Another piece of HISTORY

 Right now I’m battling with a rather annoying flu. As I was lying in bed for past several days, doing absolutely nothing, I decided to work on the project I started a long time ago – putting on some of the traditional patterns online. 

Traditional crafts always fascinate me, from Scottish kilts to our mitten designs. If you look at the bar above, you will see few new pages there to look at - this, this and this. 

Many of the patterns come from the three thick volumes on our traditional costume, printed late 20; s –early 30's so quality of printing is a bit outdated but the wealth of information is still there. 

I believe that many of these patterns are still brilliant for modern quilt or fashion ideas. 

Just look at this linen shirt! I can imagine wearing it with my black jeans and looking fab. 

Or these knitted socks – while they are part of one of our region’s traditional costume, they can be a fantastic fashion statement. 

Whatever, I enjoyed putting at least some up and will continue when the next flu will hit me again. Hope you will find them as inspiring as I do.

Tales of the past 6. National costume

Do not worry, this is the last post dedicated to my granny's treasures. (Well, I had not had only one granny LOL). So today I am showing the most valuable bits (for me, of course). The national costume.

Latvian national costume had similar principles like Scottish kilts only instead of one family colours and patterns each village had their own. For women its mostly woollen skirt, linen shirt and bodice. Large woollen scarf with embroidery, rich knitted socks and the head bits - from simple ribbon for young girls to really a crown like creation for the bride and down to colourful head scarfs for married ladies.

In my drawers there are actually parts of two different national costumes, as my granny was the only child. She got them from both sides of the family and so they were kept.

This one is from Barta region - black skirt with the red line at the bottom, red bodice and white shirt with black embroidery. It has been well worn and some things are missing - for example, the silver brocade ribbons which decorated the bodice, but otherwise all in all in good condition.




Skirt

The wrong side (you can see that the decorative ornament is not weaved but just sewn in)

 

The shirt

Linen, with black embroidery

 The sleeve ends are wide and flat.

 The bodice

Bodice has been worn a lot and is really worn out. It has sateen lining which also is starting to break apart so now it needs a copy to be made. But anyway - I will keep it and I will pass it to my oldest dayghter... People here are strange to keep such old pieces but by some reason we are really proud to still have them.

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This shirt is part of Lielvarde national costume, the other part which is still alive is the belt I told before here. The united bodice/skirt bit my mother had been wearing during the WWII as a daily dress and it didn't survived.

The shirt also had been worn a lot and the sleeves needed some serious repair. I remember how my granny started the job, nearly did all the embroydery and then she had a heartattack.

The needle is still holding the red threar. And now I think - do I really need to finish the job or keeping it how it is it will have the memories about my granny.







The original sleeve end, Below the expanded copy (original is the narrow one), made by my granny (not finished, still one row missing)

Tales of the past 5

Well, as for today London is on my mind, just a quick peek into granny's drawers.

Some handmade (from rising flax up to weaving) linen fabric.Natural linen /blue colours.

Typical stitch work of 1920's here. Linen curtains. Two vertical bits and a horizontal top bit. Bright red/orange colours, still vibrant.

I will post more tomorrow but right now chanterelles and broad beans need to be cooked. Dinner time!

Have a nice evening and let's hope that the opening ceremony tonight will be as impressive as promised!

Ancient bikini

I do not write fashion - there are so many who do it way better. But! I told at the beginning - I love history. And this again proves that history is worth to be loved. Fashionistas, hey, we all know about bikini... How it was invented and all that... Also a history, and a well documented one. Then...
how about these knickers?

A bit worn out for a 60 years old bikini? Well, yes, they are a bit older - date back to the 15th century!!!

And the whole history of bra now must to be rechecked as - again - recent discovery in a vault beneath the floorboards of Lengberg castle in East Tyrol, Austria shows a great linen bra, dated about 1480.
So no, it' not about our grand grandmother's generation - now this find takes us back into comfortable fashion designs of 15th century!
Read more here and here, it is well worth it.
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 And even more! Look at these wonderful laces!
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The info about them here for more detailed read.
And if you really want to know more, there will be a chance for these of you, who will be in UK in October.

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Saturday, 27th October 2012 9:30 am

Well Worn Weeds: Underclothes, Linens and Vegetable fibres worn next to the body.

