I'm so thrilled that people are finding and enjoying this! 😍 I make videos at a pretty slow pace but I'm having so much fun and there are definitely more coming! The next one may involve leather 😎🏍🔥
What pattern did you use? I've been wanting to make a fairly similar style dress. I make my own clothing and fabric is indeed treated like gold! My style leans mideveil and I try not to use any modern items like zippers.
"I roughly know exactly where they're gonna go" is something I suspect most people who have made stash projects have thought about their pieces. I genuinely enjoyed this video, especially the historical tangents.
Haha YES. I'm always just surfing this wave of having enough of an idea of where something's going to do the next step, but not quite enough to feel like I actually know what I'm doing.
A very well researched and executed project! You really nailed the look of the inspiration piece, too bad your "unicorn" didn't want to cooperate. One thing we should remember is that although there was the "usual" way of cutting and piecing and sewing garments, each cotehardie, kirtle, shift, etc. was made for a specific body shape. More times than we'll ever know, the seamstresses and tailors undoubtedly ran into the same limitations of fabric that you did. And as you said, clothing was treated as a precious commodity so it was worn long past the time it was in the height of fashion. Styles also changed more gradually so its not unusual to have no clear cut start and end date, there's some overlap. So all the guess work, weird piecing, extra darts and seams you made to make this fit are absolutely historically accurate.
How on earth is this only your fourth video... good heavens... just hit the notification bell... *_really_* well done... I don't think I've seen an onion skin dye that's worked out to that deep a colour. Love having the cat as a stand in for the unicorn. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
💕😍💕😍💕 I love the historical tangents!!! Omg! I love this dress SO MUCH!!!! I love your juggling of (historical research + scant real examples + your own creative/practical solutions). I kinda do that too, so your process is very informative and inspiring. I love your calm & deadpan attitude: cute, intelligent, funny! Thank you for your wonderful video.
Great! I love how you priced it together. So period in my opinion. After combing fiber, Spinning it, weaving it into cloth, I don't think any would be waisted! Later dresses show tiny tiny pieces used and I have done so in many pieces I've made.
Totally great video. Was going to make an office-ready kirtle next and am now looking forward to it even more. Btw, the sleeves with the little pieced-in gores, from some archeological work I was able to read, are actually historically correct.
So glad I’m finding this channel when it’s just starting out, I can’t wait to watch you grow! That being said, the amount of effort that went into this video deserves way more views and subs. Keep up the good work, I love the focus on thrifting and being sustainable with fabric!
um wow! Thank you so much!! This wins the prize for sweetest and most genuinely encouraging comment so far (although, I have been floored by ALL of the kind words from total strangers) haha. I'm excited to keep the videos coming :)
Amazing is what I thought about the dress. The onion skin dye is the darkest I have seen, gorgeous. I love the comical narrative in places. Love it and will keep watching.
I did get lucky! After the tannin "mordant" it looked a bit blotchy and I thought it wouldn't work. I'm not exactly sure why it did, to be honest haha. I think the sheer quantity of onions was key. Thanks!
The color of this was amazing. I normally hate that particular shade of mustard yellow in modern clothing, but on this historical garment, it fits and looks great. I've been working on making a dress form and a kirtle dress is going to be the first thing I make when I get a way to fit something to my waist without having to wear it at the same time.
Yes! My wardrobe is entirely grey and olive green, and somehow I love this dress. Ooo how are you making it? I've never had one, but I have been cultivating a healthy amount of envy watching videos of people draping on dress forms and it may be time haha.
I saw a video that used an old fitted T-shirt to make a pattern for a supporting bodice or kirtle. She put on the shirt and her assistant wrapped her up in duct tape so it was snug. (You can have a bra on tor the fitting but this finished garment should support the breasts.
You are fun to watch and I love your method of telling your story, plus some of your own make it work creativity. I love that you decided to dye it too, I've played around with dyeing yarn but never got results like those with onion skins! . Your gown looks great!....Vicki
I really appreciate how informative and thorough you are with your historical explanations. I ALSO really appreciate the sidebars of humour everywhere. That brings me a lot of joy. I will readily absorb more of this content!
