michaelsbagley

I have used both 5 and 7 for shirts and/or shifts/chemises... I have some 3.5 ounce that I am going to make a shift for Jessica/Kate out of... So I guess the answer (in my opinion) would be any of the 3... Although I find 5 ounce is the best balance for durability and softness/comfort for me and my tastes. Uhm, collars are period, or that was my understanding... I think both collared AND uncollared shirts were used during the period... I hope collared shirts are period as both of my period shirts are collared.

Yes those buttons and buttonholes were from the Justacorps, and they were hand sewn. Take a look at this Shirt Pattern, between the pics History Fanatic posted and this web page, you should be able to get it, but if not, let me know and I will add some more photos. Currently, the other half has the camera with her, but I will try to get some pics of breeches and the mantua and more of the stays up some time this weekend. For now, here are a few more patterns that have been posted on this forum over the years (some probably a few times or more)... Waistcoat/Weskit pattern Early 1700s Justacorp/Frock pattern Stays Pattern and calculator Shift/Chemise instructions CrazyCholeBlack's blog entry on knife pleating and petticote/skirt making Another Waistcoat pattern with a pattern for breeches I think there was another pattern for breeches that was posted on some thread a long time ago, but I wasn't able to find it.... I think that just about covers most of the basic clothing you will need...

Sykes Suttlery has them... There are other sources (mostly in the UK) that I just can't find my links to at the moment. They are also called cartouches, or the whole set up is often referred to as a "bandolier of cartouches". The use of wooden cartouches is starting to fade as the Golden Age is warming up, but they are still seen rarely. By the 1690s they have almost disapeared entirely and been replaced by belt worn cartridge boxes, although if memory serves me well, I think I have stumbled across a few very early 1700s references to them. Below is a picture of a set from the 1630s from the Royal Ontario Museum that my fiance took... Sorry about the picture quality, but that particular display case was in a corner and it was hard to find an angle without glare.

Hey Pax/Constance, There are a few detail shots of some of my work in mt PhotoBucket account. I'm at home today and tomorrow, so if there is anything else you would like to see in detail let me know and I can and will take and add more photos. Between myself and my fiance, we have a lot of garb, so if you narrow things down to start it would help. Are you working on your own garb first? Or your husband/boyfriends stuff first? (I forget what you said your other half was).

I actually do enjoy liver... In my years of re-enacting and living history, Hollywoodmovies have been about the best source of misinformation for any period I have done. And I am not disparaging the yahoo group as a resource, but I am saying as someone who has seen the movies, I know they are not accurate. So using common sense, a yahoo group named (and presumably focussing on) the movie costuming is likely not going to be of any use to me for historical information. Perhaps the yahoo group is misnamed and the discussions there are about historic costuming and not costuming based on the hollywood fantasy movie? Who am I to say one way or the other... Buy I have cast my bet on it being not worth my time and I am at peace with that. Not that it matters much, but to give due credit where it is due... I was creditting Mr. Hand with collecting all the discussion threads in a nice easy list (although he contributed to many of the discussion on the various threads as well)... Most of the information contained within those threads are the result of a agreat many very knowledgable people, most who are still on the forum, some who seem to be scare lately, or perhaps some that have moved on altogether. Some other resources you may want to check out if you are interested in the history or the period are listed below... The Pirate Brethren Forum is a forum dedicated to the re-enactment and historically accurate depiction of pirates during the Golden age of Piracy Late Colonial American Reenactor Forum is a newer forum that is dedicated to the same time line as the Golden Age of piracy, but the focus is more general. The Pirate Mythtory is a section of the UK pirate group Bonadventure dedicated to providing historically accurate information on pirates and piracy. Gentleman Of Fortune is another good resource for pirate information online. There are plenty more good sources... References to POTC generally are a quick and easy indicator (for me) that the information being presented is based more on the fantasy or mythical image of pirates. Don't get me wrong, I love the movies, but I know Hollywood entertainment and historical accuracy rarely (if ever) coexist. I also made a typo in my last post.. Where I typed I meant to type "Of course the information is NOT nice and cohesive and a lot of info would require the rarely used "Search" function... " But I don't think the point I was trying to make was lost.

Not to sound like a broken record... But Reconstructing History, who make (in my opinion) the best patterns for the period (and possibly the only commercially available patterns for the period) used to sell some pre-made clothes... To my knowledge they no longer do so (although they may still do custom orders). I believe they stopped carrying production clothes for the period because the market for historically accurate pirates wasn't big enough to support the effort (please understand this is my observation and may not be the real story). As for POTC costuming... I am not on that yahoo group, nor am I likely to join... But the POTC costuming was not historically accurate. There were some elements that were similar or based on historic styles, but most of the historic elements were taken from after the Golden Age of piracy. I am not an expert on 18th century costuming, but most of the POTC stuff looked to me like it was 1740s to 1760s. Which puts it about 20 plus years after the end of the Golden Age, and yeah that can make a huge difference on styles and popular clothing. As for an "All-in-one" resources... This forum, specially the "Captain's Twill" section is pretty good... Of course the information is nice and cohesive and a lot of info would require the rarely used "Search" function... Although Patrick Hand did a freaking awesome job of collecting most of the best topics on clothing and putting the links to the topics in a "Stickied" post... Actually he did it twice, once in "Twill", and once in "Plunder"... Just going through his list would put anyone who wants the information light years ahead of any casual pirate enthusiast.

