In May 2022 my very good friend Helga won the Coronet for the Principality of the Mists in the West (Bay Area California) by her own hand (this happened to be the same Mists Coronet where I became a member of the Order of the Pelican). I was sad that my family is now living so far away (South Carolina)…
(I actually finished this in May 2019 but realized that I’d never hit publish on the blog post). After my first thrummed cap I decided I wanted something a bit different. The first cap did not have a brim. It was also thrummed during the knitting (fiddly) and I felt that at 6″ the thrums were too long. Lastly after…
Women are not cones. We are (for the most part) hour glass shaped. In order for a bodice to be supportive and look flattering at least one of the seams needs to have a vaguely hourglass shaped hunk taken out of it. This is an ongoing debate in the re-enactment community. Do you pull the fabric out of the center…
One of the nice things about following more period correct methods of construction (ie, the methods laid out The Modern Maker series of books) is that the methods lend themself really well to alterations. That is, without very much fuss at all I can fix a fit issue (or make a garment fit someone else) without having to completely de-construct…
Last night I finished stitching the tuck** onto the bottom of my Autumn Gold kirtle. Just as I finished stitching the tuck I looked at it and had the following mini-conversation and epiphany. Me: This tuck would be really convenient for pregnancy.Also me: Or for young girls who have not gotten full height… or hand-me-down clothes.Me: Yeah. But that stitch…
Antwerpen white linen coif started April 2, 2019 and finished April 7, 2019. Special thanks to Aleit Pietersdochter over at The New Cut who is working on documenting 16th century Dutch costuming terms and dug up the terms “Huve”, “Huive”, “Huyfd” which seem to be the proper name for this white linen coif. Although a lot of the Antwerpen market women wear their hair…
Grey linen lined in light tan linen doublet sized for a 5-year-old started March 9, 2019. Finished March 20, 2019. In order to be a “properly dressed little boy” my son will need a doublet. This will be used both to cover his under shirt and to point his breeches to keep them from falling down. The doublet I’m making…
Brown wool lined in natural linen breeches sized for a 5-year-old started March 6, 2019. Finished March 11, 2019. Continuing with the theme of “clothe the child” I made a pair of “Gorinchem breeches to fit a child aged ten years” shown in “The Tudor Child” (p. 94-95)(https://amzn.to/2ld5iZS). My son is only 5.. but he’s a HUGE 5-year old. Technically…
White linen shirt sized for a 5-year-old started June 15, 2018. Finished March 4, 2019. To be fair making this shirt went fairly quickly. Unfortunately I started making this for my son and then got pulled off to a lot of other projects. It probably only took about a week to sew it together but that was spread out over…
Thrum Cap started August 3, 2018. Finished August 20, 2018. Fulled August 21 and 22. From Merriam-Webster Thrum noun Definition of thrum 1 a (1) : a fringe of warp threads left on the loom after the cloth has been removed (2) : one of these warp threads b : a tuft or short piece of rope yarn used in…