Techniques used--outline stitch, Bayeux stitch, chain stitch. Pearl cotton on linen

I made an embroidered pouch (my first) for my Laurel.  I wanted to show my appreciation with a gift, so I chose a simple linen embroidered pouch.

I created an embroidered edge:

Embroidered braid.

Finished edge, using buttonhole stitch along the drawstring casing.  I don’t have a picture of the completed pouch–I’ll ask my Laurel for a picture of it.  :)

Drawstring casing.

Special thanks to Racaire from Racaire’s Embroidery and Needlework for the inspiration and tutorials.  Check out her website:  http://embroidery.racaire.at/

According to Ingrid Loschek’s Costume Lexicon (ISBN 3150103436):

“Gefrens, das, aus einem metallenen Kopfreifen mit daran befestigten
langen Fransen bestehender Zierat, der zwischen den Zöpfen das glatte
Haar des Hinterhauptes bedeckte. (Das geflochtene und mit Zierschnüren
geschmückte Haar wurde meist hinaufgebunden und bedeckte die Ohren.)
Das Gefrens war vor allem im späten 15. Jh., aber auch noch Anfang 16.
Jh. im deutschen Raum gebräuchlich.”

Translation:

Gefrens that, from a metal head with a tire attached long fringes of existing ornaments, the braids covered between the smooth hair of the occiput. (That was braided and adorned with decorative lacing hair usually tied up and covered his ears.) The Gefrens was mainly late 15thCentury, but even the top 16 Century common in Germany.

So in understandable terms:

A Gefrens is a fringed headband; the fringe hangs down in back, covering the nape of the neck.

I have seen images of Gefrens that look like yarn, and ones that look like metal or beaded fringe.

Red Gefrens

Green, perhaps multi-colored Gefrens

Beaded gold Gefrens, Hans Part, the Brabenberger family tree. Swabian, but very similar.

Both ladies wear Gefrens--one with a pleated veil, one without

I set out to make both the pleated veil and the gefrens.  The veil is simple to make. I simply made a strip of pleated linen, stitching it into place, and sewing it to a large trapezoidal piece of linen.  I pin it into place in the back, and tuck the ends under.

Pleated veil

Of course, under it is my unterhaub with attached wulst:

Unterhaube with wulst (bulge) attached

Held into place with a small square veil folded in half and tied in the back.

Next, I wanted to try to make the Gefrens:

The band is tablet-woven using eight strands of pearl cotton on two tablets.

Close-up view

The red worsted wool fringe is woven in as weft.

Close-up of woven-in fringe.

Finished and trimmed.

I'm slightly wacky looking here with the pleated veil and Gefrens.

Franken-er-New wool Housebook Dress

I’ve been wanting to make my next German dress, also known as the Housebook Dress, in wool.  I had made an over-the-head quick kirtle out of lovely blue wool over  a year ago, but wanted to make it into something fancier.

pretty quick and dirty wool kirtle for a fall event

I had even started the process of  transformation

Chalking in the changes.

The back before the new armskye.

The new armskye. This is a little scary--I'm not sure if this'll work.

but got frustrated with the lack of extra wool, and the need to have a cooler dress overruled my obsession with fixing the wool dress.  I made my first Housebook dress in linen, and it came out pretty well.  There are a few issues that I am still working on in regards to construction:  pleats, closures, and the grande assiette sleeve.

Here are a couple examples of the Housebook Dress as a refresher:

Back pleated panel

Pleats

See the pleats in the front of the dress?  I originally made my pleats using cartridge pleating.

Stitches pulled tight

Which looked *okay*, but after a few wearings and washings started to get all wiggly and weird:

Notice the odd ziggy zaggy folds...

So I thought I might recreate this dress and its pleating system a little differently.  An awesome seamstress, pattern master, and all around awesome lady, Kass McGann, steered me toward a completely different approach:  stuffed pleats.

Stuffed pleats are just what they seem they should be:  little rolls of fabric sewn inside a pleat.

But first, a DISCLAIMER:

This dress is unofficially called “Frankendress” because of its piecemeal nature.  I used a dress that was originally a simple over-the-head jobby, and I had maybe one yard of wool fabric left over to make additions/changes.   Out of that comes my wool Housebook dress.

Here’s how I made stuffed pleats:

Here's a panel that will be sewn into the front of the dress, which has a small cut-out to accomodate it.

Rolled linen to stuff the pleats. These pieces are about 2 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches

Here I'm placing a linen roll into the panel (there were already 2 pleats sewn in when I took the picture).

I pin the rolled linen inside.

