Our family is also in the Hubbardston Militia, a Revolutionary War reenactment group. Reenactment groups have a higher standard of authenticity than recreation groups like the SCA or commercial practically-fantasy groups like Renfairs. Like Renfairs, they are for the public, not each others’ entertainment. For these costumes, I ordered patterns actually based on extant historical clothing. You can’t see it here, but the pants are incredibly complicated, with 11 buttons and various flaps and hidden pockets. It took me until the fourth pair to get the hang of them.

My first set of colonial men’s clothing was for my wife Bella, who cross-dresses for the militia so that she can shoot black powder guns. (I’m going to make her female garb as well, so that she can either choose to play my wife or my brother-in-law.) I don’t have a photo of her in her garb yet, but it’s coming. She’s an ensign with the militia (or is she a lieutenant now? Can’t remember…). The boys are too scared of guns to be militiamen, and I’m too crippled to march, so I’m the company doctor, Joshua is my apprentice and Brandon is my indentured servant. When I get my medical kit posted, I’ll be putting up pictures of that as well.

Anyway, this was a militia meeting with a small luncheon feast – Major Scott, his wife, and our family combined on the period food. (That’s Major Scott in the blue vest at the top; I believe that his wife did his garb, although he is commissioning a frock coat from me.) I gave a class on men’s clothing of the time. (When I have enough women costumed to do one, I’ll have a class on women’s clothing.) Here’s Joshua getting the food ready. The boys served it to the table in the “officers’ quarters”, where the Major, the doctor (me), and the nurses ate lunch. Everyone else fended for themselves outside on the porch or around the fire.

Next: the outfits themselves.(But lastly, here’s Joshua serving the food.)

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!

Kaspar in his blue coat and tunic, and his fashionable-for-a-peasant floppy hat! From my research and staring at paintings, it does seem that the lowest peasant classes at this time were wearing a much older and simpler form of clothing than the people with money. For his coat and tunic, I used the information I found in an article on early 16thc German peasant clothing. I also looked at paintings by Peter Brueghel, Dürer (one of my all-time favorite artists), and others. Kaspar is very religious and we’re thinking of decorating his hat with pilgrimage medals. We also want to make him a period crutch. The Canadian crutches he uses occasionally are too modern. I’m also thinking of making him livery with our household badge.

Here is Rodrigo fresh from the fencing match. I didn’t make his doublet, but I did make his pants, complete with his first codpiece. And he promptly took a rapier right through the gold satin, requiring repairs. Sigh.

I will post separate pictures of us in our garb, especially Brigitte whose dress is very elaborate. First, there’s me. (Yes, the sword is from Somewhere East Of Here. I took it off of a Turk, who didn’t need it any more, being dead.) I happen to like autumn colors very much. The picture doesn’t show it well, but the arms and legs each have different patterns of slashes. The yellow trim is a form of traditional German ruching; the pattern is called Ear of Wheat, which is why I liked it. I actually don’t know if it’s period to the 16^th century and haven’t been able to research that, but I added it anyway. I made this garb about two decades ago, actually, when I was a lot less interested in authenticity.

Then there’s Joschka, in his “good clothes”. Brigitte took the pictures and insisted on facing everyone into the sun, so we’re all squinting. Joschka likes green and brown (and his Rev War persona, my apprentice Joshua, wears the same colors). The sleeves detach from the doublet, as did many people’s sleeves in the day.

I was out of the SCA for many years due to a job where I work most weekends (sigh), and even now I can only make time for the occasional event. (I love my jobs. They just conflict with my ability to dress up in insanely detailed outfits and hang with other like-minded nerds.) However, last weekend my daughter and her betrothed dragged me to an event, and I made outfits for everyone. Pictures were taken, and here they are. I’ll be referring to everyone by their SCA name and history; our mundane selves are not for this blog.

This photo is of the members of our family who made it to Carolingia’s Baronial Investiture. That’s me on the left in all the slashes and puffs, flanked by my two servants. Joschka Kozic (pronounced “Yosh-ka” – he’s half Bohemian), in the green-and-brown snazzy outfit, is my doughty manservant, va(r)let, batman, and majordomo of my household. He’s been with me for two decades, throughout my former Landsknecht career. Kaspar Meerschweinchen, my footman and serving-boy (the tall one who looks like a Dürer figure), was a crippled, starving orphaned boy we picked up during a campaign whose village and family had been destroyed. (Well, all right, by us. But still.) He’s been with us ever since as a faithful servant. To the right is my lovely daughter Brigitte and her betrothed, Rodrigo Medina de la Mar, the youngest son of a Spanish trading family living in Venice. Their betrothal is the culmination of a trade agreement between our families. He fences, and she’s actually much more enthusiastic about him than she looks in this picture. My lovely and unique wife Bella the Mad could not be with us this weekend due to other commitments, but I hope to have pictures of her soon.