A virtual Double wars

By now I should have been at Double wars (or at least on my way, Maja should have had her dance recital yesterday, so I wouldn't have left until today), I would have struggled with my anxiety over having the pavillion put up, and been releveed when my dear friends had helped me and I had fixed everything. And this would have been my home:

But not this year.

So I have decided to post photos of me doing things that I would have done, had there been a Double wars this year. This  is helped by people organizing lots of social activites online, so that I have a reason to dress up in medeival clothes every day.

I have posted these on instagram and on facebook, but there you don't really have space to explain what you're doing. So I will try to get a photo up every day until next Sunday, when we would have been packing and gone home.


 Friday the 15th
As I said, I wouldn't even have been there, but I did join an impromptu zoom pity party, which was lovely. And which had attendants from both Sweden, the US and Canada.

I went for Italian ca 1300, though I wasn't perfectly committed to that style, since I probably wouldn't have worn a veil the way I did then.

Saturday the 16th

What I always do at Double wars is to teach. This year Countess Agnes Odygd had organized a Pride day, and I had offered to give an old lacture (last given in 2017) lecture of mine about same-sex sexuality in the Middle ages. Sine tehre was no Double Wras, the lecture moved online, as did the other Pride activities. It was my first online lecture, and I think that it went well. I think that the lecture needs to be re-made, with a different structure, and with some new stuff, but peopel seemed pleased.
Here I am wearing my c. 1300 gown from Verona. And I use rainbow ribbon for my hair taping, and as a belt on top of my bust.

Today it is the Princess of Nordmark's mimosa party, so I have to get orange juice before 1 pm. I'll get back to you on that.

My Regency riding habit

Today I put on my newly (as in this year) made Regency riding habit, with it's silly hat, and went with my daughter to visit the horse that she cares for.

I've made a page for it, with lots of photos , a video, and some info of how I made it.

Picking herbs/weeds in 13th century clothes - like you do

My daughter Maja took such great photos of me picking garlic mustard today, that I just had to share them. it's for the Medieval May thingy on Instagram, the theme for today was cooking.

The gown (and teh shift, which is threadbare now) was made in 2004, and is one of the gowns that I use most. You can read more about it here.

Because... reasons

The people from Nordmark, the SCA principality which covers Sweden joining in on the SCA dance challege. Except a little different, because that's the way we are ;) . I'm in it, in 12th century clothing.

Another green bliaut

I have resisted, I have struggled, I have reasoned with myself (I begin to sound like Mr Darcy here), but the urge to make a green wool bliaut got the better of me.

Unlike my green silk bliaut, this one will be made without a waist seam. Which might mean that it isn't a bliaut at all, since one explanation of the word is that it comes for a word for expensive silk. But, be that as it may, I am making a new 12th century gown. Even if I have mostly worn mid 13th-to early 14th century dress in the SCA the last 8 years or so.

I have cut out the rectangular body parts and will cut the side gores and then sit down and start hand sewing.

A 16th century fairy queen

While this isn't a historical outfit it really has lot of 16th century components:
The gown is my 16th century Venetian gown, with felt leaves and silk flowers sewn on, and the pattern for the capelet is the same as I used for my gollar that I am wearing here, with one of my 16th century Swedish outfits.

The capelet is really special to me, since it is made from scraps of fabric sent to me by my friends. I didn't have enough variety when it came to green fabric, so I asked my friends on facebook if they could send me scraps of fabric.

Anyway, the capelet was finished on Monday, I added the clasps on Tuesday. The gown I put all the leaves and flowers on on Wednesday. Because when when I was on my way home from my mammogram, but decided to check on a blackthorn bramble that I like to track the progress of spring on, I noticed that while the wild blackthorn hadn't started blossoming yet, there were trees of a domesticated variety that were in full bloom.

This put a fire under me, since I wanted to take photos among the blooming trees, and that is a very short period. It should also ideally be sunny, or at least not rainy weather. So I asked Rickard if we could take the photos yesterday, and started stitching felt leaves and fake flowers on my gown. The flowers I got from wish, and I have ordered greenery from there too, but with COVID-19 and everything it isn's surprising that it hasn't arrived. But I had felt!

I finished the gown on Wednesday evening and as soon as Rickard got home from work on Thursday we went and took the photos. I am very grateful that he does this for me, especially since he was very tired that day.

I think we took maybe 70 photos, and at least 30 of them were really good, so it was really hard to choose. Especially since we took photos where I was wearing my leaf capelet, and without it, with a wreath, and with my coronet. Here you can see all of the versions, if not all the photos. I put some more on Flickr.

As said many times before: the coronet is made by EvaJohanna Arts and Crafts.

Going fantasy

Still exhausted, and the stress about the COVID-19 virus of course isn't helping. Though my self isolation because of my compromised immune system is also helping me to get better. I walk in nature and I don't feel any pressure to meet people outside the family.

I have gradually got a little of my creative energy back. And it has made me want to make fantasy costumes, of all things.

It started when the local burlesque club, which I haven't attended for ten years, was going to have a party themed "Spring awakening". For the first time for ages I got really enthusiastic. To avoid getting burnt out by a costume project I decided to use my 1560s Venetian gown , but to make a shift in a green sheer fabric.
I did have a look in the local fabric stores, but didn't find any fabric that really spoke to me. Then I remembered that I had a cotton voile scarf that I had bought second hand. It was a litte bluer in colour than I liked, so I tried some tea dyieng. If that is what made the colour better, or if it's the fact that it bled like whoa, I don't know, but it was sufficient.
So I made a simple shift from my peasant blouse pattern, except that I slit the sleeves to make hanging sleeves.
Since several years I also had this Indian lace with white flowers, that I bought just because it was so pretty. I cut it into smaller pieces to shape it and zigzagged along the stems, and in the centre of the flowers. Then I put seed beads in green, yellow, white or bronze, in the middle of the flowers.
When I wear it, whenever that may be I will also have added fabric flowers and various greenery from fabric to the gown, bu stitching them on by hand, but since most of the ones that I ordered haven't arrived yet, and I'm not in a hurry this is not a problem. Because the event just got cancelled. I will still make the costume though and take photos of me in it.

I have also bought a artificial ivy wine with led lights in it, to make a wreath. I am going to paint the lights green, to give a sort of eerie light, because I am going to be a not-quite-safe faerie queen. But not yet, because I am trying very hard not to overdo things.
Enough talking, some photos from when I tried it on:

However, this got me so inspired that I decided to make another fantasy costume. Or, I decided to make a coprset and wear it with a skirt that I bought last month.

It was also an opportunity to try and get a pattern for a 16th century corset/supportive bodice that fits my current size and shape. It's basically an effigy corset with lots of painted felt leaves glued on.

The pattern needs some tweaking: It needs to be a little higher at the top and smaller at the waist, but other than that I am happy with it. Which means that whenever I feel the inspiration to make a new supportive kirtle from my lovely linsey-wolsey fabric I have a working pattern.

But currently I am more inspired to put on fantasy costumes and drag Rickard to the forest to take photos of me. And that's what we did yesterday. We also walked in the forest just to enjoy it of course. This time we took the car, but I can actually walk to that forest, it's about 3,5 kilometres to the forest and then the same distance to my favourite part of the forest. So it's definitely doable, I did it on Thursday. But I prefer not doing it in corset and make-up :)

Anyway, here are some of the photos that we took. I wish I knew photoshop so I could make some cool effects, but I think they work fine as they are, without filters.