Anne of a Thousand Days

First, much thanks to this site for providing LARGE images of the brown gown Anne wears in the movie.  It helped a lot for figured out a couple of things for the dress.

Ever since I saw the movie first 10 years ago, I've wanted this dress.  I have no idea why - it's not my normal colors or anything - I just love it.   The hood isn't accurate but the dress actually isn't that bad - it's something I can easily wear to SCA events and not get shunned.

I forgot my stays the day of the faire and couldn't exactly drive the two hours back home to get them so, I relied on the dress itself to hold everything correctly. It did okay - I didn't look ridiculous- but next time I need to remember my stays.

I bought the material years upon years ago. I think the main brown fabric is some sort of man made material meant for designer raincoats - perfect for a rainy day or a day right after a rainy day as long as it stays below that 72F threshold. It did, thankfully.

The gold material is gold cotton damask I think I got off of ebay four years ago. Maybe longer. The trim and false undersleeves are out of the paisley orange and black fabric that just happened to match the colors of the original movie gown - and I think the material is probably from the same time period as when the movie was made.

So hardly any natural fibers and a not historically accurate gown was a switch for me - however, I do like this dress.

I used the old McCalls Tudor gown pattern 3282. I have used this pattern a ton of times and love it. I drafted out the princess seams and the back darts. I enlarged the upper sleeve by adding a half inch on either side (you have to - they made it too small unless you have t-rex arms). I didn't bother cutting out the skirt and just used the remaining fabric, pleated it, and used that as the skirt fabric - which matches what they did on the movie gown better.

The french hood is, of course, hilarious. I didn't manage to finish what I wanted to do but I put together "something" so I'd have a dress many would hopefully recognize. I need to get some puffy gold fabric paint to make the "embroidery" on it. (The original really looks like fabric paint when you see a close up of it) I won't be able to wear it to SCA events but I want to complete the gown so I can wear it next year. :-)

My Medieval Houppelande Gown

Both of the above images are from the early part of the 15th century - the first is from between 1405-1410- and were a couple of my inspiration images for making a Houppelande gown.  

I had to go to an SCA event that had a theme of late 14th/early 15th century.  I've wanted to make a houppelande for a while so this was as good an excuse as any.  

The houppelande I made is based on the very early Italian styles for the dress.   I dyed some blue cotton brocade (the Italians had cotton) with RIT red Scarlett dye and it came out a stunning deep lilac as you see here.  The sleeves are my own pattern but the dress is a slightly changed version of McCalls M5155.  I changed the neckline for the body.   I had to piece the dress - which is very period and fine by me.  The sleeves are lined in some satin I had left over from my winter coat and the body is lined in some pink linen.   It's a heavy dress but not overly so.  I was quite happy to wear it...I just wish the belt didn't break...twice!

For the sleeves, I made a simple basic sleeve and then, rather than have the sides taper, I made them as big as I could at the wrist.  I ended up having to add gores to the sleeve to make it even bigger.   

Sekanjibin!

Sekanjabin in it's simplest, medieval form is sugar and vinegar put together to make a syrup.  I decided to take a play on that to make a new corn free syrup that was both cheap and good in a soda.  The one I made ended up tasting most similar to a cream soda - which is what I was aiming for.  :-)

1 1/2 cup water
3 3/4 cup sugar (I used a mix of brown sugar and white sugar but anything that is pure sugar is fine)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
a little less than 1 cup of Vanilla infused Balsamic Vinegar (if you don't have a store that carries this, try apple cider vinegar instead and increase the amount of Vanilla Extract to taste)

I put everything in the sauce pot and brought it to a boil.  I then stirred it, while it was boiling, for a couple of minutes, only to turn it down to low and leave it for about 10 minutes.  I then took it off the stove and let it cool.

Once it was cool, I put about a tablespoon in my cup and poured sparkling water over it (from my Sodastream).  I was worried it would be too bitter but it's surprisingly light and gives just the right amount of flavor for a soda.  Since sugar isn't exactly expensive (you can buy a box at the dollar store), this is a pretty easy, cheap soda flavoring syrup recipe.  

An attempt at the Moy Gown, part 1

First, yes, bedsheets work wonders for mock ups. Particularly the ones you've hated for the past 10 years since your mother got them and put them on your bed in the beach house. :-) You have no idea what pleasure it was to chop this baby up.

