A green velvet 16th century Venetian gown from thrifted materials

 I have finished the gown that I have been working on on and off since before christmas. AND I have finished a page with loads of information about how I made it. And more pretty pictures. That page is here.

This gown is made from old velvet curtains, sateen bed sheets, pieces of sturdy cotton, vintage bobbin lace, and other stuff gotten from charity shops. I like making things from thrifted materials: not only is it much better for the environment, it is also much cheaper.

Documentation for my c 1790 gown

 It took over a year, but I have now made a page for my striped 18th century gown. It is here:

Diagonally striped like it's 1336

 My striped gown inspired by a fresco by Buonamico Buffalmacco in Pisa is not only finished, but has its own page here. 

I feel incredibly pretty in it. Now I just need to make a matching kirtle, instead of using the one from my Bernardo Daddi outfit.

Hanging upside down

When I make costumes with modern tools and techniques, and my green Venetian is definetely one of those because I am not going to hand sew a gown made from second hand velvet curtains, I have a few tricks that I use. One is to sew the lining and skirt together at the hem and then let them hang for a week, to ensure that any stretching is done before I start pleating the skirt to the bodice.

So here you can se 3,5 metres of skirt hanging. The lining is a thrifted cotton sateen bed sheet.

My plan is to wear this at Drachenwald's Spring Crown Tourney in Hamburg in April. It doesn't take a lot of time to finish it, so even including me working on the opposition for a viva at the Unviersity of Iceland, and going there in the end of March, that shouldn't be a problem. However, I am currently working hard to lose some weight, so I can't start on the bodice yet.

I will probably start making a lace partlet for it, because that is also less size sensitive.

And we have sleeves

Further investigations into the deep vaults of old external hard drives makes me 95 % sure that it was in 2001 that I started on this gown.

I wrote in a previous post about how it was put away then and never finished, but that I decided to finish it now.

I had to make the existing sleeves larger, and luckily I had one small scrap to piece them with.

Now all that remains is to hem the sleeves. And make a kirtle to wear under then, here I'm wearing a modern top.

Losing weight in the bust wouldn't hurt either. It fits so good below the ribs, then it gets a little tight because my ribcage got much wider after my last pregnancy in 2004, and then the boobs gets really pressed together. But I'm working on that.

Tri-Kingdom University and Scandinavian Sumptuary Laws

 Last weekend was the Tri-Kingdom University, a combined online university by the SCA kingdoms of Drachenwald (Europe), Atlantia (US) and Lochac (Australia and New Zealand).

It is nice to be able to both teach, and learn new things from your own home. I'm at my work space in the kitchen, wearing 14th century clothign, drinking tea from a 13th century replica mug. It is not an immerisive experience, like going to an event, but you can listen to teacher's from all over the world. 

I listened to classes about necromancy, the clothing of Queen Catherine Jagiellon of Sweden (16th century), and Bronze Age Aegean incense, potions and perfumery.

I taught a class about Scandinavian sumptuary laws before 1600.This is a subject that I have published about, so I thought that I'd add a list of my articles that discuss sumptuary laws here.

"Dangerous Fashions in Swedish Sumptuary Law" in The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective c. 1200-1800 edited by Giorgio Riello and Ulinka Rublack - 2019

"Foreign Seductions: Sumptuary laws, consumption and national identity in early modern Sweden" in Fashionable encounters: perspectives and trends in textile and dress in the Early modern nordic world edited by Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen, Marie-Louise Nosch, Maj Ringgaard, Kirsten Toftegaard and Mikkel Venborg Pedersen - 2014

"Inget scharlakan för dåliga fruntimmer: Dräktregleringar och sexuella normbrytare i medeltidens Skandinavien" i Det våras för medeltiden. Vänbok till Thomas Lindkvist, Auður Magnúsdóttir, Henric Bagerius och Lars Hermanson (red.) - 2014

 

Progress on the striped gown

I am terribly busy these days: I am evaluating a manuscript for a PhD thesis and writing a report about it, I have a class at Drachenwald's Online Kingdom University, this time in collaberation with the Kingdoms of Atlantia and Lochac, so it's actually the Tri-kingdom University next Saturday, which is far from finished. My apprentice Alfhild de Foxley is not only the University chancellor for the Drachenwald Online University, but also was theone who took initiative to make this an intervcontinental event - I am insanely proud of her. I am also doing calligraphy and illumination for Nordmark's Coronet Tournament, and I have started a knitting project. Having a really bad flare in my psoriatic arthritis, and sinusitis doesn't help at all.

But I have hand sewn the body of the striped surcoat. Next Step is ironing and felling the seams.

But first more writing.