There are many sites just full of links for members of the Society for Creative Anachronism; this is another one. I was tired of trying (and failing) to keep these all organized on my browser bookmarks. This way, too, I can add notes and categories easier. I have a second page for SCA camping resources here.
If you happen to find a broken link below PLEASE let me know. I know how disheartening it is to find an amazing SCA links website with a title of a link that is absolutely perfect for your needs only to click on it and realize that the website hasn’t been updated since 1998 and the pages no longer exist because people have let their domains expire once they stopped playing because the SCA has been around for way longer than the internet and…. whew. Okay.
Note that I will definitely be adding to this page as I clean out more and more bookmarks from my computer.
THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND (HOPEFULLY) WILL BE CONSTANTLY UPDATED. Last Update: 29 August 2019
Other Links Collections
- Lars Datter Sitemap
- Lwittie’s Garb and Patterns
- MEDIEVAL PAVILION RESOURCES–Costuming Links
- Medieval Clothing Pages: Articles by Cynthia Virtue
- Costume Gallery (not updated since 2014)
- Sophie Stitches – 16th Century Uncategorized Links
- Kingdom of Atlantia, SCA Inc – Minister of Arts & Sciences – Clothing Links
Italian
General Information – Start Here for New Projects!
- Realm of Venus
- La Bella Donna
- Terms Glossary
- Research Page List of posts to research sorted by type (ie hairstyles, aprons, headdresses, games, etc)
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Dressing the Italian way List of Pieces
Galleries of Paintings
- Anéa Costumes
- 1500s Italian portraits on Facebook
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Working Class Art Gallery – Some Earlier
- Realm of Venus – The Wardrobe – late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in portraits sorted by decade and geography
- Web Gallery of Art – “searchable database of European fine arts and architecture (3rd-19th centuries), currently containing over 47.300 reproductions”
- Late Renaissance Gallery
- See also: The MET under the Extant Galleries or Examples section below.
- Sophie Stitches
Extant Galleries or Examples
Okay if you haven’t looked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s gallery search then I’m going to tell you to stop now and go there. Below is a link for only items from 1400-1600 from Venice. Yeah. Flipping phenomenal. Here I’ve limited it to just bobbin lace from the same time and place. There are 95 results. 95. What?! Here are 189 textiles they’ve found. Yeah. Go check out The MET. Please.
- The MET – Venice 1400-1600 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Anéa Costumes
- Extant Album on Facebook Gallery
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Extant Italian Dresses
- All The Pretty Dresses – by Isabella D’Angelo, extant pieces in private collections from pre-1941
Garb Essentials
- Anéa Costumes
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Stiffened Hems
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Stays/Stiffened Fabrics
Gamurra and Giornea
- Sophie Stitches
Zimarra
- Morgan Donner – Venetian Zimarra
Camicia
- Realm of Venus
- Falling Ruff circa 1570-1590s along with a how-to page and her A&S documentation and Works Cited
- How to Sew a Venetian Camicia
- Tatiana Kaisch – IRCC8 ** – Lace insets
- Neckline Finishes
- Jeanne Clifton – IRCC5 – 2015 ** ridiculously awesome documentation of her camicia that I need to utilize if I ever enter into an A&S competition
- Anéa Costumes
- 1500s Embroidered Camicia on Facebook
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Camicia
- Morgan Donner
- Venetian Shift | Flickr
- 16th Century Shirt – Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party awesome blackwork
- Festive Attyre
Undergarments
- La Bella Donna – Undergarments Info
- Realm of Venus – Extant Italian Drawers
Caftans and Venetian Turkish Coats
- Realm of Venus – Lisa Emond – IRCC8 – 2018
- La Bella Donna – Turkish Venetian Gown & Coat – La Bella Donna
- Oonagh’s Own – The Humble Turkish coat | Oonaghs Own
- Ottoman Influences in Western Dress **
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Caftan
Hair
- La Bella Donna – 14th – 15th Century Italian Hair Kit
Accessories
- La Bella Donna – Accessories and Shoes List
Sleeves
- Realm of Venus – Danielle Nunn-Weinberg Showcase ** with various sleeve examples
- Darth Kendra – 1490s Sleeves
- Morgan Donner – Hello! I have been muchly busy…
Partlet
- Realm of Venus – IRCC9 – Kairi C ** (her dress is nice, but it was her partlet that I loved so I saved it here instead of with the others)
- Morgan Donner
Flag Fans
- Realm of Venus – Venetian Flag Fans and photos of one she made herself
