VPC2017: Meisterin Christian & Dona Isabel Maria's Refurbishing of Cushions and Cushion Bags

This joint project is for the categories Show Us Your Arms, One Metre Material Project, Give What You Get, Fly the Colours,  Remake, Reuse, Refashion, Reconsider, Containment System.

Meisterin Christian says:

Baroness Ginevra recently completed embroidered Baronial augmentation cantons for the baronial kneeling cushions, having been commissioned by Baron Oswyn and Baroness Isabel Maria to do so.  She asked for a volunteer to sew these to the kneeling cushions and I obliged.  She also asked for bags to contain and protect the cushions (the baronial cushions had never had bags, and the Lochac kneeling cushion bags had disappeared).

On close inspection the cushions were very dirty, and the velvet fabric very faded, so I offered to refurbish them so they would not look a  little tatty against the new embroidery. The cushions were original embroidered and constructed by Baroness Eleonora and Mistress Madeleine more than 20 years ago, so its no surprise that they were in need of a little care and attention.  I dismantled the cushions and vacuumed the embroidered pieces (it is best not to try and wash or dry clean embroidered needlepoint, as this can ruin the piece, esp. anything red).  The canvas had become very soft over time and had started to come apart in places.  I mended and over sewed the edges and seams to keep them together.  Thanks to THL Ydeneya for donating some red velvet for the project when there was none to be found.

The augmentation of arms cantons were stitched on by hand, with some additional tacking stitches to ensure the soft cushion canvas did not rub against the stiff new canvas and become damaged.  The cushions were reassembled and the canvas bottom layer was renewed.  The canvas needlepoint of one cushion has always been out of square, which makes this cushion a little awkwardly shaped and wrinkled.

The cushion bags are simple and practical (and fairly ugly) and have their purpose written on them in hope they will not be lost again.  Please take care of the cushions and bags, and ensure they don't get lost or further damaged!

VPC2017: Her Excellency Ginevra's Hose & Houppelande

Her Excellency presents a pair of hose which fit the categories Counting On Sheep and Togs Togs Undies, and a refashioned houppelande for Remake Reuse Refashion Reconsider.

She says about the houppelande:

I remade one of my old Burgundian dresses into a 1520’s middle class houppelande. I took off the old collar, cut the cuffs to just a bit over wrist length, recut the front, rehemmed the front, put on new cuffs and collar facing.

 

VPC2017: Meisterin Christian's Linen Hose & Katharina von Bura Dress and Haube

Meisterin Christian presents a pair of linen hose for the categories One Metre Material Project; Hitting Below The Knee; Togs, Togs, Undies.  Possibly also Remake, Reuse, Refashion, Reconsider, and a dress based on a portrait of  Katharina von Bura for the categories Remake, Reuse, Refashion, Reconsider and Counting (on) Sheep, and finally a haube for The Neck Best Thing.

About the hose, she says:

I first made woollen hose some years ago, and then after a particularly hot and wet Canterbury Faire one year I decided I needed some linen hose to either wear alone, or as a lining layer for woollen hose.  However my pattern had disappeared.  Having torn apart my sewing room, I gave up on the project.  Last year I decided it was time to make some more hose, and after failing to find the pattern yet again, made a new one.  Which I then promptly lost.  While looking for some beads for another A&S challenge project I found last year's pattern.  So, using a (less than a metre) scrap of the same linen I used for my child's shirt project in this Challenge, I whipped up these linen hose.  Pictured as worn below (the foot-selfie makes my feet look alarmingly small).

Hose made from woven linen fabric are recorded in 16th C sources and at least one extant example survive.  These may have been worn as lining for woollen hose (so that the woollen hose can be worn repeatedly without washing while the lining pair could be cleaned frequently), and/or they were probably worn alone in warmer weather.  The hose were cut on the bias in order to stretch and conform around the feet and legs.  Garters are worn to hold the hose up. The seams here are stitched in linen thread, overcast stitch for strength, with the seam allowances flat felled on inside for comfort.

