Back in August, I was invited to join a Historical Disney group: a cosplay of Disney characters at Castle Wars, an SCA event in mid-November. (Yes, this is January. But I never got pictures of us in the outfits until a week ago) The fun part was that the cosplay had to harmoniously fit into the "pre-1600" timeframe of the SCA.
For myself, I was the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland as a 16th century Ottoman woman.
Getting my head wrapped around garment construction done solely with rectangles was harder than I anticipated (Mistress Jadi was instrumental in helping me through three mockups and answering countless questions) but overall, I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt at Ottoman. I am especially pleased with how the tarpus (hat) turned out. It's a buckram frame construction and the pattern actually started out life as a 1880s hat. Since I'd sized up the pattern to fit my head when I made the 1880s hat, the hard part was already done and everything went together smoothly over the course of about a week.
And Ottoman is surprisingly comfortable -especially compared to wrestling Italian skirts at outdoor events -especially with as soggy an autumn as Georgia has had. So there is definitely more Ottoman in my future -but first more research, so I can get as familiar with Ottoman as I am with 16th century Italian. And I might be doing crazy things like trying to talk a rug shop in the UK into buying yardage of authentic Ottoman patterned fabric while they are on their next buying trip in Turkey.... more on that adventure if and when it pans out.
For Jay, the original plan was to do an 16th Century White Rabbit at the Trial in Alice in Wonderland. I had such plans for this. My vision was something along like these lines.
I'd found some lovely ivory cotton brocade and red velveteen and even a 1598 embroidery pattern that had a heart pattern for the trim on the edge of the cloak. But life intervened and late October it became clear that I was just not going to get it started, much less finished for Castle Wars in mid- November. (at that point it was still debatable whether I was going to get my Ottoman outfit done)
So Jay and I agreed that it was out of scope for Castle Wars.
Whew. One thing off the to-do list. Or so I thought. Two weeks before the event, on Saturday morning before I've had a chance to have coffee, Jay springs his new plan on me: he's going to buy T-tunics off the internet and do a Viking Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. I felt a headache right between my eyes begin. Then he showed me the t-tunics he was looking at on etsy. And the headache got worse.
While there is a lot of excellent handmade kit on etsy, what he'd found was.... not. It was embarrassing to have people think I'd done such poor quality work and equally embarrassing to have Jay going around telling people he'd bought t-tunics when everyone knows I sew. And I had black Rus pants that I cut out ages ago but never started construction on and a piece of a lovely mustard colored linen that would be just enough for a t-tunic. So suddenly, there was a set of Viking to be done in 2 weeks. But I knew that I couldn't just knock the garb out and move on... I'd hate seeing him in it if I wasn't happy with how I'd constructed it. So there was much much hand-sewing involved. The good news is that he should be wearing these t-tunics 10 years from now!
Despire the scope creep, both outfits were worn at Castle Wars. I was doing hand work on mine up until about an hour before I actually put it on, but let's not mention that, shall we? Thus ends the saga of Historical Disney..at least for this year. At some point I will get the 16th century White Rabbit done if it kills me, but for next year, we're thinking of doing a 14th century Donald Duck for Jay. *smirk*
For myself, I was the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland as a 16th century Ottoman woman.
from I Turchi. Codex Vindobonensis 8626. 1586-1591.
Getting my head wrapped around garment construction done solely with rectangles was harder than I anticipated (Mistress Jadi was instrumental in helping me through three mockups and answering countless questions) but overall, I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt at Ottoman. I am especially pleased with how the tarpus (hat) turned out. It's a buckram frame construction and the pattern actually started out life as a 1880s hat. Since I'd sized up the pattern to fit my head when I made the 1880s hat, the hard part was already done and everything went together smoothly over the course of about a week.
 |
| from Nicolas de Nicolay's Travels in Turkey |
And Ottoman is surprisingly comfortable -especially compared to wrestling Italian skirts at outdoor events -especially with as soggy an autumn as Georgia has had. So there is definitely more Ottoman in my future -but first more research, so I can get as familiar with Ottoman as I am with 16th century Italian. And I might be doing crazy things like trying to talk a rug shop in the UK into buying yardage of authentic Ottoman patterned fabric while they are on their next buying trip in Turkey.... more on that adventure if and when it pans out.
For Jay, the original plan was to do an 16th Century White Rabbit at the Trial in Alice in Wonderland. I had such plans for this. My vision was something along like these lines.
Santi di Tito -Portrait of a Gentleman
So Jay and I agreed that it was out of scope for Castle Wars.
Whew. One thing off the to-do list. Or so I thought. Two weeks before the event, on Saturday morning before I've had a chance to have coffee, Jay springs his new plan on me: he's going to buy T-tunics off the internet and do a Viking Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. I felt a headache right between my eyes begin. Then he showed me the t-tunics he was looking at on etsy. And the headache got worse.
While there is a lot of excellent handmade kit on etsy, what he'd found was.... not. It was embarrassing to have people think I'd done such poor quality work and equally embarrassing to have Jay going around telling people he'd bought t-tunics when everyone knows I sew. And I had black Rus pants that I cut out ages ago but never started construction on and a piece of a lovely mustard colored linen that would be just enough for a t-tunic. So suddenly, there was a set of Viking to be done in 2 weeks. But I knew that I couldn't just knock the garb out and move on... I'd hate seeing him in it if I wasn't happy with how I'd constructed it. So there was much much hand-sewing involved. The good news is that he should be wearing these t-tunics 10 years from now!
Disney Gaston
Viking Gaston
Despire the scope creep, both outfits were worn at Castle Wars. I was doing hand work on mine up until about an hour before I actually put it on, but let's not mention that, shall we? Thus ends the saga of Historical Disney..at least for this year. At some point I will get the 16th century White Rabbit done if it kills me, but for next year, we're thinking of doing a 14th century Donald Duck for Jay. *smirk*
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