Hello lovelies, 

It's been a good two years before I realized I never wrote or made a video about my blue Burgundian gown. If you have browsed on this blog, you may have found it in various posts as I share pictures of it already. I made this costume in September of 2023 and wore it to the medieval festival in Eggenburg and the Renaissance faire in Krumlov.

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Hallo ihr Lieben,

es ist gut zwei Jahre her bevor ich festgestellt habe, dass ich nie etwas über mein blaues Burgunderkleid geschrieben oder ein Video gemacht habe. Wenn ihr auf diesem Blog gestöbert habt, habt ihr Bilder von dem Kleid vielleicht in verschiedenen Beiträgen gefunden. Ich habe dieses Kostüm im September 2023 angefertigt und es auf dem Mittelalterfest in Eggenburg und dem Renaissancefest in Krumau getragen.

I based my dress on this picture but instead of making a new underdress, I just used my old one I made back in 2015. Plus, less embroidery because I didn't have time for it again.

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Ich habe mich bei meinem Kleid an diesem Bild orientiert, aber anstatt ein neues Unterkleid zu machen, habe ich einfach mein altes aus dem Jahr 2015 verwendet. Außerdem habe ich weniger gestickt, weil ich wieder keine Zeit dafür hatte.

from: « Livre de BOECE de Consolation de phylosophie », traduction de « JEHAN DE MEUN ». Date d'édition :  1401-1500 Link

I bought the blue wool fabric at my local fabric dealer for about 14€ per meter, which was a real steal. I made a mock-up and used it for the pattern. The pattern was from the "Medieval tailors assistant" and fitted to my body. 

It was a pretty easy process and I did it a hundred times so I will keep it short.

The belt is made out of black velvet fabric and white thick lining. I used the technique I learned for the gamurra and made those zig zag stitches to really bolster it up. I wrapped up the white fabric in the black and then embroidered it with real gold sequins and cotton gold thread. The belt buckles I used were bought from Pera Peris, a German medieval/re-enactment site and a huge recommendation (Buy European!)

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Ich habe den blauen Wollstoff bei meinem örtlichen Stoffhändler für etwa 14 € pro Meter gekauft, was ein echtes Schnäppchen war. Ich habe ein Probestück angefertigt und es als Schnittmuster verwendet. Das Schnittmuster war aus dem Buch "Medieval Tailors Assistant" und ich habe es an meinen Körper angepasst.

Es war ein ziemlich einfacher Prozess und ich habe es hundertmal gemacht, also werde ich es kurz halten.

Alle Nähte sind von Hand genäht und ich habe den Pelzbesatz an den Händen und am Kragen angebracht. Ich hatte keinen mehr für den Saum übrig, da es sich um echten Pelz handelte. Wie ihr auf den Bildern oben sehen könnt, war das Kleid reich bestickt mit Gold und Pailletten? vielleicht? Und ein reich bestickter Gürtel.

Der Gürtel ist aus schwarzem Stoff und weißem, dickem Futter gefüttert. Ich habe die Technik verwendet, die ich für die Gamurra gelernt habe, und diese Zickzackstiche gemacht, um den Gürtel wirklich zu verstärken. Ich habe den weißen Stoff mit dem schwarzen umwickelt und dann mit echten Goldpailletten und goldenem Baumwollgarn bestickt. Die Gürtelschnallen, die ich verwendet habe, habe ich bei Pera Peris gekauft, einer deutschen Mittelalter-/Reenactment-Seite und eine große Empfehlung (Buy European!)

Link (not sponsored)

Link (not sponsored)

After both sides were embroidered, I added the eyelets. Aren't they super cute? And they are from Pera peris too.

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Nachdem beide Seiten bestickt waren, habe ich die Ösen angebracht. Sind sie nicht super süß? Und sie sind auch von Pera peris.

Link (not sponsored)

Next on the agenda was the hennin. This time I went for the flower pot style with a flat top instead of a pointy one. 

I made the pattern then cut out the buckram and the fashion fabric. The buckram was a pain to work with since it kept rolling up on itself. 

Now, the fashion fabric is pure polyester but I loved the look. I hand sewed the seams and it was done. Easy! But unlined.

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Weiter auf der Tagesordnung stand der Hennin. Dieses Mal habe ich mich für den Blumentopf-Stil mit einem flachen Oberteil statt eines spitzen entschieden

Ich habe das Muster gemacht und dann den Buckram und den Modestoff ausgeschnitten. Der Buckram war so schwierig zum arbeiten, da er sich immer wieder auf sich selbst zusammenrollte.
Der Modestoff ist leider reines Polyester, aber ich liebte den Look. Ich habe die Nähte von Hand genäht und es war getan. Einfach! Aber ungefüttert.

I still needed the weird round loop thing underneath it and made it out of velvet. I made the fillet out of black cotton velvet, which, of course, attracted every cat hair in the house. 

I folded, pinned, and sewed one side with my trusty thimble. I made two buttonholes on the band and threaded a pink ribbon through them. The loop was then sewed onto the band roughly and that was it again. 

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Ich brauchte immer noch die seltsame Schlaufe. Am Ende habe ich sie aus Samt gemacht. und habe es aus Samt geschafft. Ich habe das Filet aus schwarzem Baumwollsamt gemacht, das natürlich jedes Katzenhaar im Haus anzog.

Ich faltete, fest und nähte eine Seite mit meinem treuen Fingerhut. Ich habe zwei Knopflöcher am Band gemacht und ein rosafarbenes Band durch sie gefädelt. Die Schleife wurde dann grob auf das Band genäht und das war es wieder.

 And here again the pictures/Und hier wieder die Bilder von dem Kleid.

Here are the pictures from the medieval festival in Eggenburg - with the correct kirtle in black./Hier sind die Bilder von dem Mittelalterfest in Eggenburg - mit der korrekten Kirtle in schwarz.

