The postillion was struck by lightning

Last year, I posted an entry with links to a bunch of fabric stores in it and asked for people to recommend ones I missed. In the interest of doing something that could possibly be classified as useful today, here is the updated list, with a bonus list of places to buy reproduction medieval stuff. So, if anyone has any shops they would like added to either list, let me know and I will add them. Or if you have suggestions for places to get reproduction stuff for other eras -- or even originals, if you're lucky enough to re-enact an era where that is feasible.

But seriously, when I'm done with this, I am going to bed. Or rather, I'm going to try to read in bed, but I'm really going to end up spooning my Kindle and snoozing.

FabricsStore.com -- Linen, some cotton
Fabric Mart -- Designer leftovers, Shetland wool (which is actually from Uruguay?), lots of other garment fabrics
Vogue Fabrics -- Not affiliated with Vogue Patterns or the magazine. Fabric store near Chicago.
Fashion Fabrics Club/Denver Fabrics.com -- Same stock on both websites. Somewhat unreliable when it comes to fabric descriptions.
Fabric.com -- Lots of quilting fabric, but also upholstery and apparel fabrics. Sometimes has awesome sales!

Gray Line Linen -- Line fabrics at affordable prices, without Fabrics Store's quality control issues. Thanks to tattycat for this one.
Burnley & Trowbridge -- Focused on 18thc, but useful for other eras as well. Lots of other historical items, too. Recommendation from many of you!
Wm. Booth, Draper -- Ditto for B&T
96 District -- Website does not have great selection, but tattycat assures me that the selection is better in person.
Carolina Calicoes -- They say for 18th and 19th century reenactors, but there's tons of stuff there for earlier periods if you know what you're looking for. If you're looking for something in particular and they don't have it, try contacting them to see what else they have, since everything isn't on the website. Reproduction 18thc cotton prints for $6/yd, which is the cheapest I've ever seen.

Design Diva Fabrics -- Canadian website selling drapery/upholstery fabric, which sometimes has super sales where you can get silk damasks for very little (well, for a silk damask!). Thanks to chargirlgenius!
Pure Silks, on eBay as Exclusive Silks -- Silk fabric from India. Thanks to nuranar
I Luv Fabrix -- Ohmigawd, the name. But! Discount fabrics. Who doesn't love a discount? Check out "Hi End Remnants" and the 80% off and 90% off sections for super deals. Again, super deals for silk damask.
Duran Textiles -- Reproduction fabrics! Droolworthy in their accuracy. Thanks to northernotter
New York Fashion Center Fabrics -- rosewalker says their silks are expensive but beautiful.

Fabric Guru -- Lots of upholstery fabric, some of it appropriate for historical costuming. Apparently they have apparel fabric sometimes, too. The silk taffetas they have seem to start at about $12/yd, too, which is pretty reasonable.
Farmhouse Fabrics -- Heirloom sewing fabrics. Expensive!
B. Black and Sons -- Good source of wool, according to everyone I know.
Burholder Fabrics -- Has quilting cottons in 1800s repro prints.
Thai Silks -- Silk from Southeast Asia.

Originals by Kay -- Dress lengths of fabric appropriate for mid-19th century clothing.
Renaissance Fabrics -- Does what it says on the label!
Jas. Townshend & Son -- Fabric under "yard goods" in the lefthand column.
Common Threads Quilting -- Repro prints.
Dharma Trading -- Undyed yardage in natural (and rayon) fibers and also other things.

Silk Connection -- Undyed silk and cotton yardage.
Silk Road Fabrics -- Yet again, silk. But also cotton and linen.
Reproduction Fabrics -- Says what it does on the label. Reproduction cotton prints for quilting, 1795-1950. Thanks to nuranar for the recommendation.
Heritage Trading -- eBay store for fabrics from India, including handblock prints. Thanks to nuranar.
eQuilter -- Quilting prints! And some fashion fabrics. Also, 2% of their sales go to reputable charities, which I think is wonderful. They've raised nearly a million dollars so far. Thanks to bauhausfrau for the rec.

Calico Cottage Quilt Shop -- They frequently have lots of repro prints in their $5/yd sale, which is quite a bargain.

Fashionable Fabrics -- Modern sewing, not historical.
Fabricworm -- Modern, lots of quilting.
Bunte Fabrics -- European import fabrics and notions. Modern, though you might find something useful for historical if you poke around.

Etsy sellers I like, who all sell mostly silk but sometimes other natural fibers: FabIndianFabric, Fabricana, silkfabric

They will all make custom listings with yardage for you if you want more than a fat quarter.

Anybody have any more they want to recommend? I know there are more out there -- I cannot even pretend that I have hit all the discount fabric places, let alone the ones where people end up mercy killing their wallets. So, additional recommendations welcome.

And now for the reproduction medieval stuff sites.

