Carolingian Dress

So, it seems I'm super terrible at making up for blog content. Not that I would be idling around, oh no! It all just ends up on my FB page, maybe some groups, and that's it. Sometimes not even that.
So, let me show you some stuff that happened since the last post here.
Since my lyre playing skills improved, I was asked to participate in the music event at Lauresham. But I only had servant's clothes, and that would not work sitting in the manor, playing an instrument connected to nobility of some degree. So I had to think about some more suitable garments for this occasion. What a pitty! ;P
I spent some time at my father's place, with the big garden. So i put up the dyeing pots and spent some nice warm days bent over the hot bubbling pots, as you do in summer. ;)
I bought some meters of a nice lightweight tabby woven wool, thin wool yarn for sewing and some dyeing supplies like walnut, madder and weld.

First I put up the pot with the weld and dyed the yarn and fabric in a lovely yellow colour.

Then I put in some Iron to change it into a green.

First I thought that I hadn't stirred enough throughout the dyeing precess, but it turned out it was only some residue of the weld seeds and it came off after drying. Yay! :D

Since my piece of fabric wasn't that big and there was much colour left in the pot, I put in soe yarns from my stash, too. I think they turned out great, and the neighbour thought the same, coming over for a little chat. :)

Next was the pot with the walnut dye. It seems I didn't take any pictures during the process, but let my tell you, it lookes dark, like a chocolate sauce. Nom! And I'm pretty happy with the colour of the fabric, too. Again, no stains, just residue, which came off easily.

The real colours are somewhere in between these two pictures, the sunlight made it impossible to get them right.

For the pattern I had a look at the Stuttgart Psalter. The illustrations show a variety of dresses and indicate that the trimmings on dresses might have been more elaborate, the higher the rank of the wearer. So I opted for a simple facing without further decorations for a noble, but not too noble impression. perfect for a manor like Lauresham.

Picture: Claudia Stehle/Sascha Lotz

 And there I sat, all day, playing the lyre. Many peolpe sat down, listened, asked good questions.
Then the rain and thunder came. All the people gathered in the manor hall. A colleague told the story of the Old High German Hildebrandslied and I accompanied her on the lyre.
The atmosphere was great, the sound of thunder and pouring rain outside, story and music within the safe walls of the hall.