Medieval week 2024

The week, the one and only week, the Medievalweek in Visby. The highlight of the year. And it is over! But the memories are still there. Every time I go home from that week I think about all of those who only have that week, who dont do anything medieval for the rest of the year. And that breaks my heart a little, imagine to only have one week a year to do the best thing in the world. What a horrible thought! My next event is a market in two weeks and a tournament in three. Anyhow...

The week was a little bit different for me though. I stayed with my tent in a new camp. And they took such good care of me. Made me feel like one of them from the start. The camp was open for tourists during the day, with activities for them to try. I was sewing the entire time, making a pair of pants for a friend. What I do every day anyway, right!

I brought my new tent this time. I bought it as a market-tent but after realizing it was waterproof I thought, better safe than sorry. Last medievalweek was so wet and windy that it was more a question about surviving than anything else. And I didnt feel like doing that again. And I had only used it ones, for a market in july, so I thought I needed to try it with all my furniture. Could have been done better... next time! But I did have new curtains to hide modern stuff behind and it look quite cosy like this, doesn't it?!

And this is the main part of camp. During medieval week in Visby there are a couple of small camps and the big medieval/SCA-camp where I have stayed before. In the big camp anyone can stay but in this small one you need an invite to join. I think we where about 40 people in it this year. 

I was fortunate to also have two very talented photographers close by, Sarah, that took the pictures from Doublewars and Nancy, a new friend of mine. Both took some amazing photos of me and my clothing during the week. 

Nancy Coste took this photo. Im wearing a  dress I thought I would never wear again. This dress where made 10 years ago, when I still did clothing for a woman of the tross. The inspiration for this came from a painting in the Triumphs of Maximilian-series, ordered by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The dress in the painting was pink with red guards, that is the only difference. Anyhow...noticing Im not wearing a smocked shirt, an oxmule-shoe or the typical headgear for a trossfrau? I know, it was on purpose. Most women of the tross came from a farmer background and wore clothing from that social class. So Im simply a farmers wife in this...or a trossfrau, both works. Something to think about when doing "landsknecht". I like it a lot.  

Nancy took this one too. This dress where made for medieval week. Or at least finished in time for it. My thought with this dress is to represent a kirtle for a wealthier city dweller or maybe even low nobility. I wanted something to wear when it was nice weather that I could wear my sca jewellery with. It does not feel proper to wear jewellery with my farmers outfit for example. Im wearing my new green kirtle with a white shirt and a silk hairnet.  

This is the same outfit, but with my Schurz, an apron surrounding the whole skirt. Two examples of this kind of apron can be seen in a painting by Hans Wertinger, The Labors of the month, from 1525. One woman in the painting is actually wearing it like this, on top of a sleeveless kirtle. She is also wearing a white shirt underneath.

This photo is take by Sarah Rosenquist.

And, at last, my favorite, the farmers outfit. This is probably the outfit I feel most like myself in. You cant really see but Im wearing a kirtle in undyed wool on top of an undyed shirt. On top of the kirtle Im wearing the same apron, the schurz, and a gollar in linen. I need to make more undyed shirts. It would not be proper to have a white shirt with this clothing. Is undyed the right word? Unbleached? Not white, you get it. I only have two, and that wont work for a week in the middle of summer. I did not, however, by any more linen, what was I thinking?! Well, the long events are done for the year, only weekend-events left. But for next year!

Sarah took this photo too. The city wall in the background is just magical.

German workingclass outfit....again...but with a rock!

The farmer-outfit has quickly become my favorite, German 16th century of course. I feel so like myself in it. And I have all the different layers that one might need, kirtle and gown, and a couple of different headwear and of course, my jacket.

At Doublewars this year me and the brilliant Sarah Rosenquist got a chance to take picture of the entire outfit. The light was beautiful.

We had great fun and even though I have not been in front of her camera before she made me comfortable and the pictures came out great.

Im wearing a shirt, a hemd in german, in natural linen, hand sewn with waxed linen thread. On top of that the sleeveless kirtle, a unterrock in german, in undyed wool. Also handsewn, with waxed linen thread. Its closed by eyelets at the front. And a smocked apron. Its not uncommon to see farmers working in this kind of outfit, without all the proper layers. As you see here for example! I really like showing of my inspiration like this, like a before- and after picture...

