Pushing for Pennsic - 2025

Rather than curse myself with a monthly project update post, I humbly offer a list of garment-related items I have been working on for the two of us or for kingdom projects. My stretch goals for the winter were a bit stretchy. (Sounds familiar, eh?)

Crispin's Wardrobe Refresh

• completed projects
• green linen cotehardie
• shot linen lightweight cotehardie
• army green linen work tunic
• natural linen work tunic
• dark blue lightweight linen work tunic
• shot linen lightweight work tunic

Gianna's Wardrobe Refresh

• completed projects
• green wool cotehardie with silk sleeves
• green linen short sleeve cotehardie
• aluminum (grey) linen short sleeve cotehardie
• shot linen lightweight cotehardie
• purple archaic chiton with purple and grey trim
  
• green archaic chiton green and white trim
• natural archaic chiton with red and brown trim
• red archaic chiton
• shot linen archaic chiton
• Traveling Hat Club
• North Oaken - Middle Kingdom Coronation
• South Oaken - Royal University of the Midrealm
• Pentamere - Val Day
• Midlands - Ragnarök Rampage
• Constellation - Better War Through Archery

Other Projects

• Midrealm Royal
• award shield heraldry (1)
• award shield heraldry documentation

Noblesse Largesse Gift Exchange

It's been a few year since I participated in the Noblesse Largesse holiday gift exchange, but I thought I'd give it a go. The recipient's time period was a little earlier than the source material for the hood, but I figured it should still work for a few centuries earlier as hoods are pretty universal in make and model. The construction of the hood was based upon a fourteenth century hood found in Baynard's Castle, London UK. [See original source material at Opus Elenae's website.] 

The recipient's heraldic colors are blue, green, and gold. I chose celery green and periwinkle blue woven silk, lined with khaki colored linen. It is, as they say very demure and very mindful. I tacked down gold wool yarn at 4 and 7 centimeters from the edge, then added faux pearls in trefoils every 9 to 10 centimeters.

Hopefully, they will like it!

• Inspiration
• Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
• Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, pt. I
• Flanders, Tournai
• French, Old (842-ca. 1400)
• Materials
• woven silk, linen, wool, cotton thread, and commercial faux seed pearls.

Inspiration.

Finished project.

Fanciful Flowers

Per fess indented
flory at the points
sable and argent 

My husband and I have been entering Middle Kingdom Crown Tournaments for about the last five years. I've traditionally dressed in his heraldic colors (black and gold) which can lead one to feel like a marshal, however this year I decided I wanted to spice things up and dress in my own!

For the average bear a change from black and gold to black and white isn't much, however the color scheme in the Midrealm is all but synonymous with a household I am not a member of! And the line of division on my heraldry is striking, but exceptionally daunting to recreate - the dance, or dancetty was fitting at the time of heraldic inception as I was heavily involved in the dance community and my name in the Society is from Florence, Italy whose heraldic identifier was an exceptionally fancy fleur-de-lys! 

I chose to attempt the line of division using wool and used the familiar Londinium Hood pattern. I changed it up a little; instead of the inverted gore installation (Opus Elenae) I chose to try the method as described by Morgan Donner in the hood video linked below around minute marker 14:15. The gist being you lay the right side of the gore under the basted edge of the hood. It's hard to explain, see video for details! Ultimately, I found the Donner method of construction to be quick and easy to do, especially with with hand sewing.

After the hood was constructed, I went back and measured the average width of the dags from the expansion pack and created my own dance dag for the zig zag, which was about 4 inches in width. Prior to cutting, I added a the natural Pendleton wool of a similar drape underneath, then tacked it all down with an inverted hem stitch. Then I proceeded to add the laser cut fleur-de-lis tips in position with a similar stitch to keep them in place.

Resources:

• Morgan Donner Hood Video (14:45)
• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Video
• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Pattern
• Opus Elenae Londinium Dagging Expansion

Inspiration doodle.

A heraldic dance.

Fleur-de-lis tips.

Flory at the points!

Finished project!

Magenta Madness

Midrealm Coronation.

Dame Roana and I took a walk near the end of Pennsic to Royal Blue Traders to source some wool for cool weather projects. Having just finished the purple and teal hood, I decided to try my luck at another,  but one with a little more sparkle to it. What I found however was (in retrospect) a light weight magenta wool that existed somewhere between eye blindingly red and pink, thus I was sold! 

