there is a pattern on the fabric, French lilies. Unfortunately it does not show very well in the pictures.

It is good enough to wear, though I would have wanted to have something more elaborate.

Something modern for a change.

2009-10-13T14:18:00.004+02:00

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!

2009-10-11T11:10:00.003+02:00

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?

2009-10-09T17:52:00.005+02:00

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?

2009-10-09T17:31:00.005+02:00

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.