I was scouring the web, looking for information on period boots, and I stumbled across Francis Classe’s excellent page. This is a picture that I have never seen anywhere else before. It’s charming, but it’s quite odd. I wish I had far more information on it, but Google doesn’t seem to know anything about it!
8 CommentsMonth: October 2010
I’ve made some updates and corrections to the printer-friendly version of the Basic Conic Block directions. The updated file can be downloaded from the Downloads…
Leave a CommentI’ve been called in to work (yay!) for a dance recital. In 19 hours of sewing time, I’ve emptied three full 500 yd spools of…
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So, you’ve got a basic ren wench bodice pattern. Yay! Now it’s time to pick some fabrics and sew it all up.
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I have set a lot of grommets and eyelets in my time. I mean, a LOT. I’ve done it with a hammer and set, I’ve done it with a grommet machine, once I even did it with a hairbrush and a pen. (Don’t.) I really thought I was out of new reasons to loathe setting grommets and eyelets. I was wrong. You’ve never properly hated an eyelet until you’ve hated a 1/8″ eyelet. They are, however, a reasonably necessary evil in doll clothes. Should you need to set them, here’s how….
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Remember a while back, I posted directions for a Basic Conic Block draft? Everyone was sort of like, wow, missa, that’s great, it explains so much, but what do I do with it? Well, a basic block is used to develop other patterns in a big bad hurry, without all that annoying measuring and math. Today, we’re going to make an ultra-generic-wenchy-ren-faire-been-there-drank-the-ale-SEEN-IT type bodice pattern. You know the the one I’m talking about…. It won’t win you points for originality or authenticity, but it’s a fun little piece to wear.
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Sewing and hemming gored skirts is a skill needed for almost all periods of western fashion since the late 1400s. This demo shows how to make a gored skirt with a simple side-seam pocket, mounted on a waistband. We’re going to gather the fullness of this skirt to the back, making it very suitable as an underskirt to be worn over a support skirt (hoops or farthingale).
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If you’re looking for a way to draft gored skirts for your costumes, this is the eBook for you. The method shown is one I’ve worked out over the years, in an attempt to find a possibly period way to create a gored skirt. The instructions can be easily adapted to create a pattern using nothing more than a straight edge and notched tape.
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The Spanish Farthingale is a stiffened underskirt that gives Tudor and early Elizabethan skirts their characteristic conical shape. You can make a very passable one with a full length gored skirt pattern (either a commercial A-line skirt pattern, or one you draft yourself), a lot of ribbon or bias tape, and boning.
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Since I’m off-topid right now anyway, I thought I’d crow a little bit about the amazing amount of dirt I’ve moved over the last couple months. Mom and I decided we needed to make some changes to the front yard to add a second walkway. (She apparently thought my habit of shoveling through the middle of the grass to get to my car last winter was tacky or something.) We watch entirely too much DIY network…
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