Two really good threads to help get you started (sorry I didn't post these with my last response) are below... While these two threads are NOT any official standards, they do cover a good baseline standard that most historically focussed re-enactment groups would try to aim for... Femal Minimum garb standards Minimum Garb Standards (Male focussed) Ressurecting either of those threads with more focussed questions would serve you well, as the threads were made with the notion of helping guide those just getting started on the path to the authentic look. The patterns focus more on HOW it was done. It would be just an educated guess if the author of the patterns tried to write the WHY. I use [Reconstructing History patterns, and love them. If I were to recommend just one pattern from them, it would be the mantua, as there is no other real web resource to get a good pattern for that from (that I know of)... Personally, I own close to a dozen patterns from Reconstructing History (some from other time periods as well). Having made a mantua, I am skeptical of this working.... The pleating and styling of the mantua is pretty unique, which is why I would advise you of buying that pattern if you are going to limit yourself to one and only one pattern purchase. To be honest, my biggest problem with the mantua was overthinking it and applying my modern ways of thinking to it. After a few calls to Reconstructing History, my mental block was explained away, and I finally "got it". I can be pretty obsessive about the WHYs of things too, but in making garb, I have started to just accept that certain things were just done a certain way, and leanred to shut off my need to know why. Anyways, hope this has been helpful.

Glad you appreciate the word-play, there is even more to it if you speak French and know old cartoons. The pattern I have seen online, and the pattern I bought from a garb researcher both have these square gussets to give the arms more freedom of movement... I used to do Norse, and these type of gussets were used heavily in Norse garb as well... I'm not sure if that means they were used throughout all the middle ages and rennaissance, or if that is just an odd similarity. I usually do French seaming for shirts and chemises, I don't know if either style of stitching is more accurate or not, but I find French seaming gives a better looki and feel to finer garments, I pretty much only ever use Flat-fell seams on trousers/breeches and as you said, tents. I too evenly gather my collars rather than a random pull... and I haven't noticed a significant difference in appearance between my work and that of those who go more random. I do my shirts loose, but I see no reason they couldn't be more fitted, although making it too fitted would look pretty wrong to my eyes... Just as going too baggy would also look a little too "Harlequin Romance" rather than historic. To be honest, while some here are going for historical accuracy, there are different groups with different focuses, so ultimately what matters most is what group's standards you are aiming to follow or emulate, or if you are doing your "own thing", do what makes you happiest. There is no universal or even national "authenticity standard" for pirate re-enacting. Through many conversation on this forum, certain common conventions have started to sort of come about, but nothing official will ever likely come to be. Pirate are by nature too independant and free spirited to get too bogged down with authenticity standards. I've found the period methods have not saved or wasted any more or less fabric than modern methods, they just give a slightly different look. Many of the period methods do tend to take more time as they are geared to hand sewing (sewing machine not being invented for another 200 years or so)... So if you are machine sewing, some changes could save you time, but if you are hand sewing anyways, it would serve you well to use the period techniques. It might go a bit slower for you at first, but once you get used to it, the time difference will be negligable. Also do searches in this forum in both the "Captain's Twill" and "Plunder" areas, and you will find LOTS of information people have shared on thier research and their experiments in recreating various period garb items. There are "stickied" topics (Thanks to Patrick Hand) that directly link to most of the best clothing topics... This is an incredibly valuable resource! You'll save yourself a TON of time by using this resource. Again, this is a matter of personal preference... Find out what group(s) are in your area that you might want to work with (or even join), ask about what standards or cenventions they use, and try to stick with that... Should you go the independant route, use your own best discretion... Although knowing what the nearby groups are doing can still be valuable so you can try to keep yourselves compatible by keeping similar standards. Hope this has helped. If I am missing anything, please let me know, and I will happliy help, and I am sure eventually others may pipe in as well.

