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Related: About this forumCroney
(4,660 posts)Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, but its $35 on Amazon. Have to think about it.
Tanuki
(14,918 posts)yuiyoshida
(41,831 posts)or a star fleet uniform !
IronLionZion
(45,438 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I love that commercial for Millie Dresselhaus:
More of this, please!
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)Nice job.
Tanuki
(14,918 posts)I had an Irish acquaintance who was also named Grainne (pronounced Grahn-ya), Irish Gaelic for Grace, and she was the first one who told me about her "she-pirate" namesake.
http://takebackhalloween.org/grace-omalley/
"To the English, she was Grace OMalley (1530-1603), notorious pirate. To the Irish, she was Gráinne Ní Mháille, Queen of Clew Bay, and her crews were just collecting taxes from the ships that entered her waters. True, these taxes were collected at the point of a sword by armed boarding parties of sailors who behaved an awful lot like pirates, but hey, a queens gotta do what a queens gotta do. Especially when her country is being invaded and colonized by a foreign power, which is exactly what was happening.
The backdrop to Grace OMalleys piracy was the ongoing English conquest of Ireland. Traditional clan chieftains like Grace were being pushed to the edge, their power under constant attack from the English overlords. The most famous incident in Graces lifeher meeting with Elizabeth Iwas a direct result of this persecution. When the English governor took Graces son captive, Grace boldly sailed to England to petition Elizabeth for his release. The amazing thing is that she succeeded. Elizabeth seems to have taken a liking to the Irish woman, perhaps sensing in her a kindred spirit. She promptly wrote to the governor in Ireland, instructing him to release Graces son and to henceforth treat Grace OMalley as a friend of the crown.
We have a reasonably good idea of what an authentic 16th century Irish costume would look like; unfortunately, its impossible to find ready-made. Every single outfit weve seen has been a custom creation, usually commissioned by serious reenactment enthusiasts. For our purposes, were just going to make do with garments that are approximately the right shape and style. The items we suggest, from left to right:
1. Yellow chemise. Also available hereand here. The Irish chemise, or leine, was the basic national garment. By the 16th century it was dyed saffron and had big baggy sleevesa style the English thought looked absolutely horrible. That probably made the Irish love it even more. This reenactment chemise in mustard yellow is the closest thing we can find ready-made.
2. Fair Maiden Dress in green. Also available here. The fashion in Ireland was for a gown with a full pleated skirt, a loosely laced bodice, and peculiar open sleeves that allowed the sleeves of theleine to hang through. The Shinrone gown is the key piece of archaeological evidence for the period (details here); we include a drawing of it in our main illustration. You cant find a dress like that for sale, so were substituting this Ren Faire gown. The main thing its missing is the sleeves. Its workable, though; just make sure you pin the skirtclosed all the way down. A boatload of safety pins will do the trick.
3. Wool throw in muted Stewart tartan to use as a cloak. The Irish cloak, or brat, was a thick wool rectangle or semi-circle edged in heavy fringe. We chose plaid because its pretty, but checks, stripes, or solids would also be appropriate. (Dont worry about the fact that this pattern is named after the Stewarts. Gaels and other Celts have been enjoying plaid since the Iron Age, long before the 19th century fad for assigning particular tartans to Scottish clans.) If you dont have a nice wool throw you can use, just get a couple of yards of inexpensive fleece fabric (like this) and attach some fringe (like this) to the edge with adhesive hem tape. Contrasting fringe is actually good, since the Irish fashion was to beef up the fringe until it almost looked like a fur edging.
4. Penannular brooch. To fasten your cloak at the neck. The one we show is the large 3-inch size, listed at the bottom of the page.
5. Double wrap belt. To hold your sword, naturally.
6. Synthetic broadsword. Its molded polypropylene, so you wont do any damage with this thing. But it looks nice.
Shoes: Wear flat leather boots or booties. Nothing fancy; no bucket boots à laPirates of the Caribbean. Wrong century.
Illustration credits: The drawing of the Shinrone gown is from the pattern byKass McGann. The statue of Grace OMalley is by the artist Michael Cooper, and stands on the grounds of Westport House, the County Mayo home of Graces descendants. The illustration of Grace OMalley meeting Queen Elizabeth I is from the frontispiece of the Anthologia Hibernica, published in 1793. The small round portrait is from the cover of the childrens edition of Granuaile: Sea Queen of Ireland, written by Anne Chambers and illustrated by Deirdre ONeill."
sarge43
(28,941 posts)Adm Grace Hopper: Dark blue jacket and skirt, white blouse, dark blue scarf for the tie, service ribbons could be drawn on a piece of cardboard, black shoes, grey wig and glasses, tablet.
Woman pioneer: Bessie Coleman. First African American woman to be a licensed pilot. Leather jacket, the old type helmet be easy to make with dark brown cloth, goggles, flight log.
IronLionZion
(45,438 posts)sarge43
(28,941 posts)IronLionZion
(45,438 posts)I should get this book for my niece