14th/15th Century Pouch

I made this pouch to go with my favorite late 14th and early 15th century wardrobe. This is sort of a ubiquitous pouch style during this time, so it's appropriate for much of what I wear on a daily basis.

The first two images show examples of this pouch style in artwork and in an extant piece.

In the first of my own images, you can see my pouch in progress. The pouch itself is two rectangles, and the cord is finger loop braid. The eyelet holes are all hand stitched. Here, you can see how I did the tassels. I wrapped my yarn around a piece of cardboard and then took it off. I tied a piece of yarn around the center top to hold everything in place. Then I wrapped another piece of yarn around near the top to create the upper loop. Then I cut it off to my desired length and sewed all my tassels onto my pouch.

Completed cotehardies for a client

I finished these two cotehardies (aka gothic fitted gowns) for a client. She wanted them to be similar to two dresses I made for myself, just without all the heavy hand stitching.
These are both late 14th century styles, though they are still present in the early 15th century.

The first dress is made of linen. The second is made of cotton velvet with silk sleeves and belt.
My intern Dani helped me sew on all these buttons. There are so many! How sumptuous!

My similar dresses:
http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-cotehardie/
http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-velvet-cotehardie/

Gothic Fitted Gowns - Progress for a client

I'm making two gothic fitted gowns (aka cotehardies) for a client. They're basically a lower budget version of two of my personal dresses - same colors and everything. It's weird to make *my* dresses for someone else lol, but they are a bit different. Since my client is not as concerned with historical accuracy as I have personally become, I was able to manipulate some design elements to fit her budget. They're actually almost done now, so I'll post finished photos soon!

Sideless Surcote and Gothic Fitted Gown in Progress

I have several projects in progress right now. Since I have photos of these, I thought I'd share! These are both 14th/15th c. I have a couple of late 16th c. projects going too, but I need to photograph them before I can share!

The first one is a wool gothic fitted gown, lined in linen. I already had both fabrics at home, and I thought it would be nice for cold weather. It gets much colder in CA than where I grew up, so now I'm always bundling up in lots of layers that may or may not match, and this will really help!

The second one is a sideless surcote to accompany a late 15th century transition gown - also made, just not pictured. I used non-bias binding since I really only have evidence for non-bias and I wanted to try it out. I've worked with tons of bias binding in my life, and I was a bit worried about going around all these curves without bias, but it worked out really nicely! It's still pinned down on the backside in the photo, hence all those little pinned spots.

Green and Brown Cotehardie

I made this cotehardie for my boyfriend. It's green and brown linen, fully lined. The fabric is all linen. The buttons and button holes are all done by hand. He's also wearing a coif and tights I made for him.

I have more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-male-cotehardie/

Green and Purple-ish Cotehardie

In case it wasn't obvious by now, when it comes to SCA period, I LOVE late 14th-early 15th c. So I made another one! This is one of the cotehardies I'm most proud of. I made all the buttons by hand, and I also did all those millions of button holes by hand (fun!). This is patterned with gores in the sides and back. The gown is single layer linen because I live in southern California.

The veil I'm wearing is white linen. It's a pretty basic frilled veil style.
The belt is made of velvet with metal filigree bits I sewed on.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-cotehardie/

Medieval Morgan Le Fey

I finally posted these images! Months ago, last summer in fact, my barony did an Arthurian Legends themed event. I decided to be Morgan Le Fey. I've been dabbling in alchemy, well, since before I was in the SCA. I only just decided to make it one of my historical art forms last year. Anyway, my vials were all filled with useful concoctions I've made, as well as some dried herbs.

The gown is late 14th / early 15th c, depending on the specific region and person. The way I've styled it here, I feel it takes on more of a 14th c. vibe. It's a linen cotehardie / kirtle / gothic fitted gown with buttons all the way down the front and on the sleeves in counterchange. The sleeves pin on.

More picture here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/morgan-le-fey/

Medieval Marketplace

We recently went to Medieval Marketplace, an SCA shopping event at a local park. We took Laura with us, so I dressed her up. She happened to fit perfectly into my old green kirtle. I made this kirtle in a rush right before Gulf Wars the year I joined the SCA and suddenly needed a week's worth of garb. Anyway, I think it fits Laura better than it fits me now!

I wore one of my newest dresses, my green and purple/pink/whatever-that-color-is-called cotehardie/kirtle, and my boyfriend wore his newest cotehardie. My frilled veil is also new, and I the coif he is wearing is fairly new as well, all made within the last year. (I just haven't edited my photos of these garments yet because I am lazy! Okay, because I am busy...)

I do wish there weren't cars and modern things in the background. I am so jealous of European SCAdians and other reenactors who live in Europe and get to go to events at real historical locations!

