Wool, glorious wool!

The majority of my costume, save the shifts, aprons, coif and petticote bodies (bodice) will be made from wool. Believe it or not it is incredibly good at temperature regulation - it is cool on hot days, and warm on cold ones. I am incredibly thankful for this, considering my many layers!

I was surprised to find it difficult to source 100% wool here - and the stuff I have found is terribly expensive - so when I came across just under 3 metres of this horrible orange wool in Arthur's Emporium for only $10 a metre I snapped it up! It's too bright for the period, but I threw a packet of this brown dye at it and it came out pretty close to a more suitable colour. I haven't decided yet whether I'll use it for my kirtle or petticote skirt - I'm waiting on some samples to arrive from a shop in Auckland before I start cutting.

Post-dye : more of a natural bricky colour, pretty close to the orange on the farrow and ball chart, which is an excellent point of reference.

The original colour - too loud!

The dye I used - purchased from Spotlight.

This is the range of colours the dyers at Kentwell can achieve with natural dyes such as walnut and woad; amazing huh!