Tablet Weaving for Beginners 7-30-22

Good evening! If you attended my Beginning Tablet Weaving class today at Stormgard's A Game of Thrones and StormGods event, here is a link to the class Google Slide presentation. The heat was awful, but it made me so happy to see how excited you guys were to learn that tablet weaving can be fun and approachable. Thank you so much!

Klappenrock Teaser

 So... I've been puttering. You probably noticed that I haven't posted anything recently. We moved from The Barony of the Steppes in Ansteorra (Dallas, TX) to The Barony of Stromgard in An Tir (Vancouver, WA) in December 2019. Since then, I've had a couple long-term projects going. I should be finishing several of them soon. I thought I would get at least one of them typed up today, but I didn't realize how much maintenance the site needed. I had to replace a ton of pictures, and I am so sorry they were unavailable to you. I've also backed everything up in case we have image issues again.

So, until I can get the next post up for you, here's a teaser for my current longest-term project, a gray wool klappenrock (crossover tunic/coat) for Jake. 

This was pieced together with a combination of JoAnn wool blend patterned remnant and two grey wool-blend dresses from the second-hand store. It is sewn by entirely by hand, using period sewing methods and wool embroidery thread. 

The only thing currently holding up this project is the embellishment. Last time I spoke with my laurel, she suggested I work on my seam treatments and embellishment. Well, and actually establishing a place and time for my own persona, but that's another project. Here you can see a segment of the trim (I had to re-warp, so I have a small separate piece of it) where I plan to sew it. The goal is to do silk seam treatments for the crossover section and silk tablet-woven trim in the colors of Jake's device on the cuffs, bookending the pieced pattern section.

Some of you already saw this on Facebook, but this was my first experience with my warping board. Here you can see the first section of green silk down.

Here's the beginning of the project on my belt loom. This was the best Christmas gift exchange item EVER. I love this thing, and how easy it is for me to adjust my tension. Not to mention how portable it is.

Here's my current progress. After I had to re-warp the loom, I went a little overboard. Notice the mini pony-tail ties? It actually works really well. No regrets!

It will be a while before I finish this project, so in the meantime these may be accomplished first:

• Jaime's reclaimed wool blend Hangeroc and Serk
• Jake's Thorsbjerg trousers with Skjoldehamn brók hem treatment
• Woad-dyed linen Serk
• Woad-blue wool Hangeroc
• Persona building/reigning in my garb and accessories to a tighter period and location

Thank you for your patience!

Mom's Wool Hangeroc

Another piece for my mother's Age of Exploration classroom unit, she wanted a new apron dress to replace her blue linen version, below:

I made her this apron dress almost a decade ago, so an update was certainly in order. My first order of business was to work on the straps. When I made her blue linen, I was still attaching the loops to a larger piece of strap that would go over the shoulder. Well, I know now that this isn't supported by any evidence. If you would like to read more about that, I have addressed it in several of my previous posts.

I'm kind of in love with how the straps turned out. I used a wool weaving yarn to do the hand-sewing, and it was so much fun to coil them up - they look like little drink coasters! But as precious as they were, I still needed them for the dress.

Once the garment was constructed, I treated all the seams. I used the same wool weaving yarn to do a running stitch holding the seam allowances where I wanted them. I've seen this technique used by many other costumers, and I was curious to try it myself.

In the end, I love the effect that the lines of running stitch give the garment. It's a quick and easy technique, but it certainly adds a lot of interest to the piece. All that was left to do at this point was add the silk trim.

I used a tablet-woven silk band as the final element, and attached it with inconspicuous little stitches of a matching silk thread.

Here's the final piece, as it was displayed at Laurel's Prize 2017, before I shipped the dress to Mom for her classroom unit.

Bibliography:

Baker, Jennifer. "Stitches and Seam Techniques Seen on Dark Age/Medieval Garments in Various Museum Collections." 2009. <http://nvg.org.au/documents/other/stitches.pdf> 11 June 2014.

Ewing, Thor. Viking Clothing. Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, Inc. 2006.

