The Tudor Revolution

Yesterday was the closing date for Anabelle Wake's Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge 5. Part of me wishes I had signed up, but the practical side of my mind reassures me that life is a bit too busy to join the fun and games this year. Maybe next year. I also realized that I failed to share my final product of the IRCC4 here. I am honored to say I won 2nd place in the competition and received the designation "Best Handwork." My progress reports have been archived by Anabelle and the link below will take you to the archive. IRCC4 Maridith Feher  What I learned! My goal in making this dress was to create a dress patterned off of Elenora di Toledo's funeral dress as described by Janet Arnold in Patterns of Fashion. As a result I did lots of research into women's clothing from 1540-1560. One of the biggest changes this research yielded what the average silk fabric used in Europe usually around 20-22inches wide. I cut the dress with this in mind and ...

Over the last several months members of the SCA have approached me and asked for help working on various embroidery projects. First I volunteered to embroider a stylized heart for a friend's elevation to the Order of the Laurel. The heart is worked in silk and sterling silver purl. The fleur was filled with silver plated tube beads replicating bullion. The ground fabric of the design is on white linen. A band of hearts like these were appliqued along the hem of my friend's dress. Each heart was made by someone who touched her heart and assisted on the path she took in some way. The next piece I worked on are for the Queen of Atenveldt's dress. I completed 4 1/2 suns in splendor used along the hem of her dress. This embroidery was done using DMC cotton floss on linen. Her Majesty wore this dress at grand court of Estrella War 2015 and at other important occasions. These suns were incorporated into a larger design by the Elizabethan Sweatshop in Phoenix, AZ. The final...

The Tudor Project was invited to provide ambiance for two current exhibits at the Phoenix Art Museum on February 14-15, 2015. Everyone involved in The Tudor Project is honored and grateful that we have been invited to enhance the experience of museum goers in Phoenix, Arizona. We wandered through the exhibition of Da Vinci's Leicester Codex  listening to talks about the observations on pages of the famous notebook by local academics. Many of the observations in this codex are devoted to how Da Vinci thought water worked. I highly encourage everyone to go to the museum and see this exhibit. The codex is on loan from Bill Gates and will be here for a limited time. Remember there is no photography allowed in this exhibit!  Mary Magdalene by Master of Astorga ca. 1500-1525. Tempera and gilt on wooden panel. We then wandered through the Mysteries from Europe exhibition which is filled with beautiful art from unidentified artists. The collection is filled with religious...

Dull dressing pins needing some TLC.  I have been raving to anyone who would listen about the dressing pins made by Irene Davis of The Treasury. After a few years of steady use my brass pins were getting dull. The Tudor focused group I play with called F.I.R.E. was starting to bend pins while dressing me and other ladies. I took this problem to to Irene, as the maker and asked about the card and feeding of my pins. Problem 1- My pins are dull. what is the best way to sharpen them? Answer- Don't use a metal file use sand paper. I tried a few different weights and a regular nail file for the bluntest pins. For sharper pins wet or dry sand paper of 400 grit works well. I just sharpened 32 pins this way in less than 2 hours. The technique will take time to get down. Sharpening pin on sand paper strip. Problem 2- My pin heads are coming loose. Answer- Put down a piece of wood or an acrylic board used for leather tooling and smash the heads a few times. This should secur...

Every woman feels more feminine when she has pretty underwear. This thought inspired me to make another pair of bodies. My pair from 2012 are holding up beautifully, nothing needs to be replaced, but there are other styles I want to try. This pair uses a cherry wood busk I purchased several years ago down the center front, and two soft "cups" over the bust. In Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3, Arnold describes a pair of bodies belonging to Dorothea Sabina von Neuberg. Dorothea's original pair of bodies was an ivory silk over linen and stiffened with whale bone. I do not need anything nearly as ridged so I have stuck with my reeds.Just like the effigy corset before there is a magical combination of heavy linen canvas to be covered in a decorative silk. I stuck with the basic pattern of my effigy corset because I primarily wanted to focus on the exotic bust treatment on Dorothea's stays. This pattern was elongated in the front by 1 inch compared to my previous...

Venetian Woman in Mourning from Cesare Vecellio's Habiti Antichi Et Moderni. Today Concluded another challenge from Bella at The Realm of Venus. This year's mini challenge was entitled: Turning Heads. Our theme was hair styles, hair jewelry, earrings, hats, cauls, make up, etc. As with all of your challenges I walk in with large dreams of projects to be done, and then scale them down as time allows. For more info on the challenge and to see how everyone's results are coming along please visit Bella's page for the results: http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/challenges/IRCMC-Feb2015/IRCMC-Feb2015.htm Giovanni Cariani, c1560s (?):  Portrait of a Lady. Private Collections My first piece is a pair of earrings made of gold filled items from the jewelry store. I was inspired by the dangling earrings seen in Venice between 1550 and 1570. The original "pendent" pieces of the earrings had some very non period elements which I snapped off and filed dow...