A few of my friends in the SCA have asked me at various points whether or not crowns and coronets are documentably period for 16th century women to wear. The short answer is yes, they are period. The longer answer is that they are period, but high status women seemed to prefer being depicted without crowns and coronets from England to Italy, so there's not a lot of pictorial evidence out there as to what sort of crowns were worn and how they were worn.

I've started a Flickr set devoted to documenting actual 16th c. women wearing crowns. You can see what I've come up with so far, but please bear in mind that many images show high status women in court functions or allegorical situations. Any time the word "allegory" comes up, you should keep it in mind that this was in all likelihood not something that was worn commonly. Within the culture of the SCA, however, we tend to treat crowns and coronets as common accessories, whereas it appears that in the actual the 16th century, they were regarded as special regalia and worn for specific court functions.

What this set of images helps us with, however, is how the crowns were likely worn. You will see that most crowns are not perched on top of the head, parallel to the floor, but tend to slope off the back of the head, sometimes at an almost horizontal angle. They also seem to be combined with other, more common, forms of headgear, like the French Hood or a caul. I'll be adding more images as I run across them, but for now, I have 9 items, mostly from England, with some French, Netherlandish, and Italian examples. So far no luck on the Germanic front, though... I'll have to dig harder through ArtSTOR.

Hope this is useful!

I'm of a mind to make a day bodice for the Eugenie gown, so I can wear it to Dickens and be respectable and fabulous (a concept I am totally 100% for). Thing is, the 1850s are SO not my area of interest and I derive no real excitement from combing through primary source material for that era to find costume inspiration. I want something simple... I don't want pagoda sleeves, but straight, fitted sleeves. And I think I can get away with this for the era. But I'm not sure.

Anyone out there have suggestions for a non-pagoda sleeved 1850s bodice style?

Uh, hi there everyone. I guess it's been kind of a while since I last posted. My only excuse is that I was suffering from a touch of burnout post-Costume College (actually, pre-Costume College... Anyone who talked to me for more than 10 seconds at CoCo probably could tell I was barely hanging in there by the skin of my teeth) and I started grad school not too long thereafter. So, things have been slightly distracting for me in recent months.

But, I did manage to update some stuff on the website! The 14th c. purple wool kirtle and this year's Gatsby dress are now up for your consideration.

There's a few things coming up in the next couple of months that should yield some interesting costumes. I'm not talking specifics just yet, so stay tuned!

Some friends of mine have set up a social networking site for the West Kingdom arts community: West Kingdom Artisans. Come on over and join! :)

I am now really really inspired by this doublet. Like, REALLY inspired by it. I just cut my hair short and so I've been thinking I need to do some 16th c. cross dressing, and this little guy is just the ticket. Plus, I could theoretically get away with wearing it over a long skirt if I wanted... Its unisex enough to make it work no matter what I decide to do. And I have THE PERFECT TRIM^TM for it. Hee!

Hmm. Suddenly I'm seeing a 16th century George Sand making an appearance at a West Kingdom event near you. *

But back to the future for a second... Sure enough, I did find the perfect 1920s fabric down in the epic stash o' doom (the basement. Its where I keep all my stuff). Its a cream-to-off-white jacquard (probably poly, but passing for rayon... Will do a burn test out of curiosity) with a little black jaggedy motif scattered across the jacquard. Its really fabulous! I'm thinking I'll start draping the toile and playing around with the design later today (once I kill the migraine that's been chewing through my brain all morning). Since I'm on a wrap-front kick, I might go with that as the main concept. Heh. It would be funny to have a range of wrap-front dresses from throughout history... :)

*Speaking of George Sand, I have this idea for Dickens Fair this year...

It's in exactly 1 month, and I have done exactly no sewing on the theoretical new outfit that I've been wanting to make for the last three years. However, there appears to be quite a bit of 1920s geekery going on in my f-list in the last couple of days, so I'm starting to get inspired! Somewhere in this house I have the perfect fabric... I just have to find it. I had a pattern already picked out, 1930s Day Dress, but now I'm starting to drift back towards the 1920s again, what with all the 20s eye candy everyone has been posting to their journals.

My ideal Gatsby dress has been something along the lines of a long cardigan over a sheath dress, or a cardigan over a blouse and skirt. Something basic, simple, classic, chic. Honoria Glossop meets CoCo Channel. Hehehe. Doubt I'll actually get that look this time around, but it's there in the back of my mind.