Venue: The British Musem’s Stevenson Theatre.

The Conference will examine numerous aspects of vegetable fibre underclothes, from fibre production to medical philosophy. Highlights include the recent discoveries of 14th & 15th C linen undergarments from Lengberg Castle in Austria, including the two bra/bustier garments.
Doors open 9:00am for registration.
9:30-10:30, MEDATS AGM. Members only.

11:00 Conference begins.
Sessions throughout the day include;
Linen production in the Low Countries – Frieda Sorba
All indecent! – 15th century linen underwear from Lengberg Castle, East-Tyrol, Austria – Beatrice Nutz
Documentary Evidence of the Linen trade in Florence in the mid 15th C – Jane Bridgeman.
Linen and the Plague. – examining the medical beliefs surrounding linen in the period prior to 1600 – Susan North.
15th and 16th century linens, Evolutions in Cut – Jenny Tiramani
5:00 Conference ends.
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I think I have decided what I want for my birthday! LOL

And something just for fun... Carry him home! Carry him home!

Tales of the past 4

Let's go a bit private today. Two bodices out of my grand granma's drawer. This one especially surprised me. After the close checkup I can say with full responsibility - it's all handmade.

 I can't imagine myself achieving something like that just for a bit of lingerie to wear... When I imagine hours spent over it... Well, but on the other hand, they didn't have the telly then. Nor Internet. LOL

But - seriously... The value of things has changed so much! When you buy a bra at the local shop, you would never imagine your grand granddaughter washing it... You know that bra will last several month to be thrown out to get the next.

So, here are bodices. And here is the lady, who made them and wore them. Maybe even under this outfit.

This photo was made in 1902 and survived all these years along with her sewing machine and few other things.

Ann Beitan.  My grand grandmother.

Tales of the past 3

These are the “Sunday” driving reins, for sledges, made approx. 1880. Here reins were usually made in tablet weaving technic as it gives really thick and strong material. Actually as a belt it feels a bit too thick but for durability of reins – just perfect. 

Tablet weaving with cards is traceable to the early Iron Age. The warp yarn is threaded through flat squares of wood that control the direction of the lift. Various patterns are created by the direction of the turn of the tablet or square. 


Actually these reins also has a story to tell. My grand-grand-grand-aunt was driving sledge in 1889, with 3 horses and was speeding. Yes, they were speeding even then!. She didn't took the corner right, sledge turned over and hit her on the back. Her backbone was broken but she manage to survive, drive home and spent in bed another 6 months after the accident until she gave up. She was 83 then. The reins were kept as a reminder that sometimes even the skilled can loose reins...  

Sometime when I think about my family's ladies of the past I feel shame about all the fun I am missing. They really lived in full force, these old ladies of the past. 

If my great grandma managed to weave a long posh reins, my grandma already had different interests so only few samples had been left, made by her. Her childhood fell in WWI and later there were no much need for Sunday reins anymore, priorities were sheets and towels...  But still - for learning purposes - they needed to do a bit of this and that - who knows what they might need later.... 

And by this reason my grandma also showed me how to do things as well. Just for the knowledge bit... so its not lost... I was not able to find any tablet woven samples done by me but I remember how I was making them as a child. But I find one in other technic, done on pencils. 
 
So now there are samples of 3 generations in one post. Sadly my mum missed all this fun - her childhood fell in WWII when were different priorities and later she went to college and the right time was lost - she barely learnt how to knit only but never enjoyed that. She was sewing a lot instead. And made many, many other things.

Tales of the past 2

Well, now is time to peek into my grand grandmother's bag. Many things had been lost or simply worn out, but some things had survived.

 Simple crochet, the top for the pillowcase.
Close up.

The decorative towel.

My Grand grandma was half German so she really prefered more international , city stile pieces instead of traditional work. Thus the results :D
She become the second wife of quite a big farmer - he was raising horses for Russian army. But it was not an easy life...

She was 16 when she married while he was 54 and her stepchildren were twice older than she.  But she survived and managed quite well - she died 1957 at 89.

My granny was her only child before she widowed at 24.

She never married again and managed the farm alone through WWI and left to city only in 1945 when farm was taken over by Soviets.

She was proud and never went back there  to see the misery, and never allowed any of the family to go and visit the place.

