Early garb attempts

This is my first attempt at a blog. It's really just to give the folks at home a chance to see what I'm up to.

These are pictures of some of my first attempts at garb for the SCA.





So far I've made four linen shifts, the green linen dress Gen is wearing, my purple linen dress, two wool dresses (one for each of us) and a couple of linen dresses for my friend Stacy (see above) and her daughter Claire.

Gen's is from a pattern she found (Simplicity if I remember rightly) - it's not entirely 12th century but she liked it and it works as a first attempt. It started out terracotta and cream (dyed from plain white linen) but she decided she'd rather have green so I used some dye remover on it and re-dyed it dark green and it has turned out really lovely. My purple dress is a basic T-tunic pattern and it looks a little bag-like because I didn't have a belt on. Stacy's is a t-tunic underneath and on top is a linen dress she already had which didn't quite fit so I took the sides out and put eyelets in so she could lace it up. We are both quite happy with the way it turned out.

I'll try and get a picture of up the wool dresses I made as well. I made them from plaid wool I found at our local "hole in the wall" fabric shop for 99p a metre! They are also basically modified T-tunics. When I made mine I was thinking I'd have a 13th century persona so I made it with Magyar sleeves but I've decided since to go for 1400 but it will be OK - I'm actually going to eventually try to have an outfit for every period because I can't decide which I like best!

I love the feeling of linen and wool, I love wearing it and I love working with it. Just gorgeous! I've just brought home a stack of fabric and things from my mom (more on that later) so I'm well stocked for the moment.