favorite things

renaissance and costume related websites

A Festive Attyre: Renaissance and Elizabethan Costuming
Jennifer Thompson's lovely site is full of wonderful things including Featured Attyre which is updated each week. This showcase of talented costumers is inspiring and a weekly delight. Jennifer's site can also boast about it's research, no slacking here. The sections on use of lower grade silks and on hemp boning are especially informative. Includes diaries and photos of Jennifer's costumes. Jen is also a gracious email
question answerer.

Billy and Charlie's Finest Quality Pewter Goods
Most things one could think of needing. Brooches, belt buckles, folding spoons? Yep, they have it.

Costumes by Lynn McMasters
Wow! Can this lady sew! Stunning photos of more stunning costumes. Also the home of Fabric Covered Buckram Period Hat Patterns by Lynn McMasters. This site is worth a peek or two or three!

Dodger Costumes
A fantastic theatrical costume workshop and rental outfit. The flash on the website alone makes me drool! Costume plots for shows and a ton more, amazing!

The Elizabethan Costuming Page
Undoubtedly one of the best research websites for the Renaissance and Elizabethan eras. If you can't find it here, chances are you'll have a tough time finding it online. Drea Leed has done a beautiful job pulling together tons of stuff that's really helpful. The site is just so full of info it'd be pointless to list it all, you really must visit.

Fettered Cock Pewters
Another location for finding those shiny bits to add to your creations and a few items that are not pewter.

In Prayse of the Needle
Some of the most amazing "Historically Inspired Needlework" on the web. Simply breathtaking!

La Crasia Gloves
This New York glove company not only boasts a long list of celebrity clients they make the most beautiful gloves! They are featured in movies, B'way shows, magazines and at debutante balls each year, isn't about time they were worn for Renaissance costumes as well?

Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge
A great collection of bits of information that almost everyone living in Elizabethan England would know. Everything from What to name the baby to how to celebrate Christmas to how to choose appropriate food for lunch. It's pretty amazing, a word of warning you could find yourself reading it for hours.

Mode Historique
Sarah Goodman has thrown her costuming talents and a bit of randomness into this great site. She's got a little bit of everything and has the photos to prove it. Research, diaries, and info on her creations.

Margo Anderson's Historic Costume Patterns
Patterns developed by California costumer Margo Anderson. She's helped make Elizabethan costumes "easy". With patterns for men and women, a binder's worth of info w/ each one and a Yahoo! group to cheer sewers on, these are some of the most user friendly patterns on the market.

Reconstructing History Patterns
Kass McGann's patterns from many historic time periods. Men's and Women's patterns including some hard to find things like English Jackets
and Petticoats and Polish Men's Zupan and Kontusz.

Realm of Venus
Bella's beautiful site that is an inspiration to Italian renaissance lovers everywhere! Some of the portraits she has collected are drool worthy.

The Renaissance Tailor
The site I turn to time and again when I need to figure how far apart my pleats should be and when I need to be amazed.

Sock Dreams
An impressive array of socks, tights, and other things for the feet and legs. 

www.sempstress.org
The wonderful site of the lovely and talented Melissa Heischberg, aka The Semptress. Overflowing with info and helpful instructions for draping patterns and home of Ye Olde Dial-a-Dress a fun "tool" for playing w/ gown design ideas in an easy and paper free manner. Missa's own costumes are covered in photo and diary form.

Steve Millingham Pewter Replicas
Amazing pewter replicas of things like spoons and buttons, chains of office and other jewelry. Hey, if the Tower of London and Shakespeare's Globe use his stuff shouldn't we all? I'm not sure but I suspect that they were also used in "Pirates of the Caribbean", they look very similar.

Thrednedle Street Clothiers
A site that has some of the most in-depth info about clothing from the Renaissance period, including how and where one would buy it. It's really amazing the things one can learn. I especially enjoy the Who's Who list which gives a little glimpse into the people and occupations of the Elizabethan world.

fun sites

Acid Fonts
Great site full of FREE fonts to download. Some of the fonts used here were downloaded from this site.

Tiny URL.com
This neat site turns those outrageously long web addresses into tidy little bundles perfect for pasting into emails and chat groups. Now why didn't I think of that?

Slanguage.com
Ok, so it isn't always true, but Slanguage makes fun of some regional phrases and dialects. Although most are VERY exaggerated people in Minnesota do call The Mall of America "The Mega-Mall" but around my house it's "Hugedale". Or as the sign on 94 entering MN says "Uberdale" Don't worry, that one is a really regional one.

Wordsmith.org
Fun with words! Includes the very addictive Internet Anagram Server. What else does your name spell?