About the dress and haube she says:

For Yule 2017 I decided that as this winter event included outdoor activities I really needed to wear something warm (and made of more practical fabrics than say silk or brocade).  It was not cold enough for my really heavy woollen dress, and too cold for my light woollen dress with the slashed sleeves; ideally I needed something in between.  It occurred to me that I had an unfinished green woollen dress in the naughty corner (that’s where annoying, frustrating, or uncooperative A&S projects are sent until they learn to behave) which I had started years ago and not finished because a) I didn't have much use for warm clothing at that point, and b) the woollen fabric was somewhat annoying to sew).  This seemed like a prime opportunity to get a new dress and also knock off a couple more A&S Challenge categories in the process.

Of course this all occurred to me the night before the event, which is not the ideal time to decide you need a new dress.  After some excavation I recovered the dress and found that there was only about 30 mins work (tidying the lacing rings and waist fastenings), and a brustfleck (the brocade breast-band), needed to make the dress wearable.  Since it was the night before the event, and I'm not completely crazy, I found an brustfleck from another old dress and covered it in a scrap of brocade from my stash, and after a couple of hours work I had a new, never-been-worn dress.  And to add to the fun, I also quickly cobbled together a haube (the hairnet/snood type thingy Katharina is wearing in the portrait) from a (purchased) black hairnet and a gold headband I had begun for another haube project.  I didn't get any photos of the dress at the event, so the photo below is of the dress on a dressmakers form.

This dress is based on the 1526 portrait by Lucas Cranach of Katharine von Bura (below).  Katharina von Bura was the wife of Martin Luther (he of the 95 theses).  The size, shape and placement of guards (black trim / bands) on the bottom of the skirt and the back of the dress are conjectured from dresses in other portraits of the period.

VPC2017: Lady Melissa's Belt With Bone Buckle and Strap End

This belt is an entry from Lady Melissa - she started the project before BA, but this is acceptable for the category Remake, Reuse, Refashion, Reconsider (and it also fits in Show Us Your Arms). I believe this makes Lady Melissa's fifth project, making her the second person to finish the five projects aspect of the Pentathlon, and earning her a prize to be awarded at a future event.


She says:

I started this project before BA, but it was sitting unfinished due to a number of challenges regarding safely riveting through bone and obtaining a suitable leather (which needed to be blue, as it was for Nathanael, whose device is a white stag on a blue field). I have finished it for the pentathlon challenge!

This is a belt with a bone buckle and strap end. The buckle was carved out of cow bone, and the strap end is carved out of sheep bone. The strap is commercially veg-tanned blue leather. The buckle is loosely based on the Borre belt buckle, which features two wolves rather than two deer. The strap end is based on a Jelling-style dragon strap end, modified to represent a stag instead. The belt is slightly less than 2cm wide.

 

VPC2017: Mistress katherine k's Travel Coronet, Coif and Necklace

Mistress katherine has been very busy indeed, submitting several projects to me at once.

These three are a Travel Coronet (Remake, Reuse, Refashion, and Show Us Your Arms, and Embellish It), a Coif (Embellish It) and the Kerr Necklace (The Neck Best Thing)

About the travel coronet, Mistress katherine writes:

This tablet-woven mini coronet was inspired by Viscountess Mountjoye's spiffy example at Faire. It uses one of the lovely tablet-woven garters Mistress Catherine d'Arc gave me which displays the curs' heads and tower from my arms as well as my livery colours or red, white and blue and my motto. It is embellished with the six pearls of a Court Baroness; the copper and brass mounts are actually letterpress printers' thins used to make leadtype tight when setting text, a reference to my Laurel speciality.

 The coif details are:

Adding pearls, beads and some couched gold thread and trim has blinged up a plain commercially made hairnet. 

Finally, the Kerr Necklace:

This necklace is based on the well-known portrait of Anne Boleyn from the UK's National Portrait Gallery, in which Anne has a capital B suspended from a pearl choker around her neck. I've had a craftwood initial K for a number of years, but delayed making this, hoping to be able to find a metal K rather then use a wooden one. Some slathering of gold paint has produced something that may pass in low light and I finally found a use for the large string of big freshwater pearls I've had for a while.

 The portrait of Anne Boleyn can be found here.