OLD Renaissance patterns

7/20/2015

While preparing my booth at the American Sewing Guild conference I was reminded of all the Renaissance costume patterns I made back in the RenFair hey day. I think Renaissance Fairs are still really popular. But now there is so much ready to wear RenFair stuff available, not as many people are sewing for themselves.

This was the board I made for my booth, but there were SO MANY MORE. Below are all the ones I could find one line. I don't own many of these at all.

This is the one that got it all started.

This is the one that broke sales records.

And then below are all the ones I kept making and making. Some more successful than others.

This one was supposed to be super easy and quick to sew.

This was my first foray into an attempt at authenticity. So So ....

From the movie Ever After. It sold so well, I made it up in new fabrics a few years later and they raised the price.

For girls and babies!

The short lived King Henry. It was pulled because the model was an actor and his agent demanded royalties every time the photo was published.

For men ... and I got to sew the second one up in better fabrics for an extra photo in the catalog.

Can't believe I did all this ... good memories.

10 Comments

Jaki

7/20/2015 05:46:38 am

Fabulous! :)

Leslie

7/20/2015 10:15:01 am

It seems the Henry Tudor pattern could be redone with a new model or with line art with no specific likeness. I hear requests for that one still.

Ayan

7/21/2015 12:40:22 am

Eeeeeee, baby King Henry!! I never saw that pattern! I remember being so grateful when the "more authentic" lines started coming out because at the time I was struggling with a first-generation Past Pattern design with obscure instructions.

In other news, 5574 Guy looks like Jon Snow. Hubba hubba...I mean, nice doublet. ;-)

Gwenyver link

7/21/2015 10:35:41 am

I think a good third of these are in my pattern collection, but the only one I have used is the irish dress.

Crystal link

7/26/2015 03:15:52 pm

I was digging through my pattern box today and came across one that makes me smile. I received it as a gift in about 1995 and made up the dress and happily wore it to many an SCA event (even though it had a mismatched zipper and was before I learned about pattern ease so had to take it in 4"). I no longer have the pattern except for the cloak pieces and the French instruction pages. I have no idea how long ago those two got separated or why I still have them. Anyway, it was Simplicity 9229 and it appears to predate nearly everything listed above, but it has your lovely logo on the pattern envelope :) Like others, I have many of your patterns but for some reason have only ever made that one dress. I should get around to fixing that oversight ;) I love reading your blog!

Maureen

8/3/2015 11:28:38 pm

I used 3809 (to the right of the ladies in tartans) last year when I needed a chemise for my "Yeomen of the Guard" costume. (The chemise that came with it was a VERY shiny fabric.). I didn't gather the sleeves, but I did place some open trim where the elastic would go, in case the costumer OK'ed threading colored trim through it.

Stephen

8/14/2015 02:20:20 am

I have pattern 5582 DD. I would like to make the C blouse fro my daughter but the size 6 is larger than her measurements due to having ease added. Is there a simple way to adjust the pattern to obtain the measurements listed on the package for size 6? Thank you for the help

Andrea

8/14/2015 04:50:12 am

You might be able to take in the side seams. OR you could pleat the tissue pattern. So, for example if you wanted to reduce the pattern by 2 inches. Pleat out 1/2 inch in the middle of the front pattern and a 1/2 inches in the middle of the back pattern. That would make 4 half inches equalling 2 inches. You might want to make a trial in some muslin or old sheet, etc. Just sew up the main seams, no need to finish the edges.

Dorothy

5/9/2019 11:00:32 pm

Hi Andrea. I just saw your sleeve adjustments video. Thank you so much ! Genius your oyster shaped gusset design its much softer shaping than the diamond one I was thinking of doing . I am utilizing the sleeves of Simplicity pattern 3637 into Simplicity pattern 8578. I’ve made test mock ups of sleeves from both patterns, and want to go ahead and work with the narrower sleeve pattern .
Sewing in a narrower sleeve, to purposely end up with the open underarm effect. Then I saw your video and you rocked my world, thank you so much . Wanting to avoid a mock up for the bodice because time is extremely short. It’s an important event for daughter. Andrea could you please be so kind to respond your viewpoint or any feedback of my plan going on here please ? If this is a definite fail I really appreciate knowing in advance. Thanks so much for all your help Kind and Warmest Regards
Dorothy

5/10/2019 04:35:43 am

Well, neither one of those is my pattern, so I don't know what the sleeve pattern looks like. The American Duchess makes authentic garments, so I imagine she has created a sleeve pattern from that 18th C time period that should be cut differently from a modern sleeve. Sleeves from this period allow for quite a bit of motion. They had to because the bodices were so tight. If I were you. I would try the sleeve as is and then add the gusset if needed. That gusset improves mobility of any sleeve.
Good luck. Send a picture to scheweandrea @yahoo.com

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