Hellruna's Craft

The art of necromancing the craft of the Norse

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Well, that’s all for tonight!

Join me next time as I explore making men’s hats with seam treatments, some new stitches I’m trying out, and maybe some fur!

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Before and after from the single string to the two-tiered approach. I think the two-tiered looks cleaner, more put together and hangs better. I’m a huge fan of the bone beads I found as well, and this way shows them off so they stand out. Much better!

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Onto the subject of beads. At first I wanted something simple, just a long string of beads connected by brooches. But apparently I had more beads lying around than I thought, so I had to look at the two-tiered option. Now that I have tried both, I much prefer the two-tiers. It looks a bit more elegant and lays better with the brooches. It also gives me options on how to display the beads the way I like them.

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So I’m not gonna lie, I combed pinterest for my seam treatment ideas, and I was not disappointed. I found a life-saving site here-->  http://stores.renstore.com/crafts/viking-embroidery-part-1#sthash.XP5933qL.dpbs

I learned the backstitch, blanketstitch,  and arrowhead stitch all from this site. I’m sure there’s a way to properly do the loop stitch that I used on the front of my smokkr, but I just did two backstitches and looped through those. If you find a better way/better site for that kind of thing, let me know!

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This was my first attempt at a smokkr! It has two panels sewn up the sides, with a little bit of love on the seams. Later I added some detail to the top edge (third picture down) which I thought came out well. I’ll share some info on how I did the embroidery here soon. It fits really well, doesn’t get in my way, and is a great versatile later in my kit. 

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Having had ruled out the first two designs, I started looking at seamed smokkrs. I wanted something long enough to cover stains if need be, as well as be warm, with a skirt that would let me move without being too full to cook in. I decided I liked this kind of design the best, but I might try the others in a future adventure. These were the designs that inspired my own smokkr! Although some of these are wool, I went with linen so I can wear it in the summer months as well. 

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A quick note about the two styles I decided not to go with. I have seen the apron style with a simple rectangular cloth pinned by the brooches at the top. I didn’t go with this one mainly because when I am camping I can’t be watching my clothing around the fire. I figured if this is a problem for me, it was very likely a problem for them back then. As for this second design with the open front, I fail to see the point of it as an apron, and since I can be a mess sometimes I thought something with some coverage would be a wiser idea. That being said, they are both gorgeous designs!!!

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Now that you have heard my tent saga, I should probably cover something more basic, namely, the clothing on my back. I have been extremely lucky to have great resources for this. The first is by Charlotte Mayhew, SCA name Sunnifa Gunnarsdottir, who has done many great classes with handouts on period clothing and items. My mother gave me this one, which gave a wonderful rundown of viking clothing. I’m including this page so you can see what some options are for the viking apron-- I’m going to call it a smokkr because that’s what I know it as, however I’ve heard it also called an apron dress or a hangerock. If anyone knows the difference in these, let me know! Another source that definitely helped educate me about the smokkr was a very well done article by Hilde Thunem, which you can find at http://urd.priv.no/viking/smokkr.html. While there were many wonderful designs to choose from, I ultimately went with a later period design with seams and a longer hemline. 

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And it made it to Pennsic! It was up and covered in less than 10 minutes, and was probably less to tear down. We discovered the sides can be lifted over the side beams to create a draft, and we didn’t have any problems with smell after it came out of the car. The color looked beautiful-- speaking of which, should you like it for yourself, it was 6 bottles of Rit Dye in emerald, 1 in navy and 1 in black. Let me see what you make!

Of course, this saga is far from over. I intend to sew fancier ties (I had two on the inside that you couldn’t see in these pictures) as well as carve the beams. I’m planning a nautical theme, maybe with oars down the front. Who knows, I might even paint that front white panel to give it a reason to be different... we’ll see what ideas Loki whispers in my ear. 

