I just finished another paper for Your Wardrobe Unlock'd the bulk of which was testing different pounce and fixatives to use with the prick and pounce technique when applied to dark fabrics... and now I'm filled with all sorts of ideas for further tests that ought to be done ( Read more... )

Despite there being a "cutting diagram" of the St. Elizabeth of Thuringia Gown, actually figuring out the pattern for the body of the dress turned out to be much more complicated then I expected, despite it's deceptively simple lines:


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I've slowly been working on 13th century styles -- initially to experiment with different ways to cut the Maciejowski women's dresses (France, circa 1250) since my normal way of cutting a T-tunic (basically what Robin Netherton describes in her Tournaments Illuminated, Issue #141, Winter 2002 article "Where Did the Normans Get Their Sleeves?") ( Read more... )

For those of you at RUM this isn’t a surprise - but I’ve finally gotten my paper on underwear in the Maciejowski bible to the point that it’s readable. It’s not polished yet; there’s extra stuff I wanna add… but it’s been more then a year since I started the analysis, and if past behavior is any guide it’ll be at least another year until I update ( Read more... )

I started the hem last night (coffeekitten  having very nicely marked it for me on Tuesday :-)) - I only got a foot sewn on it, but it's nice to be sewing again and feeling like I'm making progress :-) Plus, soon as the hem's done it's WEARABLE! 8-D Of course, I took extra long pinning and re-pinning the hem - at first I was going to do a double fold hem, but ( Read more... )

Does anyone know of documentation for garters circa 1250 France? The earliest reference I've found to garters (so far) is the story of the founding of the English Order of the Garter, as told in Susan Crane's The Performance of Self (page 137):

"perhaps [a] spurious [story] but widely attested, that the Order of the Garter began with Edward III ( Read more... )

I have a new-old obsession: At Pennsic eestep picked up a copy of the Maciejowski Bible. I borrowed it to start doing an analysis of the colors of hose and what color tunics they were paired with (since my copy was at home). I finally finished up the count on Tuesday (there are a lot of human figures in that manuscript!!). I spent hours yesterday ( Read more... )

I want to have pretty new costumes!! RIGHT NOW!!! Why do these things take so looooooooong?!?!

blah.

I still have 8 eyelets to go. And I need to figure out the sleeve lining/facings. And... I've spent this week doing boring-responsible-adult-like-things. ick. and reading silly romance novels :-D I need more money to support my costuming habit. I ( Read more... )

My copy of Visages de Femmes au Moyen Age by Regine Pernoud finally arrived! It's not at all what I expected - since Robin Netherton recommended it I expected it to show 13th-15th century images, however it's almost entirely 10-13th centuries. I think I saw only one picture depicting gothic fitted dresses (aka cotehardies in the sca) in the book! ( Read more... )

Last night
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