Norse Viking Tunic

I just recently finished this Norse viking tunic for my boyfriend.

The materials I used are:

4 yards of linen fabric pre washed and dried
Coats and Clark sewing thread
DMC cotton embroidery floss
Sol-U-Film Light wash away embroidery stabilizer

I used the basic viking tunic pattern and machine sewed it together. I did machine sew the hem and cuffs as I planned to do hand embroidered seam finishing to hide the mundane stitching.   There will be a separate blog post about seam finishing shortly.

I found a design online of these wolves heads and printed one out in the size I wanted.  Then I used the embroidery stabilizer (God I love this stuff!!! Worth the expensive price it is) by tracing the pattern on it in ink pen and basted it onto the tunic. I used a double herringbone stitch on the collar, cuffs and hem as well to dress it up, then did the split stitch seam tracing as well.  I am very pleased with how it came out.  I am debating entering it in the display at A&S Champs this weekend...that is, if he will let me. He is wanting to wear it badly. :D

Comments are welcome as well as suggestions.

Projects Gone West...

Im fairly sure I mentioned previously when I posted about the green cable knit hat I made that I had made two others out of cotton and sent them to Ryan's parents. Well, they were kind enough to agree to my request for a picture of them wearing them and here it is.

These are some great photos!

Awwwwwww! 

(and you can see the cabling real well in this shot)

....And the hat even looks good on Otto! 

Short but sweet....

Well, here they are. Second pair of socks I have ever made. The first went fine. The second one...well....I had to tear it out twice: once before the heel and once after Id gotten the heel done. I was ready to throw it in the fireplace and be done with socks FOREVER!!! But...I picked it back up and finished it last night.

Im happy with them.  I may even make more.  Yea, yea I know what I said. Hush you!

Two years later.....DONE!!! (procrastination at its finest)

Well, this was a "christmas present" that should have been completed two years ago but a mix of getting busy, moving, kids, procrastination and a little bit of fear had me not finish this piece till last week.  Its a viking wool tunic for a good friend of mine.  The  pattern at the neckline was actually his own design from his college days. I secretly photographed it and saved it to recreate it as embroidered trim, which is what is on the neckline.  On the arms, are knot work snakes as a tip o the hat to his household's arms.  I think the fear of properly executing the neck trim embroidery so as to do the design proper justice is what kept me from completing this project sooner.  All in all, I am happy with how it came out (once I sucked up the nerve and did it).

Materials:
The tunic is a worsted wool and the trim is silk fabric with Splendor Silk embroidery threads used on the design, the snake knot work and the seam finishing on the cuffs, collar and hem.  

Knitting fun!

So I have been a bit remiss in posting, but that does not mean I have not been busy! The holidays had me running all over the place visiting family and friends and enjoying myself immensely!  Last year, by this time, I think I had made about a dozen hive hats for friends and such. This year, I made a few more but tried a different pattern and made three. One for my guy and two for his parents. Though I dont have pics of the ones I made for them (they were made from a natural color cotton yarn), I do have the one I made for Ryan in a variegated dyed olive green wool that I picked up from the Sheep and Wool festival.  It isnt a really hard hat pattern, just a basic cable knit style hat but not having done a cable pattern in quite some time, this was a refresher. Anyway, here are the pics. As you can tell, he is sooo fond of his picture being taken. *rolls eyes*

After finishing up another couple sewing projects on my plate its back to knitting fun! I want to master socks. Im having issues with ankle down style so perhaps the toe up style is for me...stay tuned!!!

Surcoat for My Consort

So I neglected to post updated pics of my most recent embroidery project. What I was working on was a new heraldic surcoat for my consort Lord Rory MacLellan.  He use to fight in a kilt but sometime back decided to go with a more appropriate kit.  After much discussion and a great amount of assistance in designing, we came up with this.


                               

 Materials that were used were linen fabric, DMC black embroidery thread, Coats and Clarks sewing thread and fusible webbing.

It is a sleeveless surocat to allow for movement and room for the invisible armor.  Obviously we used the fusible webbing to adhere the shapes to the surcoat then I machine stitched them to the tunic.  

In a previous post, I had shown some embroidered words I was working on. They are attached to the sides of his surcoat roughly knee level. The words say:
"Heroes non sumus nati...ispi erant'ANGULAUERUNT!"

Translation: Heroes are not made, they are cornered!



I used split stitch in contrasting colors to edge the seams and make them pop. Though I did not get the chance to work on it before this day, I will be hand stitching the edges to hide the mundane machine embroidery.   Overall I am very pleased with how the surcoat came out.  The embroidery I was most happy with.      Now...Onto the next project!!!!  Though what it is yet, I do not know... STAY TUNED!!!

Front view. (Doesnt he look thrilled to pose for the pictures?! tehehe)

Right side: "Heroes are not made..."

Left side: "...they are cornered!!"

Newest Project

So, this is the newest project I have started.

Materials:

Linen fabric

Cotton DMC embroidery thread

I use cotton thread on garb for friends that tend to wash and wear the pieces often. These pieces of clothing tend to take a greater beating (IE: fighter tunics, etc) and I have found it to be stouter in dealing with the punishment the piece of clothing goes through.

 Also, being on a tight budget, the amount of silk thread I would need for the projects would be more than I can afford at the moment. So, I make do. I know what was used in period, I just have to work in my budget.

 

The finished product will be revealed in a few weeks. But Ill post updates on this embroidery. 

Cheers!