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Venetian Flag Fans
- The Renaissance Tailor – Three Types of 1500s Fans
- Lars Datter Linkspages – Fans
Muff
- Realm of Venus – 1590s Muff
Pockets and Purses
- Dawn’s Dress Diary – 1480’s Florence Saccoccia
- Morgan Donner – Curiously Shaped Purse
Aprons
- The MET – Extant 1500-1600s Apron with Trim
- Morgan Donner
- Lars Datter – Medieval and Renaissance Aprons
- Festive Attyre – BROKEN LINK – Working Class Aprons
- 13Costumes – Pleatwork Apron
Jewelry
- Morgan Donner – Italian Jewelry Largesse
- La Bella Donna – Tablet Weaving A Silk Filet & Belt
Lifestyle
- La Bella Donna
- Amaretto from 1525 includes a portrait of the woman responsible for Amaretto, including her recipe
- Daily Life in middle ages/renaissance Italy mostly Florence specifically
- Italian Dance Manuals
- Food
- Games
- Women’s Lives
Specific Dresses
Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1511: Portrait of a Woman Known as La Schiavona
- Realm of Venus
- 1510s Venice Painting Gallery
- Clare Drake – IRCC3 – 2013 ** Not actually the same dress, but a very similar shape
Campi Dresses
- Realm of Venus IRCC5 Jan Hunnicutt – IRCC5 – 2015 **
- Camicia, petticoat, outer gown, apron, partlet
- detailed apron making
- shawl!! I love love love this pinner and need one
- soft cap
- snood
- Silverstah
- BROKEN LINK – Mustard Campi
- BROKEN LINK – 1580’s Campi
- BROKEN LINK – Campi – Kitchen
- BROKEN LINK – ‘Campi’ style Italian working-class dress
The Unicorn (Florence) AND The Pregnant Woman (Florence)
Same dress, different colors. Basically. Raffaelo Sanzi, c1505: Lady with a Unicorn AND Raffaelo Sanzi, c1505-06: Portrait of a Woman (La donna gravida – The pregnant woman)
- Realm of Venus
- 1500-1540 Florence Painting Gallery
- Chantelle Gerrard – IRCC3 – 2013 ** similiar style
- Anéa Costumes
- BROKEN LINK – Anéa’s Files Website Anea’s Unicorn Dress Diary
- Unicorn On Realm of Venus
- Unicorn Facebook Album
The Preaching of St. John the Baptist (Florence)
Francesco Ubertini (Bacchiacca), c 1520: The Preaching of St John the Baptist
- Realm of Venus – 1500-1540 Florence Painting Gallery
Maddalena Doni Portrait by Raphael
- Realm of Venus – Anéa Costumes on Realm of Venus
Fabrics
I shamelessly pulled this list from someone’s Realm of Venus contest list. Verbatim-ish. The notes are even hers.
- Realm of Venus – An easy to read discourse on the different fabrics used in Italian garment making
- Irish Linen Mills – a history of use of linen, abundant and popular in the 16th century, in the area now known as Ireland
- Rosalie Gilbert’s Glossary – link to Rosalie’s Medieval Woman’s glossary of fabric, fur and leather names
- Truly delightful article on the use of linen in samplers, with wonderful photos of extant samplers currently residing in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England
Ever After Costume References
- Frock Flicks has a listing of many of the dresses
- Ever After Costume Study Site
Sewing Notes
- 13 Costumes – Skirt Attached to Skirt
- Eat, Sleep, Write, Sew – a cosplay blogger with tutorials
- Stitches and Seam Techniques **
- Portia’s Primers – Corsetry ** – Time and time again I saw people link to an article on Festive Attyre’s site called “Everything you ever wanted to know about boning with hemp cord, but were afraid to ask!” and time and time again the links were broken. No more! I finally found someone who has saved it from the past! And yes, you can bet I downloaded this file the moment I found it.
Places to Buy Patterns
- La Bella Donna – at Gulf Wars!
Research Reference Books and Materials
- La Bella Donna – Bibliography for her own research
Morgan Donner
^^Click that for her main site. She gets her own H2 heading instead of H3 mostly because I think she’s just great. Sigil agrees too. She sent Morgan a message on Facebook a few weeks ago (just before Pennsic) asking to be her best friend. Morgan agreed. I can’t even be mad that Sigil just replaced me like that.
Her content has helped me so much with her info that I even made a Patreon account just to support her …. I know how expensive domain fees can be. She also has an Etsy shop.
- Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party Facebook
- Morgan Donner’s YouTube
- Morgan Donner Flickr
- She’s on DeviantArt too.
- I also have her Pintrest saved
- Has not been updated since 2014 but I weirdly found her Live Journal here linked from another site.
- Heather Morgan – IRCC4 – 2014 ** 1550-1570’s c-c-c-combo that is absolutely lovely
- This is a lower waist than my normal but holy damn it’s pretty and perfect and amazing and so well documented.
- I’ve been avoiding bringing photos over from this page because I don’t have permission to use them but I’m breaking that rule here.