A running stitch is sewn to catch the rolled linen inside.

I whip-stitch the pleats closed on the inside of the panel, which is lined in linen. I'm left-handed, so my sewing always progresses left to right.

Once the pleats were stuffed, I sewed the upper part of the panel in by hand.

The back panel is in. The funny seams in the panel are a result of being resourceful with fabric.

Closure

It was difficult to achieve full frontal closure on the linen dress, so I chose to sew the front closed and create eyelets in the side so that I could lace it closed.

For the wool dress, I am (so far, anyway) closing it in the front using handmade brass hooks and eyes for the top part, and just eyes for the lower part for lacing.

hooks and eyes above the pleated panel

The brass "eyes"

Grande Assiette Sleeves

The linen Housebook dress had 3/4 length laced sleeves that allowed the hemd (chemise) to show from behind/under the arm.

I felt that the arm-opening could be more *ahem* Grande, so I made it larger, which also required a larger sleeve:

Front of sleeve showing gore

 Almost finished

See how the pleats look like they're "gapping" toward the lower part of the pleating? I think strategic placement of lacing rings on the inside will resolve this issue.

Back view of dress.

So that’s the progress for now.  I am adding burgundy wool to the bottom of the dress and at the ends of the sleeve openings.  The bodice is lined; the rest of the dress is not.  I will wear a hemd and a skirt under the dress.  I need to research whether they wore a kirtle-like garment under the dress, over the hemd, or if it was indeed a skirt.  Any ideas?  Please leave me some constructive comments!

I will also be adding my pleated steuchlein and gefrens projects soon!

I spent some time taking in the dress at the side seams, making eyelets at the side so that I could get into it.  I think this makes the dress fit much better:

The dress is finished!  Except for the seam finishing, it’s all done.  I discovered that I had cut the dress too short, so I added a strip of maroonish linen to the bottom edge, which I think actually looks quite nice.  Simple enough.  I also decided to sew the bodice shut almost to the top, with eyes to lace up the topmost part.  There was just too much of a puckery gap when it was laced shut.  The left side of the dress is closed with hooks and eyes.  I’m not completely happy with the fit, so there will be more adjustments. I will also be making a hemd (gathered neckline chemise) to wear under it.    Here are pictures of the finished(ish) dress:

Next, I set the pleated panel into the bodice.  This was a big moment–I’ve never done this before!

After I set in the panel, I hand-sewed the top and part of the sides.

The rest of the panel was carefully machine stitched.  Some adjustments to the pleats were necessary to get a good fit.

This is the back panel, pinned and ready for handsewing.

One of the front panels set in place, seen from the inside of the dress. I cut the front panel in half down the middle to make the finishing easier. I haven't decided whether to make eyelets or hooks and eyes for the closure.

The front panels sewn in.

Sleeve ties were made with red and white silk square fingerloop braid.  The ends were finished with brass chapes from Historic Enterprises.  I could have probably made them myself, but I didn’t think I’d have the time before Great Northeastern War.

After cutting out the pieces for the lining (yellow), I cut out the dress pieces in dark blue linen.  I chose to use linen so that I could wear this dress during the warm summer event season.

Left, front panel, right, back panel

I have such a great helper

sleeve with yellow lining showing, back pieces, sleeve with outside showing

front panels with side gores

I sewed the lining into the bodice at the same time that I stitched the bodice together. The sleeves are completely hand-sewn. The long seams are machine stitched.

back of bodice

The back panel has been marked for pleating. The stitches will be at 1/2 inch increments, the top part to be pleated is about 7 inches.

The panel has been stitched

The back of the panel, showing cartridge pleat stitches, ready to be pulled tight. I used cotton quilt batting to create a firm, full pleat with definition.

This dress has fascinated me for months. I love the pleated detail found both in the front and back of the dress.  These (I think) were panels inserted in the bodice as separate pieces.  My theory is that these dresses were worn by women of childbearing age to allow for pregnancy, the pleated panels may have been adjustable to accommodate a growing baby bump.  Stehfaltenkleid means “standing pleat dress”.

Young Woman with Her Hair Done Up by Albrecht Durer

Nuremberg Virgin in Dance Dress by Albrecht Durer

Master of the Housebook "Aristotle and Phyllis"

Back pleated panel

I saw a wonderful tutorial/blog about how to make it here:  http://www.bettinaschreier.com/clothing/c_duerer.html

Much like Bettina, I fitted a bodice to make the correct shape for this dress.

Thanks to my husband, the chalk lines marking the front, back, and armholes are even!

