I am contemplating a little princeling costume for my baby son for the Renaissance Fair.
Perhaps I should go all out, dress my little lad in a soft silk gown with puffed shoulders or hanging sleeves, drape his stroller in brocade, and don the gown of the humble wetnurse. Or I can wear my latest Elizabethan – the gold venetian gown – which would make me quite happy (I only wore it once and it really looks good). But to make the picture whole, I would have to dress as the prince’s caretaker.
Since I discussed in the previous post how not-Renaissance Renaissance Fairs are, I could run with that and dress my lovable little boy in a Viking loin-cloth. It would be cool and breezy, and require almost no sewing. I have no pictures of Viking babies, but they couldn’t have been that complex. Who cares that the Vikings were something like half a millenia before queen Elizabeth? Don’t they sell dragons and pagan items at Renaissance Fairs, and people walk around at those places with battle axes anyway?
But Viking Baby would mean I would lose out on possibly the only opportunity I would ever have to make a 16th century princeling costume. He would make the perfect Tudor prince, withstanding the fact that he doesn’t have consumption.
One must also face the fact that eventually he will have opinions. Though I very much look forward to the day we will have stimulating conversations and he can voice his ideas aloud, one must consider the very high probability that he may not be into silk and brocade.
I did that! I made it with deep enough seams that my son will be able to wear it for several years. He seems to like the attention he gets, especially showing off the codpiece…I wore it with my Elizabethan, simply because I didn’t already have a tudor to wear it with.