The 1930s appeals to me, though, precisely because the waistline returned to the waist, and on my hourglass figure, that always looks more flattering. I have too much of a bust and too short of a torso to make the 1920s look anything but frumpy on me, but I realize I'm also fighting with my modern aesthetic on that front.

Anyway, just thoughts right now. I'm going to go dig through the fabric stash to see what I can turn up that's Gatsby appropriate and then let the fabric dictate what it wants to be...

Item 1: New Costuming Year resolution - I am taking a break from teaching at Costume College for however long it takes for me to recover my teaching mojo.

Item 2: The scant number of pics I took at CoCo can be found here.

Item 3: I have suddenly been put back into contact with my costuming mojo and I'm itching to start some new projects, all of which are 18th century-related.

Prior to Costume College, I started work on the Christie's wrap front 1790s bodice, and its nearing completion.

I am also chomping at the bit to start the newly coined Limoncello redingote*. That's the yellow silk taffeta next to the dress that I will be using to recreate the dress. I was able to find a photo of the front of the redingote, taken by Johanna Öst, who was lucky to have a chance to see the Fastes de Cour exhibit at Versailles. And speaking of Johanna, I also discovered her lovely blog, 18th Century Blog, which then pointed me to two more 18th c. costuming blogs I hadn't yet discovered, Rockin' The Rococo and My 18th Century. Fabulous with a side helping of awesome! Now I'm seriously back to craving the 18th c. wardrobe of my dreams.

*I can't stand limoncello. No, really. But I love yellow. :)

Poll #1434479 Costume College Ahoy!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

Who is going to be at Costume College?

The site is finished! I put the first few PDFs for downloading in the Research section, added links to earlier works in the Portfolio section (at least one of which hasn't been featured on this site before), and added a section on my clothing & textile design work while I was in school. And I think I've got all the broken links sorted out, too.

Go me!

Maybe now I can get some sleep...

Site transfer complete! New, sleeker, streamlined website is now live! Granted this will probably screw with everyone's links, so if you've bookmarked a page of mine and its inexplicably giving you a 404 error, I apologize. I was finally so sick and tired of the mess that's been my website for the last 10 years that I wiped everything clean and started over from scratch. All the files are organized and I eliminated about 50% of the images from my previous "costume closet" and whittled it down to the costumes from the last 5 years that show my best work. They are also the costumes that I happen to still wear on a regular basis, so that should tell you something about workmanship as well. I'm going to put older costumes onto a separate page and link off to it, because I think it is important to show the entire process from absolute beginner to Master Level so people don't just get the mistaken idea that I sprang forth fully formed as a costumer. It's good to keep it real.

Another thing... The "Research" page is empty right now. That's because I'm looking at the daunting task of taking the best of my previous research, cleaning it all up (I'm mortified at the quality of some of the so-called research that's been on my website for the last 10 years) and putting it back online in PDF format. Why in PDF format? Well, my recent stint as a college instructor taught me that most human beings, no matter how wonderful and creative, are lazy and a subset of them will just copy/paste from the internet without even bothering to read what they're turning in as their "research". I know this has happened with my website in the past, and I know that making all of my research downloadable in PDF format isn't going to solve the problem, but at least it'll make things that much less convenient for any lazy plagiarists that happen across my website.

Nothing in this world pisses me off more than plagiarism. I'm not entirely sure it's the theft of knowledge part of the equation, but I think it's more that the plagiarist thinks you're really THAT stupid to believe they wrote something they obviously didn't. At least that's how I felt when students would hand in obviously copy/pasted papers as their research. But I'll stop there before I devolve into a raving bitch. :)

Anyhoo.

Now that I've wasted two full days with the website, I should really get back to work on class handouts for my Costume College classes. If you happen across any broken links, my email is now on every single page so you can drop me a line and let me know. :)

I sat down last night to figure out what I planned on wearing/bringing to Costume College and realized that I'm really only going to have an opportunity to wear about 2 costumes. I'm teaching a whole bunch this year, and while I am capable of teaching in an elaborate costume (all of my costumes are elaborate in one way or another, even the simple ones) I'm also thinking maybe I shouldn't. (Me = Lazy)

So that boils down to the Friday night surprise and my gala outfit (still trying to decide between the 1589 gown and the stripey polonaise... Might have to flip a coin or consult the iBall. I'll probably bring two more outfits just in case I get struck with the random inspiration to wear a costume, but otherwise, those are the only two "events" that require a specific costume for that weekend.

