Renaissance Faire!

On Sunday my friends and I went to the Southern California Pleasure Faire and had a blast. There was an Easter parade for the kids, and we spent more time watching shows than we had in previous years. I wore a costume I made up quickly and quietly a few months ago, my Vik-torian costume.

The inspiration with a comment by a friend about trying to mix Viking and Victorian components in a steampunk-ish style. I had trouble with the design at first, until I realized that the bunad, the national costume of Norway, came into being in the 1800s. My mother is Norwegian, and what better why to progress the Viking aesthetic into the Victorian era than by looking at the clothes of the people in Scandinavia.  I pulled together ideas like these:

Pattern available here

This is similar to the cutting layout I used

This men's shirt pattern is how I made my shift

The modern inspiration came from this bunad from the Telemark region of Norway

I also altered the shirt to reflect the modern bunad blouse

And the resulting outfit:

The close-up

The shift/shirt is linen, stitched in the viking style with a keyhole neckline, but with modern cuffs. The neck is bound in store-bought bias tape and some fancy store bought trim circles the neck and cuffs. My tortoise brooches are slotted spoons with the handles broken off, wrapped in wire, with a safety pin on the underside. The double strand of beads are a collection of various bits, the belt was a blank one a stained dark and added a buckle. On the right side you can see my drinking horn (which I totally drank mead out of. Like a Viking.) The apron dress is black wool that I bought on clearance, and the under-bust corset bodice is red wool, with cotton canvas for strength and zip-ties for boning. A different trim goes around the top.

The lacing eyelets are jewellery clasps I bought, and it is laced with suede cord.

The the bottom of the apron dress has a different trim, and the bracers are scrap leather with metal grommets for lacing. I painted Viking sigils on them, the left prevents you from getting lost at sea and the right strikes fear in your opponents in battle. I also sewed on some fake fur trim, because a google search of Viking costumes will tell you that you're not a Viking unless you have fur on.
The costume was surprisingly comfortable, I was expecting worse considering I was wearing wool when the temperature was in the mid-80s. But the fabric was thin, the linen helped keep me comfortable, and the fact that I made the outfit knee length meant a had good air flow. I did have to let the corset out a bit, after lunch, but that was easy. I was particularly happy that I got to use my relic bag.

I knitted it a while ago out of a wool/bamboo blend, based off of this actual Renaissance bag:

My pattern in based off of the description of the Chur Purse. Note: although the gauge for the original is listed as 7 stitches per inch, they mean 7 stitches per centimeter. My bag is 7 stitches per inch.

So there you have it, Vik-torian costume at the Renaissance Faire. Now to get ready for my trip tomorrow, but one more pic before I go. Here is my cat, Ali, helping me draft of 18th century stays:

If the internet has taught me anything, it's that every sewing blog should have at least one photo of your cat "helping" you.

Sew Historical Fortnightly #7

So I just realized today that these challenges are the Historical Sew Fortnightly, not the Sew Historical Fortnightly. Well, it's in my brain wrong, so it will take a while to correct. Anyhoo.

I had originally planned to knit a pair of socks for this challenge, but I'm having difficulty getting motivated to make the second, so I only have one sock to show. The socks are for Crowley, in a Scotch Plaid pattern. Since Crowley's Scottish, and since my Crowley has notoriously cold feet and could benefit from some thick colorwork stockings, it seemed perfect.

This is the image from Weldon's Practical Knitter, Twelfth Series. Though I can't find a date for this specific series, the publication started in 1885, and then were reprinted into larger collections in 1888. So the pattern is late 1880s. The original pattern was top down, knit on size 14 needles (Modern size 00, or 1.75mm). They were also intended for a man. Since I was making them for a friend with small, girly feet, I decided to knit the pattern from the toe up, since this made it easier for me to keep the pattern centered. I also used larger needles, size 3 or 3.25mm. These are a bit too large for Victorian stockings, but acceptably small for modern socks.

I used Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters Book One to work out a new pattern. I love this book. I use it for all my socks. There's charts where you match your foot size to your gauge and it tells you how many stitches you need for each section of the sock. It's literally a book of how to math socks. Also, I totally spilled tea on it at one point. Here is what I came up with:

It was hard keeping the sock in the light, and my phone didn't want to pick up the colorwork. You can see the Scotch Plaid pattern starts after the single color toe, continues up the leg, and ends at the striped ribbing. The heel is also striped. The breakdown:
The Challenge:  Tops and Toes

Fabric:  Brown and blue wool yarn

Pattern: Gentleman's Stocking, from Weldon's Practical Knitter, reinterpreted by Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters

Year: This pattern shows up in the Practical Needlework compilation Vol. 5, and assuming those came out once a year, would put this pattern between 1885 and 1892.

Notions:  A set of Size 3 double pointed needles.

How historically accurate is it?  The gauge is too loose, and while socks knit from the toe up have been found before this time period it wasn't common in the Victorian era. The colors and yarns are good, though maybe a little thick considering the suggested needle size. I'd say 50% at best, the construction is extremely modern if you know what to look for.

