kass

You could do what my patterns list is doing and harass me about Tudor patterns.

Hi all! Some of you have been clammoring for it for months. Well, it's finally in the final stages of production... I'm happy to announce that the Common Man/Sailor's Jacket Pattern (RH705) will ship on 19 June. So if you want one, order one HERE now!

Hi all! Some of you have been clammoring for it for months. Well, it's finally in the final stages of production... I'm happy to announce that the Common Man/Sailor's Jacket Pattern (RH705) will ship on 19 June. So if you want one, order one HERE now!

And right here, in the US, for us all to see! And guess what? You can make your own too: with THIS! </shameless plug>

Hitman, you're sweet! I don't think I've ever been compared to the Pyramids before!

You guys are the best customers ever! I'm printing this out and reading it on dark days.

<sigh> Boys...

Pop on over to this thread, Rue. Hector posted them in Twill: Here

WOW! What's a girl to say... I would like to state for the record that I do not pay Captain Sterling to do this. Hell, he won't even let me give him a volume discount! And I never knew him before he started buying patterns from me last fall. :) Thank you, Captain, for your wonderful review. Your skills as a tailor should not be give short shrift, however. You do excellent work!

In Greg's defense, the original group buy offer was made on a number of different email lists and forums, the Pyracy Pub being only one of them (and NOT the original one at that). Any "rarified air" you sense is entirely in your imagination. This was never some exclusive deal. It was open to everyone. It just didn't come to fruition. Greg has been trying to keep after the shoemaker. But living in Germany, that makes things difficult. Time after time the shoemaker has told him the prototype was in the mail and it never arrived. I can definitely see how Greg was waiting to have some good news to post to this forum. He didn't exactly want to throw in the towel just yet. And then he moved. And then he broke his ankle rather catastrophically. So I'm willing to cut the guy some slack. He was in surgery last week after all... I'm really sorry you took this the way you did, Captain Beane, as no one sought in any way to exclude you. The man moved house and then broke his ankle. Not exactly his fault he's been a bit incommunicado and didn't get to post everywhere. But since there's likely not going to be any shoes, it doesn't much matter. That "other forum" by the way has never been a secret. Blackjohn's signature invites everyone to come and post there. Many from the Pub do. Why not come over and see us sometime?

It's April. Stay tuned!

Yeah, send her to me! I can outfit her as a proper woman.

Yeah. Gotta agree with Captain Sterling on this one. And I am what you might call an "ass woman".

Do! All the illos on that page are from Laroon's 1687 edition. It's brilliant! Everytime I look at it, I find some new detail. There's one woman wearing a man's Justacorps that is too small on her. It closes over her bust but is open below. It hang open like it doesn't fit. It's very interesting... I'd love to see someone portraying a woman like that!

Hey Rand, I'd sure buy you a beer! I have no problem with anyone's level of accuracy as long as they aren't, as you so succintly put it "go to a school in my garb and try to teach students about the golden age of piracy". I do think that if you purport to be teaching history, that's when the necessity of historical accuracy comes in. I'm an authenticist. Dyed in the wool, as it were. But I have to admit that I do what I do because I like the challenge of knowing all that background knowledge, of getting all the little pieces right, of having the right coins in my purse and the right skivvies on though no one ever sees them. But I wouldn't contract scurvy for anyone! Nor would I really want to work on a pirate ship -- EVER! I wouldn't even want to be my own character for a day because I know too much about her life to romanticize it. But lucky us, we can go home to our hot showers and shaved armpits and cable TV. Good post, man...

Not quite yet for short gowns. They are more specifically Rev War period. Earlier we have common women wearing mantuas and variations on that simple gown. Lookie here: Common Women of the Baroque era Very different silhouette from the later part of the century. If I ever get the new website done, there will be a more expanded version of this there with better illustrations. Interestingly enough, there are some pictures of poor women wearing what are obviously men's coats. But they are terribly torn and missing buttons and all that. Not nearly what we see women wearing about... Good news -- I'm not doing preorders for the Sailor's Jacket and Breeches. So when I post it here, it'll be in print and ready to ship that day. How's that?

