I want to get this done before I forget about it, because the thank you gift that my sister got me for watching Ian was yarn for the 16th-century stranded knitting waistcoat I've been talking about making for like two years now. We ordered it from Colourmart, and I selected a silk/merino blend laceweight yarn, with a high silk content. It's in " ( Read more... )

nuranar recently contacted me to ask me for research suggestions/inspiration for a friend of hers that is interested in starting to make historically accurate clothing for a middle class woman in Elizabethan England. I asked Ginger if she minded me asking my friends list, since so many of you do make 16th-century clothing for middle-class people in ( Read more... )

Friends who have made 16th-century hanging gowns, I have questions.

I have these five yards or so of burgundy cotton velveteen, and I think it wants to be a hanging gown/loose gown. It will be a loose gown. I need an Elizabethan overcoat, and I think this will be a good, easy project. A get well project, if you will ( Read more... )

Sixteenth century friends: I'm trying to remember something about the persecutions of Protestants and Anglicans under Mary Tudor in the 1550s. I seem to recall an, uh, anecdote about a pregnant woman being burned for heresy who gave birth to a son in the flames, and the baby was then flung back onto the fire ( Read more... )

Can anyone explain to me what's going on in this picture? It appears that the woman sitting in front of the bathhouse proprietor (the dude standing up while wearing bikini briefs) has large knobs stuck on her shoulders. I'd read the text that is supposedly about the picture, but it appears to be about an apple seller, and . . . there are no ( Read more... )

I stumbled across this website while looking for pictures of 16th-century milkmaids. It's an encyclopedia of the history of work, and seems to be exclusively European. I haven't run into anything that isn't from Western Europe, yet -- that is, nothing from Russia or Eastern Europe ( Read more... )

Note: I wrote this earlier tonight, around 9, so the night is no longer young. I have, since then, ripped out the strap seams on the bodice ( Read more... )

I've been looking through the NYPL image archives, because I decided I needed some Renaissance icons. The I decided I needed some Shakespeare icons. So I've been looking up pictures related to productions of Shakespearean plays. (See the icon with this post? Yeah, I made that. With my mad mouse clicking and dragging skills ( Read more... )

ZOMG, everybody, I just got clearance from my sister to buy a bridesmaid dress for $30! And no dyed shoes! This is like every bridesmaid's dearest wish come true. Of course, there's a good chance that Ann Taylor will be all sold out of the dress I want to buy by tomorrow night when I order it. I hope not ( Read more... )

I've been looking at pattern manuscripts at the Renaissance Tailor, and I kind of have the urge to take those patterns and translate the baras and ells to inches and feet. Or centimeters. Then I would take the patterns and graph them out in inches/centimeters ( Read more... )