Laurel

THE MOST INSANE THING THAT I HAVE EVER MADE…yet: a study of my 12th Night Houppelande)

Welcome to my world of houppelandes! I love Houps! I could sped my entire SCA career just focused on outwear of the 15th century. In fact, I do!!! Please join me in a study of the origin, construction, and research I embarked on two and half years ago (it feels like six months – Yay, COVID!!!) in creating my 12th night mi-parti fleur de lis Houppelande

Image of medieval beekeepers

No Bees in My Business

As a beekeeper, I have been thinking about making a period bee suit for quite a while. This page describes the start of this journey, beginning with (and inspired by) a surprisingly atypical illustration of beekeepers, and how I began looking into the details of that image, through the current point of creating two appropriate undergarments – a (man’s) camicia and a (woman’s) pair of calzoni femminili.

A woman wearing a yellow, blue, and red mantle and white veil. Background is orange fabric with yellow brocade stripes.

12th Century Adventures in Silk Taffeta

I didn’t make any medieval clothing for most of 2020 since there were no in-person events to wear it to. But that all changed in February 2021, when I spotted an orange silk taffeta with gold brocade stripes in one of my favourite online fabric stores. Herein I tell the tale of the mantle and bliaut that I made from some very colorful silk taffeta.

Rag Dolls: A Small History and Recreation

This project is dolls, specifically “rag” dolls throughout the medieval ages. I was motivated to do this project because I often see children at events playing with modern toys, so I wanted to research the use of toys for medieval children. In this research I recreate a roman rag doll and dress them according to later period portraits.