What am I doing?

Well, since my last post I have been to Ireland. I have seen the hill of Tara, Newgrange, The Giants' Causeway, Dunluce castle, the charming summer town of Portruch, Rathcrogan where queen Maeve once ruled, Galway, the Cliffs of Moher, St Brighid's well, a hen party dressed as nuns, Carlow, Kildare and Dublin (where I noticed that the fabric store on Lower Liffey street has turned into a bar).

I have also tried to survive heat of around 30 degrees C in the shades and scorching sunlight. I am not made for this, and in Sweden we don't have AC in private homes, and our houses were built to retain heat, not to keep it out. Add menopausal heat flushes to that and you just want to die.
There has been quite a lot of swimming, though it takes energy to get to the lakes or sea by public transport.

I have visited a very old and big rural market (the real thing, not a hipster version), where I bought hippie trousers, a straw cap and a new backpack.

And I have,a s those who follow this blog on facebook knows, made a 1790s open robe from printed cotton.

I like this photo despite the modern background and my unco-operative hair. At least there was some wind.
When taking these photos I noticed that my stays and my petticoat were rather tight in the bust and over the rib cage. I have gained back some of the weight that I lost, mostly muscle (which is what makes them tighter over the rib cage), but also some fat (which gives a larger bust). Luckily this was easily fixed by unpicking a makeshift taking in of the stays that I had done last year, and by unpicking a dart on the petticoat.
I will wear it all on Sunday and hopefully get some nice photos at Gunnebo house. I have made a cap and a trimmed a straw hat for the occasion. And a bag for a croquet set that I'm bringing to amuse us with.

I also have sewing plans (of course) and last night I ordered fabric for them.

This will be a sleveless working dress, based on this fresco by Giusto de Menabuoi, in the Baptistry to the Duomo in Padua, from 1376-7.

I need to make a short sleeved smock too, but linen I can get easily her in Gothenburg.

In October the barony of Gotvik hold one of our annual events: Festivalo de Caderas. The theme for said event is purple. Since I am cooking feast I will spend most of the time in the kitchen. Our baroness and baron have chosen the Quattrocento as their time period (though not keeping to it quite as much as Måns and I kept to our period) so I will wear my green working class outfit:

I will, however, attend court, so I have decided to make it easy for myself to change into court garb:
I will take off the apron and my linen cap, smooth my hair and put on some other headwear, and throw on a giornea from plum silk brocade.

I need to buy lining for that too, but that will have to wait a while, until next salary or so.

I have recently started working 75% instead of 50% and we will have to see how much sewing I will have the energy for now.

A medieval wedding

Well, not technically a medieval wedding, because at least in Sweden that would mean agreement between the fathers of the couple and the family of the bride placing her in his bed, but a wedding in medieval clothes, with medieval music by harp and voice.

It was at Hunehals medieval day (this is how it looked last year). This year I didn't camp, which I sort of regret. But we're leaving for Ireland on Tuesday and I really didn't want to deal with medieval camping gear at same time as packing for a week away. Especially not if it had rained so that we would have to dry a tent in our flat. It didn't rain, but I still think that it was a good idea. I got tired and in pain just by packing away our clothing and feast gear yesterday evening.
But next year I will camp!

It was sunny and hot, so we tried to spend most of the time in what little shade we could find. I didn't bring a craft project, so I worked on a cap that Astridh was making for herself. She was making a new surcoat.

Astridh was singing at the wedding ceremony. She had also made a new Swedish translation/adaptation of Belle que tien ma vie , which was very moving. Mattias played the harp, here he is practicing in camp:

For the ceremony he wore his  silk bliaut which now has got some more of the trim sewn on.

Mattias has been busy sewing, because he also has a new early 14th century gown - here posing with my hubby (who looks gorgeous as always) wearing clothing from the same period.

Making new garb seem to be the thing for Gotvik's members. Ysabel had made a new Italian 15th century gown and that style and that colour really suits her.

Oh, and here's the wedding. I was a witness and stood beside the officiant. At the moment we are listening to Astridh singing.