Classes

We have a number of requests for feedback. From the seneschals and the
chronicler: what is the best way to get information to the populace at
large about what we are doing? Is it possible to coordinate a ride board
so that people with cars can take people without them who might not
otherwise come? Are there public spaces available to you where larger,
more general classes can be held? Have people asked you for specific
classes that fit into our subject matter?

For those interested in our classes: What sort of classes do you want to
see? What sort of classes do you want to teach? Are there class ideas
that you have which fit into our proposed series' (more on those in a
minute)? How often do you want to have classes? Debbie and I have a
boodle of ideas, and were wondering if having one Friday night class a
month and one Sunday or Saturday workshop a month would be too much? What
days are you free and which do you have standard commitments on? Would
you be willing to be part of a phone tree to contact people about
workshops? Should we host an EKU or local University, and do a day long
track of this stuff?

In order to get all of you thinking, and to respond to requests, Katherine
and I have decided on the overall theme of "interpretation". Good
historical clothing requires interpretation of lots of kinds of
information into specific garments.

Here are some of the classes and series we are working on:

I. The Raw Materials:
Fiber vs. Weave vs. Finish: Fabric Properties (repeat)
History of Textiles slideshow (repeat of Pennsic sauna)
Evaluating Historic Clothing Skills (repeat)
Resource guide to the Garment Center (Maybe people want to send me their
favorite places, and I can compile info?)

II. The Tools:
Things You May Have Missed By Teaching Yourself to Sew (repeat, looking
for volunteer instructors, will train)
Handstitches and Their Applications (repeat)
How Your Sewing Machine Works (repeat, Henry Kersey, please?)

Research Skills for the Non-Academician
Part I: Book stuff: how to find information
Part II: Working from patterns of extant garments
Walking Tour/How To of the NY Public Library
Walking Tour/How To of the FIT Library

Fitting: Part I: The Body's Trouble Spots (lecture)
Part II: Workshop: Everybody bring 3 troubled garments, their
questions, and their confidence, and we'll work through them

Intro to Interpretation of Visual Sources (repeat)

III. Intrepretation for Specific Periods:

Using Sources to Recreate Early Period Clothes:
a) Literary, b) visual, and c) extant stuff
Cutting Garments Before the Cotehardie

International Gothic (c. 1340-1480) Overview
High Gothic Couture Dress: Hands On Draping: Part I & Part II
Draping Gothic shifts, an Experiment

Renaissance Clothing: Types of Sources
a) Literary, b) visual, c) extant stuff
Renaissance Undergarments (repeat)
Fine Tuning Bodice Fit, and Corsetry (repeat)
Doublet Tailoring (repeat, Henry Kersey, please?)
Skirt Draping Workshop, Experimentation welcome

IV. Details
Basic Millinery Techniques
Overview of Embroidery in Period
Incorporating Embellishment into Overall Clothing Design
Elizabethan Blackwork (Jean? or Eric?)
Elizabethan Whitework (repeat)
Laidwork
Applique (repeat)
 

Note that we have no particular schedule for these set up. Probably it
will be best for some items to work in series', but to overall alternate
general overviews with specific period workshops. But popular acclaim
will go a long way toward determining the order of precedence, so let us
know what you want to see.

Remember, Feedback! We want feedback!

In serviciam,

Elizabeth