I loved your thrifty medieval dress and I adored your substitution of a cat for the requisite medieval unicorn. When Rodrigo Borgia's mistress, Giulia Farnese, was (ironically?) painted -- *repeatedly* -- as a virgin with a unicorn, a goat was used in lieu of the unicorn. So unicorn substitution was a historically authentic measure....
I really enjoyed hearing how the architecture was influencing dress styles (or vice versa). I'd read that dresses of that period were based on making you look longer and taller, but had never heard that connected to church architecture. I also liked getting to see how you made all your alterations to make the most of a small piece of fabric, just as a medieval seamstress would have!
I've just discovered your channel through CoSy and I'm thoroughly enjoying working through your back catalogue of videos. Hooray for chopsticks. They make excellent point turners as well as eyelet wideners, and a bamboo one lives permanently in my sewing tray. Piecing and bodging to make a garment that will fit you out of the piece of fabric that you have seems very appropriate for the period. I've done it a few times and it always seems to work out somehow, because it has to.
Yes! It always works when it has to, even if "working" takes on a slightly downgraded meaning haha. Thanks so much! I'm so happy you're enjoying my videos!
Not the video (or creator) I was searching for, but the thumbnail grabbed me! Well done! EDIT: And subbed for the mind that included the intro to cultural hegemony, religion, and myths that lead to bigotry.
I thank the UA-cam logarithm for suggesting this video. Really enjoyed your historical tangent. Thank you for all that research. It was fascinating and inspiring watching you make the fabric yardage work for you. You’ve sparked a few ideas about how to use my personal thrifted stash. (And I decided to try growing my hair longer after watching Morgan’s tutorial). Subscribed. 😊
Love this video so much!! I'm making a medieval dress atm but got so freaked out because fabric can be soooooo expensive so I'm so happy to see you create such a beautiful dress without spending as much!
really enjoyed the historical tangent. you really spilled the tea! (-; the dress also came out so beautiful, and the color you got from the onion skins is so vibrant and happy!! thank you so much for sharing
Please tell more about the pretreatment of fabric to take the onion skin colour. I have occasionally played with natural dyeing, but dabbled only and have forgotten most of what I discovered 25 years ago. Would you please make a video to share what you have discovered?
I loved this and think you did very well. As I watched I was thinking how your need to piece little bits of fabric together was probably very accurate to what most people would need to do at the time. I have great sympathy with the 'slow fashion, movement and perhaps more accurately the process of thrifting and remaking garments from 'found' or discarded fabric. I am verrry bad at sewing (a sewing machine serial killer) but in the 80s or so I started to make my own clothes, mostly without patterns and to my own designs using very simple techniques. In my area there were many clothing/furniture factories, so many 'remaindered' fabric shops, and as a result I used a number of unusual fabrics (cheap as chips - £1 a metre).such as curtain or upholstery material, and borrowed techniques from things like Kimono making (I had 2 vintage kimono from my mum;s family). I ended up wearing only my own designs for work, and was once told that I 'presented myself extremely well' (!?!?!?!) : I think I never spent more than about "5 on an entire work outfit. But since I wear almost exclusively thrifted clothes even now, things may not have changed that much!
I embraced the rectangles-and-gores style dresses for using up stash about the same time this came out :) I finished my first kirtle in 2022 and omg hand done eyelets are so awesome. I love rectangles-and-gores dresses for stash because I can just draw out my fabric on grid paper, I know from experience how wide the two strips need to be and I can nudge things around to either get sleeve fullness, length, pocket size or swoosh depending on where I add or take away fabric, and I also liked armpit gussets so much that I'm putting them in anything that's just a bit tight up top and it's become my secret weapon for battling my increasing bust size because apparently my body has decided it wants to be top-heavy instead of pear-shaped. I adore how fabric-efficient these designs are and am trying to make more of my wardrobe in that style because having big chunks of leftover fabric does not bust my stash! And coincidentally, I just did an onion skin dye on greyish striped wool (I used 800g wool and the bag from 10 lbs of onions stuffed with the skins) and it came out just how I wanted it, however every time I try cotton in onion skin dye, I get off-white at best.... I'll have to try it with the linen I've got, because though orange isn't usually my colour, I really like THAT orange, and I also figure that when I collect black walnuts in the fall that combining onion skin with the greyish brown that black walnut gives will give me a lovely warm brown, which is exactly what it did with my greyish brown wool. That wool is becoming a Victorian walking skirt, but I still need to sort out how I'm closing it. Perhaps putting skirt hoooks in the middle of an inverted box pleat at the centre back, dunno yet, I'm winging it.