I acquired a yard and a half of the wool then created a classic 14th century dagged hood, courtesy of Opus Elenae's base pattern paired with the dags expansion. After some back and forth thinking each dag would be turned into a strawberry, I opted to let this bold and beautiful wool stand on its own, especially after adding the  printed diamond weave cotton as the lining.

Sir Bran was kind enough to take a picture (or three) of its premier at Midrealm Coronation. Here it is paired with a charcoal bycocket adorned with peacock feathers, green pin on sleeves, and the pewter plaque belt created by Crispin.

Resources:

• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Video
• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Pattern
• Opus Elenae Londinium Dagging Expansion

Inking the dags.

Instagram teaser!

The dagged hood is finished!

Grapes Ahoy

A few months back, the Barony of Cleftlands had a yard sale in which I scored roughly a yard and a half of a lovely deep purple lightweight wool from a dear friend who said she thought I would love it and it would make a beautiful hood. Challenge accepted!

I washed the wool to felt it more then quickly transformed it into a 14th century hood. After a quick throw over my shoulders, it was confirmed that I would need to line it, but with what color? I parsed through several linen candidates and settled upon a moody dark teal color that really popped when paired together. 

The color combination inspired my aubergine needle felted hat.

Resources:

• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Video
• Opus Elenae Londinium Hood Pattern

The finished hood.

The hood and hat.

Pushing for Pennsic - 2024

Rather than curse myself with a monthly project update post, I humbly offer a list of garment-related items I have been working on for the two of us or for kingdom projects. My stretch goals for the winter were a bit stretchy. It isn't that I lack the skills, I lacked the spoons to do an awful lot during the winter. (Without getting too technical, I spent from August to April working on an exceptionally large project at work and it was very time, labor, and spoon intensive.)

Regardless...

Crispin Wardrobe Refresh

• repairs
• general's tabard - repaired sleeves
• black pants - repaired armor tears on legs
• grey geometric tunic - repaired neckline
• blue geometric tunic - repaired neckline
• yellow tunic - shortened sleeves
• green tunic - shortened sleeves
• completed projects
• black linen hood
• white three piece coif

Gianna's Wardrobe Refresh

• repairs
• white underdress - added long sleeves
• white underdress - added long sleeves
• white underdress - replaced long sleeves
• white underdress - repaired long sleeves
• blue work dress - shortened sleeves
• tan/brown overdress - extended hem length, added trim
• completed projects
• blue linen hood
• blue linen short sleeved cotehardie
• blue/white diamond weave short sleeved cotehardie

Other Projects

• Personal Encampment
• tri-fold privacy screen
• Midrealm Royal
• barricade (shield wall) documentation
• award heraldry shields (9 painted)

Distraction

I have spent the last several months thinking of ways to best utilize the space within our new wall tent purchased this year. (There's a story behind that, but best discussed elsewhere.) I've had a tent with a similar foot print before, but in speaking with any number of wall tent inhabitants, one of the frequent points brought up was lack of privacy when the doors are for ventilation.

I hatched an idea about a privacy screen... but not just any privacy screen. The one that took the most time! In June, Ginevra and I traveled to the far off lands and visited Drachenwald embassy in Middle Marches (IKEA) to barter for supplies, namely three IVAR side units and later I sourced the hardware at the local Menards. A few years ago, I picked up this lovely printed cotton that had aged to perfection in someone else's stash and backed it with fustian, bound the edges with a cotton twill tape to complete the project.

Overall, the screen took about ten hours, not including dry time for the enamel paint on the wood pieces, casually intermixed with other household tasks.

Reference: IKEA IVAR Folding Screen

The completed screen.

A lady hawking.

The lord lurking.

A Rose By Any Other Name

For any that know me well, I rarely take commissions... It isn't that I do not wish to help others out, it is because I am notoriously bad about placing any value on my work. However, when asked directly by a dear friend to provide vestments for their champion, it was an offer I was unable to refuse.

After receiving the recipients measurements, I did a bit of mathing and geometry to figure out a pattern to use and shortly thereafter I realized I had another partially complete project that was just a few dimensions off matching what I needed. I set to work, creating a Rus-style tunic with French seams (to tighten things up a bit) and provide the person with less points of failure. I decided to add a little running and blanket stitch as embellishment, delivered at Standard Bearers in April. (I should also mention this part of the project was given with roughly a week's notice.)

