Smocking part 1

For the smocking I’m using what Wikipedia calls the surface honeycomb stitch. An excellent step by step guide can be seen here.

First try at the surface honeycomb stitch.

My first thought was to do the stitches with 1 cm between the rows. I then sewed a total of ten rows. That made the height of the smocking approximately 9 cm. Then I loosened the threads from the gathering stitches to look at the result.

Bah! The apron had a width of something like 15 cm – at the most! Believe me when I say it looked ridiculous! 🙂 Off to find the seam-picker and pick up all the stitches. Fortunately the honeycomb stitch is pretty quick once you get the hang of it, both to sew and to pick up…

On the second try I made rows with 1.5 cm between (or slightly wider). This made 6 rows and when I pulled out the threads from the gathering stitches the apron was 25 cm wide at the smocking. A much better result!

17 March 2009 6

More on aprons

So, having reached the conclusion that a smock is needed to make a gathered apron I decided it was time for me to try the technique. A while back Dis showed me the basics of smocking and it wasn’t all that complicated. I bought some linen at IKEA couple of months ago when I run out of it and decided to use that. It has a sturdy weight that I thought would work perfectly with aprons. I used half the width, about 70 cm, and the length of the apron is 90cm.

I sewed gathering stitches along the upper side of the apron. These stitches will help gather the fabric in even folds that I then can sew together with the smocking stitch. It’s approximately 1 cm between the stitches and the same between the rows of stitches. The later isn’t that important and I could probably have sewed the rows further apart. The distance between the stitches will determine the depth of the folds.

The fabric pulled together using the gathering stitch.

Tie a knot on one side of the apron and then pull on the threads to create the folds. I secured my thread with two separate bow-ties to make sure the tension was even. I’ve left 2 cm of fabrics at the top of the apron so that I have something to sew the waist tie on.

The apron is now ready for the smocking stitches.

16 March 2009 2

The gathered apron

There are plenty of period examples of the gathered apron. I especially like the women in the Luttrell Psalter, like this one. The Lutrell Psalter can be viewed on British Library Image Online, a great resource! The Tacuinum Sanitatis also shows several examples. One of my favorite examples is this one, it’s a diptych by Mayer Van den Bergh. The sources shows that this was a design used over a long period.

The gathering can be made in several different techniques. A really simple technique would be to sew long stitches and then bunch up the fabric by pulling the thread. This leaves a some what messy look and I think that if you take the time to sew an apron it wouldn’t take that much longer to make a more structured gathering. And it makes for a nicer result. Josefin shows the technique here.

Another way to make a gathering is some form of pleating. There are a number of different pleats to use. It could be something like the box pleat or perhaps a knife pleat.

I haven’t found many sources that point to these types of pleats being used during the period when we have gathered aprons. They are mentioned by Janet Arnold but not in the use of aprons. Looking at sources I don’t think that they give the right look, compared to Tacuinum Sanitatis for example. These aprons where used mainly by the working class. Is it really likely that women who spent the whole day in hard work took the time to neatly press their aprons after each wash?

Another way to do the pleating is smocking. It’s a structured way to do the gathering by doesn’t need any special attention after the washing except the usual ironing of some sort. The smock is an embroidery technique were the pleats are sewn together with small stitches. This technique is used extensively used in the later part of the middle ages and can be seen in several painting in the 16th century. Many people seems to think that this is the technique used on the aprons in the Luttrell Psalter where a black thread would be used to make the pattern.

An example of smocking from the book Educational Needlecraft

It’s my firm believe that to achieve the look we see in our sources of the gathered aprons you need to use some sort of smocking. It could be a simple honeycomb pattern in white or a more decorative pattern in black as those we see in the Luttrell Psalter.

15 March 2009 2

The apron project

I’ve been thinking a lot about aprons lately. It’s seems like that’s an area that we just take for granted, nobody seems to be making any research, at least not publicly. Karen Larsdotter has an excellent collection of links to pictures of people wearing aprons. So after looking through her pictures as well as all my resources in my bookcase I think I’ve narrowed it down to three primary types of aprons.

I call these main types the gathered apron, the smooth apron and the tucked in apron (as seen in the pictures). There are other types as well but they seems to be connected to a specific occupation such as a midwife or a smith.

Another popular type in SCA and reenactment is the triangular apron. I’ve read several people taking about sources for this type of apron, often mentioning paintings in Swedish medieval churches (possibly on Gotland) but I’ve never seen any pictorial evidence. If you’ve seen it, please let me know. There is one source for this type of apron in the calender “Ur medeltida kvinnoliv” it’s from Roman de la Rose. Funny enough Elina mentioned this a couple of days on her blog and she included the picture. I agree with her that it’s difficult to see this as a reliable source because of it’s (possibly) allegorical meaning. Never the less it seems like people like this type of apron as it covers a lot of your dress. I sewed one like this a couple of years ago and appropriate or not it works like a charm.

14 March 2009 0

Who are you?

Yesterday I hade over 40 hits on this blog – that’s amazing. And I have a feeling some of you have been here before. So why not leave a comment next time you see something good, bad, interesting or just horribly ugly.