- More posts about this dress are on her website
- She also made herself some awesome boy garb! Heather Morgan – IRCC2 – 2012 **
Here are just a sampling of some more of her dresses that I’m in love with:
- Sailor Moon Dress Diary
- Venetian Dress – Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party
- Grey/Blue Italian Kirtle – Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party
- Laurel Gown – Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party
- Turquoise Italian Working-Class Dress – Morgan Donner’s Sewing Party
I know I get a notification every time someone links to one of my pages on this website – it’s not often that it happens and it’s usually me elsewhere doing it – but I wonder if she does too…..
Awesome People with Awesome Web Presences That I Just Haven’t Finished Categorizing…
You’ll see their links repeated through the following categories. These are ones I have kind of explored but haven’t linked to all their pages I wanted to keep.
Known to be Active
- 13Costumes
- Anéa Costumes Focuses on 16th century Italian on Facebook I used to have many links to her website but it appears to be down
- The Compleatly Dressed Anachronis by Master Edthy Miller
- Darth Kendra Research
- The Earth Is Flat: & Other Dressmaking Conventions (last update April 2019)
- Festive Attyre and Festive Attyre Flickr Page
- Gebhard’s Blog Gebhard’s Blog
- Is That an Apres? (last update March 2019, posts about once a year)
- Isabella’s Project Diary by Isabella D’Angelo
- La Bella Donna – by Giata Magdalena Alberti, “arts, skills, sciences, and philosophies of Renaissance Italy (1430-1600)” with a blog here that I haven’t fully explored. Some pages I saved:
- Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog
- Realm of Venus – sixteenth-century Venetian women’s fashion, led by Anabella Wake SCA Bella Lucia de Verona, her full Renaissance Italy site here
Other
- 1500 Stitches by Margaret Wolseley, 1500s Venice Man
- The Renaissance Tailor (last update unknown)
- Historical Costuming with Chantelle Gerrard (last update unknown)
- The Tudor Revolution (last update January 2018)
- Studio Zanobia (last update 2013)
- Sew Crazy, Sew Mad (last update 2014)
- Chimera’s Closet (last update 2012)
- Caravan of Elephants (last update 2014)
- Paige’s into the Past (last update 2014)
- Silverstah – Well this site went dark, but I found her “other” website – Laura J Parker – which has a couple articles, but not many, and her Flickr / DeviantArt that contains some photos and a Pintrest with some neat boards to follow
- BROKEN LINK – 1580’s Italian Working Class Dress
- BROKEN LINK – Green with Orange Sleeves
- BROKEN LINK – 1560s Red and Gold Court Dress
- Shushanna Designs: 16th Century Italian Garb
Realm of Venus Annual Renaissance Costume Challenge Entrants
The Realm of Venus hosts annually a costume challenge. You can read her details about it on the 2019 Challenge page here. The below are just ones I’ve chosen to save with some notes on why I saved them each. Note that I’ve moved some to the “Specific Dresses” section if applicable. There are TONS of amazing resources throughout these pages but I only saved the ones relevant to my current interests.
- Victoria Black – IRCC1 – 2011 **
- Hannah Fuhriman – IRCC2 – 2012 **
- April Maybee – IRCC3 – 2013 **
- Lynda Fjellman – IRCC5 – 2015 ** 1500 upper-class countrywoman
- Stocking pattern image
- Close-up of camicia cuff that I love
- How to pattern some leather slippers
- How to add some super cool seams to my camicias
- Pockets
- Celeste Wheater – IRCC5 – 2015 ** 1510 Milan red and yellow dress
- Camicia, partlet, hose, sleeves, saccocia
- Scuffia hair bag! Neeeeed.
- Carol Lewis – IRCC5 – 2015 ** 16th century Italian
- Camicia, farsettina, overdress, pocket, har, zimmara (loose gown), sottana
- farsettina might be what I need for undergarments! It appears here as a basic “Campi” that laces up the front
- Sottana here is just a looser, full Campi shape
- Zimmara – this is that robe thing with the awesome shoulders, per her also called veste and gamurra
- Amazingly awesome apron detail smocking
- Realm of Venus – Angela Ketley – IRCC5 – 2015 ** Giovanna Tornabuoni recreation
- camicia, gamurra, sleeves, giornea, fazzoletto, sleeves, apron, partlet
- partlet = fazzoletto
- super floofy green velvet dress
- Zacharlija Standish – IRCC7 – 2017
- Hallie Larsen – IRCC8 – 2018
- Jennifer Lee – IRCC8 – 2018 ** young woman in pink from Ghirlandaio’s Birth of St. John the Baptist
- Finally a two-part sleeve!!!
