Clothes – Oswyn's Musings

Apple Tunic project – the hood

October 25, 2023 Oswyn Swann

Now to start work. I have some of the undertunic done but I have decided to start on the hood. One, I have made hoods before so I have some good ideas how that should work. Two, it will be one of the more visible elements of the outfit.

Here is the mock up.

I have printed the embroidery bits on Sulky so I can adhere them to the cloth, stitch the patterns, then wash the backing away.
The wreath will be applique and a bit smaller than I wanted. But only a bit. It is ~8.25″ in diameter so you will see a lot of it. The apples and stick are about 3″ high by 3.5″ wide. I figure there will be ~ 15 of them on the hood itself. The hood will be lined with a darker green on the inside. I took the designs for both from the Traceable Heraldry site https://heraldicart.org/credits. My use of these images are for SCA use and for my personal use only. I have no intend to sell or represent these designs as my own.

Clothes, Persona, SCA Life

The Apple Tunic – the next project

November 2, 2022October 25, 2023 Oswyn Swann

At Pennsic, after my vigil was announced, a common question was “what is the next big project?” I had been thinking about what I call the “apple tunic” for a while before this. It is time to at least start, baby steps, on that project.

First, let’s look at what I have.

This is my brown tunic set that I call my brewing tunic. The photo of the trim didn’t turn out. I wear this tunic often as it is comfortable and the sleeves roll up nicely to get them out of the way for activities.

This is another common tunic I wear. It has more my persona play in it. I claim in my persona play that Oswyn of Baðon is half Welsh and the pants are made from a blanket his mother had. The Welsh are known for some crazy color combinations. I made the trim in all photos.

This is a tunic I wear rarely. It is tight, especially in the sleeves. I have definitely put on a few pounds since it was made as well. I call this my teaching tunic. But since I am mostly teaching “messy” things anymore, I wear the brown more often. Again, trim by me.

This is my swan tunic. Until my elevation garb, it was my “fancy” garb. The swan trim was purchased from Calontir Trim but I did the tablet woven trim. I added the laurel cloak to see how it would look. Not too bad.

These are items that will be part of the apple tunic. The green hood, the apple tree pouch, the off white winnegas, and the apple necklace. I will make a laurel medallion to go on the necklace.

It is hard to see but this is the bayeux tapestry style cartoon I commissioned.

It is hard to tell but these are two different shades of red. The left is “redwood” and the right is probably “wine”. I love the dark wine one but I think the left one is more appropriate for this project.

I will need to learn how to sew properly and embroider to do this project. I will likely have to make a cloak in a different color in case I need to attend court as a laurel. So I have a lot of new skills to make a very fancy, early period set.

I spend a lot of time with Oswyn Swann. Time to give Oswyn of Baðon some love.

Clothes, Persona, SCA Life

Planning for the future

May 22, 2018 Oswyn Swann

This may come as a shock to you but I am a planner.

I plan for things that probably will never happen. I have three separate plans for if I win the lottery depending on the amount of money I might win. For example, when I started my stained glass class, I planned this:

My choir was learning Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia. The Music of the Spheres is a significant image from that piece. I knew I wanted to make a piece based on it. I learned what I needed to do to make it.

So I plan things. Here are some of the plans that I am working on or will be working on.

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One big thing I wanted to do since I started vinegar is coming together but I still need to learn a bit more.

Plan the first: Have a tasting

This is inspired by Hrefna’s Icelandic feast she sometimes does at Pennsic. I want to do something similar with a cheese I made, drizzled with a vinegar I made, served with a cordial I made.

Make balsamic vinegar – check. Need more though

Make cordials – check. I have that one down.

Make cheese – need to learn that one yet

It is my hope to do a tasting for a small number of people at Pennsic 50.

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Plan the second: make medieval food cart.

When I saw the dragon bread oven that Bear and company made at Camp Dubois, I was like, “okay. The concept of the food truck is actually pretty old. We should be able to do this.” I found these images.

I am not sure about transporting a bread oven around though I can see doing it. No, I had a different idea.

Imagine a person drawn food cart. Stained glass panels around the bed. Silk banners flapping in the breeze. On this cart is a trough full of ice with chilled rice noodles, chilled soba noodles, pickled vegetables, maybe some pretzels for fun, and chilled vinegar drinks. It is a hot day on the battlefield at Pennsic. There is a time out or something. You wander back to the Midrealm tent on the field and this cart comes out. I think it would be wondrous.

Avery has given me some advice but I don’t know how to do any woodworking. So got to learn that. I have a lot of cardboard to make mock ups with though. It is going to take a while I fear.

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Plan the third: Clothes

To date Gertie has made all of our clothes. But I need more and I had really good conversations this past weekend. Time to learn to sew.

This is my inspiration.

These are parts of the Coronation outfit for Roger II, Rogerius Rex, King of Sicily. I rag on Normans alot but Roger’s family thought differently than the typical Norman. Norman Sicily is a fascinating place. My third persona hangs out here. I thought it would be really neat to try to make a heraldic outfit for me based on this. I would need to learn to sew.

The kind people on the Library of Alexandria FB group led me here.

https://armadiodelmedievalista.blogspot.com/2016/08/la-tunicella-di-ruggero-ii-e-la_12.html

All the detail I was looking for.

I would do something like this.

I would do it in linen instead of silk velvet. There is disagreement on whether the original is blue or purple. I am looking at the Royal Blue and Juniper linen from Fabric-store.com.

For the mantle, I am thinking something like this.

I would need to learn to embroider or perhaps applique. Like the original, this would be outlined in pearls.

Here is some of the detail in the original.

I know how to tablet weave so I will have to think about what I want to do with that. Probably silk since it will sit near my neck but cotton will be suitably soft.

On the reproduction discussed, they cut brass plates and painted them instead of cloisonne and enamel.

I would like to do some thing different. Fused glass sewn in the cuffs. Not sure how to do that yet.

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Things to learn and work on.

Learn to make a hard cheese.
Learn to do enough woodworking to make a cart
- make cardboard mock up
- talk to woodworkers on engineering this for my needs (size, breakdown, transport)
Learn to sew
- basic sewing
- applique or embroider
- how to do those cuff plate.

I have a lot to keep me busy for a while. I will probably bothering some of you to teach me what I don’t know.

Clothes, Gertie

Educating the coworkers

April 11, 2018April 12, 2018 Oswyn Swann

One of the things my work did do was make space available for people to display their art. I did a few such displays. My coworkers are very aware of my hobby. I bring it up often. Here are part of the display that you might find interesting.

I also maintain the bulletin board near my office. For the summer, I put up “how I spent my summer vacation” for anyone in my department to add photos too. Last summer, I did this collage.