Hedeby-style bag with Viking ship machine embroidery

Carrying the Viking Ship embroidered bag

In early September I returned to the Maker Space that I haven’t been to since before Covid. While initially I went with the intention of finishing a laser cutter project that I started before the pandemic, once I popped my USB into my computer to look at the files – I remembered all of the machine embroidery projects that I had wanted to do. The files were done (or nearly done) but I hadn’t yet had the chance to get to the embroidery machine.

(I also did a few new designs too…)

One of the files is an image of a Viking sailing a dragon-head longboat, based loosely off of an illustration by an illustrator I used to follow on Instagram – Jorundrmott. Unfortunately, he is no longer on Instagram, so I can’t properly reference the artwork. I am not sure what his original source or inspiration was for the design.

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Above- Instagram video of the stages sewing this design on the embroidery machine

Some hand work on the ship machine embroidery design

After I took the embroidery off the machine, there were a few areas that still needed some hand work to be cleaned up.  I did this with regular cotton embroidery thread (two strands) rather than using the silky machine embroidery thread.

Construction

With the panel of embroidery complete, I chose the handles I wanted to use to make this bag.  For this version, I am using the “chairback” style of handle, in a mid-toned brown stain.  I THINK it’s Tudor stain, but am not entirely sure. I cut out the rectangles for the front and back of the grey wool, as well as a lining of black linen, leftover from my black linen underdress.

I sewed each rectangle together with a small gap at the top of the side seams left open.  I also ‘boxed’ the bottom of the bag which I think makes it feel roomier.  From there I put the lining inside the bag, and hand-stitched the side seam openings to enclose the raw edges. More grey wool made some tabs to attach the handles to the bag, and these tabs went into the opening between the wool and the linen lining.

With the wood in place, it’s a lot easier (and cleaner looking) to sew the tabs in place by hand, so I did just that, with small whip stitches connecting the lining and tabs on the inside, and wool and tabs on the outside.

Carrying the Viking Ship embroidered bag

Strap

For the strap, I tried doing fingerloop, but got totally twisted up because the yarn felt so “sticky”. I ended up just doing a twisted rope of the yarn instead. I keep thinking I should really re-learn fingerloop, or make a bunch at once for this kind of thing, because it’s just perfect to use for these… but every time I go to try again, I seem to lose the practice and get frustrated with myself.

Maybe something to bring up if we ever have in-person A&S nights again for my barony!

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Mammen embroidery on tan wool

Stitching the Mammen large face and hands design onto tan wool

Does this design look familiar? Well, even if you’re not familiar with the Mammen finds, you might remember an earlier post where I stitched this up onto blue wool.

Well, I liked it so much, I decided to use the embroidery machine to do a second round of it on tan wool too!

This design from the Mammen finds is often shared online named “large faces and hands” and I  re-traced it from those designs (not from photographs of the original garment) and digitized it for machine embroidery.

Mammen embroidery on blue wool

Mammen embroidery on blue wool

Not too long ago I showed off a hooded mantle I made in teal wool, decorated with machine embroidery, including the acanthus vine found originally in the late 10th Century “Mammen” find.

From what I’ve seen, this is one of the few finds from Viking Age Nordics that include figurative embroidery… despite the SCA love of putting decorative, figurative embroidery on All.The.Things.  There are a number of different motifs from this find, including the vine, and the repeating pattern I’m using here.

Machine embroidered apron panel (wolves and ravens)

The rotated wolves on the screen of the embroidery machine for the larger design

In an earlier post I showed off the large reflected Viking-style wolf heads that I did in grey, blue, and red using the maker space embroidery machine, along with the reflected ravens.

As I mentioned, I originally did both of these designs small, but then stitched them up much larger for an apron panel. I decided, like my previous apron panel (celebrating being added to the Order of the Argent Flame) that this panel would be reversible – wolves on one side, and ravens on the reverse.

In this post I’ll show the making of this panel!

Embroidered Viking-style hood

Embroidered Viking-style hood

A while ago I made a few different hooded capelets. The kind of garment to throw over a jacket to add a hood and a bit of shoulder-cozy for the days that don’t need a coat and tuque (knitted hat). Originally I made them just for costuming wear, but with my favourite one, I found that I was wearing it in the fall for mundane wear as well over my leather jacket.

In all of my adventures using the Maker Space’s embroidery machine, I thought one really good use for an embroidered design would be the front panel of one of these hoods.