Category Archives: Dress Accessories

Prayer Beads Revisited – The Basics

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Over a year ago I wrote a blog on Prayer Beads. Chatting with people in my shop over the past year has consistently brought up some specific questions. The majority of my customers who are looking for prayer beads have European personas, they know that they should be “using” prayer beads as an accessory, and they do NOT know what the prayer beads should look like.

The first important thing to realize, if you are familiar with modern rosaries, is that most of the standardization of rosaries for the general public has occurred in the last 100 years. Prior to that time geographic regions, various religious orders, and personal preference and wealth were all very important considerations.

So, you want a set of prayer beads, but you do not have a “totally focused” persona from a very specific town? If you are male – get a tenner, and if you are female get a three decade rosary.

Now what does that mean? Let’s discuss the geography of a rosary. The standard number of Ave beads in a decade is 10. An Ave, or Hail Mary, bead is used to say the prayer that begins, Hail Mary full of grace… But remember, no matter what your native tongue, if you were a regular Roman Catholic in Europe, you said your rosary in Latin during the Middle Ages, so that would have been Ave Maria Gratia Plena. The decades in a rosary are separated by a Paternoster, or Our Father, bead – this is where the Our father who are in heaven prayer goes… in Latin of course (that is what Paternoster means).

Medieval rosaries were usually ended, or decorated, with either a tassel or a cross, the use of a crucifix on a rosary is extremely rare prior to 1600, but becomes more common after that date. And the difference, in case you are not sure, between a cross and a crucifix, is the presence of a representation of the crucified Christ, hence the name, crucifix. Crosses could be one piece or made of several beads.

So back to my persona recommendations! A tenner is simply a string of ten Ave beads with an end bead, known as a gaude, or a cross, or a ring, or sometimes a tassel, or a combination of those things. If you are in a German speaking area, it will be called a Zehner – you guessed it – a tenner. Women use them too, but they are definitely the most popular form that we find for men. This picture shows a tenner with coral Aves (the black and white beads are just spacers), a carnelian cross at one end, and a ring at the other end. The ring can be used for hanging the rosary off of a belt, or if it is large enough, it can be placed on a finger to make it easy to carry and use the rosary at all times.

Etsy 125

And what about the three decade rosary for women? This form is usually made into a loop, for easier carrying. So we have three sets of ten Ave beads with a larger Crystal Paternoster bead separating them, and a tassel or cross at the end – like this.

Etsy 126

 

I hope that this brief blog helps to demystify what sort of rosary your persona should be carrying. Next time I will discuss the details of bead choices, tassels and crosses.

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Wrist Clasps – What are they and How to use them

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What are Wrist Clasps, how are they used, and who used them?

First of all – what is a wrist clasp?

Etsy 38 close

This is an example of a formed metal sheet wrist clasp set.

The mechanism of a wrist clasp is a metal hook and eye closure. The closure is used to close the wrist opening on a tunic. Now wrist clasps are not all literally hook and eyes in appearance, but that is how they function – there are two pieces to each clasp, a hook plate and an eye plate. The Wrist Clasp sets can be cast, formed sheet metal, or formed wire.sheet metal wrist clasp

 

 

 

 

 

When I first began investigating Wrist Clasps I read an article online about how reenactors hated to wear Wrist Clasps because they were hard to use and they didn’t stay closed. Well, I thought about that for a while and decided that there was probably a good chance that someone was doing something wrong with the way the clasps were being used. Now first let me say that I am probably much older than most of my readers. I remember when wearing stockings meant wearing a garter belt, not because you were trying to be sexy, but because that was what there was – panty hose had not been invented yet. So, I have the concept of things being a bit fussy, particularly things associated with women’s clothing and even more specifically dressy women’s clothing. But if a thing is going to be used, it must be functional. It may require some occasional adjustments, but it must be functional.

Now, one of the problems that we have as reenactors is knowing what people wore on an everyday basis, verses what they were buried in. I never knew that my grandfather had a suit until I was at his funeral. He was buried in a suit, but never in my 14 years of knowing him had I ever seen him wear a suit. Did Vikings and Anglo Saxons wear wrist clasps in everyday life, or just for “fancy wear”? Well, in all honesty we really can’t be sure. If we assume that most folks did not have a large selection of clothing and wrist clasps were considered to be a regular part of a decently dressed individual’s clothing, then the wrist clasps had to function. So what were the reenactors doing wrong?