Hours to complete:  No clue. I didn't have all the numbers when I started this project, so I was stalled waiting for my friend to measure her feet and text me the numbers.

First worn:  Not worn yet. I'm sure once I complete the other one and get them to my friend they'll get regular use.

Total cost:  $27, but that was for the two colors. A single ball would have been enough to knit a pair of stockings, so I'll have a lot of yarn left over.

Goals for April

These are my goals for this month, posted in order to keep me actively working on them and not get distracted by all the other pretty things I want to make:

Castiel's corset

Gabriel's corset

Samifer's bustle

Samifer's petticoat

Crowley's socks, for the next HSF challenge, Tops and Toes.

I still don't have the busks for the two corsets, but if I can get everything else done it'll qualify. Each corset takes me about a week, since I'm not good about just sitting down and hammering one out. My bustle took about a day, and I'm expecting no different for Samifer's. I expect three, maybe four days for the petticoat, less if I can build up the enthusiasm. I already have one of the socks done, so if I can do the other one it'll fulfil the challenge. I want to be finished with the underwear so I can finally start on the outerwear.

As of right now, things I still need to make before Halloween: 1 chemise, 1 drawers (set of drawers? Is it like pants, where you say pair of pants to refer to one?), 3 corsets, 4 bustles, 4 petticoats, 1-5 corset covers (depending of how badly the corset shows through), 4.5 pairs of socks, 5 skirts, 4 overskirts, 5 bodices, 1 jacket, and 1 cape. Also, maybe 5 pairs of boots.

The chemise, drawers, and bustles come together quickly, and if I figured out how to use the ruffler foot on my sewing machine I'm sure the petticoats would come together quicker. I still have seven months, not quite time to start panicking, but I do worry about getting things done on time. Especially because there are other things I'd like to make this year.

I'm also going to be visiting my folks for a week this month, so I may just take my sewing machine with me. Who knows? I might get all my shit done.

Still at it

I have the mock-up for my corset all done and good, so I moved on the Samifer's corset. I'll be doing the fitting tomorrow, but I already took what I learned from mine and applied it, such as making the bust an inch higher to begin with. If that's too much, I can mark the fabric and and transfer it to the pattern, but I'd rather start with too much and trim it down than to start with it too short and have to worry about making another. I realized I can only fit one mock-up at a time, since I only have one set of lacing strips. It's helped me pace myself. I've been working on lace for Crowley's chemise, as well as socks for Crowley. In Weldon's Practical Knitter Vol. 10 there's a pattern for Scotch plaid socks. They're two color, Fair Isle socks in a lovely pattern that's a hell of a lot easier than argyle. I also bought yarn for my socks (black wool), Samifer's (white wool), and Castiel's (black cotton). They have some nylon content so they won't be period correct, but I hate droopy socks. I still have to decide on sock color for Gabriel. I think he would have crazy socks, but I haven't decided. This project is making me ask the hard questions: "What color underwear would Lucifer wear?" "What kind of socks would Gabriel have?" "How do I take the excessive number of layers most actors wear on the show and fit it into the Victorian aesthetic of two, maybe three colors, and a bodice that matches the skirt?"

First World Problems

Motivation

I've decided that I should have a deadline for completing my flirty summer dress: the first day of Spring. That gives me almost two months, and I am already halfway done. Plus, there's a good chance that the weather will allow me to wear it on the first day of Spring. I figure I need to knit about two or three rows a day to finish it on time, and since I tend to knit on it when I'm walking, I can get about 12 rows in on a good day. Completely possible, and I should have enough yarn left over to make the underwear that everyone says I should make with the yarn.

New Territory

A while ago I started knitting "Kat's Pretty Pink Dress" from Greetings from Knit Cafe by Suzan Mischer. I love the book, and had always wanted to make the dress, but the yarn was too expensive. A few months back I found the perfect yarn for it, in the clearance bins. Got the yarn, got the needles, and started out without a gauge swatch. (You can tell where this is going, right?) After about an inch I realized it was really small, measured my gauge, and found out I was knitting at 6 sts per inch instead of 4.5 sts per inch. Rip rip rip, recalculate stitch total, start again. I am used to reworking stitch totals to fit my gauge. I very rarely get gauge, and prefer to adjust the pattern to my gauge than to keep trying with different needles or yarns. However, I always just switch out stitch totals at any given measurement, ignore row gauge, and knit the pattern exact as written. I've had less than desirable outcomes. Not this time. I accounted for my new row gauge, recalculated decrease rates, and got a few inches into it when I realized that the waist measurement will be too small. I'm skinny, but not 30 inch waist skinny. So I did something I've never done before. I measured myself at bust and waist, added some ease (since I'll have to wear a slip under the dress), measured the length between the two points, and working with the total length as the same rewrote the pattern to fit my body. The dress is worked from the bottom up, so I won't be able to try it on until it's finished, but I changed the pattern from pieces to being worked in the round so it should be more obvious if there is a mistake. Hopefully I'll have end up with a beautiful dress and a new skill in my repertoire.