RenFaire Wear Part 2 - Lady's thrift store outfit

This is my $15 quick costume, not an authentic Renaissance Costume.  Something that can be thrown together at the last minute, inexpensively to have fun at a party or "The Faire".  I am putting on my community theater costumer's hat to show you what I did with the things I found at my local thrift store.  As anyone knows who's been involved in community theater, the budget is low and there never is enough time, so this is the way a lot of costumes come together. So after my yoga class this morning I headed on over to my favorite thrift store.  Today was the day of the week where everything is 25% off the price stapled to each piece.  I love a bargain!

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I looked through the sleeveless tops for something that could be used to make a lace up bodice

But, you never know WHAT you will find at the thift store. To bad I wasn't looking to dress up like a belly dancer.

I was ready to make a skirt out of a table cloth but lucked out and found this great olive green peasant skirt for $4.50.

I couldn't find a suitable skirt, so went over to housewares for a sheet or tablecloth to use to make a skirt.

This is what I got ... a 100% cotton peasanty blouse $6.25, a linen sleeveless top $1.50.

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And a pair of muslin curtains with ruffles attached to make a petticoat for $2.25. So, the total is now $15.

Now, everything into the wash ... stuff from thrift stores always smells funny.  Oh, and I leave it all wrinkly when it's dry.  I don't think the common folk did much ironing then.

The blouse is perfect as is, but the sleeveless top needs it's neckline cut lower.  I was going to cut off the little cap sleeve, but I kind of like them.  The skirt has a really big waist, but that's easy to fix and I will show you how to make a simple petticoat out of the curtains.

Before the 2 curtain pieces can be sewn together, the ends need to be cut off leaving a flat piece of fabric with a ruffle on the long edge. I did this to both pieces.

I pin the fold in place for sewing over my ironing board. I can just work my way around the skirt and while the parts I'm not using are hanging to the floor.

The pieces can be machine or hand stitched together into a tube. I want the petticoat to be 38" from waist to hem, so I folded down the top edge to the inside of the skirt at the 38" line.

I, now, stitch 1 inch away from the fold all the way around. This forms a casing. Open up one of the seams in the casing and insert a piece of ribbon or twill tape about 2 yd. long.

Pull up the twill tape to fit, tie tight around the waist and you have a petticoat.

But it will look a lot better on, if the gathers are smoothed away from the stomach.

The waist of the green skirt can be pulled in with a piece of ribbon pulled through the casing created by the elastic band in the skirt waist.

This is where things stand. Not bad ... could be worn as is with the added sash, but I want to do 2 more things. First the blouse is way to white and the over blouse needs it's neck and bottom trimmed. The bottom is folded up right now.

To tone down the bright white of this 100% cotton blouse, bring a large pot of water to a boil, take it off the burner and drop 4 tea bags in. Let it steep for 5 minutes.

I drew a pencil line on one side of the top where I wanted the new neckline to be, folded and pinned the two sides together so I could cut the left and right neckline the same.

The bottom I am going to leave unfinished but the neck needs something, so I get out my box of embroidery thread and decide to mix 2 strands of brown with two strands of green.

Remove the tea bags and quickly push the blouse into the tea and stir and stir for about 5 minutes, rinse, and dry. The heat from a dryer should set the color.

I marked where I had folded the bottom when it was on the dress form (these marking can be done on a person, too), pinned the two sides together so they could be cut the same.

I am just going to do a blanket stitch over the raw edge all the way around. I found a great tutorial if you don't know how to do a blanket stitch. I'll put the link in the text below.

Click on this to go to the blanket stitch tutorial.

The apron is one of my dish towels tucked and safety pinned into the waist of the skirt.  I, also, pinned up one side of the skirt .... now all this outfit needs is a bandana or flowers and ribbons in your hair.  

I just remembered, I mentioned something earlier about making a lace up top.   But this top I found is great the way it is.  Some other time I will do a tutorial on that.

Next Renfaire installment will be for the guys ... then you can go, watch some jugglers, listen to some lute music and chew on a turkey leg.