Traditional Norwegian embroidery

[KitSileya]

I am in 7th heaven because I finished a 2 1/2 year embroidery project tonight. It is the headlinen that goes with my Norwegian bunad (national costume.) Norway has 263 different bunads (and a ton of costumes that are not considered bunad, because they lack the historic basis that bunads must have,) but very few have headlinens (several have girl's 'bonnets') and none that I know of have the elaborate embroidery of my region.

And here it is:

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Here is a picture of it on a model:

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I need to wash it a couple of times, and iron it, before I can wear it. Because of the elaborate embroidery, it costs about $1000 to have it made (the entire bunad, sans headlinen and jewelry, costs at least $3000, or about a month, month and a half's wages, but the materials with the pattern cost $170. I have only seen a couple of women with it.

The embroidery is part Hardanger, and then cutwork, both single (in the small border) and double (in the main border). You then cast over the double cutwork, so that you get a netting, and finally you weave thread to 'color the squares' to make the pattern, which is the famous Selbu rose, because that is where they found several examples about 100 years ago, when they recreated the whole bunad from remnants of 18th C clothing. When women married, they stopped using it as a headlinen, and instead wrapped their children in it when they carried them to church for baptism. I will wear it next Saturday, May 17th, which is our Constitution Day, and the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Norwegian constitution.