Glæsel, Nille. Viking Dress Garment Clothing. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2010.

Hägg, Inga. "Viking Women's Dress at Birka: A Reconstruction by Archeological Methods." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N. B. Harte and K. G. Ponting. Pasold Studies in Textile History. 1983.

Schweitzer, Robert. “Beginning Tablet Weaving.” Forward into the Past. 2 April 2011. <http://www.fitp.ca/articles/FITPXXI/beginning_tablet_weaving.pdf>

Geijer, Agnes. "The Textile Finds from Birka." Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus-Wilson. Ed. N. B. Harte and K. G. Ponting. Pasold Studies in Textile History. 1983.

Thunem, Hilde. "Viking Women: Apron Dress." 25 February 2015. <http://urd.priv.no/viking/smokkr.html>

Wedding Renewal Bliaut

When Honorable Lady Lyneya de Grey and her husband Sir Lasguaard Aglanar the Red Fox decided to renew their vows, she asked me to make her a bliaut.

Here's the finished dress during the vow renewal ceremony. Lyneya made Lasguaard's tunic, and I gave her the pattern piece I used for her neckline so that she could customize a more decorative overlay for the occasion.

Unfortunately we had a camera related issue as I was working on this project, so additional images were lost. Luckily I had sent her three progress pictures, which were saved in our Facebook messages.

Hand-sewing the neckline with a contrasting white linen thread.

Contrasting rust eyelets, sewn using a corresponding thin linen weaving yarn.

Blue Wool Cotehardie

I have a few more pictures of this project than I want to include in the Gallery section, so please excuse the extremely belated post!

I hand-sewed this cotehardie in 2004, after getting the wool from a vendor at an outdoor shopping center in Leicester, England while I was studying in London. This project was a huge learning experience for me, as I didn't know many stitch types at the time and the running stitch seams were very weak and prone to ripping.

I no longer have the dress, as I sold it to another SCAdian in the Barony of Three Mountains before I moved back to Alaska for my first year of teaching in Togiak. The cotehardie was either a six or eight gore style, with significant inspiration taken from the Herjofsnes finds. It was faced in silk, and all the eyelets for the spiral-lacing were sewn by hand as well.

I still have the belt, which was my first successful inkle weaving project. My heraldry features a bee, which inspired the color choice and pattern. The hardware set is the Rose Buckle and Strap End (1250 - 1550 AD) from Fettered Cock Pewters, and fits the period of my original persona.

The veil is a linen oval, also sewn entirely by hand. At the time, I did not yet have access to linen thread. It was sewn using a quilter's cotton.

The circlet in the images above was made by my friend Deanna, who introduced me to the SCA at the Barony of Winter's Gate's Yule Celebration in 2000.

Steppes Artisan Cloak

The Steppes Artisan Cloak is a piece of regalia that was a collaboration of three artists. Lady Safiya Spizega wove the oak leave brocade trim, I did the construction, and Baroness Ekaterina Iadorovna Kharlampieva did all the applique. It was presented in court yesterday, at the 2018 Steppes Artisan Competition.

The cloak was designed as a 3/4 circle cloak of linen lined with linen, 41" long. As regalia, it needs to comfortably fit a variety of body types and heights.

To get started, I cut my wedges and sewed the top three together. I did the same with the three wedges of lining, but set that aside for later.

The brocade trim determined the curve of the neckline. Here you can see it laid out flat in the initial pinning.

Once the initial pinning was done, I pulled the front together to make sure everything was in line and then began sewing it down by hand, using a black linen thread.

Once the trim was attached, I pinned the outside to the lining and trimmed the neckline before sewing the two pieces together. Due to the timing, I did the construction on the machine, but all top-stitching was done by hand. I did a small running stitch down the front to help it lay flat, and then began the hem. Baroness Katya needed access to the inside for her applique work, so the decision was made to hem the exterior and the lining separately so that it would be both accessible and yet still finished.