Once the test piece was created, I turned my focus on to creating a champions tunic -- outside of my area of expertise, for sure. I wanted to create something that gave a nod to their Russian reign, but was comfortable enough for the combatant to fight in.

After several days of staring at heraldry, I chose one rose pattern then sent it off to the (3D) printers to create a stamp (Crispin) who delivered the wares on short notice. I took a evening to stamp and heat set the semy of roses on hunter green linen. The first run went through the wash being heat set by an iron, but there was something about it that I just didn't care for, so I scrapped it and started again with my guides more precise and the pattern more crisp, this time heat setting it several times at high heat in the dryer. (Fingers crossed!)

I feel I need to add the caveat that, while I have stamped fabric in the past, I am no subject matter expert. This is very much trial and error and I understand that the recipient will be using the tunic for the next five months, so it wasn't necessarily stamped with the intention of longevity.

Despite initially feeling that the semy of roses in black would be sufficient for the chest placard, I decided that wasn't really pronounced enough so I spent a few hours painting each of the roses. And yes, I was chanting the mantra of "Never send a scribe to do a clothiers task!" or something equally as not-witty as I laboriously painted between each line of the stamp. I chalk this up to "Never Again" knowing full well I will do something like it again to punish myself.

After the placard was attached and tunic sewn together (what is not seen is every bias-tape reinforced seam and the +20 hours of whip stitching...) the finished tunic wasn't precisely finished. I felt I missed the mark and added a chaplet of roses around the bottom of the tunic. It's not exactly Russian, but it's SCA-Russian with a touch of 14th century mystery added.

I hope it serves the recipient well during their time as champion.

Post Pennsic Blah - Stretch Goals 2023

After Pennsic, I like to collect my thoughts as well as my to do (or to buy) list to make things easier the next year. For those that know me, endless lists and notes will come as no surprise - but they're so helpful! I took care of 2022's list (of purchases) by September 2022 and come July of 2023, I was patting past-self on the back.

I would like to expand the list to projects I'd like to complete in the downtime between Wars for just the slightest bit of accountability. I think the underlying goal was to complete at least one project per month. Best of luck, future me!

Crispin Wardrobe Refresh

• hoods
• black linen
• gold wool
• pants 
• yellow linen
• black linen
• blue linen
• green linen
• red linen
• long sleeved tunics 
• olive green linen
• shot linen
• gold linen
• short (work) sleeved tunics 
• olive green linen
• shot linen
• neutral linen
• tunica 
• white linen

Gianna Wardrobe Refresh

• underdress
• neutral linen
• light blue linen
• long sleeved cote
• olive green linen
• short sleeved cote 
• blue linen - needs buttons and finishing (8/23)
• shot linen
• purple linen
• sideless surcoat
• tunica 
• white linen

Shared Items

• hoods
• blue linen - cut out, needs construction (8/23)
• brown linen
• black/gold parti-color

Other Projects

• Midrealm Royal infrastructure documentation and schedule (book)
  
• Midrealm Royal shield documentation (booklet)
• Midrealm Royal shower documentation (booklet)
• Midrealm Royal gate tent documentation (booklet)
• Midrealm Royal independent shire heraldry (hanging plaques)
• Midrealm Royal missing award heraldry (hanging plaques)
• Pennsic Tent or Camp Projects
• Stamp (decorate) interior curtains
• Paint carousel tent
• Paint day shade

Under Pressure - Pennsic 2022

Crispin's Wardrobe Refresh

1. hunter green linen tunic
2. apple green linen tunic
3. cream linen tunic
4. grey linen tunic
5. black/white linen tunic
6. brown linen tunic
7. white linen braies
8. white linen braies
9. cream linen braies
10. cream linen braies
11. cream linen braies
12. apple green linen braies
13. hunter green linen hood
14. pale dove grey linen tunic
15. cream/green diamond short sleeved overcote
16. yellow/tabby cotehardie
17. yellow linen tunic (repair)

Gianna's Wardrobe Refresh

1. cream/green diamond surcoat
2. red/gold heavyweight overdress
3. 3.5 linen sleeveless smock/underdress
4. 3.5 linen sleeveless smock/underdress
5. red/yellow dalmatica (gift)
6. red/yellow dalmatica 
7. yellow linen hood - handwork project
8. 3.5 linen d-shaped veil - handwork project

Brown Wool Campi Dress

In late July, I decided I would like another Pennsic Project (TM) in the form of a lovely brown wool dress. I utilized the spare laced front patterned and quilted pieces not used with my red linen Campi-inspired dress and covered it with wool. The skirt consists of three roughly 48H by 58W rectangles of fabric, sewn selvage edges together vertically and hemmed.

