The Green Dress

In the SCA, one needs time period appropriate garb to attend events. For the longest time all I had was the blue tunic from Tim and the black dress I had borrowed for the renaissance faire that Melissa had given to me. I loved them both but I had yet to have something truely of my own. I sat down one day and came up with four sketches for dresses I wanted to make. Seth, one of the heavy fighters, agreed to help me make a dress. He learned how to sew from his mother and carried that love from making halloween customes into making his own garb for the SCA. He was going to help me make the simplest dress; the green dress. 

When it came down to getting the fabric we found a bed sheet from Goodwill that we would use for the under dress. Serendipitously, Vicky - another fencer, had fabric she wanted to give me. I met her at her house and she gave me the lovely stack of wool. She expressed concern that I wouldn’t like the color. I laughed and told her that the dress I was making was green. 

With all the pieces in place Seth went to work. 

The serenity in this photo belies the fact that he was blasting death metal.

Photo by Seth Fleury

He even modeled it on himself.

When I finally got to try on the dress I was thrilled.

It looked just like my sketch. It reminded me of the sketchbooks I used to have in high school, all filled with characters in lovely dresses. Even when I was little I used to love to play dress up. I would come to the dinner table wearing the prettiest dresses I could find. Throughout the majority of my childhood I wanted to be a princess for Halloween. As I grew into an adult dress up became something that was less and less practical. All my dresses and designs became pages in sketchbooks; concepts for outfits I would never touch. 

But to have this dress felt deeply fullfiling. I was a kid indulging in dress up all over again. I felt like a princess. One of my sketches literally come to life. Able to connect with a childhood dream. Vicky and Seth had helped make it happen. My first SCA outfit; the green dress.