Bractea -- Polish site doing custom work. AMAZING wide girdle buckle, based on a van der Weyden portrait. However, very expensive. But beautiful.
Medieval Design -- Italian site, with pricing that is occasionally bemusing. For example, the $90+ wooden buckets but replica portraits starting at $130. However, they do have the silver footed goblets that I lust after, so it's good for drooling over. Also, the shoes. Look at the shoes.
Billy and Charlie's/Fettered Cock Pewters -- Many things of pewter, mostly High Middle Ages. How do I introduce these guys?
Raymond's Quiet Press -- Also many cast things. Pretty, pretty rosy brass.
Pewter Replicas by Steve Millingham -- Soooo pretty. Not limited to jewelry, but many other material culture thingies. In the UK.
Armour and Castings -- Ukrainian site, sells armor and castings. Pretty brooches and pendants that won't break the bank, along with buckles and the like. Seems to be well researched stuff, too.
Gaukler Medieval Wares -- Metal stuff. Which I am damning with my brevity here.
Ironwood Pottery/Eadric the Potter -- thatpotteryguy's pottery. I can testify to its beauty and strength and mom-pleasing qualities. Thanks to Eadric, I finally bought my mom a present which she actually uses. Also, it is a reproduction medieval pitcher which is just as beautiful today as it was a billion years ago. (History! I knows it.) Eadric does a wide array of periods, from 7th-century European to 19th-century American. So, do check him out for all your pottery needs.


_{My ulterior motive here is trying to find buckles for a "broad harnessed girdle" that are not super expensive. I am contemplating buying some sheet bronze and making my own, but I am also asking myself if I want to bring that sort of excitement into my life at this time. Or ever. So I am eyeballing the ones from Raymond's Quiet Press.}

I want to get this done before I forget about it, because the thank you gift that my sister got me for watching Ian was yarn for the 16th-century stranded knitting waistcoat I've been talking about making for like two years now. We ordered it from Colourmart, and I selected a silk/merino blend laceweight yarn, with a high silk content. It's in "light bottle" (a medium green) and "maize" (gold/yellow). Unfortunately, I will not be able to afford enough gold or silver-wrapped yarn to knit a waistcoat until I win the lottery. Let's just say that a thousand yards of that would probably be around a thousand dollars. Ha ha -- no.

Anyway, I want to get this written down in detail before I forget, so that I'm not scrambling later to remember why I made the decision to choose these colors. I did a preliminary list at Rachel's house when I was yarn shopping, but not in detail.

( Analysis of stranded knitted waistcoats available from online museum collections )

Yes, that was totally worth staying up until 2 AM to accomplish. My notes are now on the internet, and everyone knows the internet is forever. Comments welcome! Please argue with me over this if you have evidence to back your thoughts up. Also, if you know of any waistcoats or partial waistcoats which I've missed, please let me know so I can add them to my analysis here.

nuranar recently contacted me to ask me for research suggestions/inspiration for a friend of hers that is interested in starting to make historically accurate clothing for a middle class woman in Elizabethan England. I asked Ginger if she minded me asking my friends list, since so many of you do make 16th-century clothing for middle-class people in England and are way better at it and more well-informed than I am. And she said yes! So . . .

Dear LJ brain trust,

What books, websites and dress diaries/blogs do you recommend to a beginner who is interested in creating historically accurate clothing for middle class people in Elizabethan England? I believe I'm correct in thinking that nuranar's friend already has some sewing experience, perhaps considerable. If you do other eras or geographic areas, please feel free to weigh in with research strategies!

What I've recommended is under the cut. I've added and refined my earlier suggestions, nuranar!

( What I've recommended )

Anybody else have any suggestions? I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things I should have in there! I am trying to stay away from modern sewing pattern suggestions, since those aren't actually as helpful as texts/websites if you're trying to do research yourself.

At some point in the next couple days, I'm going to be switching over to default friends locking all my entries. I haven't purposefully made an un-friends-locked entry in forever and I'm getting tired of clicking on the drop-box.

So, if you have me friended but I have not friended you and you would like me to friend you, drop me a comment on this post and introduce yourself.

I think I'm going to start posting my book reviews in my journal, because it's not like I don't spend a lot of time writing them. Also: guaranteed content!

That is, of course, unless anyone has any objection. Speak now or forever hold your peace, people! There is no turning back once I make up my mind to do something.

( Book review: The Doubletree by Victoria Pade (Western historical romance) )

Um, this is also acknowledgment of the fact that I judge genre books by different standards than non-genre books. There is general fiction and then there is genre fiction, and genre fiction has an entire culture of expectations and conventions that non-genre fiction doesn't. So, my ratings for romance novels are based on romance conventions and expectations, not general fiction. If I ever read any romance that I think a general reader will like, I will advise. Otherwise, romance non-readers, don't take my high ratings on romances as a recommendation, because you will probably end up confused and/or with a broken brain.

So, last night, I washed and dried the damask, and when I pulled it out of the dryer, it was still a bit damp. I draped it over pretty much everything in my bedroom to dry overnight. Went and did other things, and when I came back into my room this is what I discovered.