Obviously, this didn't get done during Pennsic because I decided to take All The Classes and time during daylight hours was sparse. I picked up the project again in September to demonstrate hand sewing at a demo, then again for actual project completion slash deadline for January 9th's Twelfth Night in Pentamere for Mistress Crespine's covert addition to the Order of the Pelican.

Portrait of a Young Woman
Sandro Botticelli

When I initially pulled the dress fabric from storage, I was looking to give a nod to Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Woman (right). I had most of the bodice constructed and the finishing work done when I started musing on how exactly to do the ladder lacing. I wanted to try something other than rings on the inside which can cause puckering of the fabric, so I spoke with another seamstress who recommended sewing grosgrain or twill ribbon on the inside to form the ladder then lacing the ladder with ribbon or cording.

A fantastic idea if I hadn't already tacked down every piece of lining on the bodice! Due to the now time crunch, I decided to machine sew 5/8" cotton twill tape and use cotton lucet cord instead of ribbon. The side effect of not thinking this through all the way? I had to now place some trim on the front of the dress to cover the sewing machine thread runs.

Fortunately, I do enjoy hoarding trim I rarely use, so I pulled out a festive Calontir Trim in taupe, brown, red, and green and covered the sewing machine sins. It looked a bit plain, so I added trim down in more of a Campi style. Since my original idea was totally kiboshed, I chose to try my hand at unsupervised cartridge pleating.

Overall... I'd call this dress a success. It's not what I started out trying to make, but after six months of on and off thinking about it, it works quite well. One clever thing I've noticed is the friction of the lucet cord vs. the texture of the cotton twill ribbon means I do not have to tie off when I'm done lacing. It will hold true most of the day. Bonus!

Adding trim.

Cartridge pleats!

Camp Decorations

I took on the task of creating new decorations for the summer encampment or Pennsic home of Furies Keep. I initially had the idea to create banners for each person's heraldry, but that idea was quickly dropped under a pressing deadline (NOWM in June) and it morphed into something more easily mass produced and gave the suggestion of the person's heraldry.

Ginevra

Gianna

For instance, my heraldry is Per fess indented flory at the points sable and argent so I took the field division, roughly half and half horizontally, and the colors, black and white), and created the representation of arms.

Ginevra's heraldry is Azure, a tower argent surmounted by a fess gules fimbriated charged with three fleurs-de-lys Or and represented the primary color area, or field, as blue with red and gold accents.

Here's a picture of them hanging in our main dining hall.

Camp heraldic banners in action!

Throwing Shade

In all its glory...

Ginevra and I organize an annual bocce tournament at Northern Oaken War Maneuvers. In the past, we used a 10'x10' standard pop-up day shade that I lovingly painted with white nebuly (for Cleftlands) in the living room of my apartment. It served well for a number of years, but the paint used has begun to flake off and it was generally unappealing as a home base for something as auspicious as the Baroness' Bocce Tournament!

Fast forward to Red Dragon 2013 which hosted a day camp competition. I took a few pictures from the day of the setups that appealed the most and noticed that almost every picture was of (now) Mistress Genoveva von Lübeck setup and the simplicity of the canvas day shade and how great it looked.

Skip forward again and you land sometime in May of 2015. I've been working on the banner project for camp beautification at Pennsic and simply couldn't them all finished before NOWM where they were going to decorate the main pavilion. Whew! With that weight off my shoulder, I thought I could jam through another project on the back burner - a replacement day shade.

I had been speaking with Master Lorenzo Petrucci about his simple five pole day shade made out of a canvas tarp. Seemed simple enough, right? Five poles, some ropes, canvas and grommets. Easy! Except... I think even then I realized it probably wasn't what I want, especially knowing that there can be The Weather (TM) at NOWM, i.e. RAIN. I wish, nearly a year later, that I could remember the exact sequence of how it all came about, I just know it was all last minute.