I just found this, and I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised at your work! Truly creative ways to use what you have and make it right! Most of my medieval clothing is a variety of thrift-shop finds, stuff inherited from various sources, old dresses (including an early 60s wedding dress that was an AMAZING silk brocaded/embroidered with silver thread), and stuff I grabbed when a local fabric store closed. You learn to look for potential, to eyeball yardage, guess at fiber content without setting it alight in the store, etc etc. But it is truly rewarding to produce something with repurposed and reclaimed materials, and not have to pay retail for stuff! I look forward to seeing more of your stuff! Oh- and yes, Morgan Donner rocks! I've known her for quite some time (she was in the same SCA kingdom until just recently) and she's one of my daughter's best friends. She's a fantastic teacher and is really good at working with people at their current level. So cheers! Your gown is lovely!
Thanks so much for this comment! (I've been away from youtube for a bit.) I totally agree. Part of being into recreating old things is the problem-solving and the repurposed materials just a whole other layer of problem-solving that makes it that much more rewarding at the end. thanks :)
Thank you so much for a wonderful video- the colour is gorgeous- I love the colour of onion skins and have ddye yarn with it in the past.....amazing how even your dyeing turned out-I've never had such success with fabric. I have watched a few videos on kirtles but feel so daunted. After watching you make it as you go, I think I can do this now. I've never been able to sew gores as nicely as I'd like but maybe it doesn't matter so much :) Love the braided details and will check out the links. Thank you for lightening things up for me. Love the unicorn :)
Thanks for leaving the bloopers and quirky moments in, they add a unique and geniune character! I noticed the cup and hand gesture while talking combo in an earlier scene, so it felt like good novelistic foreshadowing when the spill occured ;)
Just found this video as I am doing research to prepare for my own kirtle-making quest. You're "help me Morgan!" comment made me laugh so hard! I also regularly seek guidance from the Almighty Morgan. Great video, very fun and helpful!
Yes! The recent talk over on Marion McNealy's channel (The Curious Frau) was my introduction. I want to get some 15th century pleats happening one of these days.
Im making a kirtle out of pure cotton bedsheets i found for $2.5 @ the thrift shop. The tip on onion skins to dye it. Hmmm I might have to try that, the yellow you got is so pretty.
Beautiful work!!! I particularly love the whole adpatation you did to be able to do it, I imagine this was extremely common. I make a kittle a few years ago, and I'll do another one as soon as the fabric arrives. I'll dye it with mulberries! Wish me luck 😂❤
Impressive piecing and dying! I liked your caticorn; too bad she didn't want to pose. Also, how could anyone resist trying the hair taping immediately after watching Morgan Donner?
I’m fairly new to your channel but I absolutely love how you teach….I know in another one of your videos you said you don’t like reading but yeah. I’m definitely learning a lot from your videos!
Nice job with your dyeing! I’ve done this before, but not gotten the color so consistent. A side note: I wanted to see how dark I could get the eggs (it was Easter) so I simmered them for hours. Paper came out a deep pumpkin, the eggs went all the way to a deep deep rust. I loved it. No, I didn’t eat them, they were works of art ❤️
You are absolutely delightful - I'm So glad I clicked on this video! Visited out of boredom, but am staying for the historical tangents, sewing, natural dye experiments, shenanigans, and your ridiculously cute cat. PS: do you have an Instagram that we can follow?
Unikitty!🐱😁 Seriously, I like your narrative style & your voice. I also like medieval-type clothes. I hope to watch the rest of this when I'm ready to settle down again. For now, I boost the algorithm & like.