My husband did the math, and the hem alone took approximately 14 yards of hand-sewing. And that doesn't include the running stitch on the front, or the trim attachment.

After this, the cloak was ready to be handed off, relay-race fashion, to Baroness Katya. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the finished version. I will post more as soon as I'm able to obtain them.

Rigid Heddle Woven Shawl

As I continue to work on getting more and more accurate garb for my Viking persona, I decided to take the next step in my weaving and start weaving the fabric that I sew with.

My husband got me a Beka rigid heddle loom, with a 10-dent rigid Heddle. I went to White Rock Weaving Center, where they recommended Kraemer Yarn's Eileen 100% Merino wool for weaving and later dyeing.

The yarn turned out to be a little small for the rigid heddle, and moving forward I would like to get a 12-dent so I can pack my threads in a little bit more tightly.

As you can see, it's working well, but the threads are still a little too far apart for the kind of sewing I want to do with this fabric later. At this point my hope was that the fibers would full a little during the dyeing process. Sorry that the perspective is a little strange. We live in a small apartment, and the only kitty-safe place I could store it was hanging off the back of a door. Surprisingly enough, it didn't seem to have any noticeable impact on the tension!

I decided to weave a couple sample pieces to capture the stages of the dyeing process. In this picture I'm weighing the fabric and samples in order to figure out the amount of alum I'll need for the first step of the dyeing process.

Here you can see the woven wool in the alum bath. I held out the first sample to compare later.

While the wool was enjoying its nice alum bath, the madder was finishing up its overnight soaking. I researched madder before, for my Hedeby Harbor bag, and I enjoyed the thought of continuing that experimentation with a new modifier (iron) at the end of the process.

I like to use big pickle jars, because I can easily seal them. With cats, any kind of a barrier is good to keep them out of things they shouldn't be in. Also, I like being able to see the color as the madder steeps and creates the rich liquor.

I poured the madder liquor through a strainer and into the dye pot. The three glass jars fill my 8 gallon pot nicely. I did have to get my smaller, finer strainer out and do some skimming before putting the wool in. I didn't want the debris to get trapped in the wool.

Much cleaner now, and with the wool soaking up its first color.

And the final iron bath, to sadden the color of the wool. I didn't want to let the wool linger too long, so this was the shortest bath. Sadly, I didn't grab a closer picture of that stage.

The image above features the three fabric samples: the fabric as it came off the loom, the fabric treated with the alum mordant, and finally the alum treated fabric dyed with madder.

And now we have the final product... or at least the point in which I had to stop because Laurel's Prize Tournament was in a couple hours.

Feedback from the Laurels:

The Laurel's Prize Tournament was a fantastic experience, and I left feeling like my mind was swimming in new ideas and different approaches. For one thing, I didn't check the composition of my water, as harder and softer water can yield different results.

Another suggestion had to do with chalk. The weld dyeing project I had on display had to do with using chalk and iron on weld-dyed fabric to turn it a nice, spring green. The chalk served to boost the intensity of the weld's yellow before the iron bath turned the yellow fabric green. The laurel in question suggested using chalk, for the same color-boosting purpose, next time I dyed with madder.

Several people remarked on the uneven nature of the color. I dyed the fabric after weaving it, so there are some striping issues. The laurels I spoke with suggested some alternate dyeing methods, like scrunching it together to work the dye evenly. Several people also suggested including dyeing the yarn before weaving with it. That way, the final weaving will have more of a heathered effect.

Finally, a couple people mentioned changing from plain weave to twill, which was a popular style in period.

Thoughts on Moving Forward:

The biggest concept that came out of this projects was that it's important to make and follow a plan, especially if you want results you can replicate. Flying by the seat of your pants can be fun, but it's not going to reliably give you the kinds of results you'd like.

I'll post an update soon, but I'm going to try to make more in a similar color. This time, I am going to make and follow a plan regarding quantities and duration. I'm going to dye the yarn before weaving it, and then do plain weave to match the previous piece. Hopefully, then I can make a full garment.

So, watch this space for updates!