( Ha! )

I need something jumpstart my writing. I'm so braindead. I sit down to write and I can feel myself getting stupider by the moment, because my writing goals don't seem concrete enough -- all fuzzy and distant because it's my NaNo novel and there's still so much left to do. A small part gets written, but it's still so far from complete that I think I need the writing equivalent of a hat knit on size 12 needles with bulky yarn.

To that end, I'm thinking about doing something that I mentioned as being "super awesome" in one of the Yuletide threads, way back in December. What's that, you say? Why, it's a Shakespeare fanfic exchange, that's what!

I just don't know where to start. Anybody on my flist interested? Any communities you can think of to drum up interest? I'm not sure if I can post about this at yuletide or not. I really don't dabble in fandom all that much. I guess I'm a stoic fanfic writer? A hermit? A rock, an iiiiiisland?

What I'm thinking is very similar to Yuletide, except all Shakespeare. People nominate plays, then write prompts, they get matched up and a deadline, 1000 word fic minimum. Write a fic, get a fic, please allow six weeks for shipping and handling. I'm expecting it to be small, so I don't see any problem doing the matching manually, rather than computer-aided.

I don't know if I posted this to my journal off the Yuletide filter, but this is what I wrote for Yuletide 2008:

Title: Rosaline, At Rest
Fandom/Characters: Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet; Rosaline
Word Count:</> ~1500
Rating: Apparently I rated it PG-13? I don't know what I was thinking. Eh, nothing scandalous.

I really enjoyed it, and I'd like to write more, but I want to write more with the guidance of a prompt. And knowing I'll receive something similar in return.

_{What? Altruism? Wazzat?}

Friends who have made 16th-century hanging gowns, I have questions.

I have these five yards or so of burgundy cotton velveteen, and I think it wants to be a hanging gown/loose gown. It will be a loose gown. I need an Elizabethan overcoat, and I think this will be a good, easy project. A get well project, if you will.

Has anyone used any of the patterns out of Patterns of Fashion? Looking at those, it looks like all the loose gowns are just widths of fabric pleated to an internal yoke, with armscyes and necks cut as required. The Sir Francis Verney gown just has ribbons as stay tapes, right? I'm thinking about basing it on one of the young girls' gowns, as the length on those are right for me, if not the bust. The Sir Francis Verney gown is 60-inches long at the back, and as I am 62-inches tall and narrow-shouldered, that's not going to work. Besides, I loveloveLOVE the round sleeves on the girl's gown on page 122 -- the one of cut velvet.

What I'm wondering is if there's any precedence for a separate shoulder yoke -- external, like a man's shirt -- with the body/skirts of the gown gathered/cartridge pleated to it. I seem to remember someone doing that in a dress diary, but hell if I can find it now.

So, internet-friends, have any resources or advice? Is it really as simple as cutting the right length or fabric and then pleating it to a yoke? What did you use for lining? Do I need a lining? Attached at the hem or free?

_{Y HELO THAR, help vampirism!}

If this doesn't work out, I'm going to make a fitted English gown with a full skirt.

In case anyone on my friends list doesn't know, Fashion Fabrics Club is having a sale starting on Tuesday. Here's what they're discounting:

Fabric from Jones New York: $2.98/yd
All Wool Fabrics: 40% off
Selected 45-inch cotton prints: Half off
Fashion Sample Cuts, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 yard pieces: Half off
Entire stock of thread: Half off (Includes Coats & Clark, Gutterman,
Metrosene and all our embroidery and serger threads.)

The sale is from the 20th to the 24th, or Tuesday through Saturday. FFC is kind of hit or miss when it comes to quality and fiber content -- just because they say it's wool doesn't necessarily mean it's 100-percent wool -- but it's worth a look.

ETA: How about a kirtle in this? With orange sleeves? Or something 1860s in this? Mwah ha ha!

On a more serious note, I've been thinking about a GFD-ish thing in a color close to this. But it has Lycra in it, naturally.

My kingdom for wool that isn't black, gray or navy blue and without Lycra.

OK, so they're really more pre-WWI, but stripey warmness is something I'm a fan of regardless of the era. bexi posted links to sweaters on that website, and I found these by poking around.

How much yarn do you think is required for those? The sample is made with Karabella Aurora 8, but the page doesn't give amounts, natch. The directions say one skein of black and two skeins of CC, but how much is in a skein? Blah!

Do you think 100 yards of black and 200 yards of CC would be enough? I'm thinking yes, especially since Ravelry tells me that these knit up as fitting a US size 10 or 11 ladies foot. I'm a 7.5/8, so I'll have to do some resizing.

Also, the note "Use worsted weight yarn knit tightly on a #6 needle" gives me pause, as I usually knit worsted weight on a US 6. Am I just a weirdo? Possibly. That's not all that tightly knit.

_{I believe I told myself I'd do NaCoFiMo this month, too. And finish some writing. *laughs*}