14th century hood

It's done!  I based the design for Bronwyn's Laurelling hood on London hood #247 as described in Textiles and Clothing, c.1150-c.1450 from the series on Medieval finds from excavations in London put out by the Museum of London.  Marc Carlson has a handy summary on his website.  Women's hoods of this type were shorter than this, but I added to the mantle in order to fit the embroideries.  There's an extra gore in back for the same reason.  It doesn't lie as flat as I would like for that reason, but it needs to be there to accommodate the reason for its manufacture. 

I tried to talk myself into doing just a plain hood sewn up the front, but the more I looked around, the more I found that that style seemed to be more masculine.  Women's hoods were more often buttoned.  With lots of buttons. Lots and lots of buttons. This little hood has 23 buttons. Unless you are a pewter caster and make your own, that's a big investment in buying buttons.  Conveniently, there are other methods used to make buttons. I'm actually a sucker for making buttons, as you may have noticed with other projects. I love doing threadworked buttons, but they are not the correct type for this time period.  I'm not as enamoured with cloth buttons, which are correct.  I'm just worried that they're too soft.  Also, I need all the help I can get for making things even and consistent, and wads of fabric don't seem to turn out how I'd prefer.  Most tutorials for these start with circles of fabric and make what is basically a quilter's yo-yo that you stuff.  I do mine from squares of fabric and self stuff them, using the corners of the button to fill out the center.  Here's a video of the basic technique done by Katrin (and a great blog as well.  She posts amazing links.)  I do some additional stitching in concentric circles to further shape and stiffen the button.  Then they're attached to the edge of the fabric, projecting out on longish shanks.  It is a different look than the modern eye is used to, but it does draw attention to that long row of buttons you just slaved away on.  It also makes the curve to the face work as it doesn't get caught up in weird overlap that needs to be trimmed. Not that that is truly a problem, while the hood buttons all the way forward, it was usually worn with the ones around the face open.  Sometimes they were all open.  And occasionally, the hood was worn more like a hat, entirely on the head. Fashion shifted and this became the precursor to the Tudor Hood. So basically what I'm saying here is that after making loads and loads of buttons and the accompanying buttonholes, they may not in fact be used.  Ahhh, fashion. They do still look cool as a sort of trim along the edge.

Speaking of trim, I made that.  Which you can tell, because it blends so well you can barely see it in the picture.  There's a double interlooped braid along the edge of the embroidery strip.  You can also see lengths of it laid on the bands down the liripipe.  I put the embroidered strip on in a period method for applique.  Again, it doesn't seem like it is right, but stay with me.  Modern quilters applique by turning under their edges, but medieval applique isn't done in that fashion. Instead, the piece to be appliqued is applied to the base and then the edges are covered with cord. It's usually gold thread. Gilded leather is also an option.  Since I wanted this to be washable, I went for a cording made of wool and silk. I actually really like this method.  The West Kingdom Needleworker's Guild has an introductory article on this type of applique. I've taught a couple of classes on it as well.

There isn't evidence for a full lining of linen. Some of the extant hoods have an applied strip of linen to reinforce buttonholes, but there aren't full linings.  There is documentary evidence for fur linings, however, and much of the pictorial evidence shows hood fronts flipped back to show off a different color.  I went with linen since I had an amazing green linen jacquard, and I wanted the hood to be two tone of blue and green. In part the green is there since I felt it appropriate for a Laurelling hood, but mostly, Bronwyn's heraldic colors are azure and vert.  She mentioned to me at the event where she was later called up and asked to begin contemplating the question of joining the Orderthat she always has some green on as it is her favorite color.  I laughed and joked that she should have taken her apprentice belt much earlier (she avoided taking one for a very long time,) since it would have kept some green on her. I finished the edges with bias of the green and used it further as a trim on the liripipe. 

So there we go, a hood made with love and supported by a group of friends. It has been patiently waited for.  There's even a bit of documentation.  Seems to sum up what I think makes Bronwyn a wonderful addition to The Order of the Laurel.

Stitching and singing

My children have once again foiled me.  This time they out did themselves and destroyed my camera completely, so there will not be step by step pictures of the hood.  There was some whispering from my husband about getting me a new one for Valentine's Day, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be back to taking crummy pictures soon.  In the mean time I've been working on the hood.  It is back to being in one piece, so hooray!  I did, in fact, cut off my shell and put Aurora's wreath over the top of it.  Since my wreath is whitework, the three wreaths in a row are not very noticeable, so hooray again.  After I got the band completed, I did a bit of trimming and reshaping and then basted it back into place. The original version had a layer of green trim and then a blue braid I made on top of it outlining the embroidered band, but with the blue wool shell and green linen lining, the hood felt really heavy and looked rather clunky. So I ditched that idea.  Instead, I decided to bind the hood and mantle both in the green bias.  I finished stitching the bias on today and got started putting the braid around the edges of the white linen embroidered band. It's a simple double interlooped braid in blue silk and charcoal grey wool yarns. The color is pretty close to the blue wool of the hood, but I think it is adding a nice texture.  Not to mention securing the embroidery pieces to the garment. I should finish sewing the trim in place tomorrow.  Then I just have buttonholes and stitching the buttons on.

