While many of us simply adore immersing ourselves in past times, the history, the fashions, the literature, and all the ephemera, one thing we take for granted is our modern corrective eyewear. If you’re lucky to have 20/20 vision, or still young enough that the natural degeneration of eyesight due to aging hasn’t caught up
Sometime in early to mid 2024, I got a hankering for a new 16th-century outfit. No reason, nowhere to wear it, just wanted one. And not necessarily a fancy one either. I decided to order the Tudor Tailor pattern for a woman’s round gown and see how that made up. Although first, I realized I
I’ve wanted to make a repro of this gown since seeing the painting of Lady Frances Courtenay by Thomas Hudson at the Huntington in 2011. I love seeing how one era interprets another era, and this style is so romantic and pretty! Apparently, this was a whole genre of painting, a trend for upper-class women
For the Costume College 2015 Gala, I wanted to go along with that year’s “Plucked From the Pages” literature theme. And one of my all-time favorite book characters is Cathy’s ghost in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It’s such an iconic scene from gothic literature. Of course, I’ve made this costume before back in 2002
I have a hankering to recreate Charlotte Brontë’s going-away dress, c. 1854. Specifically to wear at Costume College in 2015, since the theme will be “Plucked From the Pages,” aka books and literary characters. I have a pattern (really just a scaled diagram) taken from the actual dress that is at the Brontë Parsonage Museum
By Lady Violet Ruthvene in the SCA This is an accompaniment to a lecture class I taught at the West Kingdom Collegium in November 2013. The goal is to help people in the Society for Creative Anachronism create largess — the small gifts that royalty give to their subjects, such as to welcome visitors, to thank
New costumes start from the skin out, so that means new undies. Sure, I have shifts / smocks / chemises (depending on how historically accurate you want to be & which specific century you’re talking about). But for playing a Venetian courtesan at renaissance faires this year, I needed a specific type of undershirt, the
When you’re just starting out in this wonderful world of costuming, you tend to use what’s easy and fast. This is no crime, we’ve all done it, that’s to be expected. If you want to lace up a garment, you need to reinforce the lacing holes so they don’t wear out, and you find some