Well folks, it's over.  Almost 18 months of planning, procuring, sewing, learning new skills, etc.  resulted in one very fun afternoon.  I just wish I had been more awake to enjoy it.



Yeah, I look like ass crap over there on the right, but I hadn't really paid that much attention to my outfit, and after lending out my brown one to the lovely Lynn, our tour guide on the left, it was this or the Camo.  Which really wasn't Very Period Appropriate.  Also?  Our Elizabeth I is missing, but more on that later.

This whole thing started roughly 1 1/2-2 years ago when The Cheap Chick and I were discussing future events for the Wench Posse. 

Ok, I need to back up.  About 2.5 years ago I left my co-owned business and ventured out on my own.  I also wound up going to the Ren Fest in costume for the 3rd year,  but this time with a group of 9 people.  Many of whom did not know how to sew.  And I sewed belly dancing costumes, and merchant costumes, and Italian costumes, and a LOTR costume and finally said out loud the night before the Fest as I sewed till 3am, "THIS IS IT.  I am NOT sewing 9 different costumes next year!  Next year we are all going to be wenches!  Everyone will get a bodice, skirt and chemise, and you will LIKE it."  (It was 3am, so I apologize for the testiness of my tone.) 

 Year 3 - still refining our skills and learning about what is appropriate. 

Year 4 - Mostly Wenches.  Yeah, I'm wearing glasses (didn't have contacts yet) and we have a belly dancer and an Italian type person with us and I am missing my corset, but whatever...  It was better than Year 3...

And thus the Wench Posse was born.  We had a great time as Wenches, and the Chick and I sat down to go over other possible themes.  I had seen some beautiful portrait recreations by Jen Thompson and others on her site "Festive Attyre" and thought that would be fun.  Since there were so many WP members, I knew we would have to do something big.  And the largest amount of women in one grouping I could think of was the Six Wives of Henry VIII. 

There was a small problem.  We had no men in the Posse.  Luckily the lovely Gay Blade offered to play our Henry and we were set.  After a brief fight over Anne Boleyn (everyone wanted to be Anne Boleyn, sigh...) I discovered that we didn't have enough Queens to cover everyone.  So we added Henry's daughters, and Lady Jane Grey.  Which made us Tudor AND Elizabethan, but whatever.  And on top of that we needed ladies-in-waiting, so that was 3 more costumes right there.....  All of which didn't seem quite so daunting until it got down to crunch time.

I put together a large 3-ring binder with a large Tudor Rose on the cover and the words "Project Tudor" on it.  And I started to try to find the right fabrics, jewelry, etc.

Early on I knew that there was not going to be a huge budget for this, so we were going to have to do the best recreation possible within a limited amount of funds.  Luckily I had Margo Anderson's Elizabethan patterns which are WONDERFUL, and that helped with Elizabeth and to some extent, Queen Mary.  Margo was also coming out with some Tudor patterns, and that was my original plan for patterning.  But her patterns were delayed (but out now and apparently delicious!) and I turned to Simplicity and their pattern after deciding that I would rather buy patterns for $1.00 each at Joann's and alter and cut them accordingly than draft up 6 different sizes from The Tudor Tailor.  Especially since we were going for portrait image and NOT historical authenticity.

We started this past January-February with a bloomer party.  (I know they didn't call them bloomers, but if you are wearing drawers with large Strawberry Shortcakes on them, I think this term is acceptable.)  I got everyone's measurements and the Chick and I started in on corsets, using the Elizabethan Corset Generator.  (Basically a good product, but with some glitches - that will have to be another post.)



Then we moved onto square necked shifts and got those done right away.  Sadly we discovered sometime later, (like 4 weeks before Go Day) that they had all been made from fabric that had problems with the thread and you could literally STICK YOUR FINGER RIGHT THROUGH THE FABRIC.  Which is good for bodice ripping romances, but not so much for things you want to last. 