And here I wore the dress in Krumlov. / Und das sind die Bilder aus Krumlov.

All the best, 

Auris Lothol

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Hello lovelies, 

it is custom to travel at my and my partners' birthdays. But if we can't make it on that day, we try to make it up soon after. And that was the reason why we travelled to Burgenland for a short trip. 

We had already stayed at Burg Bernstein back in 2021 which is also located in Burgenland. This time, we stayed at the Castle Hotel Schlaining, which was directly next to the castle Schlaining. Sadly, not a single window was on the side of the castle. 

To get there, we had to get a sixt rental car as we had sold our car in November. And that rental fee for two days was higher than the hotel price for two nights. ouch.  

After work on Friday, we travelled in about 2,5hours from Vienna to the hotel and we only had a short part with a winding road but I got a bit sick nevertheless. 

We arrived around 6pm at the hotel and then went to the castle and and tried to get a small dinner at the restaurant "Kranich" which was the castle restaurant but they had zero vegan options. Nevertheless, the kitchen was so kind and whipped up a vegetable and tofu dish for my partner and I ate a toast, which was...not good? Probably because I didn't like the bread they used - tasted like rye toast or whole wheat toast. At least our Uhudler Frizzante was okay! 

The next day we got breakfast in the hotel and then visited Castle Schlaining. Here are some pictures of the exterior. 

Inside they had it remodelled extensively and I didn't like it at all. Only the cellar looked and felt like a castle. In the upper floors they had one room which was more Biedermeier/Victorian but the rest of the rooms felt so modern. There was almost no trace of it being a castle anymore as they probably hollowed out the rooms at the renovation and built in new ones? Plus, they only had a few old items left like this crossbow. 

The crossbow is a reconstruction and belonged to the founder of the castle Andreas Baumkircher. The original one can be found in Vienna. 

They had three exhibitions, one about Burgenland, one about the perpetrators and victims during the NS era and one about peace and the uno.

Some items from the exhibition - of course I only took pictures of clothes or other handmade items.

That small door which has not even access to stairs is something I love about old castles.

This room is supposed to symbolize the sun and all of Burgenlands villages are the rays. One picture of each villages was engraved into the disk.

The castle had these kind of tendril pattern all over. Some were quite visible like this one, other's were so faded that they were barely visible. Nobody knows what these patterns or tendrils symbolize and who drew them as they can be found all over the castle.

I took pictures of my outfit in the Biedermeier looking room. It fit my outfit better than any other room.  

 After finishing all the exhibitions we went to Kranich again and I treated myself with strawberry cake.

We left for castle Güssing around 2pm. It was only an hour drive but google maps gave us weird directions and we arrived by 3pm.. We only had two hours left as the castle would be closing at 5pm but that was no problem. There was a lift taking us up directly which was 2€ per person. We barely scraped together the money as we both don't really have cash on hand. How we would get down was the question but the man at the cash register told us that we could walk down. Perfect!

 

Now that castle felt like a true castle - cold big rooms, old masonry, and random pictures and items. I took a lot of pictures of everything textile or portraits.

That weird bag was a huge water skin. It's made out of leather.

These religious vestments had interesting embroidery details. The second one even had a cross-stitch pattern?

 

 Here is the close up of the cross stitch. It's so unique - I had seen goldwork embroidery, whitework embroidery, lace etc but I have never seen cross-stitch!

 

A half drawn or overdrawn picture of Aurora Katharina Countess Batthyány, née Formentini on her deathbed in 1653, drawn in the 17th century. What caught my eye was the lace. It must have cost a fortune.

And here is an Austro-Hungarian nobleman's red silk brocade gala dress jacket from the late 19th century. Isn't it amazing?

 

There was a room with stuffed animals and chandeliers with deer heads. So weird - I loved it.

We even climbed the bell tower and it was super scary. I felt the tower swaying beneath my feet as it was very windy. Plus, I hurt my thigh muscle from climbing up the stairs and was limping all the way down. And it was a narrow, claustrophobic inducing tight stairway. But not worse than the one I visited in Belgium - that was even tighter. 

All of the Habsburger portraits that were in the castle felt eerily similar until we found out that all of them were drawn in the 19th centuries. No wonder all of them looked alike and wore something similar. 

We drove back and stopped at Aloisa's cafe because I enjoyed their cookies before and I wanted to buy a pack. The cake (Cardinalschnitte) was also good, a bit too creamy though in the middle. 

Back in Schlaining we went to the cafe Mamsell Lieu and I had a huge pizza. My partner was able to get a vegan pizza which looked a bit sad as it had no cheese. 

Afterwards we went to a wine tasting which was included in our hotel but I didn't enjoy any of the wines, I just don't like wine.... It often leaves a burning or weird taste at the back of my tongue.

 

As the day was finally coming to an end, we went to the hotel room, watched the new mummy movie with Tom cruise. It's not a good movie. 

In the morning after breakfast we drove to Castle Esterhazy which was actually on the way home. It had amazing pictures and exhibition, especially the Haydn one was queer. 

Pretty jewelry! Most items were behind glass and that mirrored everything. Taking pictures of it was so annoying.

There was no information about this but it looked amazing. There is a big ribbon on the left side of the sleeve.

Very modern castle with a water toilet. It doesn't look that comfy but it's pretty.

And here are some of the portraits in the castle:

Young empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Secret door in the wall. I love these.

We took pictures in the gallery room and on that day I wore my catkins dress from Duchess Milianda. 

In the castle shop we bought a bottle of sweet wine and chocolate and then we were bound homewards again.

We had a wonderful short trip and we are already planning the next birthday trip in November. 

 

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Thank you so much! 

All the best, 

Auris Lothol