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Now the fun part! Sadly, I did not take any pictures while I was sewing the canvas, and I really should have! It was a whole lotta fabric, it was really heavy, and many heavy duty needles lost their lives. But there were two survivors in the pack when I was done, which I call a victory! I also realized once I got to sewing that I didn’t have enough for both the front and back door... learn from my mistakes, triple check your math and buy extra canvas just in case! The white canvas made up my front door, and it came out of the 10x10 piece I hadn’t dyed (I want to say it was my backup canvas, but it wasn’t and I had to make another run to the store). I started by sewing the two 12x15 pieces longways down the ridgepole, making sure I left an allowance to go through at the top. I fit those pieces with the 4 foot “legs” down to check my work, then added the doors. I actually measured and pinned the canvas to the sides, sewed them in place, then cut down the middle to ensure I had a straight seam. I definitely sewed the first door without remembering to leave room to go around the side beams, but I did not forget a seam ripper! Despite my many “oops” moments, it went together beautifully. 

When I had it the way I wanted it, I sprayed it down with a waterproofing material and let it dry (details/pics to follow later). Did I do this the night before Pennsic? Yes I did. Do I need better planning skills? Yes I do. Learn something new every day. My car only smelled slightly like chemical. 

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A slight edit: I said there were 10 2x4s, which was a lie. They were 2x6s, and there were seven; two for each side as my front and back crossbeams, and then three split and then joined together on either side and as my ridge pole. We used two metal braces on either side, with four nuts and bolts per section. It was the cheater method to make them all easier to fit in the car. I also forgot to note that we labeled all the pieces with letters to make sure we matched up the right sides... I might suggest numbers though, as it might make it easier to remember which way is which. 

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We ended up cutting square holes to prevent any slippage, and used dowels to reinforce as pegs. At first I was worried they’d be too difficult to hammer in, but with a small angle on one side there wasn’t any problem. Slowly but surely it started coming together, until one day... by Odin, that looks like a tent!

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“Nina,” they told me, “there is no way you can do that design! How will you get it there? IT WON’T EVEN FIT IN YOUR CAR!” Well nay nay. I purchased ten 6 foot pieces and four 4 foot pieces, all 2x4s, and there they all are in my car. When everything was cut and finished, it all fit on my center console. It had the makings of a tent.... give or take several hours of measuring before cutting into the wood. Of course we used power tools, but like I said, we were on a deadline. 

On that note, pro tip, definitely keep your materials covered! I ended up making another trip back to the store because I woke up after a rain and my wood had split. The more you know.

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I’ll confess, I did not start this adventure with a lot of organization. I heard from a friend that one could use painting canvas for tent walls, and rushed to my local Menard’s where I found this. I used 8 oz canvas, two 12x15 pieces and one 10x10, because like I said, I didn’t think the operation through. I knew I wanted roughly a 10x12 tent base, and that I wanted it colored. I did some math, snagged roughly 8 bottles of Rit Dye, and went to work. I boiled a LOT of water, mixed the dye, and stewed my canvas. I wish in retrospect that I had done some research on period dying methods, however I had a deadline (Pennsic for you SCAdians) to meet and could hardly wait to get the whole thing done. Should I have worn gloves? Yes. Did I absolutely enjoy having Bog hands for four or so days? Yeah I did. :) 

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So, to start out this adventure, I would like to tell you a epic tale, the Saga of How I Made a Tent. It started with this. No, it is not my picture, nor my tent, so thank you to the lovely being who it belongs to. But it inspired me to go beyond the many beautiful A-framed tents I have seen in my lifetime, and go for something different, even if it was my first tent. I was raised doing historic reenactment through a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), and so have seen a thing or two in my travels. But, let’s face it, my mom had already made an A-frame, so I desperately wanted something more unique. I saw this, and my heart was stolen. I knew I could use this design to make something of my own... but it was a journey.

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Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

And here’s the same resource for the clothing inspiration! 

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Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

Just for resources sake, here is the board where I put most of my visual inspiration for projects. I will probably show excerpts from here at some point!