- Angela Smith – IRCC8 – 2018 ** mid-1500s and totally Florence but damn it I’m in love
- Crystal Tice – IRCC9 – 2019 ** 1510s del Piombo’s Daughter of Herodias.
- huge bag sleeves like I’m trying with the LaSchiavona
- camicia, underskirt, over-gown, partlet, apron, coif, shoes
- she did the partlet as just a rectangle which is nice
- coif similar to the LaSchiavona!
- Kathleen Zanardo – IRCC9 – 2019 **
- Parmigianino’s “Antea”. The painting was executed in 1535 in the city of Parma
- Not my normal look but holy goodness it looks amazing
- Hannah Fuhriman – IRCC9 – 2019 **
- Had to save for her AMAZING accessory work
- Beaded and embroidered partlet
- Breeches/bloomers
- hand-embroidered camicia
I haven’t looked through all the showcases, but here are a few I had bookmarked:
- Alyxx at the Realm of Venus
- The Venetian Look in The Palma Vecchio and Early Titian Era (1511-40) – Venus’ Wardrobe
- Katherine at the Realm of Venus
Viking / Varangian / Rus
- Sophie Stitches
This section is only VERY VAGUELY sorted. AKA I didn’t actually open any of these links to properly sort them, I went specifically based on the URL and page name in my Bookmarks alone…
- Cerridwen’s Creations – Men’s Viking
- Modern Depictions of Viking Women’s Clothing
- Google Docs
- Urd.Priv
- Loose Threads – Völva outfit
- A Magya Jurta
- The Armour Archive
- Reddit
- Advice on Constructing Hidden Armor : sca
- Reddit Viking Armor Ideas
- I am curious about the Differences, Similarities, and relationships between the Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian, Danes) Vikings and the Finnish equivalents (Varangians, Rus, etc..). How different or similar where these people? : history
- Viking raids, trade, exploration and influence once spanned much of the Northern Hemisphere [2048×998] : MapPorn
- Rus spiky tortoise brooches: any sources? : sca
- Ciar’s Stitch in Time – sewing and embroidery through the ages
Varangian
Patterns
Armor
- Layers via Reddit
- Kit: Trousers, Breeches, Thorsbergs, Hose & Puttees
- Rattan Knee Armor and Rus Pants. : sca
Historical Notes
- Ibn Fadlan, the Varangian Guard, & the Rus’ with Dr. James Montgomery – The History Of Vikings
- 10 Things You Should Know About The Varangian Guard
- Varangian Voice – Hodegon
- Normans – Varangian Guard | X Century
- Gender and the Archaeology of Death – Google Books
- What Was Life Like for Women in the Viking Age? – HISTORY
- Vikings in the East: Rus and Varangians
- New Varangian Guard – Cunnan
- Who were the Varangian Guard? | History TV
- Globetrotting Vikings: The Quest for Constantinople
- The Viking Mercenaries of the Byzantine Empire
- The Varagian Guard
- The Varangian Guard: The Vikings in Byzantium
- Maena
German
- The Costume Gallery
- Morgan Donner
- 13Costumes
- Cerridwen’s Creations
- 16th Century German Saxon Gown ** includes some amazing pdfs
- Sophie’s Stitches
Landsknecht
- 13Costumes
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian
- AntiFerus
- The Medieval Steppe Warrior (Middle Eastern garb site)
- Extant 13th or 14th Century Coats
- Pre-Mongol Persian Costume Or 11th and 12th Century Seljuk Dynasty Costume
- Sophie’s Stitchies – Middle Eastern Garb
Rome
- Anna’s New Rome – Byzantine and Ancient Meditteranean Blog
- Tunica, Stola, and Palla Patterns
Other European
- Sophie Stitches
- Morgan Donner
- Lars Datter – Dagging in Detail – Examples of dagging in clothing
- Historical costume of Duke Siemovit’s Mazowiecka’s Banner –their choice of iconography and sources from 1390-1410
- Studies of a Steppes Nomad – Magyars / Hungary
Gothic Cotehardie
- Silverstah’s – Grey Wool
- Morgan Donner – Kirtle Tutoria
- Cotte Simple
- Cerridwen’s Creations – Fitted Dress **
Sewing, Generic
- Coloring and Dying Fabric How to make purple
- Custom Elizabethan Corset Pattern Generator
- Sophie’s Stitches – Misc Sewing Information
Places to Buy Stuff
Trim
Fabric
Jewelry and Accessories
Completed Bits for if I’m Ever Lazy with Disposable Income
- LinenGarb for basic tunics and pants
- Historic Enterprises
- Raymond’s Quiet Press
- MIDGAARB
- Medieval, Renaissance, & Viking Shoes and Boots | Boots By Bohemond
** These pages I’ve saved offline HTML files for and can send them to you if the link is broken! 😀