Under the weather or just feeling Flemish?

In honor of my 3rd year in attendance at the Janesville Renaissance Fair, I made myself a new outfit. Big surprise right.

This is 16th century Flemish based entirely on Reconstructing History's pattern 209 (Netherlandish Common woman), which I bought because I like the little jacket, then didn't get to making said jacket! Oh well. I also spent a lot of time looking at Aertsen & Bruegel paintings to make sure I got the details right, especially since I went into this not knowing a darned thing about 16th century Flemish clothing and only had a week to work.


I'm wearing (from inside out), a linen/cotton blend smock, my 18th century stockings, one of my 18th century linen petticoats (the red one), a brown linen stomacher; lined & interlined with linen, a dark green wool kirtle, blue wool sleeves, white linen partlet, black wool partlet, yellow linen square ticked into a lace at my waist as an apron, white linen coif & my 18th century flat crowned straw hat. I wore my wooden shoes for the event and boy did people notice. I also learned that the wooden shoes while great on dirt & in the mud are terrible walking around in the Walmart!




The kirtle laces up the center front with a thin cotton lacing cord. On either side of the opening I slipped in 2 pieces of half round reed for support (of the bust more than anything!) I just poked the lacing through the material since I didn't think that rings on either side would take the strain that I was putting it under to hold my shape with no other support. The linen stomacher pinned in the center front & that helped a lot too. But look at that profile! I'm still amazed that with no bra my bust still managed to be high & round. Who says dressing historical isn't sex.

I got the kirtle wool from Hancock fabrics & it is the most beautiful forest green soft material ever! The black wool for the partlet was actually found in my local JoAnn's clearance section under spring suitings, as was the linen/cotton blend used for the smock.

The back without partlets on. I could have set the straps a bit wider on the shoulders but I tend to have trouble with things falling off the edges when I do & I didn't want to risk any slipping. The most interesting thing is that the entire bodice is constructed from 1 rectangle of fabric! This is what it looks like without the straps attached to the back yet and an in progress picture. As it turned out the entire kirtle is hand sewn. The bodice construction meant that hand sewing was easiest so I figured, why not, and attached the skirt by hand as well. I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up but then remembered that L's blue gown is hand sewn & held up fine so why was I to worry. I certainly don't "wear" my clothing as hard as a 7 year old does.


The fair was fun as usual, although too short! I got to see friends that I only see once a year, drank more root beer than a normal person should, saw 3 watermelons get shot to bits & enjoyed authentic 16th century gingerbread. Luckily I should get to wear this outfit again when we go to the bigger statewide renaissance fair in July. Hopefully by then I will have gotten around to making the jacket!

Thanks for looking! Now back to my regularly scheduled 18th century work.

Bloody Lake Recap

Just a few photos to share & a quick recap of last weekends event, The Bloody Lake Rendezvous. All photos are thanks to Karen Garland of Brigands Folie

To start, my darling daughter L, the camp urchin.

Here she's covered in mud after jumping into an ankle deep puddle. She's wearing a typical back lacing child's gown, hand sewn from blue wool, lined with blue linen. The material is from her mantua, which no longer fit either in size or time period. She is also wearing a linen shift, apron and petticoat. Underneith she's wearing her hand sewn wool petticoat, considering how cold it was most of the weekend I don't think she took it off for more than a moment. Her cap & neckerchief had disappeared for the thousandth by the time this photo was taken. The necklace is a trade silver owl that she picked out at the Midwest Rendezvous last summer. It's her favorite piece of period "bling". She seems rather cheerful for a wet & cold child with no shoes doesn't she!

Later in the weekend the weather warmed up quite nicely, resulting in this dirty & devious look. This is the same dirty striped linen gown as she wore last year at the Pike River Rendezvous. I added new, longer sleeves and patched one of the larger rips with a scrap of hand dyed yellow linen. It is her favorite gown to wear because she can get as dirty as she wants without harming the gown. As you can tell, she takes her getting dirty very seriously. Oh look, we found her cap again & this time it's managed to stay on for more than a few minutes. I can't account for the particularly "pirate" expression on her face. She looks to be plotting something particularly sneaky though.

Finally a few shots of me.

Here I'm wearing my 1770's wool polonaise gown, the same gown that I wore to the ONW/Colonial ball in November. It's since been shortened to a reasonable camp follower length & its proving to be quite nice in the cool weather.


I've accessorized with several layers in order to offset the brisk weather. First I'm wearing my cuffed linen shift, 2 neckerchiefs; an under layer of silk with an over layer of linen. I'm wearing no less than 3 petticoats, 2 linen & 1 wool flannel. Filthy apron, wool stockings, buckled shoes & my favorite pleated cap complete the outfit. This is obviously mid afternoon, as the sun had beaten out the passing rain clouds. The haversack on my shoulder, while not documentable for a woman, is the perfect storage location for the various newspapers & magazines available for reading at Black's Coffeehouse. Be sure to stop by at the sign of the Janus Face for all the most recent news from London and around the colonies.

Earlier that same morning I was busy making breakfast & staying warm near the fire. Sure waking up at dawn to get the fire going is tough, but the benefit of staying warm no matter the weather is well worth the early wake-up call. Here I've got on a few extra layers. My green fingerless mitts; one on, the other tucked in my apron waistband, a heavy fulled wool mitt that I use as a pot holder and my linen coif draped around my neck rather than over my head where it belongs. Breakfast consisted of bacon, mushroom sausage, bread, cheese and butter & plenty of strong black coffee. I fell in love with the trivet & enjoyed practicing hearth cooking techniques all weekend. I'm rather proud too, as that fire was started in the rain, with nothing but period materials & survived though everything that the early May weather could throw at it.

To make an Onion-pie

To Make an Onion-pie

WASH and pare some potatoes, and cut them in slices, peel some onions, cut them in slices, pare some apples and slice them, make a good crust, cover your dish, lay a quarter of a pound of butter all over, take a quarter of an ounce of mace beat fine, a nutmeg grated, a tea-spoonful of beaten pepper three tea-spoonfuls of salt; mix all together, strew some over the butter, lay a layer of potatoes, a layer of onion, a layer of apples, and a layer of eggs, and so on till you have filled your pie, strewing a little of the seasoning between each layer, and a quarter of a pound of butter in bits, and six spoonfuls of water. Close your pie, and bake it an hour and a half. A pound of potatoes, a pound of onions, a pound of apples, an twelve eggs will do.

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy Which Far Exceeds Any Thing of the Kind yet Published by Mrs. Hannah Glasse, 1774 edition. Page 224

The preceding recipt has quickly become a camp favorite. Despite the name the pie has no over powering onion flavor, favoring instead the apple & potato end of the spectrum. With a particularly buttery crust and a side of ale, this pie makes a nice starter to a full 18th century meal or a light evening repast when served at temperature.