I thought there wasn't anything new to be said about late medieval gowns but this is a really excellent video with a lot of smart points (Also welcome to the "how do I even pronounce Herjolfsnes" club)
Amazing work! I've been on a bit of a kirtle high lately and it was fascinating watching you piece together this garment and do your research (on that note-- thank you for citing your sources!! I will be hunting through them hehe). The dying process was fascinating, I had no idea onion skins could produce a hue that vibrant Question-- what is it you're wearing underneath the kirtle in your final photoshoot (the smock thing, not sure what they were called in this time period)? is it just smth you had lying around, or did you make it especially for this project?
Thank you! I only sorta-kinda cited sources so let me know if you need anything specific and I'll track it down! I'm just wearing something I had lying around - the 1830's chemise from another video - but I whipped up some detatchable sleeves to make it *look* like a proper medieval smock.
Watching a year after you posted this.but I throughly enjoyed it! If the hemline was cut to current fashion lengths the dress could still be worn on weekends today without looking strange. PS also liked the historical tangents.
totally brilliant historical context!! You answered questions I have never thought to ask myself - thank you!! I am already impressed with the video and I am only 4.23 minutes in!!
I'm so thrilled that people are finding and enjoying this! 😍
I make videos at a pretty slow pace but I'm having so much fun and there are definitely more coming!
The next one may involve leather 😎🏍🔥
What pattern did you use? I've been wanting to make a fairly similar style dress. I make my own clothing and fabric is indeed treated like gold! My style leans mideveil and I try not to use any modern items like zippers.
"I roughly know exactly where they're gonna go" is something I suspect most people who have made stash projects have thought about their pieces. I genuinely enjoyed this video, especially the historical tangents.
Haha YES. I'm always just surfing this wave of having enough of an idea of where something's going to do the next step, but not quite enough to feel like I actually know what I'm doing.
and thank you so much!
A very well researched and executed project! You really nailed the look of the inspiration piece, too bad your "unicorn" didn't want to cooperate.
One thing we should remember is that although there was the "usual" way of cutting and piecing and sewing garments, each cotehardie, kirtle, shift, etc. was made for a specific body shape. More times than we'll ever know, the seamstresses and tailors undoubtedly ran into the same limitations of fabric that you did.
And as you said, clothing was treated as a precious commodity so it was worn long past the time it was in the height of fashion. Styles also changed more gradually so its not unusual to have no clear cut start and end date, there's some overlap.
So all the guess work, weird piecing, extra darts and seams you made to make this fit are absolutely historically accurate.
Those eyelet holes are beautiful
thank you!
Please more historical tangents!!! The editing and commentary on yourself and the world is *chef's kiss!*
Thank you! :) More historical tangents coming up!
How on earth is this only your fourth video... good heavens... just hit the notification bell... *_really_* well done...
I don't think I've seen an onion skin dye that's worked out to that deep a colour. Love having the cat as a stand in for the unicorn.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it and I'm excited to keep the videos coming your way!
Love your videos! And just an historical note, making your pattern or idea work with the fabric you have is completely historically accurate!!
thank you! And that is a great point. Absolutely!
Yup yup yup!! That's exactly what I thought too!
Love your narration style --- and its so good to see someone else who does costuming entirely by thrift and internet. Subscribed!
Thank you! This is so encouraging!!
For a beginner seamstress you are quite gifted!
That color you got from the onions is amazing!!! 🧅
💕😍💕😍💕
I love the historical tangents!!!
Omg! I love this dress SO MUCH!!!!
I love your juggling of (historical research + scant real examples + your own creative/practical solutions). I kinda do that too, so your process is very informative and inspiring. I love your calm & deadpan attitude: cute, intelligent, funny!
Thank you for your wonderful video.
Good to see someone else's sewing process successfully includes "making it up as I go along".
Great! I love how you priced it together. So period in my opinion. After combing fiber, Spinning it, weaving it into cloth, I don't think any would be waisted! Later dresses show tiny tiny pieces used and I have done so in many pieces I've made.
Thank you, and I totally agree!
