Greet's Middle Ages

Help me put a sail on The Byrdraka!

Photo courtesy Illy Brownlee, taken at Royal, AL.  Thank you so much!

As some of you may know, my husband is the instigator and chief crew member of The Byrdraka, a fictional Viking 'boat' which brings revelry places seaworthy craft cannot, since she is built on a 20' trailer.

(Follow her progress on Facebook!)

In that picture above, I'm sitting on her stage, getting sunburned.  For this and other reasons, we want to put a yardarm and sail on the boat, and I need YOUR HELP to learn how!

I don't really research/play Viking for myself (only as a Sif barmaid for the boat), so I'm not sure where to start.  I did research modern sailboats quite a bit last summer, so I know what it means when I read "The single square rigged sail allowed sailing close to the wind"...that doesn't help me build the yardarm and rigging necessary to hoist a useful shade-giving sail.

Please, make suggestions in the comments, and I'll start reading and posting progress and what I try out.  Thanks SO MUCH!

COMPILATION OF HELP

Longship Company (Facebook group, thanks Greg Hartley!)

Sailing Manual from the Longship Company (thanks Mark Blaydoe!)

The Gyrfalcon

Alison Fuch's collection of Viking rigging illustrations on Pinterest

Requoting diamond twill source

I mean to go look at this diamond twill...

 

Sounds like a re.seller who buys from these guys. I got mine direct at 
great prices, they do bulk as well if you
can be patient and wait if they do not have enough in stock. on them to 
put the order together.
Usually a couple of weeks for 10 or more. But well worth the wait and 
the blankets are great for cloaks. LOL.
Here is the direct link. Shhh it's a big secret kept by their 
re-sellers. LOL. http://www.loricamos.vizz.pl/tkanieuk.html

Sandy

On 2/08/2010 10:17 PM, LEWINS SHELAGH wrote:
> I got it from a friend who trades in Viking and Saxon wares, in England. I
> can put you in touch with him if you are interested.
>
> These are actually shawls / wide scarves. One would be enough for a top, or
> for an apron to hang down the front of an apron-dress. Or you might piece
> one into a more suitable shape for a small cloak - or make any number of
> hats, pouches, trimming strips etc. But you couldn't make a whole dress out
> of one. And because the colours vary (they are seconds, though I haven't
> seen any flaws in mine) I think you'd be hard-pressed to get enough the same
> to make a full garment. But I haven't seen his current stock, there might be
> 2 the same and that would probably do an apron-dress.

 Looks great to me! Pretty much looks like this down to the size of the repeats:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_35z6SrYO6Eo/TFWnCRpprXI/AAAAAAAAAGE/bzPGkvrkuPg/s1600/\
Broken+Diamond+twill.jpg
-which was based on the thread/pattern repeat counts at the higher end of the finer fabrics found from the period (gaps between repeats are still there because it was a sample piece and only lightly washed).

Brígiða Vadesbana
http://ooo-shiiiny.livejournal.com/
http://brigidavadesbana.blogspot.com/

 

Early Anglo-Saxon embroidery

More quoting from the lists:

Class Handouts
Unaltered class handouts may be reproduced for use in non-profit teaching 
programs (eg SCA Collegia etc).
* Five Period Stitches - Quick Reference Guide - Oct, 2003 (.pdf 148kb)
* Five Period Stitches - In Depth - March, 2006 (.pdf 2.4 mb) (revised)
* Embroidery for Clothing - Anglo-Saxon - Nov, 2004 (.pdf 3.6 mb) 
* Getting Started with Tunics - March, 2005 (.pdf 535 kb)

 Hi,

The best overview for viking and anglo-saxon embroidery stitches and styles 
is 
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/asvembroid.html

this site has a few nice images:
http://kaleeb.galtham.org/pdf/Kaleeb-angloembroidery.pdf

Queen Arnegunde find, 6th century Frankish:
http://reocities.com/Athens/forum/6948/arnegunde.html

Gabrielle

 

Hedeby apron dress

More possibly useful things from the lists, apologies for not getting who posted this:

Have you seen the summary that Shelagh has already put online?

http://www.shelaghlewins.com/reenactment/hedeby_apron/hedeby_apron.htm

It really does cover about 99% of what Hägg says about apron dresses

 http://needleprayse.webcon.net.au/research/index.html

 

 

Red-tanned leather

Since I've started back to school, I've not been starting much new, though still keeping an eye on possibly useful items that come up on the lists.  From Norsetalk2:

Christopher wrote:

>What would be a period way to a veg tanned leather belt red?

There are a number of extant early and medieval recipes for dyeing leather 
red. The most common dyestuff I've seen referred to for that purpose was 
brazilwood, but madder was also used.

