Breaking the Ice in Ansteorra

Since March I have been living under the Sable Star of Ansteorra. My first event was the investiture of my Barony's new Baronesses for the Barony of Wiesenfeurer. All of my clothing was still created up and in transit so I dressed as an Imperial Roman lady with my Laurel. I would highly recommend Imperial Roman for anyone who needs quick and easy garb. If it had been cooler I would have used a woolen palla. Between work and unpacking I went to a few other events and have slowly started acclimating to the area.

Sitting at my booth between talking with people.

Probably the highlight of my SCA experience since the move was traveling to Dallas for a local even called Laurel's Prize Tourney. This name confused me at first, but this event was a large artisan show case where Laurels come around and give helpful feedback. Some of the items I brought out include my hand sewn woolen kirtle, reed corsets, gable hoods, beaded jewelry, embroidery, muffs, and some borrowed hairdressing heads with Italian hair styles. I even got to dress a lady's hair when she came over to chat with me about different historical techniques. My class at kingdom Arts and Sciences Collegium was unfortunately cancelled when work sent me to Texas for 2 weeks.

Clothing from the 1520'a in Venice and English.

Thank you for your help setting up to all my friends and laurel who carpooled to the event with me. I got to meet lots of lovely people and helped spread some information on basic partlets, Tudor clothing, and hair dressing. Thank you Valley Copley for letting me use your photos of my display at Laurel's Prize Tourney here.

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Pockets in the 16th Century?

So if you are new to my blog, Hello! I took July off to focus on work and realities of covid life. Thanks for hanging in there. This week we are doing to cover 16th Soccocia and their role toward the origin of pockets. People need a place to carry and keep their small items as they walk around. In the middle ages you might have a pilgrim satchel or a belt pouch. Some women in the middle ages had the brilliant idea to stop wearing their money purses outside of their over gowns and instead would wear them between their kirtle/sottona layer and over gowns. This arrangement still gave you access to the purse, but made it harder for thieves to cut your purse strings and run. Fast forward to the 16th century and we find the heirs to this practice in socaccia. We have some visual evidence of these in mid to late 16th century art out of Italy. This is a detail of Alessandro Allori's, Woman at her toilet, ca 1575-78. Currently in Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Gaddi ...

Making my Viking Apron Dress

This Week's vlog is the follow up to my Viking Age Tunic dress which I posted last week. When discussing the clothing of Birka and other Norse cultures, a woolen dress is an iconic look which is functional while tending a fire or many other activities. My apron dress is inspired by the finds out of Birka. The wool I used was a light weight suiting with a 2:2 twill weave. The long seams of this dress were finished with a machine for speed, and all of the seam finishings were hand sewn. I used a woolen finishing technique I learned about while flipping through Woven into the Earth by Else Ostergard. The technique involves using wool yarn and a couching stich of sorts to encase the raw edges of the wool. The end result is a low profile and durable seam around the neck and hem of my apron dress. I love that all of the hand sewn elements of this dress start to create a decorative finish on the outside of the dress and the only extra embellishment I added was a herringbone stitch over...

Costumes in Wolf Hall

Many of us who love historical costume were completely smitten with the production shots we saw before Wolf Hall aired earlier this year. Now the series is available for sale through PBS, BBC, and even national retailers like Target. With the popularity of this series I want to take a moment and give those new to Tudor fashions a few notes before you take everything in the series as gospel. This is one of the most accurately costumed historical dramas that I have seen in years. The color palate, cuts, underwear, and fabrics are impeccable. But don't forget to do your own research into the clothing as you make your own ensembles. Odd Piece #1: French Hoods I appreciate the costume designer here for acknowledging French hoods need veils. I doubt though that you will find a single portrait from the 1520's or 30's in England or France that uses fine silk chiffon. Typically you will see a solid black veil on the French and English hoods. Medals done in profile from the time...

The Tudor Revolution

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