Totally great video. Was going to make an office-ready kirtle next and am now looking forward to it even more. Btw, the sleeves with the little pieced-in gores, from some archeological work I was able to read, are actually historically correct.
The dress turned out gorgeous! And it was so satisfying how you used every possible fabric scrap.
Thank you! :)
Love the historical tangents, and the natural dyes!
"i'll jump back into my body now" is the perfect way to end a voiceover (also your brief breakdown of European culture was *chef's kiss* immaculate)
hehe thanks :3
YOUR DRESS TURNED OUT BEAUTIFUL...A BIT SHORT, BUT BEAUTIFUL NONETHELESS. BRAVO! ESPECIALLY ON THE SLEEVES. GENIUS SAVE.
So glad I’m finding this channel when it’s just starting out, I can’t wait to watch you grow! That being said, the amount of effort that went into this video deserves way more views and subs. Keep up the good work, I love the focus on thrifting and being sustainable with fabric!
um wow! Thank you so much!! This wins the prize for sweetest and most genuinely encouraging comment so far (although, I have been floored by ALL of the kind words from total strangers) haha. I'm excited to keep the videos coming :)
Amazing is what I thought about the dress. The onion skin dye is the darkest I have seen, gorgeous. I love the comical narrative in places. Love it and will keep watching.
Tangents are fine, and you looked wonderful. It's a style that could do with a revival.
THAT MUSICAL EDIT WITH THE HORSE. Almost spit out my sandwich, that was great!
awesome! it made me giggle too :p
What an absolutely beautiful colour and a lovely gown. I love your slightly tubby unicorn 😊
Thank you! She is truly a magical beast.
Damn, I truly got blessed by the youtube recommendations today
(take note, algorithm 😎)
I get the feeling that you’re very good at jigsaw puzzles...you got very lucky with your onion skins! Your dress looks stunning, by the way!
I did get lucky! After the tannin "mordant" it looked a bit blotchy and I thought it wouldn't work. I'm not exactly sure why it did, to be honest haha. I think the sheer quantity of onions was key.
Thanks!
I really liked this video, and thought the balance of crafting/sewing and historical info was perfect.
I also love your sense of humor and your cat. 😊
Love this! I'm also trying to do historical sewing basically all thrifted, i found an empire waist dress thats going to become a regency gown!
Awesome! Wishing you the best of luck on this repurposing adventure!
Oh Lydia, you are lovely. Beautiful dress and yes, I love the historical tangents. That onion colour is devine. ❤️💕❤️
Why thank you, other Lidia! Glad to know you like the tangents :)
I'm currently binging on your vids. I particularly like UNRELATED IMAGE and the cat in this one, but I'm enjoying them all
You are hilarious! Thanks for having the humility to show the struggle! Very well done, in the end!
I love the historical tangents, they really add so much depth and explanation to the piece you are making!
Grabbing the cat to try to pose like the picture, made me laugh out loud!
The color of this was amazing. I normally hate that particular shade of mustard yellow in modern clothing, but on this historical garment, it fits and looks great. I've been working on making a dress form and a kirtle dress is going to be the first thing I make when I get a way to fit something to my waist without having to wear it at the same time.
Yes! My wardrobe is entirely grey and olive green, and somehow I love this dress.
Ooo how are you making it? I've never had one, but I have been cultivating a healthy amount of envy watching videos of people draping on dress forms and it may be time haha.
I saw a video that used an old fitted T-shirt to make a pattern for a supporting bodice or kirtle.
She put on the shirt and her assistant wrapped her up in duct tape so it was snug. (You can have a bra on tor the fitting but this finished garment should support the breasts.
Loved it so now I am looking to see what other treasures you have shared - thank you!!
So glad!
LOVED the historical interlude!
You are fun to watch and I love your method of telling your story, plus some of your own make it work creativity. I love that you decided to dye it too, I've played around with dyeing yarn but never got results like those with onion skins! . Your gown looks great!....Vicki
I really appreciate how informative and thorough you are with your historical explanations. I ALSO really appreciate the sidebars of humour everywhere. That brings me a lot of joy. I will readily absorb more of this content!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I loved your thrifty medieval dress and I adored your substitution of a cat for the requisite medieval unicorn. When Rodrigo Borgia's mistress, Giulia Farnese, was (ironically?) painted -- *repeatedly* -- as a virgin with a unicorn, a goat was used in lieu of the unicorn. So unicorn substitution was a historically authentic measure....