And in site-specific news, I'm working on a site redesign with is going to completely muck up any bookmarks people may have to specific pages. For maximum irritation, I'm also transferring hosting services, so there's no end of possibility as to what could happen to the site in the next week or so. Fun! Anyway, just warning y'all. :)

(Those of you who are subscribed to sca_west and SCA-West are already going to have seen this before. Bear with me.)

Greetings!

Fall Collegium Occidentalis (Oct. 24 & 25) is right around the corner, and we're looking for teachers... This means we want to hear from you! We are open to all ideas concerning the arts, sciences and/or martial interests in the SCA. Tempted to teach, but are unsure if you'd be qualified? No worries! There's no requirement for sharing your knowledge. Have an obscure topic you're geeked out about but aren't sure if anyone else will be interested? Give it a shot! You'd be surprised at how curious people are about new topics. We are looking for people to teach all manner of classes in all skill levels, from absolute beginner to advanced.

( What you should send me )

One thing I want to mention is that this is not solely directed at Westerners. If you live in another kingdom, and you think you would be able to travel to the Bay Area to hang out and teach a class to a bunch of curious Westerners, I would love to hear from you. An Tirians and Caidians, I'm looking at you. I know you guys are itching for an excuse to come over to the West Kingdom and educate us. :)

Trystan's Sekrit Costume College Dress is basically finished, but for a few final touches. Only took me 4 hours from start to finish. If I had my fabric on hand, I'd get started on my version of the dress, but that's going to come in a few days so I'm pretty much done with sewing for the time being.

T-minus 15 days until CoCo and I've got no serious sewing to do! I feel... Kind of confused by the concept.

Hm.

I guess I should start planning on what I want to wear in a couple of weekends, right?

I've 98% decided to wear the 1580s gown for the Gala, even though the purple stripey anglaise won out in the poll. The reason being that I have only worn the 1580s gown once, and I have far less incentive to wear it again, baring the Gala, because it is not a dress that is easy to wear. The anglaise, while lovely and fun to wear (and is actually in keeping with the theme of the Gala, but since when have I ever dressed for the theme), is less exciting for me at the moment. I've been doing a lot of 18th c. stuff lately. I hardly ever get a chance to wear full-on high Elizabethan.

Though I might change my mind at the last second... :)

Other than that, I'm not sure what else I'm really planning for. There's been a special request for a surprise novelty costume for Friday night and I'm actually thinking I can pull it off. Fabric is going into the wash today and once I'm finished hand sewing the eleventy million buttonholes I'm doing as a favor to a friend (I'm a nice kitty), I will begin the cutting process. It's all machine/modern sewing, which cuts down on the emotional investment factor considerably.

Anyway, the rest of the time at CoCo, I'm going to probably spend the majority of class time in regular clothes, just because I'm teaching so many classes this time around and I don't know if I feel up to that kind of activity level while wearing a corset. We'll see... Probably what will happen is I'll get to the hotel, see everyone wandering around in fabulous outfits and I'll be all inspired to get dressed up. Which means I'll be bringing a random assortment costumes that might or might not get worn.

Also means I need to start going over all my costumes to see what needs repairs and to iron everything. And my wigs need some TLC...

And the to-do list grows...

Hehehe. I love how everyone is all geeked about hanging pockets. You guys!

Anyway, more research has been done on my Florentine project. Occurred to me that, rather than purchase wool felt (which I sort of already did- my local Joann's happens to carry 100% wool felt in a vairety of colors) I could just go down to Rumplestiltskin, spend a couple of bucks on some roving, and make it myself. Because, you know, wool felt is dead easy to make, even if it is messy and frustrating (I had a bad experience with homemade felt once).

Last night, I took some cough syrup to help me sleep and while it knocked me out, I had some weird and wonderful dreams as a result of whatever powerful narcotic was in the medicine. I vaguely remember some epic dream involving some kind of alien world where people had to take M&M type pills every so often to keep from dying in the barely habitable atmosphere. It was one of those awesome adventure dreams... Much running around, trying to save the human race while running low on M&Ms...