I really like this headwear, its something else from the ordinary steuchlein with the wulsthaube and sleier. I use a false braid that I place far back on my head and secure it with pins...a lot of pins. After that I tie on the headband and wrap a sleier on the top of the braid. It stays on fairly well. Its the pins and headband together. Young ladies were allowed to have a thin headband in silk, even as farmers. And I think that this headwear were used by newlyweds, still showing of their silk headband but covering a little more of the hair as married women. Its comfy and not to warm, even though the veil is actually made out of a thin wool fabric in this case. I have pictures of the woodcut used as inspiration for this headwear in other posts here on the blog.

The monochrome expression reminds me of harvest-outfits that are preserved from some of the parishes in Sweden used during the 19th century.  It says something about how old some of the folkcostumes really are.

On top of the kirtle, the unterrock, Im using my gown, the rock, in German. I didnt like the colour of it at first, I thought it was a bit to strong, but it do look good together. As you can see, both the unterrock and rock are quite short, to be able to work in them. And the shoe is not a oxmule shoe, they did actually use other kinds of shoes in Germany during the 16th century. Its a quite plain shoe, practical.

Its the same apron that Im wearing in the first picture, just on top of the rock this time. Im also wearing a simple narrow leather belt.

And the shirt has a rounded neckline, not to deep. Did you know that it was against sumptuary law to have a neckline to deep? You would get a fine if you had. Sometimes I wear a linen gollar on top of the shirt to cover up a bit more. You can also wear a linen gollar on top of the unterrock, between the two dresses. Or on top of the gown. A lot of uses for a linen gollar...

I really like this picture above!

And at last, the jacket. In southern Germany the jacket was called Brüstlein or Brüstla. And there is a lot of ways to make jackets, but this particular kind is very common for a farmers wife. With a little longer "skirt" on it. And remember, no shoulderwings on german jackets.

I really like this colour-combo actually...

The only thing I dont like about this outfit is the neckline of the jacket. Its to low. Totally historical, but it gets cold. I could use a wool gollar on top, but it does not feel right, this outfit is done like this. So I might do another jacket. But it works fine to use a kerchief like this too. I might just use a bigger thicker scarf if I need it to be even warmer. I have another rock, the pink one if you remember it, that actually is big enough to go on top of all this. During medievalweek in Visby last year I used it on top quite a lot, it was so rainy and cold. It was not the plan from the beginning, I simply made it to big...

Photo: Sarah Rosenquist.

Embroidered shirt - silk on linen

A lot of the post lately has started with me saying that I havent been writing in a long time, and so will this one. I have been working on orders for others, a lot of sprang actually, and that is always fun. But I have already posted a lot of info on the Lengberg sprang here, and doing the same pattern again and again does not make a good post... But while doing orders I have been working on something new for myself on the side. A shirt with embroideries, something that takes a long time to make and therefore is suitable for a project to do meanwhile. 

Embroideries nowadays is something I do to relaxe, that has changed during the years sense I made the big cap with embroideries, able to see here. Something that I found difficult is now something I almost dont want to finish because its so relaxing while going on. 

 

 

I chose to make a shirt with a separate embroidered worked collar. The fabric is gathered into the collar after the embroidery was finished. I also made a little ruffle. The cuffs are made the same way. The bodies consists of the whole wide of the fabric, 150 cm, folded and with shoulderseams. That is one way of making a shirt if you dont want to gather the entire amount of fabric into the collar. The cuffs and collar are closed with a string and worked bars. They are made with a white silk thread. The fabric is bought from Medeltidsmode and found here. The shirt is handsewn with waxed linen thread.

 

The pattern has a quite gotic feel to it, very symmetrical but were printed in both Schönsperger and Quentel´s patternbooks, 1529 and 1532/1544. It might be older than that and reused in the patternbooks. The pattern is available with and without pointy edges. I used the one with straight edges. And I worked with cross stitch in silk directly on the fabric of the shirt. I used the same colour as for the embroidered cap which is three different colours of silk put together. Why make things simple?!

 

 

 

 

 

The patternbooks is now at The Metropolitan museum of Art in New York. This page here is from Quentels book and show the pattern as I used it, without the pointy edges. Its the second pattern from the top. Here you can look at it yourself. 

 

 

 

There is a lot of inspiration out there and here are some of mine used for this project. All from the same period of time as the printed pattern.