If Kaspar stepped out of a Dürer painting, Brigitte stepped out of Cranach! Here she is in her new spring gown, complete with her split-brim barett hat with all its feathers. (I credit Genoveva for naming it, although I made it before I found her wonderful website on German Renaissance garb. I thank Genoveva for her advice on rolled pleats, which you’ll see on Brigitte’s skirt.

Here she is without the hat, so you can see her snood and her elaborate tie-on sleeves, and her partlet. The partlet (the little “shrug” worn for warmth) appears on many of the wide-necked dresses of the era, usually in either velvet or fur. I pearled the edge and that made the collar stand up nicely.

Here she is with the partlet off, so that you can see all the embroidered trim I did on her bodice and brustfleck (the embroidered piece across her chest). It is counted thread work, with the pattern out of the New Carolingia Modelbook, which is amazing and out of print and almost impossible to get hold of – I copied a couple of pages out of a library. At the event, I heard the herald say something about embroidery downstairs, and I wandered down to see what was going on. It was a meeting of Athena’s Thimble, the needlework guild; they give “competencies” in twelve different forms of embroidery and lacemaking. I was the only man in the room. I mentioned my latest needlework project and pointed to Brigitte, who generously modeled her dress. The next thing I knew, I was being handed paperwork (“What am I filling out here?”) and given two competencies, for counted threadwork and for metal threadwork. Wow.

Here she is from the side, so you can see her snood (which I pearled during two airplane flights – did I mention that I often travel for work?) and how her sleeves tie on. The brocade of her dress is not perfectly period, but it’s pretty darn good – it very much resembles the flowers on tapestries of the time. It was also three bucks a yard at the discount bin. We don’t have a lot of money (like at all!) and I use a lot of scrap and discount fabric, getting as close to period as I can. That’s one of the reasons I like German Renaissance – you can put those slashes and puffs together out of cut-up scrap.

Next: Our Revolutionary War personas and clothing!