We still have gloriously wonderful weather, and though that also means I'm sniffling a lot, (thank-you-hay-fever...NOT), I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Yesterday I spent a lot of the time allotted for sewing (which was most of the day, basically, to get things back on track where they are supposed to be) not exactly sewing, but basting. You know, those temporary stitches?

Turns out that the seam construction I chose for the lady's surcot works really well, but in order to have the fabric layers of the outer fabric and the lining lie nice and flat on each other, they need basting. Extensive basting. So that's what I did. For today, I still have one piece left to baste, left side of the lining, right side of the lining, left side of the upper fabric, right side of the upper fabric. (Yes, I tried using less baste lines. No, it won't work as well.) The upside of it - I got to bask in the sun while I was doing it.

And the worst bit about that surcot? I am totally in love with that gorgeous splendid brilliant blue, and the contrast it forms with the orange lining, and it feels so nice and squishy and warm that I totally want to keep it. Good thing it won't fit me. Still... this is going to be hard to let go.

Pics soon. Promise.

I have the situation almost under control again - I managed to battle the obstinate embellishment successfully yesterday.

Let me bring you up to speed. The red dress (of which you've seen the buttons) is supposed to have a silk trimming, in a nicely contrasting colour (bright yellow, in this case) around the neck opening. Now... narrow trimmings are no problem, but this one, inspired by the artwork in the Manesse codex, should rather be a wide one. And the silk, being not stiff (as most modern silks are), was putting on a bit of a fight.

Add to this the other minor delays due to other things, my being quite tired when I was first trying to tackle it, and you have something like "I won't get finished in time" panic. (The schedule for this project is very, very tight anyways.)

Now... I know that embellishments take an unnaturally long time (just like rows of buttons). That's their nature - they just do it. Sewing silk is slower work than wool, too. There's always the effect that when you are doing textile work that is more than just a tiny little bit of work, something crops up and stuff takes longer than foreseen, or is suddenly more complicated. (All the textile crafters I know agree on this. We try to figure this in best we can... but it won't always work.) So I had planned accordingly.

However, when the thing did not want to lie flat, as it was supposed to... well. Let's say the worst thing about stuff like that happening, when you are working on your own, is not the fact that something will take a bit longer, or that you might have to re-do a bit of the work. The worst thing is that you can start doubting yourself, and your planning, and start to slide into the gentle onset of not-so-gentle panic... which is, ironically, not a good state of mind to tackle a problematic piece of work. (Jim C. Hines, coincidentally, has the perfect accompanying blog post about this today.)

So I did what I had to do: took a deep breath, tried to be gentle with myself yesterday, and worked on another piece for a bit. And then, when I revisited that facing... it wasn't that bad and hopeless after all. A little tweaking here, a little finagling there, a bit of trimming, some coffee and a few sighs (and using way, way more pins that I usually do!), and it turned out okay.

Which means that I'm feeling a lot better today, and that things are starting to feel back under control. Whew. I shall now proceed back to the lovely surcot I'm working on and get things completely back under control (or something close enough) so I can also catch up on my desk work a bit today.

Yesterday was one of those days. You know those days - they are the ones where nothing goes exactly as planned.

Today should be better - or so I hope. And I shall put it to the test right away, by getting to work and getting things done, hopefully without further complications and ados.

Meanwhile, here's a link to a book review of a new book about natural dyes.

And a translation table so you know what a Brit means when they say something polite.

Now... off to make some bits of fabric stay together...

The sun has come out, which means the winter garden will very, very soon be warm enough to sit and sew. Diverse things and happenings have conspired this week to throw me back from the point I wanted to be at today, sewing-wise, so I am equipped with a thermos full of tea and one of my favourite mugs (I accumulate those, it seems) and I still have a few last gruesome chapters of the Nibelungenlied left.

So... I shall take my cup and leave the cat sleeping here, keeping my desk company. While I shall sit in the sun and listen to how Ruedeger, the most tragic figure in the whole of the Nibelungen song, finds his bloody end.

How fitting that the lady's dress is a deep, deep red.

I owe you a chili recipe, and there's actually a sizeable stack of other stuff that I could blog about, but I have the strong urge to blog other stuff today. You will know why in a moment:

Maybe you've heard of Juan de Alcega's "Tailor's Pattern Book" - it's basically a book with instructions how to place your patterns on fabric so that there's as little waste as possible. There seem to be three similar books, also from the 16th century, from Austria - and they are being published as a Kickstarter campaign. (Kickstarter is a really cool thing.)