Pax/Lady Constance, I'm not sure what pattern you are using, and whether you didn't mention the brand name of pattern you used out of respect for the vendor, or as an oversight from the rancour of your rant... But a good first step may be to contact the developer of the pattern, and ask him or her about the reasoning behind the way the pattern was developed and designed the way it was. Or is your pattern from a web site? I guess I am trying to sum things up by saying, it would be easier to help explain something if we knew hat you were asking about in particular. I've made a LOT of GAoP clothing items, and to be honest, they all pretty much made sense to me (well the Mantua gave me some confusion the first time), really the main thing that seems very strange and somewhat unnatural is the way linings are sewn on jackets and coats. I'd love to help and give advice if I can, but the question as I am reading it is a bit too general and needs a bit more focus... Even if it turns into a lot of questions.

That is a nice chest, and those are some even better looking tools! Great finds!

I don't know if this is splitting hairs or not... But snapsacks are probably period correct. There are references to them from the English Civil war right up through the F&IW and American Revolution, and since the GAoP falls right in there, I see no reason why not to use them.... This link has been posted on the pub a few times, but for ease of reference... How to make a canvas snapsack Some people prefer to have opennings on both ends of their snapsacks, but the above instructions could easily be modified in that way if any so choose to....

I am in the middle of sewing a tent for myself as well.... I am using THIS THREAD from Reconstructing History. It is so thick it is only usable by hand sewing or I have managed to get it to work with a leather stitching awl as well... If you are machine sewing, it will not work for you. If you are machine sewing, I would actually recommend using an upholstery thread (even though it is nylon), as most natural threads are too "slubby" to work in sewing machines without jamming them up. If you can fine a good heavy cotton thread (if cotton uphostery thread even exists), that might be even better, because it is still a natural fibre... I have just never had any luck finding such a thing. Hope this has helped.

Yeah, when I am feeling like throwing some banter into my fencing matches (in a very hollywood like manner), and there are no children around, I point out the fact rather often... Although it has backfired on me... It's often difficult to see your opponent clearly under fencing gear... and taking a shot at an opponents man-hood, when said opponent is a women somehow looses it's impact.

To take this on a bit of a tangeant... There is a bit of a trend in the local SCA groups to use two long fencing weapons. And I mean long, it is not the least bit uncommon for me to fence opponents with two fencing weapons with 42 inch blades each. I fence with a single 28 inch bladed weapon, and you know what? I can regularly beat most of the people that use the two 42 inch blade deals... Because the weapons get in each others way, and are really quite a bit slower than my shorter lighter blade. The people I have the most trouble with, are those that fence with a single regular to long blade and a buckler, or a short off hand dagger. I loose against opponents that fight that way more often than not. Which just goes to show, that in my experience the two long sword business is just Hollywood/Matrix-ey nonsense, and the most effective fighting methods involve one regular (or long) weapon on it's own, or with a short defensive weapon as a second if you really feel the need for it. BlackJohn summed it up pretty well with his whole "look kewl and ninja-like" comment. Remember people, pirate are already kewler than ninjas! We don't have to try and fight like them to be kewler! We just have to fight like pirate to beat them.

Funny, in high school I had a teacher that loved to point out that suicide was against the law... It's a capital offence.

Not so much a joke, but a whole bunch of really hilarious writings of students from grade 8 to college about history... History through the eyes of the students of today

I know I have shared this in the past somewhere at the pub... But could this be a solution to letting a kid blow off some black powder without the liability or overly protective parents concern? Kiddie safe cannon? I think between Jessica and I, we know have three of these canons, so it could almost be a broadside launch by the top three powder monkeys.

Wow Bo, I'm glad you are happy with them, although I have to ask how the pockets are for you? I could barely squeeze my hands into the pockets, and I have pretty small hands. I'm glad you are happy they are lined, but are the pockets serviceable for you?

A suggestion that might help (or not), would be that the gun is held by an adult, and the said winning monkey only gets to pull the trigger of gun held by the adult... Or was that an assumed that I am just not bright enough to have caught?

I can tell you the 13 oz canvas is going to make the one tent a huge amount heavier than the other one.... Personally, I would go for the first one of the two you listed. As for bell wedge versus plain wedge, I would lean towards the plain wedge. I believe bell wedges were used in some late periods, but I always think medieval when I see bell wedges, I find the straight wedge has a more 18th century look...

There is also Denver Fabrics And also B. Black and Sons Inc. Woolrich Fabrics, but with Woolrich there is a 15 yard minimum order which can get pricey unless you are going in with another person or two. Those are the easy links I have on hand...

In an older thread, someone mentioned using old military blankets for wool for sailor's coats.... Check eBay, or your local army surplus store. Just check to make sure they are actually wool and not synthetics.

I went back through this thread, and didn't see this anywhere.... But if this link or information is duplicated please forgive. This is a facsimile copy of "The English Dancing Master" by John Playford, which is a mid 17th century book on dance and music (dated to 1651). It's a slight bit early, but I would image most of it would still be relevant. The web site where it resides Or a direct link straight to the PDF version of the book

And sold.....

After some thought, I have decided to drop the asking price down to $80, I realized that $100 may have been too much.