One key aspect of “largess” in the SCA is the generosity flowing from royalty to their subjects. To welcome visitors, to thank people, & to otherwise show appreciation & caring for others, small gifts are given by royalty at many occasions. They may purchase items to give out, but ideally, their court & artisans will
The problem with working on several costumes simultaneously is that I don’t get that “ah, finished!” feeling from having completed any one item. All my projects are in a state of half-done, all at the same time. It’s annoying & not my usual mode of operation. But I’m in deep now, & there’s no turning
And it has to be, if I’m going to get all these outfits done before I leave for France in May! Holy moly, I’ve got so much to do. I had to cancel a bunch of social events on weekends (tho’ I’m still obligated to attend two SCA events & one faire with Bella Donna;
It’s a known issue that I tend not to strictly recreate historical portraits. I also have a tendency to goth-ify my costumes, no matter the historical era or fantasy genre. Sometimes, this leads to greatness, sometimes … well, it’s a challenge. It can look rather weird in progress, & this ‘chemise a la gothique’ is
While I have a few wee SCA projects to work on at the start of this year, my main sewing goals between January and May are going to be all 18th century, all the time. Why? Because we’re going to France, baby! We are renting a chateau in the south of France with the same
At first, when one of my BFFs Sarah said she was having her birthday party at Castello di Amoroso & asking people to come in medieval costume, I figured, whatever, I’ll wear some of my usual 16th-century garb. It’s what I like, she wouldn’t mind, & it would fit in at the 14th-century-style Italian castle
I completely failed to get photos on my own camera at 12th Night, but luckily friends took a few nice pictures of my new outfit. Here is my sleeveless zimarra worn with the 1530s gown (no, not historically accurate, but the combo looked nice for one event :), and I even whipped up a new
My coat for 12th Night is getting quite close to done. Needs hemming & a short collar. But I will probably go sleeveless at this point. See, I still have this crazy idea to wear it over the 1530s gown as more of a giornéa or perhaps it might be called a cioppa — either
I didn’t plan on making anything new to wear at 12th Night because I just made a nifty new 1530s dress for Collegium, so of course I wanted to wear that. But I was asked to join the court of Obidiah & Ascelin, and her royal highness requested a festive, wintery 16th-century theme for their
After owning a fancy new sewing machine that does embroidery for nearly half a year, I finally got around to testing said capabilities just this week. I was spurred on by two things: 1) I was finished with Collegium so I had time & 2) a new group popped up on Facebook devoted to historical
This is the gown I made to portray Veronica Gambara, the hostess of the “Feast in 1530s Correggio” at the SCA’s Collegium Occidentalis XLVII. I was running the event and wanted to cap off the day with a festive meal set in a specific time and place in history (which is not typically done in
Off & on for the past 20 years around Halloween, we held a party called the Famous Dead Person’s Ball. There are only two rules in this afterlife: You must come as somebody at least marginally famous & at least temporarily dead. We’ve had friends come as everyone from Che Guevara to Mae West to
I can’t believe how fast this gown went together! Ok, it didn’t hurt that I essentially had the patterns already done. But the sewing was all straightforward stuff, nothing complicated. Attaching the parts together was really just a lot of cartridge-pleating, which I find easy — well, tough on the fingers, and yes, blood was
There’s not much to show for it, but really, I’ve started and am, in fact, well on the way with my gown to portray Veronica Gambara at the Collegium class “A Feast in 1530s Correggio.” The gown is a loose interpretation of the portrait shown on the right. Except I’m using burgundy velveteen from The
As I last blogged, I needed a partlet for my Venetian courtesan gown. Well, here it is. I ended up going the simple route because I had a spectacular fail when I attempted a fancy ruff neckline. The saving grace is that it was easy to just hack the whole thing off for this no-neck