Flemish working woman's dress

The Gown is done and all I need is a headdress to have a complete outfit. And I think I don't need to point out that sewing is handmade. Sewing thread is silk, smock, kirtle and white partlet are linnen, black partlet and the gown are woollen. The gown is turnable, so I can have dark blue or light greyish blue gown depending on my mood. It was my long time dream to achieve this point and I finally made it. (more fotos in Flickr)

23.12.

We are finally here at Mikkeli at my dad’s. The atmosphere is very beautiful and peaceful. We have plenty of snow and it is not very cold outside. I have a picture about my dad’s house which I am going to put here after the Christmas. My dad just put some non salted pork fat outside and after that he counted that he saw about ten different bird species at the feeding place. I think that bullfinches are most beautiful birds in the world. But anyway others are making Christmas food at the kitchen so I have to hurry to help them.. it is a tradition here that we all do our parts with the Christmas food.

Last weekend we went to Tofa’s. I was planning to do some weaving (that Viking Finn apron), but I still have an inflammation in my shoulder so I have to do weaving next time. At Sunday there was St Thomas party at Tofa’s. This time there were about 30 quests and it was nice again to meet some friends before Christmas holidays. There was of course once again a change to go to the smoke sauna ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_sauna ). And I have to mention that Tofa had once again decorated her house very beautifully. There was a real Christmas atmosphere also. Yesterday we went to Lahti to have a lunch with Sahra. During her lunch break we went to buy some fabric. And we managed to found different kind of wool fabric and both of the wool are good for Viking Finn clothing. During our journey to Mikkeli we stopped at Heinola to buy things for Christmas at “near food centre”. They sell different kinds of products from small country producers. We had heard that the meat products are especially good there. And we were very surprised with the large number of different kind of organic products at the market. We are definitely going to go there (http://www.heilan.fi/ ) again.

Merry Christmas to all!

15.12.

No miracles for me this time. I have had problems with my shoulder again (somekind of inflammation) and I have tried to stay away from my unfinished gown. And writing is not doing any good for my shoulder either. But I am trying to stay in positive mood.

Sahra’s and Knut’s wedding last weekend was a very beautiful event (sad that I don’t have any photos about them but there are some pictures at Sahra’s blog: http://hibernaatio.blogspot.com/ ) . I hope that she will put some close ups about the wedding gowns for her blog. 

I am at sick leave from work until Thursday. So I have some time to slowly clean our house for the Christmas and bake things for next weekend’s party. 

And one more photo... aboutUlf’s Christmas present (one f them) the naalbinded hat which is done :). 

8.12.

Last weekend we went to Lahti as was planned to help Sahra and Knut. Sahra made her sideless surcote which turned out something astonishing beautiful! And I helped her with the embroidery for the wedding purse. I hope that I would have time to write more about the weekend… but I am extremely busy this week (I am going to bake things for St Thomas day party which is weekend after this, and my gown is not finished and I have very hectic time at my mundane job as well). 

Felix wanted to help us with decide the pattern, silk threads and glass beads for the purse....

And here is the embroidery I made last weekend... Sahra is going to fill the leaves and other things.. :D

Clay idols and not so much progress with the gown

Looks like I might need a miracle soon if I want to have my Flemish open-fronted gown ready for Sahra's and Knut's wedding (I have ten days left..). The bodice is ready, but I haven't cut the skirt and the lining for it yet. Hmm.. I will have to do some cutting today. Next weekend we are going to Lahti to help Sahra and Knut so as soon as I have done the cutting part I can start sewing and I can sew as long as my hands let me :D. But I have made some progress with my first naalbinded mittens (yeppee!), but I will not continue doing those and other things (except Ulf's hat) before the wedding. Anyway I want also to do some onion jam today :) The recipe is not period... I have promised to me to have time to make some onion jam and fig jam (this is not medieval either) for Christmas.

Last weekend we (Ulf&I) went to Kotka (our old hometown) to visit our relatives. At Sunday was also my mom's birthday so I spend most of the Saturday with her (not because it is my "duty" but because I really don't remember the last time I have been at Kotka at my mom's birthday). After some shopping we went to the Maritime Centre Vellamo <http://www.merikeskusvellamo.fi> . The Main Exhibition of Museum of Kymenlaakso is at the same building as well. The museums are interesting but I think that there isn't much to see for the person who is mostly interested in Viking/medieval/renaissance things. And as usually happen… there was too little information available about the items.