Second, the Moy gown. There are now several good write ups out there on the Moy Gown. The first of which is March Carlson's experiment on the construction of the gown. Another fabulous one is here by Matilda La Zouche.

Basically, the Moy gown was found in an Irish bog back in 1931. It's most likely from about the 1460's to the 1480's based on contemporary drawings of the time - however it might be a bit later than that as Ireland tended to be a bit behind the times when it came to fashion.

The above is from 'Sol und Siene Kinder' by the Housebook Master, the last quarter of the 15th century, South Germany.

This image done by Maître François in his illuminations of La Cité de dieu by Augustine around 1475-1480. This image is called Mysteries of Cybele (Virgo caelestis, Berecynthia) – fol. 86 verso. (I found it at Cottesimple.com.)




I want to create a Moy gown because I am fascinated by something that has lasted this long, clearly spans a few countries (France, Germany, Ireland), and it looks interesting in construction. However it's the construction that is getting me right now.

Although the body was easy enough -I used my 1790's bodice as a template since it has the weird back thing going on as well- the sleeve has me going crazy. I'm leaving it as is until the morning.

I had to play with the construction a bit in the body as well - the original neckline I had was too wide, which is why I have it pinned.  Other than that...it really was easy.  Now to figure out that sleeve...in the morning.  Hmm...

Edit: Me? Actually wait until the morning? Bwahaha! Yeah....no.

Fixed it! The sleeve fits perfectly now. The bodice is a bit tight but that I know how to adjust for. Now to do the second mock up, fully destroy these hideous sheets, and then work on the actual dress!

Historical Food Fortnightly #9: Frugal Housewife

9. The Frugal Housewife September 21 - October 4

Throughout history, housewives and housekeepers have kept a close eye on their budgets and found creative ways to pinch pennies while providing delicious and nutritious food. Create a dish that interprets one historically-documented method of frugal cooking.

The Challenge:

The Frugal Housewife

The Recipe: (where did you find it, link to it if possible)

Actually, it's a recipe that my Mom got from my Aunt Bev way back when (meaning, before I was born!). The picture of the recipe above is from here (you need an open library account to see it). The book is The Time Reader's Book of Recipes: Two Hundred and Thirty Favorite Recipes of the Women who Read Time By Florence Arfmann.

The Date/Year and Region:

Most people call this a Depression Era cake but I found no evidence of that. The earliest I could find was 1947. The book above is from 1949 (republished in 1951). It makes *sense* that I might be a WWII recipe (no eggs, no milk, due to rationing) but I didn't look for it past this book.  Actually, I found something from the BBC that states it is a WWII recipe.

How Did You Make It: (a brief synopsis of the process of creation)

Since this is later that I usually do, I just followed the directions. :-) Although, I cooked it for 40 min rather than 30 - it wasn't done at 30 min.

Time to Complete:

The cake itself was done in under an hour. It takes all of 3 minutes to whip up the ingredients together. The time consuming part is cooking it.

Total Cost:

It was all stuff I had on hand; cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, all purpose flour, olive oil (rather than shortening), vanilla extract, and white vinegar. I think these are pretty common to most household kitchens and part of a regular "supply".

How Successful Was It?: (How did it taste? How did it look? Did it turn out like you thought it would?)

I've made this cake several times and, as always, it was delicious. Everyone who tried it, loved it.

How Accurate Is It?: (fess up to your modifications and make-dos here)

I feel sort of bad about using this one for the HFF because a) it's not 15th/16th Century which I wanted to stick to and b) it really is something I make all the time. Today was my Mom's birthday. I knew my brother was making cheesecake - which I can't have (Dairy) and I was pretty sure Oldest Nephew couldn't have (Eggs). So, instead, I made this. No eggs, no dairy - just a nice vegan chocolate cake that is absolutely delicious. (Oh, and for Oldest Nephew's sake, it also didn't have peanuts ;-) And no corn so *I* would get sick. He gets worried about all the allergies!)

Both myself and Oldest Nephew (he's six) got to have the eggless, dairy free, rich chocolate cake (as did quite a few other people at the party). It tastes like a chocolate cake should and people are always surprised when I tell them it's vegan. I do use a butter flavored olive oil (no real butter in it) to help give the cake a bit of richness.

