Just a Working Girl from Bruegel's World

Hello Beautiful Humans!

In the 16th Century not everyone wore giant ruffs or rigid farthingales? Extreme fashions that capture the public imagination are not practical for most people in many professions. I made this short to remind everyone that we did not just stop farming and working once the 16th century got underway. While clothing may adapt to current fashions, there will always be people working 9 to 5, or longer hours, to make sure our world is functioning. If you are not into extreme fashions look at the middling and lower classes to find clothing that is functional and beautiful. When I made this dress I specifically wanted to choose colors that were typical of the time period I was working from. Red wool kirtles have been popular for many years by the time this style of dress was in fashion. Combining this with a blue linen apron was inspired by a painting detail from Peter Bruegel the Elder depicting peasants at a fair day. I later realized the specific figure with this combination was a child. I hope you enjoy me having a little fun with shorts this week. I will have a full progress, construction, and insights into making this dress up next week.

Bisou Bisou, Maridith

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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...

Avoid These Common Mistakes: Packing for Pennsic and SCA Camping

#camping #mysca #societyforcreativeanachronism #glamping #pennsic This summer I've been letting myself fall back in love with the Society for Creative Anachronism. There have been some moments that have been hard for sure, but also some of my moments of greatest joy. One of the things I realized was I had completely forgotten what I need to pack in order to go camping in the different environments we see across the Western United States, at SCA events. This video does not speak in any official way for the non profit group or any of its branches. I simply wanted to share some of my pit falls and learning curves I've experiences over the years. I am a list maker. So I started planning for my second camping trip of the summer by making a list of the things that I would need to have cleaned and packed after my first trip did not go as smoothly as I had hoped earlier this summer. Towards the end of the video I give you 6 tips I've picked up from camping at these events...

The Tudor Revolution

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