Embroidered Hood

I decided it was time to make a new hood to go with my standard late 14th-early 15th c. ensembles, this time with dags. I had some neutral brown wool that was perfect to match the color scheme I like to wear. I lined the hood in linen. I put gores in my hood this time, something I had not previously done for this type of hood (only for a smaller, more fitted one). I like the gores! As a result, this hood is slightly more fitted than my previous similar hoods.

The embroidery was done by Lady Cecilia - the same lady wearing the blue dress in my previous post. I found an early 15th century example of a hood motif and drew a very similar pattern for her to embroider. Using her excellent skills, she produced the following result!

You can see more pictures of this hood here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/embroidered-hood/

Velvet Belt

I've been looking at a lot of extant 14th century belts lately. I want to do a hardcore project involving pewter casting, but I know that's going to take me a while to gather all of the supplies, and I want a belt now! So I cut a piece of black velvet, which I happened to have lying around, and fashioned it into a belt. The silver pieces are all mass-produced filigrees I had previously purchased for fashion-type jewelry projects. They are stitched on to the belt, and the gems are glued on top. There actually is now a buckle, but the photo was taken before I purchased it. So yeah, updates forthcoming on the finished belt, also worn with dresses!

Cotehardie Commission

I did this 14th century gown / cotehardie as a custom commission for a client. This is all linen, red and black parti-colored with long sleeves and gold colored buttons. It's my favorite 4-panel cotehardie with gores, and I really like these colors!

Sideless Surcote

I recently made my first sideless surcote. This is patterned velvet with a skirt of black silk/rayon blend. It was pretty simple to make, and I would love to do more in the future. This style is based on late 14th century French sources.
In these pictures, I am wearing my surcote over a brocade/jacquard kirtle, with a horned veil headdress, all of which I also made, of course!

More pictures here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/black-sideless-surcote/
And you can see the kirtle here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/15th-century-brocade-kirtle/

Green Summer Cotte

I made a very lightweight 14th century cotte for my boyfriend for summertime. This is single layer linen. It's pretty simple, the most painstaking aspect being the fit, which I've already worked on with him in the past. This one is slightly less fitted than some of his other cotehardies/cottes, in consideration of warm summer weather.
He is also wearing tights I made for him, along with a black linen embroidered coif.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/green-cotte/

Purple Velvet Cotehardie

This is a dress I made last year. I realized it was before I started this blog, and I wanted to share anyway. Plus, I only recently took fancy photos for my website. I wear it occasionally to court-like events, but I am choosing to share the fancy photos rather than the plain old event photos.
This is a cotehardie, late 14th century French style. It is made of velvet and fully lined in silk with matching silk sleeves, belt, and tressour crispinette (the hat). The buttons and button holes were all done by hand, and all the beading and trim was also applied by hand. I made the necklace too. Lots of work, totally worth it!

More images are here on my site: http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-velvet-cotehardie/

Al-Savalley Anniversary

Two of the Shires near my area had a joint anniversary celebration. My boyfriend and I wore our new blue cotehardies, as you can see below. I went for a very whimsical feeling on these. While staying within the realm of historical accuracy, I sort of Pre-Raphaelite-d it up, as I so enjoy doing. Yay, fun! At the event, we did thrown weapons during most of the day, and I ran a competition.

Red Wool Cloak and Hood

I was inspired by Red Riding Hood to make some 14th century winter garments. I had a lot of dark red wool that I had previously obtained for very cheap, and a fruitful trip to the textile district provided me with some grey and white flecked faux fur for lining.

The cloak is made in a modified semi-circular pattern. Though we have evidence for the existence of true semi-circular cut cloaks, we also have experience in wearing them and fussing with them as they slide around. A simple modification for shoulders completely alleviates that issue so the cloak sits comfortably on the wearer's shoulders. I also added a hood to my cloak and arm holes. Arm holes are a convenience for grabbing things and generally moving around without having to fling your cloak open and invite all that cold air in.

The hood is a pretty simple 14th century style. The front buttons closed, and it is lined in faux fur.

More pictures to come! We did a photoshoot with these, along with the blue cotehardies from my previous post.

Light Blue Cotehardies - In Progress

Hello! I wanted to share some progress photos from a recent project. I made these light blue linen cotehardies for my boyfriend and myself. Aw, so matchy! Below, you can see my boyfriend modeling a shell of a garment, pre-buttons, followed by my dress pre and post-buttonholes, lacing, and applique. More photos of the finished garments to come!

Sideless Surcote

I've been enamored with late 14th century costuming pretty much forever, and I have tons of 14th c. dresses for SCA. However, I somehow never got around to making a sideless surcote until now! This shall be the first of many, and I hope to create all different styles of sideless surcotes. I chose this style because it happened to work for some fabric remnants I already had. It's always a bonus when I don't have to buy anything new! It was a quick one-day project. The top is cotton velveteen, and the skirt is silk/rayon blend.
I can't wait to wear it and take some really nice photos for my website (which, of course, I will share here too)!