Also, the Blogging Archaeology Carnival roundup for February is over at Doug's place. It's not that big, this time; a lot of participants seem to have had the same problem with the open question as I had. There's also the last question for the carnival - I'm a bit sad it's already over, I was enjoying this!

Also: Meet a finished sleeve with cloth buttons.






The only thing left to do on this sleeve is pull out the marker basting thread (on the back, for marking where the edge should fall) and the basting thread for making the hem. And I will pull these once the second sleeve is hemmed, too.

Cloth buttons are a lot of work - each time I make these, I think to myself "I so know why buttons were considered a chic thing". But they are also so beautiful... and having a finished piece with buttons, such as that sleeve, that is something really, really nice.

(Just in case you wonder: the white sewing thread used to attach the buttons is invisible when they are closed. They sit smack on the fabric with their little bottoms.)

I will now leave you with a riot of colours. Colours, I might mention, that all live on wool. Except one, who lives on silk. And I am allowed to cut into each of them. Muahahaha.





The picture does not do them justice - they are lovely, and brilliant, and totally awesomely beautiful. At the moment, they make a fluffy stack of joy in our living-room and draw my eye every time I go past them. There's one almost-black and one black to the right, on different cloths; these will become legwear. And the darker orange shade you see to the left? That's a piece of cloth 1.5 m wide and 5 m long. Dyed in one piece. Spotless. No better dyer than Sabine, I tell you.

I didn't get around to working on the exact stuff I was planning on yesterday (there's a last fitting control needed, and that did not happen), but I did get a good bit of stuff done. This included some refresher research about the development of trousers from hose, and puzzling over how that happened, and when.

And what the guys in the Manesse Codex probably wore underneath. You see, normally you don't see that. And the codex is dated to the early 14th century, but it depicts clothes that are seemingly more in the traditional style, with long tunics for the men.
So the big question for me is... would they wear something more like the traditional wide underpants, and hose that go only to the middle of the thigh in the back? Or already the shorter, tighter underpants and hose that go up higher? Both would be possible for the early 14th century.

I'm still not decided on this. I have made, however, both an old-style wide "bruoch" and a younger-style shorter one, roughly resembling the underwear shown in the Tacuinum Sanitatis:

Threshing scene from the Tacuinum Sanitatis, c 1365. Picture source: BRUNNER, K. & DAIM, F. (2002) Ritter Knappen Edelfrauen. Das Rittertum im Mittelalter, Frechen, Komet.

As you can see, the underwear is short - both the shirt and the pants, and he's not wearing anything else since he's threshing (thank goodness that was such an itchy and sweaty job, it makes for a good number of pics of guys in deshabillé).

I've based the shirt I made for the Manesse garments roughly on this - the sleeves on my version are a bit longer, and it's cut with a little more ease, and it has no shoulder seams, but the type is the same. So at the moment I'm leaning towards the short version for the pants... but I'm not completely decided yet. I am planning to cut the man's hose tonight, and until then, I have time to think. (Ideas from you, dear readers, or other input are, as always, very welcome.)

Oh, and on a completely different note? There's the smell of damp wool in our bathroom - I finished my socks yesterday, and now am waiting until they are done drying after their inaugural soak. (There was no proper blocking after the soak. There is no proper blocking necessary - the fabric is so firm that nothing happens when they are soaked, except they feel even firmer.)

Sewing project update: The first buttons are attached to the sleeve of the red dress. I tried to snap a photo this morning, but found that I need either much more light or a tripod and was too lazy to get the latter. It's beautiful, though - the red is an incredibly lovely colour.

There's also a next project lining up for when the current one is finished - including an altar linen, something that is weirdly exciting to do. It's no spectacular work, just a very simple cloth, hemmed and pieced together in the middle, with no embroidery or other special effects, but the altar vestments are such an important part of religious life and thus of medieval culture that it is super-exciting for me to do.

We're also working on finishing up the paper about our dyeing experiments of the last two Textile Forums - one of them is a little late, but I'm (or we) are trying to make up for that with the second one.

For those of you who read German, there's a very interesting article on Archaeologik about how the public (especially that part going on treasure hunts with metal detectors) sees archaeologists. Not nice to read - but important to keep in mind: Sensational stories about treasures shift the impression of the public towards the find, not towards research.

Also in German: the guy behind Tribur is working on reconstructing the carolingian sword-belt-thingie.

Not in German, not medieval, but really cool: Geek Knitting Links and more of the same.