Sberna Diary

I'll be recreating the Sbernia (an Italian mantle with arm slits) from, "Portrait of a Lady," by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis (1485).

Portrait of a lady, Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis

1/27/2019

I was researching mantles in my Facebook sca groups. A few years ago, some one posted the details to a blog, Here. 

After reading this article, looking at more art and seeing half circle cloaks in person, it seems that a Sbernia is a half circle as well. Alcega's tailoring book (which you can down load here) has quite a few mantle patterns and lay outside in it. I'm having a small problem with choosing which pattern to use.

St. Catherine, Botticelli, 1475

Lady with an ermine, da Vinci, 1490

4/27/2019

After some serious thought, Mr. Badger and I made the pilgrimage up to the Washougal to hunt for some wool. 

Glorious, glorious wool. We bought two varieties for this sbernia project. The first  was one I wasn’t entirely happy with, and the second only had 3 yards. After washing the yardages in the washer.. the first piece came out beautifully. Lightly fulled and soft, with a beautiful drape. 

The second? Fulled to a big fluff. 

I’m going to end up using the first fabric. 

I’ve made a mock up, which I am relatively happy with... my couching work, however, is a different story. 

1/13/2020

this project has been in the works for so long that it has completely morphed! I'm using a historical Alcega pattern. I traced it onto my fabric with tallow soap, since Alcega mentioned using it in his book. 

I fold my fabric in half (long was)  and traced an egg shape. 

I cut each section along the line, and along the top fold. I machine sewed each seam with a straight stitch and hand finishing the edges with a whip stitch.

I have a nice gold silk that I will be using for the lining.  I will cut it the same way as above, but without the center back seam. I'll be felling the silk seams.

As in the Elenora di Toledo burial dress, I will be adding the lining in by folding in the outside edges, and whip stitching the two together.


3/30
Amid the pandemic quarantine, I have received my gold purl! I ordered 6 quantities from Here, which sells glut purl by the 50cm section. While the product is lovely, I think I will have to order more.

Luna's collection of links to tutorials, and materials

Fabric:

period fabric   (mostly medium to heavy weight wool)
Dormill Store    (nice selection, but pricey)
renaissance fabrics   (also sells silk and linen)
WM. booth draper (lovely selections)
carolina calicoes  (wool & linen)
Fabric Store   ( use ILOVELINEN to save 7%)
Wool trade (fair selection)
Fabric and art (cotton velvets and ribbon, etc)
faserhaus.com ( Good  variety of wool for early periods, and dye stuffs)
dharmatrading (Silk, Linen, Dye, etc)
B Black & sons (wool and linen. $$)
Silk Baron ( Silk )
Recreated-textiles ( wool fabric, and different spinning materials)
burnley & trowbridge (wool, linen and silks)
Elfriedes Fine Fabrics (wool and more, good prices)
Vogue Fabrics (swashes are $1, free shipping)
G street fabrics (silk,wool, linen)
96fabrics (wool,silk, + more )
fabric.com (many options)
Fabric Guru (nice sales! Wool/silk/more)

Crafting Materials:
high density cork (for chopines, etc)
Make your own Medieval (buckles, purse hangers, etc)


Tutorials:

Italian pocket purse, Saccoccia
great essays, especially on Italian dress   

London hood demo 
gollar with collar
gollar without collar
14th and 15th C., italian recipes
1570 artichoke and mozzarella crostata recipe
Girdle book cover
Woven button tutorial - back-stitched buttons
How to hand sew a rolled hem
Portuguese preserved oranges
Anonymous Venetian cookbook
DIY latchet shoes
Super simple neckline facing tutorial
Drawn Thead Work: The Hemstitch (Tutorial)


Italian Name Resources
Late period Italian women's names
Names of jewd in rome, in the 1550's
Names in 15th Century Florence and her Dominions: the Condado


Italian illuminations
Manuscript Illumination in Italy, 1400–1600


Helpful Articles
Women in frames

Tournabouni Chapel


Downloads:
Tailors pattern book, Juan de Alcega, 1580

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. 

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.