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Make a Donation: You can make a donation to help keep this site online with PayPal:

Commissions: If you're in the northern IL or southern WI area, and you're considering having a costume done on commission, I'd love to work with you. I also do pattern drafting on commission. Please contact me for rates and availability.

Teaching: Again, for those in the northern IL or southern WI area, I do give talks and classes on sewing, patterning, and other costuming topics. I can work one on one, or for small groups. I also work with schools, to give "living history" presentations in the classroom. Again, please contact me for rates and availability.

Web Work: In my other life, I do web design/development and teach web topics. If you or your small business are looking for a contract web developer, please consider giving me your business. Contact me for rates and availability.

Mail Me a Tip: If you enjoy the service in a restaurant, you leave a tip. If you've enjoyed this site, you're certainly welcome to do the same thing. All direct financial contributions will be used to keep this site online and purchase materials used for the articles contained herein. You can mail me at:

Things I'm looking for....

A Male Tailor's Dummy: A lot of people have requested that I start doing up patterns and instructions on men's costumes. If anyone has a male tailor's dummy, or even a male display dummy that they'd be willing to send me, I'd really appreciate it, and I think a lot of other people would to. (Note: while beggars are not supposed to be choosers, please don't offer me a duct tape double. I actually *am* allergic to adhesives, so I really try to avoid them and there's *always* extra stickey stuff on those things....) Please contact me if you can help with this one....

Plain Fabric: Here's a surprise: I go through a lot of plain utility type fabrics (muslin, broadcloth, etc) while working up patterns. One of my long term goals is to show how to do both draped and drafted patterning for common elizabethan garments, and provide the making up instructions for them. This will take a *lot* of plain fabric. If you have some plain fabric that you're willing to give up and that you think I could use, please contact me. Or you could just send it off and surprise me. :)

Cool Remnants, Postcards, and Pictures: Do you have a decent remnant of some really cool fabric you used, or some killer trim leftover? How about a postcard that shows an Elizabethan or Renaissance era portrait or tomb from a local museum or crypt? A picture of yourself in a costume you made using information or hints from this site? Or, for you lucky fools in england, pictures you've taken of tombs, effigies, or memorial brasses from the 1500s? If anyone would like to send me any of the above, I'd be tickled pink and would feel incredibly loved. :)