I just want to bang my head sometimes in frustration, so I thought I would vent a little bit here, among those who might understand. ( costume venting behind the cut... )
Oh, gods.. Winter and Savoy! ACK. That's almost as bad as Herbert Norris!
Knowing what we know now about sewing, clothing and the time periods, those authors books are interesting to own because it gives us an insight as to how costuming was looked at in the past. but..eek.
As a non sequiter have you ever done Flemish before?
A weakness of mineheatermccaAugust 8 2007, 19:16:07 UTC
We own Winter and Savoy. I do like and appreciate it for what it resembled when it came out, but, yeah. Nowadays the scholarship and pool of knowledge is both further ahead and more accessible.
I will say that I've made one thing from EC, and I still have it and occasionally drag it out to wear - a heart-shaped, wire-front cap. It's Old Faithful, it's easy, the shape of the wiring is dead-on for my face, and I made it to stay in place without pins of any sort.
Re: A weakness of mineabbybobAugust 8 2007, 19:20:05 UTC
I think I have an old loose gown made from Winter and Savoy, so I completely understand. We own it too. When we do theater stuff (fiance is a director) he uses the pictures in the book for Ideas, but when it's time to start sewing... we put the book away and make more period patterns.
It was one of the 1st costuming books I bought, back in the day.
I just did 3782, sort of. All I used was the bodice section, and everything else I fudged/drafted/swiped from another pattern myself. I think it turned out usable as an overgown. It falls under the "Hey, they didn't do too bad with this one." category with their patterns.
I've had an opportunity to take a look at how some of the German's run their guilds. They publish a quite strict set of guidelines about garb including fabrics, trims, patterns, implied ranks and sew instructions. It can be quite a production. Some guilds only do a very narrow time range and also provide a booklet of art sources to help people recognize exactly what they should be doing. Some guilds require the participant to move up the social ladder through time. Not a bad idea cost and training wise, but doesn't everyone want a glitzy 'bethan? It might be hard to sell that one
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That is a wonderful idea!sstormwatchAugust 8 2007, 22:07:32 UTC
My simple problem is the few members we have have done faire long enough to not want to get out of their rut. They've learned it, they don't want to learn any more, and that includes our GM. She tried to improve the group by getting some appropriate Elizabethan patterns, but she's on the east coast and has her pretty Queen outfit, and we are in California and don't have the patterns. One member is dealing with an ailing mother, the other member will be retiring and moving this fall. The guys wear whatever their lady wives make for them. The new member would benefit, as would any other new members we might get, which we do need new blood
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Re: That is a wonderful idea!sarahbellemAugust 9 2007, 01:00:12 UTC
You know, there's something to be said for teaching by example. If you were to put out those guidelines for new and newish members (say, within a 2-3 year range so they're still pretty fresh and impressionable), you can create a group that might exert pressure on the older, more set-in-their-ways members to conform. I'm making it sound very Machiavellian, and that's not really my intention... Just that you have more control over what new people wear rather than the older people who remember when God was a baby and everyone ran around naked at Ren Faires.
I know you'd run the risk of a mis-matched guild, but if the quality of the costumes from the new members is high enough, people will want to emulate them. At least in theory, anyway. I'm sure there will be a few who will staunchly refuse to see the difference between period and perioid.
Re: That is a wonderful idea!heatermccaAugust 9 2007, 01:35:07 UTC
"I know you'd run the risk of a mis-matched guild, but if the quality of the costumes from the new members is high enough, people will want to emulate them. At least in theory, anyway."
I'm with Sarah, here - putting really good garb on the newbies can trickle up (as it were). It'd likely do it more slowly than you'd like to see, but it will happen, and new folks are more malleable, all told.
"I'm sure there will be a few who will staunchly refuse to see the difference between period and perioid. "
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Knowing what we know now about sewing, clothing and the time periods, those authors books are interesting to own because it gives us an insight as to how costuming was looked at in the past. but..eek.
As a non sequiter have you ever done Flemish before?
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I will say that I've made one thing from EC, and I still have it and occasionally drag it out to wear - a heart-shaped, wire-front cap. It's Old Faithful, it's easy, the shape of the wiring is dead-on for my face, and I made it to stay in place without pins of any sort.
I can't bear to throw it out....
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It was one of the 1st costuming books I bought, back in the day.
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If you look for the ivory gown tag, you can reference my various notes about the construction if you like. I also have pics of the various stages here: http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x267/Lorihalia/Ivory%20gown/
The idea of two different sleeves though? I can't see it working and looking decent. =/
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I know you'd run the risk of a mis-matched guild, but if the quality of the costumes from the new members is high enough, people will want to emulate them. At least in theory, anyway. I'm sure there will be a few who will staunchly refuse to see the difference between period and perioid.
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I'm with Sarah, here - putting really good garb on the newbies can trickle up (as it were). It'd likely do it more slowly than you'd like to see, but it will happen, and new folks are more malleable, all told.
"I'm sure there will be a few who will staunchly refuse to see the difference between period and perioid. "
Oh, yes. Truer words....
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