Happiness is finding a picture of my inspiration that I can cut and paste here. Woo hoo! So here he is, my Mammen Man in his glory. Now you know why I was so stoked to do this. Very pretty garb, he has. Unfortunately the snazzy embroidery on the back of his tunic cannot be seen. But don't worry. I have learned to use the picture making device of the computer. Hee hee hee.
     OK. My project for my project today was to recreate the embroidery on the sleeves. By using the link http://www.heatherrosejones.com/mammen/index.html where the embroideries of the Mammen Man are blown up and sketched out, I lay tracing paper over computer screen and traced. Then, using a lightboard, I transfered the tracing to my fabric where the embroidery will be. That same website discusses the stitches used (stem stitch mainly), the suspected colors from find and also the colors the museum used when re-making the garb for their display. I opted to use the colorings the museum used since I really liked the effect. The picture is the museum recreate.
    If you look closely you will be able to make out the leopard on our man's sleeve. This is a tweek moment. Padruig's arms have an eagle and a rampant dragon, so instead of the leopard, I am doing one of his devices on each sleeve. I am using the same color scheme the museum used on the leopard of medium blue, gold, pale orange and medium brown. I was able so far today to get the eagle finished. I am very hopeful that I will be able to get most of the dragon done today too. He will be in the same colors using the same stitches.

 I find it interesting that the blue looks purple and the fabric looks orange. Oh well.

 

Here are some photos of the tablet weave I will use on the tunic around the neck. I plan on doing a second weave of similar pattern for the leg garters. (In the Mammen photo, he is wearing 2 different weaves, same pattern) The extra lengths of weave will be put on an apron dress for me that will have same embroidery so we can be a matched set. (say together--awww)

The weave pattern is called the Birka Pattern. I call it the Weave Pattern from Hell. I had a full page of notes telling me which cards to turn at what sequence--and that was needed for only 8 rotations! It was truely evil to work. Normally, I can work a 170 inch weave in 3-5 days, once it is set up. This particular weave took me 3 1/2 WEEKS to work 140 inches. Birka weaves were used a lot for burial shrouds. My thought is that it either took the lifetime to complete, so the only time they could wear it was at their funeral, or my favorite, that the gentleman wore the weave and wasn't careful and damaged it--forcing his lady to kill him in her anger.

Displaying the backside. You can see the page of instructions.

The front side and the pattern of the weave.

This blog is a chance for me to talk about my insanities that are in the form of various projects that I do for fun. (grin) Yes, fun. I am currently working on a project for the Artemesian Costuming Challenge (ACC). You can see in the photo that my work is cut out for me. (grin again) I will have to keep looking for a good picture of the cloak to post. It is absolutely amazing. A good link for the whole ensemble is http://http://medieval.webcon.net.au/extant_mammen.html

My project I am entering will also be entered in Kingdom A&S happening in May so if it seems to be over the top and crazy, well, that is because it is. Have you seen some of those entrees? Yeah. I am not the only crazy in the Kingdom.

I am re-creating what is called the Mammen Man. The dig is near Viborg, Denmark and is one of the few digs with enough remains to actually see the embroidery and fabrics. The man is assumed to be wealthy since his clothes are of wool, twill, linen and fur and are heavily embroidered. I will be tweeking some things to make it more personal to my man, and I will explain those differences as they come up. The entire project will be sewn by hand, using period stitches and techniques.

Ok. On with the show. Or whatever it really is...

We will start with this week, which is Week 1.

In researching trousers I discovered that it is a guessing game since most pants didn't survive the time passing. All I could find for certain was the boys had gores in the inner crotch and girls did not. This was so they could ride a horse without blowing out their pants. Most "patterns" on the guess work known "as what did the pants look like?" were rather snug fitting which my hubby does not like so with the help of Mistress Bianca we found a compromise-roomy in the top portion, fitted and tapered legs. These pants have a six sided crotch piece and 2 slender gores attaching to the long sides of crotch piece and extend down the inner thigh. They use russian style pants as the bases for the pattern. Using Bianca's husbands' pants as a pattern I tried to make them smaller in the seat and more tapered in the legs. First try was too baggy in the legs and very friendly in the crotch. Take #2-I added 2 inches to the length of the waist band to drop the crotch and took a deeper taper on the legs. Success. I cut out the blue linen I am using for the pants and used the overcast stitch for my seams and then flat felled them, stitching them down with hemstitch. I rolled over the waistband to make a casing, and used a backstitch to sew it as well as hem stitching the edge. I made eyelets for the lucet cord on the waist band. I checked measurements and then hemmed the bottom hem. I am now making the double strand lucet cord that will be his belt/tie cord using two strands of size 3 pearle cotton in dark brown.

Inside view of leg gores. Seams are flat-felled.

Inside view of crotch panel and tops of gores. Seams are flat-felled.

Inside view of backstitching on waistband.

Outside view of backstitching on waistband and an eyelet.

Ta-Da! Finished pants.

I really need to learn how to post the pictures. I am very happy with my gores and seams and I want to show you. (grin)

However, so far in Week 2:

I measured my honey, did that evil math stuff and cut out the tunic. It is a birka style T-tunic, square neck and keyhole, and since he wanted it full, it has 8 gores. Hand sewing is going very well--6 gores attached, neck hole has interfacing sewn in and hemmed, and sleeves are attached and raw edges are felled. Side seams will wait until last so I can lay it out flat while embellishing. I am also not going to add the tablet weave around neck until embroidery is completed, which will begin today. The tunic is made with a beautiful scarlet red linen, trim is royal blue and white birka weave, and embroidery is gold and medium brown entertwined leaves that circle the neck and shoulders.

If you google Mammen Man, you can see my reference pictures since I am having issues being outsmarted by the computer. (sigh)