Part I or, How do these things start anyway?
So, how do I get into these costume-making things anyway?
Most of the time, what happens is that I'll be planning for the next LARP event or market and suddenly I will realise (as we all tend to do): Oh no, I have NOTHING to wear! I need ...! Then I will, in a panicked rush before the LARP takes place, try to produce something new, compromise, and in the end I'll have something to wear. (And a couple of other ideas I want to realise for the next event, which I usually put up until a few weeks to said event.)
This time, it was different.
I was reading things for my master's thesis. As probably everyone who's ever learned for any major exam or paper knows, this is the time when suddenly all sorts of really important things you might be doing instead pop up in your mind - spring cleaning, sorting all the books on your bookshelf alphabetically, write a letter to an aunt you haven't talked to for two years, or... creative stuff!
So I was reading Medieval Women by Eileen Powers - an enlightening and delightful book that I highly recommend to anyone interested in history, fantasy and/or gender studies, btw. On the cover of said book, there was a reproduction of Rogier van der Weyden's (?) The Magdalene Reading, and I thought, "Wow, I love the gown she's wearing."
(Sometimes I am girly after all.)
"WANT."
And as you can't buy that sort of thing at your local mall, and I'm a secret member of the DIY-mafia anyway... I clearly would have to do it myself.
A thought, once thought, cannot be unthought, so I started to plan. That generally takes the shape of some motivated scribbling until I am reasonably certain that I know what I'm looking at.
Clicky on the small image will show you a larger version, with my scribbling translated into English for your convenience.
This is where I take notes on the fabric and form an image in my mind of the parts and measurements I'm going to need.
Once I think I know what I'm doing, I roughly plan the pattern. Fortunately, medieval clothing on the whole tends to follow fairly simple patterns so that you can generally get far with a good grasp of basic geometry and a little sewing experience. The ancients tried to use their fabric as economically as possible, which is fine by me as I'm a poor student. So instead of a complex pattern design, you end up with something like this:
Click for a larger version. The upper "pattern" is for the lining; the lower has some additional stuff for warm boots, so don't be confused if you can't make sense of it.
I generally need about 2,5 to 3 meters of fabric (if it's 1,4 m wide, which most fabrics are these days) for a gown. Despite the pleats, this time is going to be no exception. Phew!
So now I can go and look for fabric...