Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Renaissance Faire Costume

Simplicity Pattern 5582 Misses' Renaissance  Costumes

Summer is winding down and it's Renaissance Faire season in Maryland!  I've never sewn up a costume for myself before & my son thought it would be way cool to dress up this year (he'll be a knight, I'm working on that one still.)  By no means did I make a "historically correct" outfit here, and I could still breathe & move about (relatively!) well while my vest was laced up.  I used Simplicity 5582, View C.  I cut a size 14 for all three garments, but needed to alter the paper pattern to fit my figure.  Overall, this pattern was easy to work with and I really love the results.



I checked out what colors were appropriate for paupers of the Renaissance era, obviously natural whites & beige's seemed suitable... I learned that purple was off limits to lower class folks but blue was often a sign of servitude.  I wasn't doing Anne Boleyn or another royal wife, so pauper I will be!

   
Check out how huge the chemise (aka The Puffy Shirt) is untucked! I stuck with natural materials for my fabrics.  I opted for a cotton gauze for both the chemise and skirt-- the skirt fabric is still in stock at the time of writing this post.  Both are a a nicer, heavier gauze.  I found the skirt fabric is not sheer, and the off white is minimally sheer.


I inserted a zipper into the skirt's waist, making it easier to get on and off.  I picked up from the local big box fabric store my other odd bits needed to create this costume: gold grommets for the vest, feather weight boning, cotton lace & elastic for the edge of the sleeves & collar, and double fold bias tape.  The pattern envelope was a bit confusing on what you needed and what it was for.  I bought a crap load of blue bias tape thinking it was only for the vest... no... the bias tape is for the vest edge AND to finish the inside edges of the shirt's collar and sleeves.  Luckily I had a pretty, pale pink bias tape my stash for the shirt.


Since I'm about 2" taller then what patterns are designed for-- I'm about 5'8", I lengthened the chemise by 2" and the bodice by 1".  I actually had to shorten my skirt by maybe 5", but that may be due to the fact that my cotton gauze "grew" some as it hung- and also I didn't want it to drag on the ground because I'm 100% sure I'd trip on it while at Ye Old Faire eating corn on the cob, husk included.  I also removed some material at the shoulder and upper back on my paper pattern before sewing to better fit my shape.


I used some of that lovely blue linen for my vest that Fabric Mart keeps in stock all the time.  In error, I mis-cut my fabric and was short a few inches, so I whipped out a remnant of a dark olive green linen in my stash that I bought from Fabric Mart a year or so ago.  This vest is definitely not a real corset.  I used feather weight boning & a medium-to-heavy weight interfacing.  The sew-in Pellon interfacing has some body, gives a decent shape and is pliable, but definitely not hard as a rock stiff.  I can tie my vest lace as loose or tight as I want and it will still look great.  I have some dark orange-pumpkin-y colored cotton material in my stash for the overskirt, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to wear it, I may sew it up the day before I go to the Ren Faire if it's meant to be a colder day.



Happy Ye Olde Sewing!!
~Kathy

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Why Sew A Muslin

Here it is, my September blog post featuring Newlook N6692 and this pretty rayon challis from Fabric Mart! This pattern style is so in right now. The square neckline, cute puff sleeves and the tiered skirt are all exactly what I was looking for in a summer dress. As always I started with making a muslin first!  Let’s get into why it’s important to start with a muslin.  A muslin is basically a practice garment. It prevents you from cutting into your good fabric prematurely.  I usually use a muslin fabric (natural cotton) but you should also consider using a fabric that is the same weight as your fashion fabric. This will give you a truer gauge of how the garment is going to lay in the final fabric. Anytime I try out a new pattern company I make a muslin. This was my first time using a Newlook pattern so I need to know what the ease would be like for this pattern. Also I need to see how the bust would fit me and where I would need to make adjustments. Plus there were some new techniques

Made By A Fabricista: The Love of Sewing - Basic Pieces for a Beginner

Happy Friday All! It has been a while since I made myself a dress. I am excited to sew after not making anything since my last post (whew) and finally sharing some photos.  This past summer has been a roller coaster journey with plans to release a small collection and then deciding that right before the launch to postpone. Sewing has brought me joy over the past 8 years and the mere fact to sew daily for orders had me in a panic mode. I really don’t want to walk away from my craft due to burn out  and decided that if I do sew for others, it would be only for local clients. Moreover, If next year I decide to launch, it would be seasonal and not year round. I really want to share my talent and love for sewing with others but don’t want it to be a full time job and lose the passion in me.  After a bit of soul searching, teaching and sharing my talent with my community will always be my first love. For the past 2 summers, I was blessed to partner with two nonprofit organizations’ local sum

Made By A Fabricista: End of Summer

Summer is nearing to an end but here where I am in Texas the heat isn’t letting up any time soon!  I still have plenty of time to get a few more summer looks out of the way.  In this blog I will be sharing two separate projects. The first project is this denim set; I had the inspiration saved on my list of makes to make.  For this project I got this gorgeous denim and matching thread to start my project. Yes, Fabric Mart will match the thread to your fabric perfectly and with my favorite thread brand Gutermann.  The denim had a very great weight and wasn’t too stiff.  It was very starchy when it arrived, so I did a prewash before working with it.  I’m so glad I did because it had a lot of dye saturated in which would not have been great for the skin and other clothes. For the first part of the set, I drafted a corset with the scallop edge cups, such a cute detail!   To start I used my bodice sloper to make the corset, I was not worried about the design details and focused more on