Born Again

Okay, so now that I had joined the SCA I realized that I had to be a little more serious about it. The outfit I made for the spring event was made to match my husband's Roman persona. I wasn't sure whether or not I was Roman or not. Besides, it was made of dreaded polyester (along with my daughter's outfit), which is a rather huge no-no in the SCA, especially if you're making an attempt at being even remotely authentic...natural fibres please! So I spent a good week or two dragging piles of books on medieval times home from the library, spreading them out on the kitchen table, and looking through them. After much deliberation I determined that I would be a woman from somewhere around the 12th-14th centuries, probably from southern England. And how did I determine this? Why, I thought the dresses were pretty! Yes, it's that simple.

I even chose a name. "Isolda Fairamay". Isolda is a derivative of "Isolde" from the legend of "Tristan and Isolde". It also means "fair skinned or fair haired". Fairamay was chosen because I thought it sounded good with the first name and comes from pretty much the same time period. It means "fair friend", which I am proud to say I am!

So, Isolda Fairamay was born!

Interesting how suddenly I was immersed so deeply into all this isn't it?

I then proceeded to make new outfits for both myself and my daughter. Yes, you heard it...more sewing of clothes! More patterns! But I would "need" to do this to be ready for the next event, you see. I couldn't very well turn up as a 12th-14th century English woman in a Roman dress now could I?


A photo of me in my new outfit:


And I have to admit something here. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Hell had indeed frozen over...I actually enjoyed making those clothes! I enjoyed it so much I almost had an identity crisis over the whole thing. Am I still a fabric artist if I am enjoying making clothes instead of pieces of art? I supppose the clothes themselves ARE pieces of art...which is likely why I enjoyed making them. But still, I wouldn't want to be known as a "seamstress"...ugh! Even now I still hate that term. Hmmm, we'll have to work on that one.