I made a copy of a basic sheet metal wrist clasp, and I played with it. And it worked. It worked just fine. I have a tunic with wrist clasps on the cuffs. They are a little hard to close, but they usually stay closed all day, without any adjustments. They are not uncomfortable. I had someone explain to me that Wrist Clasps were uncomfortable because the metal dug into their wrists when they leaned on a table. How much time did Vikings and Anglo Saxons spend leaning on a table? I don’t spend much time at all leaning on a table. I designed my sleeves to open along the outside edge of my wrist, so that the wrist clasps would show when my arms hung down straight. I made the sleeves fairly tight at the wrist, so that closing the clasps was a bit difficult, and the tightness of the sleeve held the hook of the Wrist clasps firmly in the “eye” of the receiver plate. They worked. They worked just fine.

From a historical standpoint, Wrist Clasps are considered to be an important piece of dress accessories for both Vikings and Anglo Saxons. Wrist clasps appear to have originated in Scandinavia.  They were brought to Great Britain in about 475AD, probably by Norwegian Vikings. While commonly called “Wrist Clasps”, some people think that Viking men in Scandinavia used them as both wrist and ankle closures. I have not seen definitive proof of this. Women wore clasps at the wrist and the bosom, and also occasionally appear to have used clasps to close pouches. Traditionally it was believed that once the Vikings arrived in Great Britain, only the women continued to wear the clasps. One of the problems with this conclusion is that recent DNA research shows that the majority of Viking men who settled in Great Britain took local wives, who would have been Anglo Saxon. Anglo Saxon woman wore wrist clasps.

Among Anglo-Saxons the wrist clasps were often used in combination with tablet woven bands on cuffs and in some areas (Lincolnshire) leather bands replaced the tablet weaving. In the East Anglia and Cambridgeshire regions an additional triangular piece of metal, known as a “gusset plate” was used to cover the slit area of the sleeve opening.

seam gusset and clasp

Another interesting difference between Viking and Anglo-Saxon use of the wrist clasp was the method by which the clasps were attached. The Anglo-Saxon women sewed their clasps on, while in Scandinavia the clasps were frequently riveted to the clothing.

Vikings and Anglo-Saxons have three types of Clasps in common:

  1. Basic Hook and Eye Form
  2. Cast geometric or zoomorphic form
  3. Formed Metal sheet rectangular clasps

Here is an example of a simple cast Anglo Saxon Wrist Clasp Set

 

 

 

Making a Fabric Liner for a Crown or Coronet

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I accept commissions to make one or two coronets a year. As a part of this process, there are two things that I usually do, other than make them; make a liner and make a case. To me it is the final touch for the process.

First the liner. I know some folks who prefer a coronet without a liner. They always wear a veil, hat or coif, so the coronet is simply fit to go over one or more of these items. Coronets that are particularly light and airy – like some of the openwork ones, may also not need a liner. Personally wearing a coronet against my bare skin gives me a rash, so I prefer a liner.

As a landed Baroness I spend a LOT of time wearing a coronet. Unfortunately both sets of cornets that belong to our Barony are too small for a liner, so I must settle for a lightweight veil or coif. But, when I make my own coronet for stepping down, there WILL be room for a liner. I want to be able to wear my coronet with a hat!

Before I made my first liner I looked at as many coronets as I could get my hands on. Individually owned coronets can be fit to whoever owns them, but Coronets and Crowns belonging to Kingdoms, Principalities and Baronies are usually made extra large, to allow them to fit a large variety of head sizes. Making the coronets or crowns larger, so that they will fit everyone who might need to wear them, requires the use of a changeable liner.

I have seen some pretty messy liner jobs. The messiest one was probably the heavy duty cotton upholstery cording that was wrapped around inside the coronet and glued in place with hot glue. Please, no hot glue! I have had to remove hot glue from an assortment of surfaces before, and it should NOT be used on Coronets.

Then how to attach the liner to the inside of the coronet? Well, I have seen two major approaches: sewing the liner in place or some sort of glue. Sewing the liner in place is generally only possible if the coronet was designed to be lined that way. For instance if there are small pierced holes in the base of the coronet, or if you use rivets to assemble the coronet and the bottom rivets are hollow (that means they effectively form a tube through the coronet).

My personal preference for gluing in a liner is stick-on Velcro. Why stick-on Velcro? It stays in place well, it allows the liner to be easily removed if the wearer wants to wear a hat under the coronet instead, and it allows the liner to be easily removed for washing or replacement. If something happens to the Velcro it is easy and inexpensive to replace. It also comes in several colors, so that you can at least make an attempt to match the Velcro to the liner. But we are getting ahead of ourselves! First we need a liner.

