TRANSCRIPT

Well we had- and I wish we could get her back again but nobody realized, one of those things that nobody realized how good she was until after? - a costume designer, costume maker, from Iceland who was doing workshops on making the traditional icelandic costumes; But also, talking about Icelandic clothes, and she explained that there's almost no photos of them ,no paintings of them because, she said, Icelanders were writers they weren't painters. People who were painters got looked down upon as not doing any work. And it's the painters who record the people of the time and the clothes that they wore and the customs. Well there wasn't anybody in Iceland doing it, it was only when someone would come to Iceland from some other country and paint, paint, paint that theres any record.
She has managed to get hold of some old clothes and by unravelling them, figured out how they were made. The suits were knitted so that they were actually elbows knitted in, so that they'd last longer so you didn't get the wear at the fold. And you know that the fishermens's mitts had two thumbs? Knitted with the wide band which was made by your grandmother before you went off to sea the first time, and good luck symbols were knitted into it. As each pair wore out the band was taken off and the new pair was knit onto the band, because that was your good luck band. [so you had to keep it]. The mitt had two thumbs, so that you're working away and this gets all wet and slimy you take it off you turn it over. This side wears out, you turn it over. Your mitts last you twice as long. Also the ladies formal costume or, sort of everyday traditional costume, was a black top and a black skirt. And you always wore an apron. So you didn't waste good material, for the section of the skirt underneath the apron, that was pieced together from as many pieces as you had to use from whatever stuff, whatever colour, it didn't matter, to fill in the space so that you didn't waste material. [did the aprons go the full length of hte dress?] yes the aprons sort of came down here [down the front] and went down to the ground with the dress, so this panel was made of piecings. And it was worn over a black petticoat, and when you were just working around your own house you just wore the petticoat, you didn't wear the skirt, to keep the skirt longer.

Eyolfson Cadham, Joan