Anyway, this isn't about that.

I also dreamt about Florentine clothing, so that's clearly what my brain wants to be working on right now, rather than Costume College prep. See, Florentine clothing in the mid-16th century is so unlike English clothing from the same era, so wrapping my brain around the idea of not having lots of support in the torso and kind of just letting the figure be *natural* is weird to me. Really weird. In fact, I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that there was absolutely no boned corsetry in Florence until way late in the 16th century (well, there may have been some outliers who used boned garments, but most research out there points to it being a really rare thing among the fashionable). But corsetry has always been questionable throughout the all major European regions in the 16th century, even though you really can't get the look of English, French and Spanish upper class clothing without some kind of corset-like garment.

But in Florence, you look at the portraits of the upper class women, and the figure is not compressed or rigid. Its fleshy and the clothing rumples slightly where the body rumples naturally (under the breasts, around the waist). There's clearly some attempt to control the figure, using simple close-fitting kirtles, but that's about it. It's a nod to the standard European silhouette, but it isn't anywhere near as extreme. So, I've been pouring over Moda a Firenze for ages, trying to put the layers of Florentine clothing together in my mind and having a really hard time with letting go of the rigid flavor of Western European clothing and coming to grips with *gasp* unstiffened garments.

This is made interesting by the florid translation in Moda, and of course, the translators (and who knows, the author as well) probably don't have the intimate understanding of clothing construction that people who actually make this stuff have. So there's a lot of throw-away comments about "felt interlinings", cardboard (and the huge variety of possibilities with that broad term) and buckram (which, in my minimal research, probably didn't mean what we think of as buckram, but an unstiffened cotton or linen fabric that could be used for a multitude of purposes ranging from bed sheets to interlining, to clothing. It was probably sturdy-ish, medium to heavy weight, at least when used as an interlining, one assumes. But there's also evidence out there that it could be finely woven as well). I'm focused on doppia, the felt interlining that was used in kirtles and to stiffen hems. How stiff was it? How thick? Of course those answers are elusive, and I have to figure it out by experimentation.

Reading through Katerina's Florence Files has been helpful in seeing some practical application of this research and how it bears out. It's also reassuring to see that I'm on a similar track, so I must not be too far off base with my suppositions. Still having a hard time giving up the issue of rigidity in my support garments, but I'm getting there. I do know from past experience that layering unstiffened, or minimially stiffened garments often provides enough support to prevent extreme wrinkling in the torso, so I'm running with that idea here. Except, contrary to the number of garments an English woman would have been wearing around the same time, Florentine women were probably wearing no more than three garment layers (not counting the camicia and any loose gown type of garment worn over the gown itself). So, my thoughts return to the doppia and whatever possible interlining structure might be sandwiched between the layers of each garment.

Late last year, I played around with the concept of using felt as the only "stiffening" agent in a bodice, but putting the bodice on recently, I didn't like the effect. Too bulky (I interlined the whole thing), not supportive enough (I drafted it over my corset and then eliminated the corset, which means my bust falls down below the neckline). Having recently played around with 14th century self-supporting dresses, I'm scrapping the first attempt and starting over with a slightly different plan of attack.

Quite a lot of us are burnt out from Costume Con and other Life^TM interference, and I'm seeing countless people posting to LJ bemoaning their inability to sew anything between now and the first weekend of August. I posted just such a thing recently, to my private journal, as a matter of fact.

I pulled off four major new costumes for Costume Con, only two months ago, and I'm really not in the mood to try and pump out another spectacular outfit any time soon. I have some commissions that need my attention and energy, and so it is not in my cards for a never-before-seen-spectacular-spectacular-gown-of-epicness at this point in the game. And I, being the mature, responsible adult costumer that I am, am totally comfortable with wearing (gasp!) a dress I wore to Costume Con for the Costume College gala. Yes, folx, I am wearing a... REPEAT.

(Let's wait for the shrieks of horror to die down, shall we?)