I really enjoyed hearing how the architecture was influencing dress styles (or vice versa). I'd read that dresses of that period were based on making you look longer and taller, but had never heard that connected to church architecture. I also liked getting to see how you made all your alterations to make the most of a small piece of fabric, just as a medieval seamstress would have!
Great outcome!
Thanks!
new here... Love the history you stitch into the sewing.
That color is so gorgeous!!! Absolutely stunning!
Wow, I'm impressed. The dress turned out beautifully and fits you so well.
I just found your channel and I'm already in love with your editing and personality 🤣🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻💙💙
Aw, shucks! Thanks so much!
Keep the historical research! You’re great at it!
Love the history! I’m in the process of knitting a sweater from wool I spun into yarn. I’m starting to grasp how precious these garments were!
I've just discovered your channel through CoSy and I'm thoroughly enjoying working through your back catalogue of videos.
Hooray for chopsticks. They make excellent point turners as well as eyelet wideners, and a bamboo one lives permanently in my sewing tray.
Piecing and bodging to make a garment that will fit you out of the piece of fabric that you have seems very appropriate for the period. I've done it a few times and it always seems to work out somehow, because it has to.
Yes! It always works when it has to, even if "working" takes on a slightly downgraded meaning haha.
Thanks so much! I'm so happy you're enjoying my videos!
What a lovely dress! It turned out so nice!
Hilarious and fascinating! Looks great! Also that thumbnail image!😂🦄
Absolutely love how you put this video together, very entertaining and informative and omg! your cat is excellent!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it! :)
Fabulous job! I’m impressed! Great work Lydia!
Thanks Kim!
Not the video (or creator) I was searching for, but the thumbnail grabbed me! Well done!
EDIT: And subbed for the mind that included the intro to cultural hegemony, religion, and myths that lead to bigotry.
I thank the UA-cam logarithm for suggesting this video. Really enjoyed your historical tangent. Thank you for all that research. It was fascinating and inspiring watching you make the fabric yardage work for you. You’ve sparked a few ideas about how to use my personal thrifted stash. (And I decided to try growing my hair longer after watching Morgan’s tutorial). Subscribed. 😊
Yessss, all the stash projects! Welcome! :)
Love this video so much!! I'm making a medieval dress atm but got so freaked out because fabric can be soooooo expensive so I'm so happy to see you create such a beautiful dress without spending as much!
Glad you liked it! :) Honestly, I'm excited to gain the confidence to cut into some proper expensive wool one day. Hope your dress is going well!
really enjoyed the historical tangent. you really spilled the tea! (-; the dress also came out so beautiful, and the color you got from the onion skins is so vibrant and happy!! thank you so much for sharing
Please tell more about the pretreatment of fabric to take the onion skin colour. I have occasionally played with natural dyeing, but dabbled only and have forgotten most of what I discovered 25 years ago. Would you please make a video to share what you have discovered?
The dress design is so cute, it's simple and flattering! I would love to try this
You should!
I loved this and think you did very well. As I watched I was thinking how your need to piece little bits of fabric together was probably very accurate to what most people would need to do at the time. I have great sympathy with the 'slow fashion, movement and perhaps more accurately the process of thrifting and remaking garments from 'found' or discarded fabric. I am verrry bad at sewing (a sewing machine serial killer) but in the 80s or so I started to make my own clothes, mostly without patterns and to my own designs using very simple techniques. In my area there were many clothing/furniture factories, so many 'remaindered' fabric shops, and as a result I used a number of unusual fabrics (cheap as chips - £1 a metre).such as curtain or upholstery material, and borrowed techniques from things like Kimono making (I had 2 vintage kimono from my mum;s family). I ended up wearing only my own designs for work, and was once told that I 'presented myself extremely well' (!?!?!?!) : I think I never spent more than about "5 on an entire work outfit. But since I wear almost exclusively thrifted clothes even now, things may not have changed that much!