Mysterious clay idols from Comb Ceramic period (more photos in Flickr)

New book

The mail brought me couple of weeks ago an interesting new cookbook. It is The book of Sent Sovi, Medieval recipes from Catalonia. The book is very young (the relase date was at Sebtember 2008). The text is based on the oldest surviving culinary text in Catalan. It is an anonymous and it has been written around middle of 14th century. I haven’t read the book yet so I don’t really know if it is good or not but I am very happy that I now have more recipes to use for cooking.

Again another great weekend!

Finally I can write about last weekend! It has been very difficult to write anything here because we had a secret about we were going to steal lady Sahra and take her to Tallinn to have her bachelorette party. And I have to tell that last weekend was real fun and my abs are still hurt for obvious reasons (laughing too much). Coming back from Järvenpää last evening wasn't fun because of snowstorm. But thank god I didn't have to drive back to home. I had my naalbinding things with me and I know now how to make thumb for the mittens and my first naalbinded hat is almost done. I will give it for Ulf for Christmas present. At Tallinn we went to fabric stores and I bought some green wool. I didn't buy so many things during our trip because I didn't have car with me.

This is the hat:But now I really have to go to read some articles. We are making an extra arts and sciences number for our Barony’s (Aarnmetsä) magazine. And I have lots of pages to read… and very interesting stuff..

One more thing....

This is me making embroidery at Lahti handicraft Fair couple of weeks ago

17.11

I have finally started to make my Flemish open-fronted gown. I cut the fabric to the bodice last week and I started to sew the bodice last weekend while visiting friends at Turku. At Saturday I bought some silk threads and stuff for the gown and some wool threads for tablet weaving (I hope that I have time in near future to do tablet weaving because it has been too long since I have done something like that). Then Elsa and I went to a small fair where small producers sold lamb and goat products. At the fair I bought about 3 kg wool thread (lamb) and a bone needle for naalbinding. And later at the evening Susanna taught me another way to make naalbinding and I really think I now know how to do it.

11.11.

Although this week has been and is going to be hard I try to start making the Flemish open-fronted gown this week. I was going to star cutting the wool yesterday but I found myself playing new Fable II game and reading emails and doing other stuff. Buying new x-box 360 games is not good for me if I really want to make something else. But sometimes it is very good to me do something else like play games than watch TV or making handicrafts if I can stop playing after one hour or less. Well it means that today I will have to cut the fabric and not play because tomorrow I will go to Hämeenlinna (I have couple in-service training days there). Next weekend I will go to Turku and I have change to buy more silk sewing threads and other things I need. And next weekend may be one of the only changes to buy some Christmas presents before it is too late. I am tired zzz-zz.

Another great weekend

This weekend I attended Lahti Handicraft Fair with Medium Aevum Hollolense re-enactment group. I took some pictures at the fair but the pictures are all blurry and not very good. But there are some pictures at the group’s web pages http://www.keskiaika.fi/?sivu=Kuvagalleria&id=248 and you might found me also there doing some blackwork embroidery. I had my Assisi tablecloth project with me and a lucet. It was good idea to have two handicrafts with me because after awhile you probably want to do something else. Medium Aevum Hollolense group was the only history/ medieval/ Viking re-enactment group at the fair so they got lots of attention. There were lots of old ladies and lords who wanted to talk about old handicraft techniques and for example naalbinding. And of course there were lots of artisans who were interested in our clothing and especially the thing that we do so much with our hands. The lodge next to our lodge was selling embroidery machines. It was pretty comical to sit next to the embroidery machine to do embroidery by hands. So the machine and I had a little competition about the spectators attentions. 

Because I have been extremely busy during last weeks I haven’t have tome to do the open-fronted Flemish gown or even started to do it. Last week I managed to make he sleeves for the gown. So I don’t know yet what to wear at St Homobonus Feast this weekend. I have been sick today so I might wear something old but warm.