When I haven't been stitching, I've been reading John Walter Hill's Roman Monody, Cantata, and Opera from the Circles around Cardinal Montalto.  No, I still haven't picked a song to sing in May.  I am learning loads more about the context of the various musical movements and some of the influences and politics.  Not that any of that is necessary in order to sing a madrigal, but it's interesting.  I did pick up a selection of madrigals arranged for single voice and guitar standing in for lute.  I'm super duper rusty with no range to speak of right now, but the arrangements seem to be in reasonable keys for me.  I've been fiddling around with them a bit, trying to decide which ones I like. Then I second guess myself and try to decide if I really want to sing in Italian.  I had a class on Italian pronunciation for singers in college when I (very briefly) decided I wanted to major in Opera/Vocal Performance (you may begin giggling now.) That's been close to 20 years and I don't remember much of anything and my voice seems to belong to a different human being entirely than the one I was using at that point in time.  Doing something by John Dowland is pretty tempting since it is in English.  I don't know.  Something simple like Fuggiro tanto Amore by Luca Marenzio might be fun.  This is the only video I could easily find of it, so have a listen just to get the idea of it and see what you think.

Bronwyn's Laurelling hood: the re-do

So I saw this amazing hood that some embroiderers and costumers had made for a friend stepping up to the Order of the Laurel. Then I got to thinking that I knew someone pretty amazing that was going to be doing the same thing. Unlike me, she is not a "More is Better" sort of person, so a giant cloak of glitz and pearls and well, MORE is not the right thing for her.  But a hood feels like something you'd wear.  Something that would keep you warm and protected from the elements and if your friends had something to do with it, it might feel like a hug. So I pestered Bronwyn's Laurel to see what she thought and she said "go for it."  Even better, Varia drew up the embroidery designs, provided the linen, made copies of the pattern, and handed me some wool for the hood.

I really tried to get this done on time for 12th Night.  What I ended up with was some last minute scrambling and a hood that was wearable but not quite right.  She got to wear it for her ceremony and then I swiped it back to work on it some more.  It's been staring at me since as a house full of plague has kept me from crafting.  Progress is happening again, though.  I've unpicked everything and am putting it back together.  It's slow going, however, as perfectionist chick has snatched the scissors from my normal whirlwind self and is at the helm on this project. Be prepared for probably more detail than you want to hear about on this one.

First up is some beautiful embroidery that I had basically nothing to do with.  They look a little raggedy at the moment because they used to have a layer of bias and braided trim on top of them. They've also been trimmed and stitched together to follow the curve of the hood up a couple of inches from the bottom and back from the buttons and button holes along the front.  Yeah, I HAD to try to do something more complex rather than just putting them along the bottom and calling it good.  Believe me, I'm kicking myself, since some puckers in the curve and the placement of the trim is what is making me re-do it.  I swear it'll look good when I'm done or I'll die trying.

The entire curved piece along with an extra slip that I got too late to include.  It it only half the size and was trimmed so I'm still trying to figure out how to make it fit.

Everyone was given a laurel wreath and either a fleur d'lis or a scallop shell from Bronwyn's heraldry.  We tried for even distribution of the motifs, but since the stitching time was smack dab in the middle of holiday commitments several people were unable to complete their embroidery.  To be honest, I'm glad about that.  If everyone that wanted to stitch on this had managed it we would have had 3 or so rows of embroidery and I'd be appliqueing bits on dags or something.  As it is, I probably need to gather up the unfinished pieces and made a needlebook, pincushion, scissor keep, sweetebag, scroll case and assorted other bits for the new Laurel. I think there's enough floating around to do everything and more. I refuse to investigate further until I'm done with the hood.

Front of the right side is Dame Varia Goff, who Bronwyn was apprenticed to.  One of the most touching things said at the Laurelling was her speaking about that.  "This has NOTHING to do with me.  You did this all on your own.  I just wanted to say that you were mine." 

The pieces got put in the order they did primarily due to what motifs got finished, but another good friend, Laurel for his embroidery, and household member of Bronwyn's is the front of the other side. Baron Hachmood Karl Braden von Sobernheim O.L., O.P., (a whole bunch of other initials) did gorgeous laurel wreaths in the fleur. I, of course got a crummy pictures of his gorgeous blackwork.

Next to Varia's square is THL Bethoc ni Coiseam du Cruford.  She hosts the Loch Salaan embroidery guild at her home (and one day I will make it to a meeting rather than just intending to.)

 Next is Lady Marguerite de Chenanceux.  I love her little mockingbird!  We were each supposed to put an initial or a personal sigil/badge inside the wreath to show who embroidered which.  Hers turned out so cute.

This one is mine.  I'm not showing you the whitework shell because it's a little sad.  I'm considering trimming it out and inserting Aurora's half square over the top of it.  I tried some pulled work that I'm just not particularly pleased with.  I do like the simplicity of the detached chain for the wreath though and the texture in my krin.

 This one is Mistress Aurora du Portugal's. She was the Kingdom Youth officer when we started locally and my kids still look for her at events.  She's going to teach her period roses class at the collegium I'm helping organized.  She mentioned it during the pomander class I taught at the last one and everyone there was very, very excited for it.  I think I'm going to treat it as an Elizabethan era floral slip and trim it, applique it on and couch gold around the edges.  Yup, trimming out my shell seems like it might just be the answer.

Lady Fiametta da Trastavere is center back. It's not nepotism, I swear  She was the only other fleur and I did it for balance  I do have to say the couched gold and flaming heart make my blingy heart happy.

Lady Bronwyn y Ceredigion is next on the way around the circle with its tiny little spider.

Baroness Sumayya bint Suleiman O.L. is this one.  She was determined to be a part of this, hunting me down to make sure I had her square.

Lady Cecelia di Caravello just sort of got handed a square and told to do one.  Show's you what happens when you sit with the wrong crowd at court when I'm busy plotting stuff                                                       

Next up I'll bore you with the trim and buttons I made while I try to get this put back together.