Well there we have it! Thank you, Maria. I think I was remembering another quote from a trial that said even their shipmates didn't know they were women because they always disguised themselves. You've shown me that it wasn't Bonny and Read though. In any case, women of the period didn't wear the Ren Faire bodices we see around the pirate community. But that's a whole 'nuther thread!

Caoil, click the link in my signature and it will take you to my website. I sell patterns for Golden Age of Piracy clothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah Maria... I hear you. I'm working on them as fast as I can! Of course you're right about women dressing as women when they were in port. I didn't realize that distinction needed to be made. But it is pretty obvious that they sought to be taken for men when they were on-board or in the company of pirates. Some accounts even say that their own crews didn't know they were women. And after all, what a perfect disguise if the authorities are looking for two men of slight build and all they find are two women. I've read Chambers and the sources upon which she bases her research never say whether Grainne ever was present when any of this pirating activity was going on. Despite the lore that surrounds her, we know surprisingly little about Grainne O'Malley. What we know about her comes purely from English records of her two meetings with Queen Elizabeth (and subsequent imprisonment). Yes, she was a "pirate" but not in the sense that she was out there on her ship raiding the shipping lanes. None of the records Chambers sites say anything about her being present at the time of the raids. It just says that she profitted by those raids because Irish law didn't provide for her in her widowhood, so she asked Elizabeth I to grant her the right to raid Spanish ships to support herself. Chambers says nothing about Grainne wearing men's clothing. Her only description is when she met with Elizabeth the first time and she is described as wearing a gown. It's hard to say we "know" anything about Grainne because so very little is known about her. So I'd rather err on the side of caution. And trust me, if she had actively participated in raids on English ships, why do you think Elizabeth wouldn't have hanged her? She didn't hang her because she owned the ship but wasn't complicit in the crimes. And because she could use her ship to harass the Spanish off the West coast.

Nope. You're right on the money, Caoil. From what we know of female pirates, they dressed as men and sought not to be known as women at all. No bodices. No broomstick skirts. Those are Ren Faire inventions. And actually there's no real proof that Grainne O'Malley was a pirate in the sense we think. She owned a ship that raided Spanish and English ships off the West coast of Ireland. In essence, she was the money behind the deeds, but there's nothing to say she was ever on board her own ships (unless you read Morgan Llywellyn's novel -- which is fiction based on what's known about her). If she had been a pirate in the sense we think, Elizabeth wouldn't have let her go twice. She would have hanged her. And there's no proof she wore men's clothing. Again, just in a work of fiction by ML. Anne Bonny and other real female pirates pretended to be men. So counsel your girlfriend to wear a frock coat (or sailor's jacket), waistcoat and breeches and pull her hair back in a manly ponytail under a cocked hat. Have fun at the movie!

Please do, Jack! We're waiting patiently!

Daniel, if there's a way for you to scan or photograph the documents, my husband is well-practiced in reading old handwriting. He's "decoded" a number of 300-year old documents for the local historical society. So if you need a second set of eyes, let us know!

I shall be there. You'll find me speaking not-so-softly and carrying a big stick!

Hmmm. Now there's a source I would believe, Jack, even though it's fictional. Defoe is at least writing during the Golden Age of Piracy. These other assertions that "the sailor's bond with cats goes back to Ancient Egypt" just strikes me as being incredibly undocumented. But Defoe is writing in our period about real thing. Of course he kinda loses me after Moll Flanders...

Precisely! And although the justification that they were so common they were never mentioned could also be applied to dogs. But I wouldn't assert that dogs were kept onboard ships unless I had references to them either. I have a couple references to cats in the GAoP and none of them are by what one would call cat lovers... But I know nothing about what would and would not be aboard a ship.

I live to set you on quests, Pat... Now, get to it!