X marks the side that looks the best

I used a pattern piece from another dress to draft from, which worked perfectly.  Note the top back neckline  —–>

I lowered that later.  When I used the pattern pieces for the final dress, I used only half of the front and back, making sure they were symmetrical.

The next challenge that I was really worried about was the sleeves.  I’d never drafted my own sleeve pattern before, and I knew I’d have to create grande assiette sleeves.  These are sleeves with big arm openings to allow for range of movement.  I saw Bettina use a t-shirt as a pattern. I didn’t get a picture of it, but I put on a fitted old t-shirt with long sleeves, put on my bodice pattern (I had cut the new arm openings and sewn the pattern pieces together), and had my husband trace the arm openings and draw a line down the back of the sleeve of  my t-shirt with a marker.  I took off the t-shirt and cut out the sleeve:

I placed the sleeve on a scrap of linen, making sure to make the sleeve slightly shorter for the 3/4 length sleeve.

Using the sleeve shape as a guide, I created a sleeve pattern that would fit the larger sleeve opening, and adding a small gore in the front and a larger one in the back.

Luckily, Bettina is much the same size as me, so the measurements she had, and the measurements I had matched pretty closely.  Just in case, I measured the armhole (25″), and the sleeve pattern’s top edge (19″)  That means I needed to add gores.  One small gore in the front that measured about 3 1/2″ along each side, and a larger gore in the back of the sleeve that measured about 6″ along each side. Seam allowances take up some of the extra fabric.  The back seam of the sleeve will actually be open and laced, so a curved cut was made about 6″ from the top of the sleeve edge.  Everyone’s measurements will be different, so my measurements should not be used as a guide.  I hope that at least my process will be helpful.  Bettina’s website tutorial was invaluable!

The sleeve mock-up. It fits perfectly! Sorry, no back shots...I couldn't reach behind my back with the camera.

From left to right: back bodice, sleeve and gores, front bodice

After cutting out the areas where the pleated panels will be inserted.

More to come…..

For the past several months, seemingly nothing.  Which is SO not true!  I’ve been busy learning illumination:

An illuminated "E". My first attempt at illumination. Not perfect, I know.

Someone FINALLY taught me how to nalbind:

Master Cedric of Thanet (who is also a Syr, but let's not complicate things) showed me a basic stitch. I think the Oslo?

I figured out how to work it in the round using this video:

I finally started on my Nuremberg dress, which I found out is called ’Stehfaltenkleid’ in German.  I found Bettina’s Pages (http://www.bettinaschreier.com/clothing/c_duerer.html) to be so helpful in figuring out how to go about making it.  I have made my bodice pattern and started drafting a sleeve pattern as well.  Next I will figure out the pleated panel on the front and back, and creating the full length pattern for the dress.

My friends Anya and Alys and I decided to make more soap, and to make it a demonstration workshop for anyone in the shire that wanted to come try out making soap.  Some lovely ladies and a couple of fellas showed up!

First, we wanted to make a more “period” soap by rendering fat to make tallow for the soap.  We’re not quite ready to make our own lye, but that will probably be our next step.  We used commercial lye (sodium hydroxide).  Baby steps for now.

A day or two before our demonstration, Anya rendered the fat for  the tallow.  It started out looking like this:

Beef tallow before melting...

And melted:

Tallow has mostly melted

And after it was strained, it looked like this:

This smelled weird. I was worried at this point that I would smell like meat after washing with the soap.

The strained tallow is on the right and has cooled. The bits that didn't melt are on the left...

Beef tallow makes the hardest soaps, so Anya chose beef fat from around the kidneys.

We made two kinds of soap: a very small batch of lavender and orange peel, and a larger batch of patchouli.

filling the 'mold' with the lavender soap

The lavender/orange peel hardened very quickly, so when Anya went to cut it, it was too hard.  A band saw will need to be used to cut it!

The patchouli/clove soap did something very strange.  It bubbled and expanded after it was poured into the molds.

The foaming looked strangely like root beer floats.

We now think it was doing something called seizing, which can be caused by certain oils or spices.  We think it was the clove that caused it.  When Anya cut the soaps, though, they seemed fine.  A little squidgy on the outside:

Strange formations.

Petra filling some molds with patchouli soap

But probably it will be fine.  We are definitely still learning!

Right now, the soap is curing for a couple of weeks before we can use them.

*UPDATE*  It is now May, and we’ve shared and used our soap almost all up.  I have one bar left .  We’re planning on another soap making adventure in the summer months, hopefully before it gets too hot.  The patchouli soap came out great, with a nice, mellow, non-overpowering scent.