A Viking Chemise - Learning New Things

In the beginning I want to say,

this is not going to be a sewing tutorial.

I'm not going to teach you how the hand sew a chemise.

How ever, if you want to sew your own hang-around-home gown,

you should visit Mrs. Morgan Donner's youtube chanel.

That's were I got the information needed for this projects.

And she is a good teacher and a fun personality.

So that been said,

here I will share some pictures from my sewing journey

along with the thoughts I had on the way.

 

The whole idea has been on my mind for a while now.

Some of you might know, 

that I'm into the whole viking re-enactment thing

and have been doing quite well, for several years now,

with my first ever machine sewn viking outfit,

which is made from an old curtain bought from a second-hand store

along with the old lamb skin vest I got from my grand mom.

And I have been, and still are, really proud of the costume.

Picture by Monica Nordling

Some people I have over heard saying,

that you can't be truly part of the re-enactment society,

if one doesn't have a proper clothing,

which are hand sewn from proper fabric dyed with natural colors.

But I never felt like this,

or heard anyone judging my 70's fashion colored curtain gown.

I always felt warm and welcome.

But I also knew,

that some day, I would like to own my own outfit,

which would be properly done.

Which I could wear with proud

and stand behind every stitch on it.

I thought the best place to start this project,

was the proper under garment.

Also, I had already wanted for a long time

some kind of hang-around-home dress,

which I could use on lazy Sundays

or in the evening after a sauna.

I know there will not be a possibility for me

to attend to any viking events this year,

due the covid-19 and a lack of money,

but this gives me a good time to finish my outfit

for the viking feasts yet to come.

For the fabric I really wanted linen.

Most of the underwear garments has been either linen or cotton,

but as I'm not too found of cotton

and linen is supposed to be a little bit more durable,

it came to be my choice.

I ordered a natural white pre-stonewashed linen from

Finkonia pellavakauppa.

As I didn't know the store and the quality of the fabric,

I took just enough to make the chemise.

As stone washed the linen should be already soft and nice on the bare skin

and they inform the fabric would be ecologically produced (Öko-tex 100).

On my opinion,

it was a perfect fabric for this project

and I can truly recommend the store,

if you would be needing any linen in the future.

I sure will buy some more from them.

Next step on my journey was the thread.

I didn't want to use polyester (obviously)

and I remembered from the past years using cotton thread

and how it was breaking by the needle.

For this I came to a solution to use be-wax to strengthen my thread.

I would have loved to use linen thread,

but as I had a tight budget and I happened to have some cotton thread at home,

it was going to do.

I have no idea if the be-wax is historically appropriate choice to use for the thread,

but for me it was a close enough way to be able to pull this out.

Next, there would be some meters of hand stitching to be done.

I was little bit nervous, although determined,

as I had mainly heard bad thing about hand stitching.

It was supposed to be hard work and really time consuming

and boring and never ending.

I watched some hand sewing tutorial from

Ms. Bernadette Banner

and start working.

Well, I had to admit,

it wasn't that bad.

Actually it wasn't bad at all.

My handprint was rustic at the beginning,

but as I continued, every seem looked better.

I also found hand sewing to be really meditative and calming.

I found myself sitting on the coach or on the floor

and listened podcasts or videos,

that didn't need my attention too much.

And I just stitched, one stitch at a time.

And sooner than I wished,

I was finished.

Of course there came some difficulties on the way.

Fitting the chemise,

I realized, I had done a calculation error with the starting point of the hem piles.

And so forth it didn't fit on me on my chest.

I opened the side seems,

which I hadn't properly sewn yet,

as I thought there might be some surprises coming.

The problem looked simple enough.

I was missing a diamond shape pieces from both sides.

I draw the shade and size on a paper through the hole

and cut those extra pieces from the fabric.

At this point, 

this would definitely not be a replica from those historical chemises.

But I thought,

that every single young viking lady has started from some where,

and it is more than likely, that they have been doing errors as well.

And I believe,

if they would have been doing this kind of error,

for their first own under gown,

they probably would have been fixing the problem in similar manners. 

As a summary.

This first hand sewing project was a success.

The chemise, or hang-around-home-gown,

turned out to be perfect.

I have been wearing it every morning on breakfast

and I love how the linen feels on my skin

and how I can feel my whole body and skin breathing in the lose gown.

Of course there is some things I want to do differently next time.

For example the sleeves can't be gathered up on my arms,

as an active climber I have really wide forearms

and I didn't come to take this in my notice while I was taking my measurements.

Also the neckline could have been just a mite wider.

But these are small things,

which are not concerning me while using my lovely gown.

I really can say now,

that I'm proud of every stitch on that piece of clothing.

And as I'm happy it is finally finished,

I'm also feeling sad,

as I don't have anything to do for my hands in the evenings

while we are watching Netflix.

I think this will be fixed rather soon enough.

As I have now officially couple jobs for the summer to come,

and I will be able to buy some new fabric with that money.

Here, as I'm writing this now,

I have my luggage already packed for my next great adventure.

Mr. AK said last night,

that I'm acting strange and certainly would not be in the stage of mind,

where I should be allowed to go for an adventure.

I had to admit, I might have been little bit of the ground last night,

and still am, but that's only for the thrill and excitement.

And luckily enough,

it's not up to any man, do I travel or not.

After all, this is the 21th century.

Yours, Pirita Daughter of Carelia