I embraced the rectangles-and-gores style dresses for using up stash about the same time this came out :) I finished my first kirtle in 2022 and omg hand done eyelets are so awesome. I love rectangles-and-gores dresses for stash because I can just draw out my fabric on grid paper, I know from experience how wide the two strips need to be and I can nudge things around to either get sleeve fullness, length, pocket size or swoosh depending on where I add or take away fabric, and I also liked armpit gussets so much that I'm putting them in anything that's just a bit tight up top and it's become my secret weapon for battling my increasing bust size because apparently my body has decided it wants to be top-heavy instead of pear-shaped. I adore how fabric-efficient these designs are and am trying to make more of my wardrobe in that style because having big chunks of leftover fabric does not bust my stash!
And coincidentally, I just did an onion skin dye on greyish striped wool (I used 800g wool and the bag from 10 lbs of onions stuffed with the skins) and it came out just how I wanted it, however every time I try cotton in onion skin dye, I get off-white at best.... I'll have to try it with the linen I've got, because though orange isn't usually my colour, I really like THAT orange, and I also figure that when I collect black walnuts in the fall that combining onion skin with the greyish brown that black walnut gives will give me a lovely warm brown, which is exactly what it did with my greyish brown wool. That wool is becoming a Victorian walking skirt, but I still need to sort out how I'm closing it. Perhaps putting skirt hoooks in the middle of an inverted box pleat at the centre back, dunno yet, I'm winging it.
I just found this, and I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised at your work! Truly creative ways to use what you have and make it right! Most of my medieval clothing is a variety of thrift-shop finds, stuff inherited from various sources, old dresses (including an early 60s wedding dress that was an AMAZING silk brocaded/embroidered with silver thread), and stuff I grabbed when a local fabric store closed. You learn to look for potential, to eyeball yardage, guess at fiber content without setting it alight in the store, etc etc. But it is truly rewarding to produce something with repurposed and reclaimed materials, and not have to pay retail for stuff!
I look forward to seeing more of your stuff! Oh- and yes, Morgan Donner rocks! I've known her for quite some time (she was in the same SCA kingdom until just recently) and she's one of my daughter's best friends. She's a fantastic teacher and is really good at working with people at their current level.
So cheers! Your gown is lovely!
Thanks so much for this comment! (I've been away from youtube for a bit.)
I totally agree. Part of being into recreating old things is the problem-solving and the repurposed materials just a whole other layer of problem-solving that makes it that much more rewarding at the end. thanks :)
love the tangents as you call them...love everything history and especially clothing related
Glad you liked it! :)
Thank you so much for a wonderful video- the colour is gorgeous- I love the colour of onion skins and have ddye yarn with it in the past.....amazing how even your dyeing turned out-I've never had such success with fabric. I have watched a few videos on kirtles but feel so daunted. After watching you make it as you go, I think I can do this now. I've never been able to sew gores as nicely as I'd like but maybe it doesn't matter so much :) Love the braided details and will check out the links. Thank you for lightening things up for me. Love the unicorn :)
Beautiful! As an oil painter, your poses give an inspiration. Keep up your craft.
I absolutely love the history you add to your videos and that it isn't just a sewing video. Thank you
Thanks for leaving the bloopers and quirky moments in, they add a unique and geniune character!
I noticed the cup and hand gesture while talking combo in an earlier scene, so it felt like good novelistic foreshadowing when the spill occured ;)
I loved everything about this video! I'm subscribing right now! Please talk more about the the dye process? I want to try.
More dye videos are certainly on the "to make" list :)
I love this! I love tangents!
Just found this video as I am doing research to prepare for my own kirtle-making quest. You're "help me Morgan!" comment made me laugh so hard! I also regularly seek guidance from the Almighty Morgan.
Great video, very fun and helpful!
Haha glad you enjoyed it! Good luck on your quest!!!
Wow, that color is amazing
Thank you! I'm so proud of it.
Have you seen the Lemberg castle finds? Amazing cut and styling.
