How to Make Easy Renaissance Clothing

Renaissance-style accessories help add authenticity to your Renaissance clothing.

Whether you plan to attend a Renaissance Faire or you've come up with your best Halloween costume idea ever, making Renaissance clothing can be relatively simple. Of course, making Renaissance clothing can also be extremely complicated, so it is important to develop an idea of what kind of costume you could choose the minimize the complications, expense and advanced tailoring skills required.

Things You'll Need

• Clothing pattern
• Sewing thread
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Fabric

Instructions

1. Try focusing on various types of peasant outfits for less expensive and simpler Renaissance-style clothing. During the Renaissance period, wealthy individuals and members of nobility displayed their station by wearing expensive and elaborately detailed clothing, making for an expensive and complicated costume. Think about the type of Renaissance peasant you might enjoy impersonating. Some choices include blacksmiths, barmaids, merchant wives or even pirates. Choose the type of character you think would be the most fun.

2. Find a pattern for your chosen Renaissance character. Pattern makers offer a wide variety of choices for Renaissance outfits. Check the patterns for the lowest difficulty rating if you aren't an experienced sewer. Look for fabric that fits the time period. Avoid polyesters, bright or neon colors and printed fabrics. You should also avoid black if you chose a peasant look, because "black dye was difficult to get and phenomenally expensive," according to the website "Renaissance-Faire.com." Stick to period-appropriate fabrics like linens, woven cotton, leather and wool for your creation.

3. Check the fabric requirements for your pattern and make sure you purchase some extra fabric in case of mistakes. Find thread that matches your fabric color as closely as possible. Construct your Renaissance outfit according to the pattern. Cut out the pattern pieces with scissors; solid black lines are outside edges, while dotted or dashed lines represent seam allowances and folds. If you don't understand the meaning of some of the pattern symbols, look online or check sewing books at your local library.

4. Look for accessories for your Renaissance clothing once you have completed construction of the pattern. The website "All-About-Renaissance-Faires.com" suggests perusing costume shops and eBay listings to find Renaissance-style jewelry, ale tankards or tools to give your Renaissance clothing added authenticity.

Tips & Warnings

• Test a small piece of fabric before sewing your garment to ensure the feed and stitch length are set correctly on your sewing machine.

References

• Renaissance-Faire.com, Building a Renaissance Character
• All-About-Renaissance-Faires.com, Renaissance Costume Patterns