Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Stitchawl]

Wow! This is neat! It's like "Rendezvous" gone civilized!
And complete with camp followers too, huh? Convenient!


Stitchawl

[poohbear_nc]

bgDeb - very impressive! I can just imagine you "hitching up" your skirts and dashing across a battlefield to minister to the wounded! Wow!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Those look fantastic. Personally I've always wanted an 18th century outfit (not that I have any idea where I might wear it). Wonder how hard it would be to make?

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Yup, I made 'em! I had a costume book, which drew the outline of the pieces of the garments, but I blew them up to human size and from there, made it fit. There's a group out in the midwest here (and a separate group in the east coast of the US) which sets up a military camp (hundreds of white tents) and re-enacts a generic battle, and what cam life might have been like. Your outfit is a usual camp look. My dressier look had to be billed as "someone sight-seeing from a nearby town" since I wouldn't have worn clothes like that, as a camp follower in tents. Lots of fun!

Which book did you use? I've got "The Cut of Women's Clothes" by Norah Waugh, although I've never been brave enough to attempt anything from it. I made my shortgown this weekend from this drawing, but it's just one piece of fabric and hard to mess up. I love the relaxed fit of it, though, and the fact that it hides my inappropriate underpinnings! I don't do any formal reenactment, anyway -- I just try to dress appropriately for whatever kind of spinning demo I'm doing.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Those look fantastic. Personally I've always wanted an 18th century outfit (not that I have any idea where I might wear it). Wonder how hard it would be to make?

They really do! Back in the day, when I was Fencing Master for a 40-member club, a bunch of us ordered Theatrical equipment, and the clothing that went with it. Everything from French aristocracy to Barbary pirates. None of us had the skills (or perhaps just the inclination) to make our own, but we did put on some interesting shows for the locals. I can still remember the gauntlet gloves, puffy sleeves and breeches I wore, a la Basil Rathbone or Errol Flynn! Very 'swashbuckleish!' Wish I could do that stuff today!


Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Wow! This is neat! It's like "Rendezvous" gone civilized!
And complete with camp followers too, huh? Convenient!


Stitchawl

I'll have to dig out some of my Rendezvous pics, scan and post them

[SneakySnake]

yes please kk.

and I am waiting also for stichy's swashbuckling pix.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

yes please kk.

and I am waiting also for stichy's swashbuckling pix.

Sorry Sneaky... we buckled our swash about 35 years ago. Don't have any photos of that event other than some old newspaper clippings. These photos are from 25 years ago, letting my son (age 8 at the time) skewer me with a foil, and putting the hurt on one of my club mates with a saber on an afternoon in the park.






We could only get our school gym one night a week so several of us would meet in a public park that had a covered area with a cement floor on Sunday afternoons during the warmer months.

Stitchawl

[SneakySnake]

Did you say newspaper clippings from 35 years ago?

Here's a costume pic of me from (circa 1968) nearly 45 years ago.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Those look fantastic. Personally I've always wanted an 18th century outfit (not that I have any idea where I might wear it). Wonder how hard it would be to make?

You'd wear it to a Playford Ball*, of course!



*i.e. an evening of English Country Dancing, often of dances from Playford's "The Dancing Master", which was published from 1651 to 1728.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Did you say newspaper clippings from 35 years ago?

Here's a costume pic of me from (circa 1968) nearly 45 years ago.

Aww, cute. You're the blond bunny, I presume?

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Which book did you use? I've got "The Cut of Women's Clothes" by Norah Waugh, although I've never been brave enough to attempt anything from it. I made my shortgown this weekend from this drawing, but it's just one piece of fabric and hard to mess up. I love the relaxed fit of it, though, and the fact that it hides my inappropriate underpinnings! I don't do any formal reenactment, anyway -- I just try to dress appropriately for whatever kind of spinning demo I'm doing.

I have that book too, but I think I made most of my clothes from "Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860" by Janet Arnold I have more recently (now that I've added 40 pounds more and don't fit in those dresses) made a shortgown too, but it was all square cuts. We strive to match the originals, and they seem to have not wanted to waste fabric with making curves to fit a waist. We also have to use original fabrics - wool, cotton, linen. But yours certainly looks perfect! Maybe I'll switch into school demo work, now that I'm getting out of "it's 95 degrees out here and I have 4 layers on including a corset" re-enacting.

[SneakySnake]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Aww, cute. You're the blond bunny, I presume?

Yes I am! The little white one. Mum probably made that little bunny costume.

There was a sexy bunny with fancy tights in that parade (aged about 8).


I want more pix of costumes. Deb, maybe when you weather cools down you can do more reinactment stuff.

There is a museum not far from here (up the road from where I lived as a teenager) that does medieval festivals now. I would love to go, but it seems to have gotten so big that the crowds would put me off.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Yes I am! The little white one. Mum probably made that little bunny costume.

There was a sexy bunny with fancy tights in that parade (aged about 8).


I want more pix of costumes. Deb, maybe when you weather cools down you can do more reinactment stuff.

Pretty little bunny! I've got a few more costume pics, plus some shots of all the white 1770's military tents ... plus some dogs ... here: http://godskid.ingodsfamily.com/

[badgoodDeb]

PS If you want to see *random* people in costumes, this slide show of "halloweens past" (1970's, 1960's, 1930's, even 1870) is pretty cool. (msnbc news pics)