Yes! The recent talk over on Marion McNealy's channel (The Curious Frau) was my introduction. I want to get some 15th century pleats happening one of these days.
You will be a star. Guaranteed. Stay with it … please.
Pretty dresses AND historical tangents!!! ❤
This was fun to watch. You made it work with the fabric you had - good job.
Im making a kirtle out of pure cotton bedsheets i found for $2.5 @ the thrift shop. The tip on onion skins to dye it. Hmmm I might have to try that, the yellow you got is so pretty.
Beautiful work!!! I particularly love the whole adpatation you did to be able to do it, I imagine this was extremely common. I make a kittle a few years ago, and I'll do another one as soon as the fabric arrives. I'll dye it with mulberries! Wish me luck 😂❤
A lot of work!! Loved the dress. And the picture too!
Thank you so much!
Impressive piecing and dying! I liked your caticorn; too bad she didn't want to pose. Also, how could anyone resist trying the hair taping immediately after watching Morgan Donner?
It turned out so lovely!
Thank you! :)
This is just so fabulous, you did such a great job!!! I'm inspired to try my own
Your problem solving feels very familiar…… Nice job. The dress turned out so nice! Love the “tangents”
I LOVE your historical tangents!
loving the unrelated footage while learning about the history of western europe 😌
I’m fairly new to your channel but I absolutely love how you teach….I know in another one of your videos you said you don’t like reading but yeah. I’m definitely learning a lot from your videos!
The historical research kept me engaged. I love to know all the things!
Nice job with your dyeing! I’ve done this before, but not gotten the color so consistent. A side note: I wanted to see how dark I could get the eggs (it was Easter) so I simmered them for hours. Paper came out a deep pumpkin, the eggs went all the way to a deep deep rust. I loved it. No, I didn’t eat them, they were works of art ❤️
This channel combines many of my passions together in such funny, well edited videos. Love your content!
You are absolutely delightful - I'm So glad I clicked on this video! Visited out of boredom, but am staying for the historical tangents, sewing, natural dye experiments, shenanigans, and your ridiculously cute cat.
PS: do you have an Instagram that we can follow?
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it :) Yes! it's @lydiarobb.art
What a gem!! Well done. Look forward to your next sewing creation
Thank you! 😊
Unikitty!🐱😁
Seriously, I like your narrative style & your voice. I also like medieval-type clothes.
I hope to watch the rest of this when I'm ready to settle down again. For now, I boost the algorithm & like.
Beautiful job with the dress! I love that you are using natural dyes. You should do one with red onion skins, too. 😊
I thought there wasn't anything new to be said about late medieval gowns but this is a really excellent video with a lot of smart points
(Also welcome to the "how do I even pronounce Herjolfsnes" club)
Thank you!!!
Amazing work! I've been on a bit of a kirtle high lately and it was fascinating watching you piece together this garment and do your research (on that note-- thank you for citing your sources!! I will be hunting through them hehe). The dying process was fascinating, I had no idea onion skins could produce a hue that vibrant
Question-- what is it you're wearing underneath the kirtle in your final photoshoot (the smock thing, not sure what they were called in this time period)? is it just smth you had lying around, or did you make it especially for this project?
Thank you!
I only sorta-kinda cited sources so let me know if you need anything specific and I'll track it down!
I'm just wearing something I had lying around - the 1830's chemise from another video - but I whipped up some detatchable sleeves to make it *look* like a proper medieval smock.
Watching a year after you posted this.but I throughly enjoyed it! If the hemline was cut to current fashion lengths the dress could still be worn on weekends today without looking strange. PS also liked the historical tangents.
This is perfect. You did an incredible job!
LOVE the tangents!
History tangent was the icing on the cupcake that compelled me to subscribe. Also couldn't stop laughing over the IRL elusive unicat at the end...
Finding this late. Very nice work!
totally brilliant historical context!! You answered questions I have never thought to ask myself - thank you!! I am already impressed with the video and I am only 4.23 minutes in!!
Wonderful!
very inspiring and i absolutely LOVE the color the dress came out!
Thank you so much!
Thank you! Awesome video.