Traditional Swedish lady's bags

I've known, since I can remember, that my maiden name, Soder, is the Swedish word for south and that my Grandpa Soder was 100% Swedish, which makes me 25% Swedish, but not much more than that until three years ago when a third cousin of mine living in Sweden decided to research the family. Through Facebook he found one of my sisters and because of that I visited him in 2014. Turns out our great-grandfathers were brothers. My great-grandfather was number 10 or 11 of a very large family. And because of that probably wasn't going to inherit any land, so he ventured off to find his future in America.

​Visiting Sweden was so meaningful for me. Before this I didn't know anything about my European ancestors who all immigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I became interested in Swedish culture which, of course, includes the traditional clothing called folkdräk.

I wrote a blog about this three years ago. Click here to read it.

Because of that blog I found out that one of the technical illustrators at Simplicity, Carina Saraco, is much more Swedish that me! She was born in Sweden and came to the US as a young girl. So, she has close relatives still living there and can speak Swedish, which I wish I could do.

Surprisingly that blog is still read A LOT! And I still get occasional comments and questions. So, when a woman wrote in a about a week ago asking about the little purses that are worn at the waist, I went straight to Carina to see if she could help me out.

And she went straight to her sister who owns one of these bags and knows quite a bit about folkdräk. This is her bag. These are sometimes call hanging pockets. 

This is what Carina's sister had to say about her bag.

This is the "bag" ...part of national-dräkten of Sweden which was given to me by my father Eric-Olof's sister Henny. Faster Henny had the costume made when Silvia became Queen of Sweden. Since she grew up in Germany, Silva had no home province (each of Sweden's 25 provinces has a distinct folkdräkt and tradition suggests you wear your home "dräkt"), hence the beautiful dräkt was created for her to symbolize the beauty and strength of Sweden. Blue and yellow (sky and sun ... same colors as the flag), daisies, and gorgeous handiwork in the accessories.

Here is Queen Silvia, on the right, wearing this dräkt. I think she is with her daughters and granddaughter. Please correct me, if I'm wrong.

But, Swedes who do have a provincial dräkt will wear that when the occasion arises. This one has a different style of bag that hangs from a strap around the waist. These bags or pockets seem to be integral to completing the outfit.

Even, Kirsten, the Swedish American Doll (alas retired) sports one of these bags. She carries a spoon in it. Years ago, people brought their own spoon along when they went to someone else's home for dinner.

Here is the bag and spoon that came with my Kirsten!

I think there must be many different designs for these bags, because I came across artwork for a variety of different loose pockets ... so beautiful.

All the Swedish embroidery is so pretty and colorful. I would love to wear a hat like this with all the appropriate clothing.

So, thank you Carina and sister.

And I hope the 4-H leader who wanted to learn about these bags reads this blog!

​I'm taking a break for the rest of June. See you all in July. 
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