The liner itself is simply a tube of fabric that is stuffed, sewn into a closed circle of the appropriate size, and then placed inside of the coronet, using the “hook” side of the stick-on Velcro.  Here is the beginning of a black velvet coronet liner. I simply estimated how big around I wanted the liner to be – think sausage here – and then added a seam allowance.  I also measured the interior of the coronet to figure out how long the strip of fabric needed to be, and added a seam allowance.

M3361S-3034

Let’s take a minute to discuss how to measure the length of the piece of fabric for the liner. Obviously if you were involved in the manufacture of the coronet you will have the size of the headband and you can just add an inch for seam allowances and go from there. If you are remaking a liner, you can measure the old liner, and assuming that it fit correctly you can essentially copy it. But if you are creating the liner from scratch you need to take some measurements. The easiest way to measure the size of the coronet is to simply wrap the tape around the outside of the coronet. If the outside of the coronet is heavily decorated with stones and other three dimensional objects you will definitely need to measure the inside of the coronet, or the liner will be way too long. If you are not concerned about wasting a little fabric measure the outside – it is easier. The width of the fabric strip will determine how big around your liner is. You can make a circle with a flexible tape measure and figure out how wide to make the fabric strip.

Once you have your measurements you need to sew the fabric into a tube. Simply fold the fabric in half with the good side on the inside, and sew along the seam allowance. Now is the time to look again at the liner, before you do any more work, and decide if the size looks correct. When I sewed up the first version of the black velvet liner I realized that I had made waaay too fat a “sausage”. If you simply squeeze the tube into a circle you can see how large it will be. Once you are happy with the size of the tube, you need to turn it inside out – remember the right side of the fabric is currently on the inside and the not-very-pretty seam is on the outside. My favorite way of turning a small tube inside out is with a string and a safety pin. Simply tie the string, which must be longer than the tube, to the safety pin, attach the pin to one end of the tube, drop the string through the tube, and then carefully use the string to turn the tube right side out.

Once the tube is turned right side out you need to fill the tube with whatever sort of stuffing you are using. I generally prefer polyester quilt batting because it gives me a LOT of flexibility in terms how fat and firm I make the liner, it breaths well, does not generally mat, and is washable.

When you think you are happy with the liner, do a trial fitting, holding the liner in place and seeing if the coronet fits well. If not, now is the time to make adjustments to the firmness or size of the liner.

I go to a lot of trouble to make my liners extremely neat and fussy. After all, a coronet is a fairly major investment and I want the customer to be happy with the finished piece – emphasis on the word “finished”. If it is your coronet and you just want to “get’er done” there is a much less complicated approach that will work.

Determine the measurements of the liner. Add only a small seam allowance to the width of the fabric – perhaps ½ inch. With the right side of the fabric on the outside, fold the fabric in half the long way and sew your seam. Check the liner size by seeing how big around it will be. When it is the correct size, evaluate the seam. How thick is the fabric? If it is bulky you may need to trim the seam to two different lengths.

sewn tubes with seams

Stuff the tube, do a trial fitting to make sure the coronet fits correctly, and slip one end of the fabric tube inside the other end. At this point we have another opportunity to decide how fussy we want to be again. I carefully roll the cut edge of the fabric under and neatly hand stitch the tube closed. The “quick and dirty” technique is to simply whip stitch the raw edge of the fabric in place with thread. This is NOT a good idea if your fabric has a tendency to fray.

joining the tube

Once your tube has been joined together it is time to put on the stick-on Velcro. Velcro comes as a set – a strip of soft, almost fuzzy stuff and another strip that consistes of tiny little hooks that easily hook to the soft strip. The soft strip should be attached to the coronet. Why? Well, if you ever decide to wear the coronet without the liner, on a hat or thicker head scarf, the soft Velcro will not be uncomfortable or damage the hat or scarf. The hook side of the Velcro is actually attached to the liner.

STOP! Before you randomly place the hooked Velcro onto the liner you need to consider a couple of factors. Did you do a detailed, turned and hand finished liner, or did you do a simpler form with the seam on the outside of the tube? If you did a simple version with the seam on the outside it is very important that you actually line up the hooked Velcro tape over the seam. This will completely cover the seam and keep it from fraying. If you did a more finely finished seam and join on your liner I would still recommend covering the seam with your hooked Velcro strip because it just plain looks nicer, but it it not mandatory.

Once both Velcro strips have been pressed firmly in place you should be able to press the liner gently into the coronet and be able to enjoy the comfort of the fit. I hope that this makes your coronet wearing experience more comfortable!