Sewing: Dorset Buttons on Victorian Drawers

The waistband fastening consists of two 

buttons and buttonholes, and a larger opening 

for the drawstring.

A while ago, I was rummaging through my boxes of languishing projects, attempting to find a spark of inspiration to pick something up and either finish it or re-work it into something else entirely. I like to think that I have a pretty good memory of most of my unfinished projects, but I'm totally ashamed to admit that on this particular rummage, I found a project that I had absolutely no memory of ever starting, and have absolutely no idea why I stopped working on it. It was a perfectly serviceable pair of Victorian drawers, made from the Laughing Moon Mercantile Ladies' Victorian Underwear pattern (#100).

I'd cut out the leg pieces and stitched a series of tucks around the hem, and then just stopped. I have no idea why. I have another pair of drawers made from this same pattern in black cotton which I've worn on several occasions, so it's not a problem with the pattern. The drawers aren't particularly complicated to construct, with just one seam on each leg, a drawstring waistband, and a bit of hemming.

In other words, this project was an easy win.

So of course I found a way to make it complicated.

Mending: Sashiko/Boro Backpack

Several years ago, I bought a backpack from the Surplus Store on the corner of National and Venice in Culver City. (I love that store. I still go back every time I visit family in L.A.) I carried that backpack to work daily for five years, which is a very respectable lifespan. It had enough room for a packed lunch, a crafty project, and a book (three things I never leave home without) AND a bunch of groceries besides. Alternatively, it could comfortably accommodate clothing, toiletries, and entertainment for a 3-day business trip or, stretched to its limits, a week-long backpacking trip. It had plenty of separate pockets of different sizes so that I never had to go fishing for my keys, wallet, or work ID in amongst the jumble of other random crap. It was a good backpack.

At long last, however, the fabric started to tear around the top of the right shoulder strap--the one I use to pick it up all the time. I no longer trusted it to carry heavy loads without ripping farther. I removed it from service but couldn't quite bring myself to throw it away. After all, we'd been through so much together, and none of the other backpacks I could find offered the same carrying capacity, or so many convenient pockets. I bought two other backpacks whose zippers ceased to function in less than a year, and they barely had enough room for my sewing, lunch, and book, let alone a week's worth of clothing. As Steve and I were packing for a week-long stay on a hippy commune, my eyes kept straying to my poor injured backpack, and I decided it was time to give it a new lease on life. I got out my trusty sewing kit and set to work.

Sewing: Grey Linen Tunic

Despite the fact that I resolved in January to try to do more pottery, what I've been in the mood for lately is sewing. I'm still under a fabric-buying embargo, so when the sewing mood is upon me, I try to think of projects that can be made from fabric I already own. My stash is predominantly a mixture of velvet/satin/taffeta and linen. The fancy fabrics were great when I was going to the Riverside Dickens Fest every year, but less great in the UK where I don't go to any Victorian events. So that leaves linen. I have three pieces of linen in my stash that are destined to become tunics or tunic-dresses. I enjoy making tunics because they're easy, comfortable, and can do double duty as SCA garb and (slightly eccentric) weekend lounge/casual wear.

Sewing: Brown Herringbone Smokkr

Tablet weaving at an
event in simple garb.

When getting ready for the 2017 Raglan Fair, I started working on a new Viking smokkr or apron dress. I got as far as drafting the pattern and cutting out the pieces before finding my old smokkr, at which point I decided to spiff that one up instead of rushing to finish the new one. In the weeks that followed, I slowly chipped away at the new smokkr, picking it up and putting it down as my energy levels and free time allowed, and it's now in a wearable state.

I have very mixed feelings about the smokkr as commonly reconstructed in re-enactment circles. It's a garment that has become more or less the uniform for re-enactors portraying women of the Viking period, but all of the information we have on this garment is based on a few tattered fragments, and minuscule fossilized loops of cloth preserved inside of metallic brooches. Those tattered fragments and scraps can tell us a lot about what the smokkr was made from--fibers and dye plants used, thread count, weave, amount of twist in the yarn--but they can't tell us much about the shape, fit, length, or degree of ornamentation of the finished garment. We do have some visual representations of Viking women on runestones and gullgubber, but they are heavily stylized and difficult to interpret. And yet, there are plenty of re-enactors who will happily criticize any interpretation of this garment that differs from their own. I have some very strong feelings about this, which I hope to write up separately one day, but for now I'd like to focus on the garment that I put together as an expedient way of expanding my wardrobe for a week-long SCA event.

Leatherworking: Viking Turnshoes

My first turnshoe, stitched in
August 2014 and languishing 
ever since.

After making our archery bracers over the holidays, I was still in a leatherworking mood, so I decided to resurrect one of my very old unfinished  projects. Sometime in 2013, I started making a pair of Viking style turnshoes. At the time, I got the pattern made, assembled the uppers, attached the soles, turned them right side out, and then... became paralyzed with indecision.

Leatherworking: Archery Bracers and Finger Tab

Much to my astonishment last year, I learned that our sleepy little town (pop. 14,500) has its own archery club. Not only that, but the field where they practice in summer is about 1500 feet from our doorstep. So last July we decided to have a go and, after completing their beginners' course, joined the club. Up to now, we've been borrowing all our equipment, but over the holidays, we decided to take the plunge and buy some of our own kit. In the interest of saving some money while simultaneously avoiding unnecessary fluorescent nylon, I decided to make some of the simpler bits of gear myself; namely, a finger tab and arm guard. In the interest of being able to start using the stuff as quickly as possible, I opted for a fairly simple design for each.

Baking: Gluten-Free Daily Bread

As promised in my last post of 2018 (lo, these many months ago), I've been working on developing a gluten-free bread recipe. I think I finally have it at a point where it's good enough to share.

I know there's an awful lot of perfectly good GF bread recipes out there in the world already, but I wanted one that fit the following criteria:

• Has a flavor
• Isn't gummy
• Doesn't fall apart if you look at it the wrong way
• Is made predominantly of whole grains rather than starches
• Doesn't require a proprietary store-bought blend of flours
• Doesn't require a homemade flour blend that needs to be mixed in bulk in advance
• Quick and easy enough to prepare on a weeknight, and/or multiple weeknights in a row, viz.
• Doesn't require an electric mixer
• Gets very few dishes and measuring cups dirty

In addition, it's egg-free, gum-free, and can be made vegan. I don't have a problem eating eggs, gum, or dairy, but raw eggs in dough can potentially get a bit dodgy if you're letting sourdough rise for 8-12 hours, and gums require lots of electrified mixing in order to be effective.

The result is denser than store-bought bread, but not Dwarf-bread dense, and full of whole-grain flavor that goes equally well with sweet or savory accompaniments. For the first 48 hours or so, it's sturdy and flexible enough to slice for sandwiches. After that, it starts to crack more easily, but is still nice when toasted and slathered with butter, or eaten with soup.

2018 Garden Retrospective

In 2018, we grew 63kg of food, up slightly from 54kg in 2017. Considering that gaining access to the garden plot in town more than doubled our available growing space AND gave us access to a polytunnel, that seems a bit depressing at first glance, but if we include qualitative as well as quantitative criteria, the result is not as grim as it could be.