kass

I don't think there's a "standard", but they should be long enough that when you bend your knee, your knees don't show from under the closed bottom.

A couple of quick things you can do, Mick. You can gather them into a band that buttons. You can bind the bottom with cloth tape that ties. You can also just roll hem the bottoms and sew a cloth tape to either end and tie them closed (this depends on how wide the legs are...)

Okay you lads with the OEDs [Oxford English Dictionaries -ed]! Look me up some stuff, will ye? This morning as I was brushing my teeth, I thought of how interesting it was that the word "slut" in the 18th century referred to a young girl, regardless of her sexual behaviour. And I started wondering how far back that word went. I also found myself wondering about the word "wench". Is it really an Elizabethan word for a waitress? Or is it a Victorian thing like so much else. Basically, I'm trying to start a topic about what words (particularly titles and appelations) that we hear at the Ren Faire are really correct or what we should be saying instead.

Good one, Josh. And teeth that are way too white! Do you see those guys sparkling?!

Good style choices, Josh. I want pictures! And possible video tape... Ed -- Bigger, Better, Stronger, Faster, More! Morbidly thin or dangerously obese. No in betweens for us! I'm waiting for lead white makeup to come back. I think should have been our national slogan instead of E Pluribis Unum or whatever it is... :)

Awwwww... My empathy, bro. Sit down, take off your monmouth cap and let me massage your scalp...

I think that's Pat's point, Josh. Our schools teach us that a handful of untrained farmers and shop-owners rebuffed the British Army and of course ALL Americans fought for independence. Everyone thought it was a great idea!

Oh come on, guys, you're making me covet! I want to go to the Tower and the National Archives and Leeds... But I only have six days, and I only get two of those in London. I'll be lucky if I see half the things on my short list for the V&A!

Thanks Das, I'm dead now...

Petee, I hearily welcome you do my world! Have a beer, mate!

Not well, one expects. Why just recently on one of the email lists I'm on, an English poster joked about "you Yanks..." and a Southern poster took offense. Although it can be used in a positive way too. A friend of mine from Georgia once told me, "You may have been born up North, but you ain't no Yankee." Well... I suppose not. I'm not Dutch and I'm not from New England either. Personally I just think labels only have the power you give them. If you don't take it as an insult, it's not one.

I'm glad I'd finished my lunch before I read that one, Petee!

Well yeah, Ciaran, but to the rest of the world, we're all "Yanks".

Oh Petee... That's not a Pirate! Where's his parrot, tricorn and earrings? And his Rav4 isn't even flying the Jolly Roger...

Well yeah... But it all sounds like "Kass"!

Ooops! I didn't mean to repeat myself!

This is me just postulating, but there are separate sleeves used in other periods of history (up until the mid-20th century I believe) for dirty work. One particular 17th century use I remember is for work with cattle. Rough sleeves were pulled on over the top of your other clothing to protect it (or possiby your arms) from dirt or harmful things.

It was a rather common literary device of the period to name a character after one of his characteristics. His nationality could be one. Just like we say "GI Joe" as the name of an American soldier.

"Don't Make the Rare Common or the Common Rare!"

Oh Foxe! Don't baffle me with logic. I'm postulatin' here! Seriously, yeah, I knew they existed. But when you have a Rembrandt in your head, no one is wearing the dress of the period. Except the Night Watch... I really prefer Codde's Meagre Company (or Hals Banquet of Some Other Officer Types). My husband always makes his clothing demands based on these.

Oh, that's just too cool! I often do early 17th century Colonial stuff with Dutch and Swedish reenactors, so they should be calling me "Yankee"? Cool! Me, I'm at home in my Yank-ness...

As far as I can tell, blue is always an acceptable colour for working-class people. It's indigo. It's cheap. From the middle ages onwards, it was almost a sign of commonness. Stockings were always worn. Now that may sound strange to us who would pull them off in hot weather. But I seem to remember Foxe quoting from a GAoP source saying that the men took their stocking off to do some kind of standing-in-water work and the remark was made to illustrate how very odd this was. I hope he posts it again. It was a good'un.

Rembrandt certainly had a closet full of "costumes" in which to dress his models. Matter of fact, I am hard-pressed to name a Rembrandt portrait in which the sitter is wearing the dress of the 1640s. This was the fashion then -- to be painted as an Ottoman princess or in drapery evoking the ancient Greeks. Painting in character is one of Rembrandt's things. Vermeer on the other hand usually painted people in the dress of the day doing ordinary, daily things, like playing music or drinking with friends. The only notable exception is "Girls with a Pearl Earring" who is wearing scarves wrapped around her head in a decidedly non-Dutch manner. It may have been the style by the 1660s to paint "after the life". And by the third quarter of the 18th century, people are being painted as "Cavaliers". You know the famous "Blue Boy"? Painted in the 1770s but he's wearing vaguely 1640s dress.

Not near impossible to achieve, dear Das. Near impossible to keep black. Black dye is generally achieved using iron which tends to rots fibres (this is why some of the extant blackworked shirts from the 16th century are disintegrating in museums -- the iron is eating the silk thread and linen fabric away). Other black dyes can be made from vegetable matter as well as just plain old black sheep wool! But it's not "black black", if you know what I mean. If it comes out of the dyepot black, it tends not to stay that way for too long, fading to one of its component colours, like blue or red. That's what we call "fugitive" in the dye business... The "black means your rich" truism is a myth. But you would have to be constantly replacing your clothing to keep your blacks black. Make sense?

Good news, kids! The long-awaited Common Man's Jacket (aka "Sailor's Jacket") now has cover art. Which means we're drafting it as we speak and it is available for preorder. Check it out (third pattern down): http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/patte...s/preorder.html The pattern will ship next week.