I really want this to be a blog to find inspiration as well as exchanging ideas. Not a lot of dialog if it’s just me drowning on… 🙂 So, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, even if it’s just a few words! Thanks!

In relation to my latest project (shoes) I just want to show you a really interesting blog on the same subject.

Where are the elves?

William de Wyke from New Zeeland makes excellent medieval shoes based on medieval sources. I especially like these! Spiffy indeed.

12 March 2009 2

Sneak peek… in my notebook

10 March 2009 0

Mending socks – part 1

Nalbounding sock with annoying hole. — Nalbinding sock with annoying hole.

I might have mentioned a while back that mending my nalbinded socks was on my to-do list. Yesterday I gave it my first try. Wasn’t really sure how to proceed so I found some left over yarn and sewed a couple of times over the hole with big stitches. Then I secured the stitches with several knots. It became quite bulky but I figured it with even out when I full the sock.

Mending stitches on the right side of the sock.

Then I fulled the sock with lukewarm water and regular Swedish soap (Grönsåpa). It definitely got a lot less bulky and more fuzzy. But I can still see parts of the stitches so I’ll probably have another go with the soap tomorrow.

Right side of sock, first try at fulling.

Annoying fact: When I looked at the sock today when it hade dried I noticed another, much smaller, hole-to-be. Bah – I’ll try to full it together without any stitches. It might work.

05 March 2009 0

The tablet weaving experiment

I’ve updated the blog with a new page: The tablet weaving experiment. It’s been quite a while since I started this project but I’ve been to lazy to publish any pictures or documentation. A couple of weeks ago I finally washed and ironed the ribbons and took some pictures – voila! One less UFO!

The first to ribbons woven with the empty hole technique in thin wool. — The first two ribbons woven with the empty hole technique in thin wool.

Next I’m going to weave the pattern with silk thread. I have red and yellow but I’ll have to substitute the grey for white or some other appropriate colour.

On another note, I’m watching a movie – the Other Boleyn Girl. Pretty good so far, although I’m partial to anything featuring Natalie Portman… 🙂

27 February 2009 4

Silk Garters

I’ve finally assembled the documentation for the silk garters with pictures and uploaded it on the weaving page (scroll down below the picture).

I’m very pleased with the result. Biorn wore them at the University last weekend and they work well despite my consern for the lack of stretch in the weave.

The garters looked very spiffy and I’m starting to think about weaving more from that pattern. Probably won’t happen thought since it was a real pain in the §ss to keep the warp with an even tension. I have some thoughts about using weights to keep the tension even, like in a warp-weighted loom. We’ll see – it’s not like I haven’t got a million other projects… 😉

The checkered pattern of the tablet woven band.

26 February 2009 4

Event recap

It’s been a busy week so far with shire meeting and my mundane university class among other things. Now it’s finally time to write a few lines about the event.

We arrived on site half an hour past midnight on slippery roads due to the snow falling on Gotland. The site was the local heritage center, and we got to sleep on the stage in the big hall (a bit weird but at least we didn’t disturb anyone arriving late). Saturday started out busy with the first class at 9. I talked about documentation in my class, how to write and why. I had about 8 participants so it turned out to be a really great discussion! Then I went to the next class at 10 to listen to Åsa Vävare talk about medieval fabrics – very interesting. I also went to Raighnils class about head wear, it was interesting but a bit short. 700 years of head wear fashion in 1 hour… I expected a workshop but it was more like a quick overview. Still they did a good job.

After lunch and snacks we got to listen to a woman from Gotland University talk about her dissertation. It’s about how people (visiting Visby Medieval Week and the museum Jamtli) perceive history. Unfortunately her dissertation isn’t that good… it was a lot of “yep, I knew that” and definitely lacked that “this is the eye catching conclusion”.

I also had some time to look at Åsas new loom. It’s a rigid heddle loom, very small and easy to transport. It looks like this: loom. We also talked a bit about her project on Birgittas coif. Very interesting – must start experimenting!

At court I had the great privilege to announce the newest “guild mistress” (swedish: magister) in the Weavers Guild of Nordmark – Åsa Vävare! Yay for that! She’s a skilled weaver and it’s great that she’s willing to step forward and be recognized as one of the “I’m pretty confidant in my abilities – ask me and I shall help”-people. A bunch of other people got recognized with AoA:s, the Order of the Light (arts & science) and the Order of the Golden Ribbon (service). I got a Panache (kingdom A&S) which was especially honoring since the Queen herself had taken time time to make my scroll!

The feast followed with lots of good food. The theme was a mix of pasta, meat and cheese – what’s not to love?! 🙂 It was fun to sit down and talk to all the people that you seldom meet but I was so tired that I went to bed early. It was a really nice event and I hope they will do it again next year!

My to-do list for the next couple of weeks:

write some sort of article about documentation and what we discussed at my class
update the blog with my latest weaving projects – I just need to take some photos
update the blog with my apron-project!
finish my first Crafty Challenge project (Racaire, I’m almost finished! 🙂 )

25 February 2009 0