  New farthingales from Margo's pattern, prior to hoop adjustment.  Rock sign is optional.

An example of what the bad evil fabric looks like:
 And just how easy it is to rip apart once you discover that it CAN.

So we had to scramble to create new shifts with less fabric, and decided on a different pattern for them, which resulted in a better fit that actually stayed up on our shoulders.  (We modified the heck out of that pattern....)

In the meantime my lovely daughter and I had gotten all of the jewelry findings and spent several evenings just gluing cabuchons to settings.  I went with black onyx and red jasper for the stones, as it wasn't any more expensive to purchase, and it looked nicer than plastic, obviously.  I did have to go the acrylic route for some of the faceted stones, but they were not as many, and it looked pretty good when finished.



I made the command decision not to use clay and try to remold the settings, as there were just too many.  I went with the closest thing I could find on Fire Mountain, and I am happy with it.  I also know where my limitations are, and I sent the UTIS/HIS brooches from Jane Seymour and Lady Jane Grey (they are wearing the same jewelry in their pictures because Henry was nothing if not thrifty in recycling jewelry between wives, being "The Queen's Jewels" rather than belonging to one person) off to the lovely MamaRox of Sassy Art Goddess Blog fame.  She used gold metal findings for the backs, and carved the letters and other pieces out of clay to perfectly match the brooch.  She does indeed rock.

The girdles for both Janes also got worked on by others, and the lovely Princess and Marti Potter put together the other jewelry pieces.  I discovered a really fantastic gold metal spray paint at Joann's that works exceptionally well for this sort of thing, and probably lost some brain cells from inhaling too much Dazzle-Tac and Jewel-it. 

I had bolts of fabric lying about my office and in large plastic bins as I would find something that would work for a particular outfit, and toss it in there till needed.  I had a heck of a time finding a gold braid that would work for Henry's large red velvet gown/coat until Michael's came out with their Christmas ribbon.  There was a roll that was pretty close to what I needed and it saved me from more searching. 

The closet was getting rather full...


I was pretty concerned about Henry's pattern, as our Henry is 6'7 with a 52 inch chest.  I wound up going with the Period Patterns pattern that matched the portrait dead on, and the instructions were surprisingly easy compared to the previous ones I have used from them.  I was able to draft it up for the GB and it looked amazing.  It and Anne of Cleves are the outfits I am most happy with, and the closest recreations, I think.  (Except maybe Jane Seymour.) 

I was fortunate to attend a class on German costuming at Costume College which helped TREMENDOUSLY in understanding how a German costume was made.  Being the class model and getting to keep my muslin was also a big help.  I decided to follow Anne's portrait more than the Madame Tussaud recreation, as the portrait was orange, and the recreation was cream?  Very strange.  I couldn't find a fabric to match to save my life, and then walked into Joann's one day and there was an embroidered orange linen right inside the door.  The embroidery isn't an exact match, but it is close enough to work. 

I joined a German costuming listserv and the excellent folks there sent me to the SCA for Anne's hat.  I got excellent advice on Margo's listserv from multiple folks on Elizabethan costuming, etc.  Special thanks to Margo, Kimiko and Bess Chilver for their invaluable information on hats, shifts, padded pleats, etc. 

But by far the best resource for me was Naergi's Costuming Site:  http://www.naergilien.info/research/Exhibits/sixwives/index.htm.  She had gone to Madame Tussaud's and taken some truly great pictures of the recreations of the portraits I was attempting to recreate.  There is NO WAY I could have done Anne of Cleves without her. 

I started with a spreadsheet and a timeline and along the way things happened.  I had a heart procedure in January which kind of knocked me flat for a few months, but from which I am completely recovered.  Our dog died in June, and our new puppy was found to have a portosystemic liver shunt which is requiring some very expensive surgery in November to enable her to live longer than a year.  Her name is Layla (a la Clapton) and proceeds from the sale of the gowns are going directly to her surgery at the University of MN Vet Hospital.  In case you need a cute visual, here is one:

 She didn't care much for her bath.