There is an extant Frankish belt in the Arnegunde grave; it's very 
elaborate, with cutwork and gilded parchment and a big gilt bronze 
buckle. It was dyed red with madder.

Here's an SCA-period recipe for dyeing leather red with madder (Rubia 
tinctorum). It's from The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont (1558).

"To Die Skinnes in chickweede, called in Latin Rubra Maiore, or Rubra 
Tinctorum, into a Redde Colour.

"Having annointed, washed, wronge and layed abroad the skin, as is 
aforesaied, wete it with water that white wine lees and baye salt hath ben 
boiled in, and than wring him. Take than creuiles or crabbe shelles (be
they of the sea or of the river) burned into ashes, the whiche yon
shall temper with the said water of the lees and salt, and rubbe well the 
skinne therwith, than washe him well with cleere water, and wringe 
hym. This done, take ruddle tempered in water of lees, and rubbe the 
skinne well over and over with it, and than with the foresayde ashes, 
wasshinge, and wringinge it thre times. Finallye, after you have wasshed 
him, and wringe him, if you thinke it not be well ynoughe, you shall geue 
him one dienge with brasyll. The paste or masse of Rubia Tinctorum, must 
be made with water that lees or tartre hath bene boiled
in, and the sayed water must be luke warme, and whan you make the paste of 
ruddle, than leave it fo the space of a night. After this, put upon the 
sayd Rubra Tinctorum, a lyttle alom, dragges,or lees, or Alome catinum, 
steped in water. You maye also adde to it the colour of the shearing of
scarlet, whiche hath been taken oute boylinge in lye, which is a goodly 
secrete."

I can't speak for the Chivalry, of course. But I would be impressed 
entirely to itty-bitty pieces if I had a squire who tried to dye his own 
belt red with a period recipe. Let me know if you decide to undertake it, 
or if you have questions.

Carolyn Priest-Dorman // Þóra Sharptooth
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html

 

More pictures from Pennsic

Here's some topics of pictures from Pennsic:

Early Russian Costuming (in sidebar).  These are images from the class taught at Pennsic.  In discussion with Maudey, we were complaining about the lack of original artifacts shown typically in these classes (we're such snobs) and I have since seen a whole bunch of wonderful stuff, including from Kiev, in a museum catalog about the Vikings.  So that's where to look.

Tentmaking.  Again, images from a class.  I'll be blogging detailed notes about this class, since I have fabric for a tent of my own, and will be working on that soon.

Wadmal (2/2 twill on warp-weighted loom).  Still processing.

Viking garb!

  I finished the Viking garb this weekend.

Some of you will be thinking - 'since when is Greet interested in Vikings?'

I admit, I'm really not (yet!).  However, I had all this fabric that needed to be wearable and useful garb because for longer events I'm still woefully short of clothing.

Also I've discovered that occasionally in the practice of SCA there are 'theme' events, and it's helpful to have a Viking or MiddleEastern outfit even if your main interest is elsewhere.

And I wanted an outfit my mother could wear for when we go to events together, though she's not a SCAdian, and she's bigger around than me and shorter.

The best solution to the third criteria is a Viking apron and T-tunic.  I made them both to her measurements, which is slightly short for me, but that's okay for Vikings.  The t-tunic's bigness is concealed by the apron, and worn by itself is a lovely nightgown/bathhouse robe.

I made the apron adjustable via the trim running around the chest - the ends tie in the back to achieve this fit, and tie more loosely to 'ungather' the back of the apron.  It's only about two inches more of ease, so it looks fine when gathered.  It's a cutesey bow, though - did Vikings tie bows?  Surely they did.

My braid cases from last year look really good with this, especially since my hair's gotten so much longer.  They're becoming lethal when I flip them over my shoulder.

I don't have brooches yet, though after this pic was taken I was lent an acceptable substitute.  Wait 'till Melbrigda sees...this is Meridies after all.  I also have to raid my jewelry box for neat beads and string them with my 'Roman glass' beads.  But both of those are easy little projects.  Shoes are a bigger problem, but fortunately one that my other garb shares, so I'll have to get on them soon.  No, I wouldn't wear red tennis shoes to an event.

The undertunic is a linen/cotton blend that was sold cheaply at Gulf Wars last year, and the tunic is mostly machine-sewed because the fabric wouldn't hold a crease well under my fingernail.  (This felt like a cop-out at first - but I found a 'serge stitch' on my machine that finishes and sews the seam in one pass, so more lemonade out of lemons.)  The linen (5.3 oz, I think) apron is handsewn with thread pulled from the selvages of the bolt.

The weather is cooling, and I'm starting to freak out - Gulf Wars is only five months away!  I've got to get these garb projects done so I have clothes to wear.  Just wait till you see what I've been planning for the Brown Linen Cotehardie.