All posts tagged: medieval

Midwinter Medieval Feast thedreamstress.com

A Midwinter Medieval Dinner

We’re incredibly privileged to have had no community transmission of Covid19 here in New Zealand, so we can safely hold social events. ⁠ While we were in lockdown my friend Priscilla asked if we could have a dinner party at her house to celebrate once it was safe to get together again. We all have, or have been working on, 14th century dresses, so we chose a midwinter Medieval feast.⁠ Nina applied her amazing food skills to developing a menu. We all cooked, decorated, and lent a hand. Thanks to everyone’s work and collaboration, we had the most fabulous evening: complete with an entire haunch of wild venison, a gingerbread castle, sugared apples, and Medieval disco dancing. Sending out lots of love to the rest of the world, and hopes for a time when we can all gather in safety and joy ❤️⁠ Hmmm…what’s under her dress? Jenni had the privilege/misfortune of sitting across from me, and having great lighting: The Menu Pear & Parsnip Soup in Bread Trenchers I made the bread bowls. 5 …

A St Birgitta’s Cap

Published by The Dreamstress

There’s a slightly funny story to this post. I finished my St Birgitta’s cap back at the end of January, photographed it, and wrote most of my post. And then my Costume History students at Toi Whakaari picked their topics for their first research paper, and I remembered that I’d given them a picture of a St Birgitta’s cap as a research option – and it had been chosen. Ooops… So obviously I couldn’t publish a blog post (even a fairly lightweight one using only the most obvious basic internet references) about making a St Birgitta’s cap until the student had turned in their paper. But the paper was submitted this afternoon, so here’s the blog post! (and I haven’t read the paper yet, so I’m not cheating off it either…). I’d always put St Birgitta’s caps in the ‘too hard and time consuming’ basket, but then Hvitr made one and wore it to our 2019 Historical Sew & Eat Retreat. Now, Hvitr is infinitely more patient and precise than me, and makes notoriously crazy …

The NZSEHR 2019 in 1360s Medieval gowns thedreamstress.com

Medieval Madness

Published by The Dreamstress

My local historical sewing group has been setting a loose theme for every year, so that we all end up with a costume from a period, to wear to events together. In 2018 we did Regency, and wore it at our first Sew & Eat Historical Retreat. Our 2019 theme was Medieval, and boy did we have fun! I already had the 1360s dress that I made back in 2015 (was it really that long ago!), so I got to be a lady of leisure and not sew anything Medieval (instead I made Augusta Stays all year long!) But I still helped. Nina & Priscilla used the same wool for their dresses, a heathered brown which we dyed yellow, using slightly different dyes for each of them to achieve different hues. (side note: look at Nina’s beautiful buttons!) We draped the frocks in our sewing meet ups, and they sewed the gowns all year long, working on sleeve fit and gore placement, and making accessories. Hvitr made her beautiful black & white twill gown based …