I also decided to go to Costume College, figuring that I would learn a lot there, and I did.  And I took trips to New Ulm, Duluth (twice) and Bristol for Ren Fests and vacations.  All of which is time away from the sewing machine. 

So when September rolled around, I found myself with all of the jewelry done, the corsets, shifts, partletts, and farthingales done, and pretty much everything cut out.  (Thanks to the Chick, who cut out literally almost everything.  GOD BLESS HER.)  And it turned into a frenzy of sewing for 4 straight weeks.

The last week was insanity.  Because we had told everyone we were doing this, and consequently there was no backing out, no "Let's do it next year and give ourselves some more time."  Because we were committed.  And every night last week I had no less than 5 people in my sewing room, hand-stitching, ironing, hand-beading (MamaRox) etc.  My Mom, Stepmother, Sister and Aunt all came over to help.  Every member of the Posse was here, multiple days.  It was a baptism by fire for some of them.  We finally broke the Chick on Friday night when she found she was too tired to thread a needle anymore, and went home to well-deserved sleep.  The GB and I were up late Friday night finishing handstitching (him) and front plackets (me). 

The three ladies-in-waiting, my 14 year old, her best friend and the daughter of a friend (now the "Jr. Wench Posse") did not get completed plackets on their dresses.  But oh well.  Something had to give. 

The gable hoods were made the last day and I was not happy with the Tudor Tailor pattern for them.  The French hood pattern was much better, in my opinion. 

I pulled an all-nighter to make sure things were going to happen, and when people started showing up at 8am, there was only a little work left to do - attaching the plackets to one side, finishing some sleeves for the LIW, sewing veils on hats.  We were done with sewing by 10am and dressed to leave by 12:15.  The Chick had made me some skirts at the last minute so I would not be naked, and bolstered up by a LOT of chocolate, we set out for Fest. 

Turns out we were our own parade.  Our Henry met their Henry.

  Our Henry wins! 

And my parents and the parents of others were there as paparazzi.  We even had ladies from our local Joann's who had taken the day off to come out and see the results of all of my purchases all year long.

We cheered for England at the Royal Navy Experience, and had family portraits taken.




Our ladies in waiting were pretty darned cute:



Some people took their roles a little too seriously:


Some people almost ran off with pirates:



And some people were so tired they didn't really know how to dress themselves, and used the power of chocolate to sustain themselves:



And yet others learned how to say things like "I didn't want to marry you anyway," and "You are a gross fat pig" and "Mein Konig, why doest thou not love me?" in German:





Our Henry grew a beard, our Queen Mary got contacts, Anne Boleyn got in a car accident the day before and STILL made the drive from WI, and so many others committed themselves to this project in ways I never would have dreamed.  And everyone had fun during the last minute sewing, and the craziness and the day itself.  And special thanks to the Strand Sisters, who were our Portrait artist (photographer) and Tour Guide ("And Queens, we are walking, and we are stopping.") for the day and who helped out in so many additional ways to make this all possible.

And now, the outfits, side by side with their portraits:



Henry VIII - complete with Royal Garter, but no dagger - there was no way to peace-tie it.  The sleeves and coat are bigger, but they seem to be tucked behind him in this picture...



Catherine of Aragon - Note she has her monkey.  Also - we had to make ermine out of white fur and yarn - they don't sell faux ermine ANYWHERE. 



Anne Boleyn - (Note Henry peeking in the background).  I went by the Madame Tussaud's for the foresleeves and underskirt panel colors.



Jane Seymour - There were several pictures of her, and I went with the orange/brocade underskirt and foresleeves from another portrait.  Instead of couching gold thread over the dress, I found an alternative embroidered fabric.  And like I said, the Tudor Tailor gable hood pattern?  Not my favorite.  The Amazing Pam and our own Cat of Aragon digitized Jane Seymour's actual cuff blackwork pattern and stitched it out via machine for us.  SO cool.



