All posts tagged: medieval

Making a medieval inspired belt

I first wore my ca. 1369 medieval dress to a historical banquet, so I felt it needed fancier, glitzier accessories than I will usually wear it with. Enter the silk veil, gold circlet, and embellished gold leather belt: My belt was primarily inspired by the effigy of Katherine, Countess of Warwick. Her narrow belt sits at the hips, fastens at the front with a small buckle, features raised floral motifs, and has no hanging end. The belt I ended up with isn’t historically accurate, but it’s attractive, gives the effect, and was quick, cheap, easy and fun to make! To make my costume take on Katherine’s belt, I started with a cheap belt with an embossed floral pattern: Using an Elmers Painters Metallic pen, I coloured it gold. The TRG the One Colour Dye & Preparer I recommend for my dyeing leather shoes and bags tutorial comes in gold and works even better, but I didn’t have the right shade on hand when I did this belt. I didn’t worry too much about getting my …

A loose ends lucet cord

Published by The Dreamstress

While working on my medieval gown, I struggled with a lacing cord for it. There isn’t much that is suitable in Wellington, and I didn’t really have time to order something in. I used a simple linen cord to hold it the dress together while I was working on it, but it started fraying pretty quickly, and also made the dress look a little too Friar Tuck robe-ish. I researched cord options and came across lucet cords. I read a couple of tutorials (I’m all about reading tutorials, youtube is not my thing) and realised that lucet cord is basically a two-finger yarn lei – and I know how to make yarn leis! Unfortunately along with a dearth of period-appropriate cording in Wellington, I haven’t been able to source a lucet fork in NZ. I started out really make do: with a plastic fork with the middle tines broken out, and linen thread. The resulting cord was beautiful, but the making process was rather unsatisfactory. I was only able to make rate at about 2cm …

Making Medieval cloth buttons

Published by The Dreamstress

When I starting doing research on a medieval gown one of the things I really knew I wanted was buttoned sleeves. But the buttons? Those terrified me. Obviously they were little circles with the raw edges tucked inside, but I was sure making them would be a bit of a nightmare: very fiddly, and impossible to get even and solid. But when I mentioned that I was worried about buttons, Sarah directed me to her tutorial on Som Når Det Begav Sig. It’s in Swedish, but there are photos which make it self explanatory (and Google translate when it isn’t), and links to sources and other tutorials at the bottom. I ended up using a mix of Sarah’s tutorial and The Medieval Tailors tutorial. My buttons don’t look as exquisitely tidy as Sarah’s as I make them, but my fabric is much thicker than the fabric the Medieval tailor is using, and I found that using a strict interpretation of his tutorial only worked if I was making much bigger buttons. And I want really little …