As far as I know, granny and my mum kept the promise and of course, I had never been there - the house was destroyed anyway by Soviets.But during the WWII my grand grandmother was still in charge so my mother had so many memories to tell about her childhood there.Both - my grand grandmother and my grandmother were into fancywork as well as in serious crafts... During WWII my mum was wearing wooden clogs, made by her granny.

bottom side

Tales of the past

Materials: white linen and red wool. Its woven on a belt loom using the pick-up technique.

Till my quilting torture continues and I still have nothing to show, I decided to tell the story of one of my family’s treasures, way over 100 years old.

During the WWI the farmhouse of our family was quite a busy place. German and Russian armies were moving in and out, each leaving their  marks. The whole place was a mess, and nobody knew what will happen tomorrow but show must go on – farming is farming, war is no excuse. One night, returning back from fields, parents of my granny spotted an alien horse in the orchard.  Horse was nietly tied to one of the apple trees – ribcage showing out and limping on all 4. A ruined warhorse. 

It was impossible to say to which army the horse belonged but somebody definitely had a heart for it, leaving it behind and not dragging it into an inevitable death. During the WWI soldiers still had hearts for their horses. And this one was the lucky one.  The horse survived and become great friend and protector to my granny – she remembered that horse all her life and his story is still alive in our family.

 

The horse was tied to the tree with the old belt. Not an army product, but something very special – a hand woven belt which is part of our national costume.  Something special for the soldier to take with him – a memory from home, a talisman to protect. And he left it with the horse... 

One of it’s end horse had already cheved in starvation as he was not able to reach grass, but the rest survived.   

This type of belts has very complicate ornamental tracery. In each of these belts, there are up to 22 symbols (ornaments): God’s symbol, Mara symbol, Laima’s symbols, the Well symbol, the Sun symbol, the Fortune cross, Jumis, the Life symbol, the Cross of Crosses and others, which we do know and some which meaning is lost over centuries. Ornaments of the belt have similarities  with cultures of India, Tibet and Inca culture in Mexico. 

The complex, changing ornaments in the belt have led some researchers to conclude that the designs hold encoded information. The scenario for the origins of the Universe read into the belt; the belt as a meditative system; as a yet untested piece of knowledge of the Universe may or may not be true: much will depend on what and how we want to see. 

Anyway, many of us believe that this belt contains information about the genesis of the universe and the nation. (Who wouldn’t? It's ours :D )

Also mathematicians had looked into these belts and played with turning  these ornaments into binary codes. About 10 years ago the ornament building programm had been created and now it’s  awailable on www.zime.lv where you can create the ornament of your own message – to yourself or to the next generations. 

Whatever – this is just a little peek into the past. During the WWII armies still had some horses but no hearts left – the Soviet army walked through the farm (again, yes, by some reasons, some people happen to live right on the path of every army), and one mare gave a birth to the foal. Just few hours later  mare was dragged further while foal was left at the farm to die. Family handfed the foal and it survived but horse did grew up being quite nasty beast. Mutantur omnia nos et mutamur in illis.

Work in progress

My new project has started well. Today I made about 160 m out of 250 m I need in total to start with, according to my estimations (hope they are right). When I finished sewing what I had already cut, I realised that I'm a bit too short. What a scrap girl like me does? Runs out to the nearest charity shop. I like buying men's shirts for my projects - good quality cotton and quite a lot of material for 25 cents. I was lucky - I found two pyjamas - one GrigioPerla, other - Novila. So for 1 EUR I got plenty of nice material to cut into my stripes.

What to share tonight? Few things which explains why I like recycling.

I hate things being made just for one season, and some are even  never worn at all when they leave to the bin. OK, nowdays things seem to appear effortless, but when you look at old things and think about how much time and efforts were put in them you learn to respect them.
I have quite a nice collection of old linen. I like them and I keep them even if they are not for everyday use (at least some of them). I have some of my grand grandmother's nurse aprons from WW I as well as some fancy ones like this - I try to wash it gently and iron carefully as it is so thin and nice to put on at least when preparing Christmas meal. :D

Then there are old handmade linen towels. I mean handmade the whole - from raising and harvesting the plant until sewing the final stiches.

By the edge you can see that it has been hand woven. To use it gives me feeling like all my grannies are still looking after me, even the one who died loong before my birth - in 1932.