Haithabu Bag Body and Embroidery

So, since Egils happened, and my wrist injury, my bag handles went on the back burner for a few weeks. That doesn't mean my whole bag did, though! Using the same green wool ( I had a lot of it lol), from my husbands hood, I cut out the shell of my bag. It'll be lined with a purple canvas.


I used a herringbone stitch to tack on a strip on maroon linen. I was planning on doing a double herring bone, but since this was my first time doing this stitch, I made them too small. lesson learned!

For the main focal point, I was going to embroider a charmander on a piece of maroon linen.. but then! I found a piece of gold silk that I had bought for another project a few years ago and never got around to using. so... I drew my design on to my linen, cut it out, and used iron inter facing to adhere the silk. I also used a herringbone stitch to attack then applique to my bag panel. I used a chain stitch to out/seal the edges of the linen.

I wasn't fond of how the single herringbone stitch looked on the outline of the charmander panel, so I'll be doing another layer in grey. I decided that I needed to add grey elsewhere to the bag, to keep it a little cohesive. I saw this on pinterest ( add me!!! www.pinterest.com/manderschan/ ), and thought it'd be a great way to add color. 

And here is what the charmander panel looks like so far. 

Haithabu Bag

While I was on pinterest the other day (you can follow me Here!), I saw the hedgby/ haithabu bag. Bags would make so much more sense for a viking lady compared to pouches, when you consider the lines of the clothing. I decided I needed to make one.. then, I saw one of my friends had also made one! It really set fire to my bag desire.

I decided to make my bag 12" x 12," in wool with a linen lining. My handle choice is inspired by the larger middle one, with the pretty rounded top.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot, where they have lumber that you can buy by the foot. I chose a 1" x 4" piece of walnut, that had some really nice grain. I had the associate cut it into two 12" pieces for me. After looking at my base image, and other bag handles, I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for design wise. I drew it on tracing paper first, so I could see how the grain would sit within the template. When I was happy with the placement, and how the overall design looked, I transferred my drawing onto a paper grocery bag to cut out. I used a 50¢ for the big sphere in the center, and the end pieces, while a quarter was used to everything else.

It's 12" wide, and about 3" inches tall. 

4/5

I have the first part of my handle cut! I haven't done a wood working project in about 14 years, so it's a process lol! My husband (who *is* a carver, et l'artiste extradenaire) helped me saw out the rounded bits, and showed me a few tips to make it easier to saw out.

Green Viking Hood

I made my lovely husband, Mr. Bellamy, a viking hood (kinda.. I cut it, pinned it, then he got excited and decided to hand sew it himself :D). As you might have read from my previous post, I had an army blanket cutting mishap; this is made from the wool scrap. I followed this tutorial here, but had to tweak it slightly since the mister is a larger guy. I just made everything a few inches bigger, and cut down the gussets until Mr. Bellamy was happy with the fit. He hand sewed the wool using a mustard cotton embroidery thread.

This was probably one of the easiest patterns to do. It's seriously only a rectangle, with two square gussets sewn into it.

 

We'll be adding linen trim along the bottom edges, and a possible lining. I also want to embroider a Vegvísir, (nordic compass) on the right hand shoulder; while not period, the vegvisir is a good for the vagabond Mr. Bellamy, and is easily recognizable as norse.

Green wool apron dress

Well, my pattern came in the mail today! I'm pretty excited about it. I looked a long time to find something that was suitable (it seems most patterns have the dress gores going into the armpit instead of the shoulder) - it took me like two days worth of internet scouring! To be honest, I got this idea from looking at Armstreet's "Ingrid the hearth keeper" - you can tell it isn't exactly a period cut, but it can pass the 10 foot rule.

Here's my project supplies! The wool more green in real life, I'm planning on modifying the pattern so that my dress will lace up the side. It's not document able, but it is practical. I also plan on doing applique at the hem line, similar to this.

Since I haven't had my measurments taken since I was married, I'm going to have to wait for Mr. Bellamy to come home and help with that before I get started.

3/26

I got my measurements taken care of =^,^=  the hubby had some apprehension about measuring me, so we ended up going to a tailoring shop down the way. It actually was a man's shop! so they didn't quite know what they were doing with me lol. I told Mr. Bellamy this would be the case, but he didn't believe me. ;p All's well though, he was able to get the idea and we were able to proceed to step two!

My offspring was reluctant to fall asleep tonight, so I had to put him to bed several times and cut out the pattern in spurts. I ended up making a small change to the pattern by not including the V cut out. I might do that to the final dress, but at this time, I'm unsure - mostly because the pattern calls for a lining to help the front panel keep it shape - the wool would make that very bulky. I don't believe that I'd need the lining there anyway, but I want to be on the safe side.

Since my fabric had a prior life as an army blanket, it's of slightly odd dimensions. I'm roughing out placement so avoid fabric waste - when I realized that I have no idea where my pushpins are. :/ I'll have to put this on hold for tonight, and hopefully work on it more tomarrow!


3/30

So. In a series of unfortunate events, I miscut my fabric. T,T I now have source similar fabric - which I might do by finding a white blanket the same weight as mine, and dying it. I've looked at several other army blankets and they don't appear to match in color, or weight :/

and so, the adventure continues. 

We go a viking!

I have been in a funk deciding on my new garb. My husband and I took a long hiatus from eventing, had a baby.. but now that things are settling down, I have to ask myself.. what shall I wear?! After several moves, most of my garb has disappeared. I was extreamly torn between wearing italian cira 1490, and viking.

I have a crazy hard time drafting patterns (I tried making crib sheets for my son's crib.. and it went wrong in every way. My math is quite bad, to say the least), so I was leaning towards italian as there are several patterns that can be modified to be reasonably historic. But then, while thrifiting at St. Vinnies, I stumbled upon a wool army blanket. It doesn't sound that appealing on paper, but it screams, "GARB!!!" For only $18, I got about 2 yards of  100% virgin wool in a reasonably period green.

I originally wanted to make my husband a tunic, but he has insisted that I go ahead make myself something.. the fabric seems like it would lend itself very well to a viking apron dress - and since Egils is only 2 months away. I guess that's what I'll make.

Now.. you might remember. I said I was bad at drafting patterns. Well, I decided to cheat. >.> I find a modern pattern that I can use as the base for my viking dress.