I have always had an interest in the medieval time period;  I learned Gothic calligraphy from a book when I was in grade school.  Imagine my joy when I found an outlet for using these skills for more than just addressing Christmas cards!

 Barony of Endless Hills scrolls

Kingdom of Aethelmearc scrolls

We in the SCA call our period clothing "garb"...we do not wear "costumes" but we strive to re-create as accurately as we can the garments worn by people in the centuries from about the fall of the Roman Empire to 1600 AD--the time of Queen Elizabeth the First`s death.  Some people choose to fall on either side of that timeline, but the majority of the SCA members use these dates as a guide.

At the right are myself and my lord husband (as he likes me to call him!) Gunnarr in our 12th Night garb in 2008.

He is wearing Tudor (a la Henry VIII) and I am wearing Italian Renaissance from a painting by Agnolo Bronzino.

I like to make stuff--the more bling it has on it, the better I like it!  I like to make period Elizabethan gloves because there are not a lot of other people who make them--and there are endless opportunities for decorating them!  The same with "sweet bags"...they were small embroidered, embellished bags used at first for holding fragrant spices, flowers, or other scented things--and they were placed between layers of clothing when not worn to work as a deodorizer of sorts...one did not put heavily beaded and embroidered gown through the wash!

The Elizabethan-style gloves at the right were my first attempt at making gloves--the gloves are bone-colored leather and the embroidered cuffs are ivory silk dupioni with cotton floss stitching and real gold spangles, with some metallic thread accents.