Very. Last. Minute. (May 26, 2015 to be exact as I just confirmed my fabric order date!)

Mistress Genoveva posted Tutorial: Simple Canvas Dayshade for Events (with or without wings) on her blog at Honor Before Victory in June 2014. I had it on the radar for ages and the fire was lit.

• I order an industrial Singer sewing machine from Amazon. 
• I order 10 yards of 10.10 OZ (60") Sunforger® Tent Canvas - FIRE RETARDANT. 
• I call Panther to order a metal ridge sleeve and stakes.
• I call Panther back because I would like to order some dags so the day shade matches my tent.
• I call Panther AGAIN because I would like to order some of the colored braid.

Game on.

While I wait for the materials to arrive, Meinhard and I quickly build the infrastructure - four poles and the ridge pole. We created the four ropes out of 3/8" synthetic rope.  I think we applied stain and polyurethane stained them at NOWM. 

The final bits of material arrived by Tuesday, June 5 and that's when the chaos really began. I already have Wednesday through Friday off since that is the traditionally the start of event setup for the event, so I get right to work once the materials arrive.

I ordered 60" wide fabric so I wouldn't have to make as many flat felled seams, which in theory sounded amazing. In retrospect, I think I was unprepared for the bulk that would need to be rolled up and fit under the neck of the sewing machine. I attached the dag material from Panther on with a flat fell then used the black braid edging around the perimeter of the entire day shade. I measured out the locations for the reinforced fabric grommet patches and attached them. A final panicked call to Oliver Stillman for use of his behemoth grommet setter finished the project.

And then I go to NOWM on Thursday morning. (So this chaos all transpires in a 36 hour period.)

Why no in process pictures, you ask? Because I just didn't think about it with the time crunch! I ran in to a lot of sewing machine problems and the sheer weight of that much fabric pulling off the table. I could actually function and get some seams sewn when I called in help from Meinhard to simply support the weight so it would stop pulling on the needle.

TLDR> I made a day shade and it is awesome. :)

The new day shade at the almost-finished bocce list of Northern Oaken War Maneuvers.

A Valentines Day Massacre

One of the premier fighting and shopping events of the Midrealm is St. Valentine's Day Massacre, or Val Day as it is commonly known. I've traveled to the wilds of Kalamazoo once before for the event and it was grand, but I haven't made it the last four years. This is the year of a historic Baronial investiture, a pairing of mother and daughter to lead the Barony, and one of them is a member of our Sisterhood. To support them during this time, the Team has made preparations to head north for the investiture... and to look dapper while doing it.

Ginevra has been documenting the steps of creating her dress for Val Day and it sort of guilted inspired me to do a little sewing of my own. The stash fabric on the right has been languishing in my closet for at least five years; it was a Pennsic purchase that I didn't have anything particularly in mind for. It doesn't exactly scream Italian, but it's pretty and Italy did enough trade with the Turks/Persians, that I figured it was OK.

The whole project started off well enough. I had just enough fabric for three rectangle skirt panels at 47 inches long, plus enough material for a bodice and sleeves. Success! I wanted to try using the gamurra block pattern since it is flexible, custom, and worked well when I made all my easy wear items for Pennsic. The skirt construction was easy, three straight seams, so I moved quickly on to the bodice where I used two layers of linen/cotton fustian heavy weight fabric and a medium weight white linen as lining. I felt I had some time, so I added channels and hemp boning, just like my other Italian gowns. A bit more sewing and the bodice was done.

It was a piece of cake.

And then I tried on the bodice. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson about cake when watching Labyrinth a thousand times. The bodice was a bitter piece of marble cake and a bit of a hot mess. It didn't fit quite as well as I would have liked and the neckline was just that - at my neck. The nuns called and said I was pious enough for the convent it was so high and modest. Not exactly what I was going for, so back to the cutting board.

It was Wednesday night, meeting night, and already after work. I threw the section of material I had set aside for sleeves down and very quickly cut out a new bodice with proper pieces from Period Pattern, Italian renaissance, view VII. It went together more quickly than expected (without boning, alas.) And on Thursday, I was hand sewing towards the end of the business day so I could attach the skirt and sew down the lining by the end of night. I was able to throw a hail Mary pass and get it into enough shape to wear it, but the fit still leaves a little to be desired. It will still need to be taken in a little to make it worth wearing again.