#scaproject

Roman, or it's precurser Greek, tends to be the easiest garb to make on the surface. It's essentially a series of squares and rectangles of various sizes with various embroideries. Of course, it helps to know what they proportions are for your garb. and if you get those wrong, you can sometimes get a hilarious result.

Take the palla, for instance. It's basically a body-veil, covering a person from head to feet. It tends to be yards long, and we're talking 4 yards or more, depending. And again, various thicknesses.

This is the largest palla that I own. It's always going to be the largest, because any that I make after this point are going to be smaller. This is using a 5.3 oz linen. It's just shorter than 6 yards. And it's the full width of the fabric. It's long, it's heavy, and it's impractical for doing most things in the SCA, since it's a lot of fabric. I would not wear this to retain, for instance, because of it's length and weight. I have to hold it in my arms, or at least one arm.

I also added a comb to it so I could anchor it to my head. That way it didn't go anywhere. I've got a weird shaped head, and a lot of things fall off.

So the second time I made garb, I made Roman. This was back in early August 2021 for Stierbach’s Baronial Birthday, and was the second in-person event I’d ever gone to. I didn’t want to wear my Hiberno-Norse gear for several reasons.

I boiled when I wore that a month earlier, so I didn’t want to continue to boil. 

I enjoy making things so I wanted to make something new.

I took Latin in high school, and became pretty obsessed with the clothing of that time, so I wanted to make some.

So what was I to do, but make more garb? Please enjoy these not very flattering images of me trying on my gap-sleeved tunica. 

I made this Roman gap sleeved tunica with 3.5 yards of a double layer cotton gauze. In pink, obviously. It was one of the easiest projects I've ever completed! The bottom hem encases a rope of lead weights to make sure the cotton gauze hangs properly, as it tends to crumple upward when it wrinkles.

The only "complex" part was adding the rosettes to make the anchor points for the "gaps". I don't think it's noticeable at this distance, but each of those rosettes has a pearl bead at its center. Romans were nuts for pearls, absolutely giddy. So, pearls.

Side note: The best way to belt this, I've found at least for simplicity, is right under the bust. Then messing with the folds for proper drape.

When wearing something like this, it should be noted what site you’re going to be at when you are wearing something long. Also keep the weather in mind. On the day I wore this in early August, it was raining, it was mostly outside, and my hem got at least 6 inches of water from the bottom because of walking on the grass. So maybe next time I make sure to have one of these that’s shorter, or zhuzh the fabric more above the belt, or even double belt to raise the hemline. 

You live you learn, I suppose. 

I added a selection of fake pearl jewelry I found at a thrift store (I can't emphasize this enough, Romans were nuts for pearls) and a palla I made out of a strip of RIT-dyed cotton muslin.

There are 2 things that I would do better differently were I to make a muslin palla again. The first is to try and get already dyed muslin, as dying this myself in a pot was annoying. Turns out I don't like that bit. (This was before I decided I wanted all my headwear to be yellow/gold, which is why this is blue.) The second is to make it longer. In my later research, which I am not linking here, is that pallas were about 4 to 5 yards long. So my probably 3 or less yard palla is not long enough to be "accurate".

What do you do when you are stuck inside, bored, and need something to do with your hands? Why, you make a bunch of lucet braids for your Baroness to hand out as largesse, of course!

Seriously, it was so many belts. made to be either double wrapped for those with slimmer waists or single for those, like myself who have a more generous figure. 

So second round of this. Hiding my phone at SCA events. I thought about a pouch! Which does make some sense, since pouches are all the rage. 

This one I make to the measurements of my phone. Well, to be precise, the the measurements of my phone plus like 1-2 inches in every direction. This way my phone wouldn’t be snug in the pouch and I could easily retrieve it. 

It’s two layers of linen, for extra assurances that if my phone screen lights up it’s more difficult to see it, and the two layers help soften the lines of the popsocket I have on my phone which prevents me from dropping it on my face when I’m sitting in bed alone at night scrolling on some app I’m using to distract me from reality. :)

I made this back in August to use while at Battle of the Bay, and it works like a dream! the straps are long enough that I can easily loop it in a lark’s head around whatever belt I’m wearing, and still long enough for me to open and close it. Here’s a picture of me wearing it, I’m on the right:

This is not my Image, the Chronicler for my Barony took this, Lord Rónán mac Ímair. This was taken at Highland Havoc back in November, hence why everyone in this image is bundled up. But you can clearly see the pouch hanging from my belt. 

So when I was making my first garb ever for a Hiberno-Norse event, I had need of the turtle broaches and string of beads. Since this was part of my first attempt at garb, and I already knew this wouldn’t be my permanent persona, I did what any person probably would do: I went to Joann’s.

I bought some clay beads with patterns, some abalone shell beads, and some colorful dyed-stone beads to make this. I also got this pendant which I am well aware is not historically accurate. But it’s pretty, and this passes the 10 ft rule, so I’m good.

It’s two strings, since I’m extra, and the beads are strung on copper wire rather than any sort of thread. I’m clumsy, and often careless and forgetful, so making sure this was sturdy was important.

I think it’s important to note that the wire for the two strands is connected. It’s one piece. The idea is that as I was attaching the straps of the apron dress to the body, I would slip the loops of the bead string through the pins. And it worked, and stayed in place the entire day.

So, when I was planning for my first event last July (yes, I am a baby SCAdian), I thought of hiding my phone as all the pages I saw recommended. This is no easy feat, as being a millennial, am almost constantly on my phone, at least according to all those boomer articles from like 10 years ago.

So how to hide it, so those who don’t want to see it won’t see it? Why, simply hide it in a book! This ended up being both super easy and super hard. And after that first event, I haven’t used it since.

This was for two reasons. The first was that sometimes, you just gotta look at your phone. Either to put in a new friend’s contact info for later shenanigans, or maybe for taking a picture of someone’s cool A&S display. The second was because unless you had a basket you were carrying, how would you be able to keep track of your phone and not have to carry this book?