The Tudor Revolution

  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

  Hello Beautiful Humans! This week is a electronic gift to one of my friend's who recently had a birthday and asked me for a video tutorial a year ago on how I incorporate rings into my eyelets to reinforce my 16th century gowns. To give you some historical context, in the second half of the 15th century having elaborate lacing rings for your gown was very popular in Florence. By the 16th century the fashion had disappeared, but the fitted bodices of gowns continued. When Elenora di Toledo was burred, her funeral dress had small brass rings sewn into her eyelets. Exact sizing and details on this dress can be found in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3 . It makes since that over a 100 year period the rings would have transformed from a practical focal point into a discrete reinforcement method. I usually get my rings for lacing, awls, and other tools from Renaissance Fabrics You can also find awls, thread, chalk, etc at your local sewing store. This video will walk y

  This week we are trying out an experiment with natural dyeing. I haven't really died fabric in years, and I've never been hands on in dyeing with natural fibers. I chatted with some friends who have worked with natural dyes and started saving onion skins from my cooking for a year. While cleaning up my sewing room after the holidays I cam across another stash of yellow onion skins and decided I had enough skins to try making a dye pot. I started this project my soaking my silk veil I wanted to dye in a mordant bath of alum while I started cooking onion skins. Mordants are a dye fixative to keep your fabric from loosing color after the dye process. My research said to use a mineral mordant, such as pickling alum, when trying to dye vegetable and protein based fibers. I didn't time this process and went more based on description and experimentation. The onions skins cooked in a crock pot I found at the thrift store last year while I was stating to passively research this

  Last weekend I finally sewed my first project since cutting my finger at work last month and having to get stitches. My finger healed beautifully and I needed a small project to build up my confidence to start sewing again. Inspired by a spring time snow storm, I settled on making a pair of 18th century mitts. Today we would think of them as fingerless gloves. Thank you for joining me in the little tutorial I created while stitching along. My materials for this project include: Pattern from Penny River Costumes: https://www.etsy.com/listing/648530850/pattern-and-instructions-only-diy-make?ref=shop_home_active_8&crt=1 Wool pashmina scarf from a thrift store Silk Cabbage from another project Silk Embroidery Floss Embroidery Pattern Book Chalk & Scissors Thread & Needles Thimble I guess you could call this a thrift flip or stash buster project too since I did not purchase a single one of these items for the project, except the pattern. The fabric came from a thrifted woo