SCA Life

Sometimes, one can be too careful…

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I worked as a newspaper reporter. The paper I wrote for was a small town biweekly. I made very little money, and that meant that I had to be very careful about how much money I spent on the SCA. Garb, in particular was limited. I bought the cheapest broadcloth at wholesale or closeout stores and made the best of it. But I seriously wanted something nicer to wear to Fettburg’s midwinter feast.

Now, as a fairly poor member of the SCA, I haunted thrift stores watching for useable items. One day, at the local Catholic thrift store, I ran across a bolt of rust colored velvet. I immediately saw that fabric’s potential. That dusty bolt of velvet meant that there was a feast gown in my future. It was great! Except for two little problems…

Firstly, I am an indifferent seamstress. Sewing with velvet was way beyond my ability and still is. Secondly, I was going through a time period when my weight was fluctuating a great deal. The result? I lived in fear that the dress, which I would have to pay to have made would quickly become too small for, possibly even before the midwinter feast had arrived.

Then good news came. Rebecca, a friend of mine in the SCA was willing to make the dress for me. Naturally, I expressed my paranoia about the fit to her. She said she could make the dress a little loose. I was thrilled.

When the first fitting came, using a cheap broadcloth mock-up, I pestered my friendly seamstress to make the dress looser and looser. She told me I was making a mistake, but she did as I wished. And so, a few days later, I was the proud owner of a rust velvet bog dress, similar to teh dress in the picture above. And I wore it to the next feast!

But all was not well.

The end result was predictable, if pitiable. The dress was big enough to hold three of me! More than ten years later, I still have the dress. And it’s still big enough to hold at least two of me. When I wear it, I look like a child playing dress up, specifically a flat chested little girl. What was I thinking?????

Society for Creative Anachronism, SCA, medieval, renaissance, middle ages, reenactment, history, bog dress, chiton, scottish dress, irish dress, celtic dress