So here's the deal: If you're sitting there feeling like a failure because you're not going to have some new, fabulous gown for the CoCo Gala and all your friends will think you're a loser because you can't just pull a Worth gown recreation out of your nether regions in less than 2 months (no offense to harmanhay, who has been slaving obsessively over a Worth gown recreation for the better part of a year now, just to wear to the Gala), PLEASE STOP THE SELF FLAGELLATION. The only person you will be disappointing is yourself, if anything. I won't hate you. Everyone else won't hate you. In all likelihood, we'll all be too busy feeling like losers ourselves to notice that you wore that same gown once, for some other event, that 99% of us weren't even at.

Ok, I'll turn the sarcasm down a notch and just level with y'all... There was a time when I was compelled to churn out a new gown for every single SCA/Faire/GBACG event, regardless of whether I already had a whole mess of outfits in my closet that already fit the bill. This was due in part to the fact that I felt like I had something to prove, and that my skills as a costumer were still lacking in fundamental areas so my costumes were rarely fit to be worn twice without major overhauls. Now I'm older, more secure in my abilities, and I feel like I owe it to MYSELF to wear the hell out of the costumes I already have. Truth is, I don't like wearing costumes I rushed to finish at the last second, because they often times don't fit right, or fall apart because I took short cuts.

I have a competitive streak in me, I'll admit. And I like outdoing myself year after year, particularly with the Gala, but I'm also sane enough to sit this round out and let some other people rock the red carpet for a change. I'm still going to look fabulous, trust me. I'm just going to be wearing a dress I wore before, and I'm cool with that. So, if you need my permission to do the same, I declare this Costume College Gala's theme to be "What, this old thing?" :P

Poll #1417146 What, this old thing?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 89

What should Sarah wear to the Costume College Gala?

This is reprinted here from my personal journal. Back dated 6/4/2009

The 5 year old blue linen kirtle is nearing completion. I finished the eyelets on the front, and basted the sleeves into the armscyes (I'm about to take the dress off and machine sew the sleeves into place). Everything looks good. It will go into the closet to hang for a day or three, and then it will be hemmed and ready to go. Pictures will have to wait until after A&S, but for now...

( A brief essay on the two Gothic dresses... Or 'What I've Learned So Far' )

I think everyone should first go pour themselves a nice cup of their favorite tea, get comfy, and then go visit Kate's flickr set of her tailoring final project.

Isn't it gorgeous work? (Hint: Just nod and say yes) I want the stripey dress and a couple of those jackets. :)

Ok, I'm just going to go right out and say it: You all can hate me. The scaled up 1660's bodice pattern from Arnold fits me pretty much exactly right, with only a minimum of tweaking. The part I was most concerned about was the fit of the off the shoulders neckline but turns out that was basically perfect. I needed to actually take in the pattern along a few crucial seams, and I ended up cutting off about 4" of the front point, but that was really the extent of it.

So, now that the pattern is good, I need to start making the boned foundation. This is the part that I'm the most wobbily about, even though I have the process mentally mapped out. Construct it like a corset, apply fashion fabric over the boned bodice, bind edges, apply linen lining. Pretty straight forward. I think what's hanging me up is the seamlines... Arnold only patterns the outer fashion fabric of the bodice, but Waugh diagrams the boned layer and the fashion layer and they are slightly different. In Waugh's diagram, the boned layer has less seam lines (make sense, if you're dealing with boning) and the fashion layer has what amounts to decorative seams added in.

The thing to bear in mind, of course, is that Waugh and Arnold are working from two different garments. It's just Arnold doesn't mention whether or not the internal boned bodice is assembled differently than the exterior fashion layer. I'm going to have to think about this a bit more before deciding whether or not I should eliminate some seams for the interior boned bodice...

More musings.... Another thing that's inspiring me is the Claydon House gown (Arnold's 1660s example) has self trimming. I have a lot of 1" wide gold lace that I was planning on using for the trimmings, but I wanted to veer away from the same trimming scheme most people go with for this era. Also, if I go with the self-trimming, I could save yardage by using a taffeta for the interior sleeves and that would enable me to put more yardage into the skirt. The strips left over would be used for the trim, in addition to the gold lace.

So, anyway, that's where the CoB project stands currently. Costume College is, naturally, my deadline, and it is the only major outfit I have planned between now and then. A couple of minor projects and a few commissions, but otherwise it's just Catherine. And despite not being all that excited about it for the longest time, I'm starting to feel the first flutterings of excitement now. :)