blast from the past

in which our plucky heroine answers Teresa's question...

Quite a few years ago, back in 2016, I made a creative interpretation of a cross-body bag, inspired by an archaeological find, some of the wooden handles found in Hedeby harbor. A number of artifacts have been found that are thought to be bag handles, and creating possible bags to use in that configuration became popular among parts of the reenactment community.

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this is the current iteration of my "Viking style" bag... It is made from handwoven striped wool, with a linen lining, and decorated with an embroidered wool patch and an interwoven brass wire "Birka-style" horse inset with mica. The bag handles are carved beechwood and the cross body shoulder strap is bark-tanned leather.

A top-down view looking into the bag when open... it shows how the wooden handles, which slide together along the braided leather portion of the shoulder strap when the bag is worn, can be separated to get access to the contents of the bag

Just a closer view of the metal and mica "Birka-style" horse. The archeological pieces are much smaller and made of gold wire; I used brass, for economy sake, and created a design similar to the Birka deer from grave 832. The pieces of mica set behind the openings in the design act like sequins, and sparkle in a delightful way when seen by firelight.

Ten years ago when I first made this cross-body bag, I miscalculated the strap length, and it was just a few inches too long for ideal use . The best length has the bottom of the bag at fingertip height. This year I decided to shorten the strap, which was a quite a challenge. Undoing the braiding, and/or the fancy stopper knots was not an option; and the flat portion of the strap had been securely glued, punched, and stitched like saddlery.

With great care, and mindful of "measure twice, cut once", the strap was cut in twain, the stitching undone, and the layers of leather carefully separated. The skills honed in my younger days when I swapped leather repair for riding lessons remain in my mind and my hands. The multiple strap ends had their stitching holes aligned with the outer layers overlapping, and the inner strap layers further cut down to reduce the strap thickness to three rather than four layers. It was tricksy to get right. I skived away some of the outer straps to further ease the transitions, then glued it back together and stitched it with waxed linen

The final strap repair, not invisible, but tidy and strong, and will last as long as it is needed, certainly will see me out...

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	15 tiny masu boxes	earrings recombined	greenwaste bin
2	black scarf hem	replace C O alarm	recycle bin
3	Brambly Hedge slip	-	greenwaste bin
4	5 more bead frogs	-	overgrown lovage
5	"Cats Invade" books	-	-
6	all the bead frogs	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes-
- a head full of knowledges and hands full of skills all gathered over many decades. 
- Past Me planted fruit trees
- all the frogs are done

Time of Isolation - Day 2199