Anne of Cleves - Big thanks to our Marti Potter for her quick sewing skills on those beaded bands at the neckline.  Also?  That hat is made of buckram and shoulder pads.  Maybe less veil next time... A special thanks to Porkchop and the ladies for getting that suede belt done and to us in record time.



Kathryn Howard - The beading at the neckline turned out beautifully.  The girdle is based on Madame Tussaud's, although I couldn't find a similar diamond shaped end bead anywhere.  We went with a drapery finial. 



Katherine Parr - I found the ribbon on eBay.  We sewed it on, then added the gold beaded trim, then the GB put in 100's of tiny antique brass rivets to simulate the knots/buttons.  The black hat is missing the gold beads (to be added soon) and the white hat is faux - it is a headband tied in the back, edged in pearls, to give the illusion of a coif.  A last minute decision made by MamaRox that looks pretty good.  Comfort gown and poufy sleeves pattern from Margo Anderson Patterns.



Queen Mary Tudor - It is hard to see the jewels on our French Hood in this picture, but they are there.  I went with Taffeta because it was a nice change of pace from all the velvet.  I also based this outfit off of several of Mary's portraits, so it is a bit of a mix.  I put guards on her skirts because I knew it was going to be muddy at MNRF.  I also had a heck of a time finding a large enough pearl drop for "La Peregrina."  I finally bought a pair of earrings on eBay and scavenged the pearls from them.



Lady Jane Grey - I was exceptionally pleased with this fabric.  The pattern is so similar, and it is a lovely color.  Since the portrait (which may actually be of Katherine Parr) was in black and white I got to pick the color, and that was great fun.  Since this was one of the last outfits completed, something had to go, and it was the beading along the neckline that went.  The line-up of the placket and the backseam and knife pleats turned out particularly well.



Queen Elizabeth I, the Sieve Portrait - Did not get completed.  The dress itself is done, but needs the beading down the front.  The sleeves are cut, and waiting to be trimmed.  The jewelry is all complete, the veil was done by Marti Potter, and the partlett is done.  Various options for ruffs have been tried.  Unfortunately Ms. Potter came down with H1N1 and was not able to join us.  We missed her terribly and look forward to seeing her as Elizabeth at the Midwinter Feast.

All in all, a huge undertaking.  I am very glad I did this.  There were parts that were great fun, I met many new wonderful people, I learned so many new skills (not to mention tons on Tudor history) and really brought my sewing skills up several notches.  But I am also glad it is over.  I have lots of empty space in my sewing room, I have more free time now, and it isn't weighing on me anymore.  There were honestly many times I would have stopped, but the investment of time, money and the promises to others kept me going. 

The biggest hugest thank you to the Cheap Chick, who wasn't just a part of this, she was my partner in this.  This project would not have happened without her dedication, mad corset making skills and willingness to procure Junior Mints and Dairy Queen at all hours.  No one could ask for a more devoted friend.

 I don't know why I am squatting - remember, I hadn't slept in 2 days....

If you want the Chick's (shorter) version of events with more pictures, check here:  http://www.thecheapchick.com/2009/10/that-which-doesn%e2%80%99t-kill-you%e2%80%a6/

I might write more info on how we did certain things, like making the ermine fur, or MamaRox's fabulous conversion of size 14 thrift-store shoes into King Henry shoes if anyone is interested. 

In the meantime, if you are interested in buying a Tudor gown, all of the gowns above are for sale at this link:  http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6387988  Maybe you need a gown for a party.  Maybe you want to look like a portrait.  Maybe you just want to spend a ton of money to look at how I do my seams.  Either way, Buy a Tudor Gown and Save a Puppy. 

And now?  I am going to go look at Steampunk stuff and start planning for Italian Courtesan Year for 2010 for the Wench Posse.  Woot!