The icing is a bit on the modern side, I think - it has coconut oil solids rather than butter in it. It was necessary since I really can't have dairy. However, the rest of it is perfectly normal going back to at least the Edwardian era - confectioners sugar (corn free), vanilla extract, almond milk (common replacement for milk going back centuries), cocoa powder, and the coconut oil solids (coconut butter).

Sorry for the bad picture - I only had my android on me when Mom blew out the candles - with Oldest Nephew's help, of course!

Because all the ingredients are items that most people have around the house all the time and keep well, it's been considered a "frugal" choice. Basically, it cost nothing because I use flour for other things, the salt- well, who doesn't have salt?-, the cocoa powder I use for my Hot Chocolate, and the olive oil as well as the vinegar are items I use in other things as well. Actually, I use the olive oil in everything. It's delicious on toast with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. :-)

1920's Outfit!

I've done some 1920's before and I really love the decade.  It might not look the best on everyone, but gosh darn it, it's simple to make!  For a Downton Abbey party, I made an early (I was going for 1923) dress, evening gown, and coat.  Even though it's still pretty decently warm during the day here on the east coast, the temps drop about 10 degrees F the second that sun goes down.  I'm SO very glad I did make the coat.
I got a flat and had to wait, at night, for AAA to arrive.  Since the dress I wore itself was sleeveless, the coat was very, very welcome.

 The coat was inspired by this extant one.  I wanted a cocoon coat but I couldn't figure out exactly how it was made until I saw the extant one.  They are so ridiculously simple.  It's a big rectangle.  You fold over the fabric, sew up the sides to about 4" from the top, cut a line in the dead center of the top layer (ie, don't cut both the front and back), and cut both layers about 4" from the folded edge in that dead center.  That's it. I had some stretch white velvet (that is of a much higher quality than I remembered) in my stash.  I bought the brown feather trim on sale for $1.60 a yard.  The lining only happens to be brown as well (seriously, it was leftover from my brother's cape lining) and is a brown flannel backed stain.  The entire coat, minus the trim, takes 10 minutes.  The trim was hand sewn on and still only took an hour.

 The overgown is a pink orgnaza dupatta that happened to be wide enough for the style I wanted.  Normally, dupattas are only a yard or so wide - this one was a good 45".  I used the borders as the neckline and hem trim.

 The belt is just some silver panne velvet.  I couldn't find anything else that went well with the color scheme.   I'm not happy with the belt but it will do until I find some silver silk I like.  The brooch is vintage, but probably only from the 1950's.  Still, I liked it with the rest of the outfit.

You can't see it well in photos but the underdress is a blue/pink iridescent dupioni silk I've had in the stash for years.  When I saw the dupatta and the silk together, I literally ran into the other room and draped them together to see how they looked.  It was too cool looking!  

I know some ladies at the mansion got a few photos of me wearing the dress.  I'll post them as soon as I find them.  

Historical Sew Fortnightly '14: Yellow!

You need to have the video going while reading the rest. It's such the perfect mood setter for this challenge. :-)

The Challenge:  

Yellow!!!

Fabric:

Some sort of mixed fiber damask for the forepart, plain muslin for the parts that won't be seen beneath the Tudor Gown.

Pattern: 

My own!

Year: 

1520's/1530's

Notions:

Thread, a hook and eye

How historically accurate is it?

Eh. The fabric design is actually *exactly* like a piece of 16th Century fabric I've seen in the MET (I think it was the Met...), however the fibers are a mix of cotton and man made somethings. The entire forepart skirt is machine sewn. However, since all anyone will see is the nice yellow forepart, it's passable but not H/A.

Hours to complete:

2 hours - mostly because I've VERY displeased that Courtney won on Masterchef - which I was watching while I cut this all out.

First worn:

Hopefully, in October when I finish the dress to go with it!

Total cost:

.... I honestly have no idea. The yellow has been in my stash for ages. I've been hoarding it until I feel comfortable enough to attempt this dress:

The dress itself is not accurate but for some reason, I love it. I love the movie, the dress, the acting - it's my favorite early Tudor era set movie. So, I need to make it. I'm starting with the forepart and figured, since the forepart is yellow/gold in color, it will work well for this challenge.


....just ignore that the dress dummy also happens to be wearing an Edwardian corset with a drapped mockup around it. I haven't finished the Edwardian yet and can't take it off the dummy.

More photos when I finish the dress to go with it. (Which will have the same fabric lining the sleeves as the forepart fabric!)