A Green Belt?

My Apprentice Brooch - Mistress Elizabeth's arms (which are amazingly close to my own)

This past fall someone messaged me and said "I think we should talk about our relationship"

Which is a terrifying sentence for most people and honestly, it terrified me a little. Except in this case it was Mistress Elizabeth Lovell and she wanted to talk about my becoming her apprentice. 

We did have a long talk. And I had a talk with my Pelican. And I had a talk with her current apprentices. 

There was some soul searching. I'm (unsurprisingly) headstrong and have a lot of obligations to House Strangewayes, Quintavia, the East, the Knowne World Courtesans, etc. 

Did I want a Laurel? Yes, I must admit I did. 

Do I want THIS Laurel? Yes, I admire Elizabeth's art as much as I admire her way with people. She is the biggest cheerleader for her apprentices and those around her. I love her honesty and her positivity, and her willingness to stand up and say - no, actually, this isn't right. 

Thus, at Crown Tournament last October, I stood with my Pelican at my side surrounded by friends and soon-to-be sisters and made my promises to her. 

I have yet to regret it for even half a second. 

They talk in polyamorous relationships about love being multiplied not divided. My love for my House, my Shire, the East, etc has only been multiplied. I have a wider circle of encouragement and support than I did. People I can truly confide in and who would, if asked, help hide the bodies. Plus, in my apprentice sisters, I get to know some wonderfully talented and wickedly funny women as well. 

She's going to make me enter an A&S competition though, a real one, that's a little terrifying.

I made a new dress for the occasion too. I also made an overdress but the day was warm enough without it. I used Kass McGann's Reconstructing History Cotehardie pattern and some beautiful lavender jacquard with little diamonds throughout. The hood is fleece, because I have a wool allergy, and is from Cyntia Virtue's Hood with liripipe pattern. It is exactly long enough to keep the decolletage warm.

Did you really get pinned?

A Dress Fit For a Bard

While we're on the topic of dresses for friends I made a "simple" Elizabethan middle class gown for a friend Solveig Bjarnardottir, a very talented Viking bard who was attending a Yule Elizabeth immersion event  and had nothing to wear.

Lady Solveig Sings

Red and Green but not "Christmas-y"

My favorite fabric store, the Auburn Fabric Outlet, where everything is $2.99 a yard, had these awesome fabrics. I used the green as the base and the red I cut down as trim.

I used the Simplicity Elizabethan pattern that they issued after The Tudors came out. The lines are actually really good on this one - no princess lines to draft out. If you are looking for introductory late period pattern, you could do a lot worse.

I added shoulder wings of the same red fabric and made the sleeves detachable and reversible and a very quick petticoat with a portion of the trim fabric as a forepart.

Solveig's Finished Elizabethan

Another Shot of Solveig's Elizabethan

I lent her a few necklaces and earrings and sent her off to be the belle of the Elizabethan ball.