Mind the Gap

or how I spent a year doing what I love, while doing something completely different.

In 2015, I experienced the dreaded "B" word of reenacting: burnout. As any reenactor knows, it's easy to dedicate a lot of time, effort & research into this hobby. But after nearly 9 years of focusing on the 18th century & the coffeehouse, things began to change. My demonstration had grown to the point of needing staff. The equipment required renting larger, and larger vehicles. The time required to travel to events & set everything up started to interfere with my modern life. In short, reenacting became less of a fun hobby and more of an unpaid job. Soon enough, I simply stopped having fun.

And I crave that fun! But what is an obsessed arm-chair historian to do when they still love their hobby, but hate their hobby at the same time?

Simple: branch out. History is a huge subject, reenacting not limited to one or two "important" time period or type of impression. Reenacting is an all encompassing variety of niche skills to explore. And in 2015, explore I did.

1st century

I started early in the year with an amazing immersion event in Lafe, Arkansas; Clash of Iron. I have done exactly one Roman event in my tenure of reenacting, but nothing that involved eating, sleeping & breathing the Iron Age. I had also never been to Arkansas. When I heard about the site I simply had to attend. This wasn't just your average line-up of white tents. The event is held on a privately owned, reconstructed Roman fort. There is even a mote! We cooked Roman recipes, practiced Roman martial skills, had a mini-Olympic competition & even ran into some Celts. It was as close to live in the 1st Century as possible without being struck by one of Zeus' lightening bolts.

16th Century

In 2015 I was elected the leader of The Banner of St. Michael, a living history group dedicated to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1560-1660. I have been a member of the group for several years already but this new position means even more dedication to research, learning & sharing with the public. We spend equal time participating in living history events around the country and delivering school presentations. It's only been a few months, but I am already excited with the new energy of the group and some of the great things we have planned for the 2016 season.

Civil War

Remember when I said I would never do 2 very specific time periods? Well 2015 saw me eat those words. It started simply enough. My home town was celebrating their 150th anniversary. It also happened to be the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's assassination. I quickly made an outfit, borrowed a few basic pieces from my already over flowing reenacting closet and was off & running. What was originally only going to be those 2 once in a life-time events, turned into 4 by the end of the year. As it happens, reenacting the civil war is pretty much like all other reenacting. Especially when the 3 other people in your camp group are friends from other eras!

World War I

If reenacting the Civil War is just like all other reenacting, then WWI at Midway Village is like WWII deja vous. So many of the same people from WWII, in the same location, many of us even representing the same nationalities. It is less like doing another time period than I imagined. A weekend spent with already established friends, while still doing something new, was just the cure my burnout needed. While I am still convinced that the 1910's is one of the 3 ugliest time periods for women's clothing (the other's being 1830's & 1970's), I did enjoy spending time in the kitchen or tromping around in the recreated trenches with the men.

World War II

I wrapped up the year with WWII, which isn't a new era of reenacting for me. In fact, it was the first era that really started my interest in historic clothing & history. Way back in 1997! But like I said, reenacting involves many facets beyond just dressing up or lecturing bored school kids. In 2015 I was thrilled to join the amazing cast & crew of the TV movie Verrater for my first film acting experience. And what an amazing experience it was. I can't say enough about how truly dedicated to getting the details of 1940's Germany historically accurate the production team was. Many of my fellow reenactors have participated in filming projects before, but for someone who has only ever been on stage or behind the camera there was surprisingly little learning curve. I credit the years of living history, having to maintain a character & accent while following the random topics of natural conversation & having to repeat the same lecture to endless rounds of school groups, for the ease that I felt on set. I look forward to more interesting "out-side the box" experiences like this in the future.

Looking forward to the 2016 reenacting schedule as well as my 10th anniversary on this blog & in the hobby, I can confidently say that a Gap Year was exactly what I needed to revive my love for reenacting. Here is to seeing many of you in EVERY ERA!

When In Rome

Yesterday was the 2000th Anniversary of the Roman festival of Cerealia. The college had a roman festival to commemorate the event & their restoration of the 100 year old plaster casts of roman statues at the art museum. The day ended with a "toga party". Of course, I couldn't attend a toga party in just any old bed sheet!

I'm not 100% happy. Mostly the material was too heavy & not falling in "dead folds" like it should & I had trouble keeping the palla wrapped the way I wanted it, but it worked well enough for an evening.



I'm wearing a linen under tunic (not visible), a blue linen gap necked tunica (with only 1/2 the sleeves fixed because I was short on time) and a yellow linen palla. I'm also wearing a belt that wrapped around the waist, formed an X in the back & acted as straps on my shoulders. Sadly, I didn't think until this morning that we didn't get a picture of the back. I wore sandals & a chunky stone necklace. I tied by hair back in a dread version of the 1940's "donut roll" which looks really similar to the hair styles on some Roman statues.

It was a fun day. Lots of interesting art to see, a few interesting presentations (& one that was terribly disappointing). It would have been even better if the weather had cooperated, 35* and raining was not the ideal time for a Roman event. I really have no idea how the Romans took Britain. I would have taken one look at the weather & said "NO thanks!"

Bootleggers & Bathtub Gin

J& I popped out for Prohibition Night yesterday, which in my historically obsessed brain translates to "new clothes!".

My circa 1927 dress, inspired by a sketch in Nora Waugh's Cut of Women's Clothes (p. 290) Made from Potting Soil & Turquoise colored jersey knit. The belt is lined with heavy duty interfacing to remove the knit stretch. I made the scarf separately & blind stitched it to the already faced neckline. It was the fastest, easiest solution I could come up with. Took about a day to make, machine sewing is such a nice change!


Underneath I'm wearing a really quick slip made from a few rectangles of silky fabric from stash & some bias tape for the straps. I whipped it up about 30 minutes before getting dressed. It's just enough to keep the knit from getting too clingy. No, I'm not showing it! I also wore a sports bra & control underwear to slim my shape to the right 20's silhouette. Call it the modern version of a girdle.


The hat is from a resized children's pattern. Made from uncut corduroy in the same shade of Potting Soil that I just happened to have (I have grand plans to use it to make slipcovers for my living room chairs). It's lined in the left over turquoise knit, interfaced again to remove stretch & provide a little stiffness. The flower is just some scraps to give the hat a little punch.

Unfortunately Prohibition Night at our local bar was a flop. We'll have to go to the gatherings in the next city over to be around a big crowd. Although the band did play one of their 20's sets for us & we made some new friends. Plus, I won't complain about a night out in period clothes