Courtney | Opus Elenae

I Reorganized All My Fabric (And Why You Might Want to Do the Same)

Courtney / August 3, 2025

There comes a point in every sewist's life when the fabric stash becomes unmanageable. For me, that moment arrived amid what can only be described as a perfect storm of chaos—economic uncertainty, political turmoil, and the sobering realization that my child would soon be a high-schooler (cue existential crisis). When life feels completely out of […]

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Changes

Courtney / April 15, 2025

Soooo…. It’s been a while since I’ve seriously updated this blog. I feel like I’ve been present for several iterations of historical costuming online spaces. Obviously I’m doing the YouTube thing now, and back when blogs were The Thing I had this. And then before that, I had a LiveJournal (anyone remember Dress Diaries? God

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St Birgitta Interlaced Stitch Tutorial

Courtney / November 1, 2024

I published this tutorial over on the Ko-Fi because I said I’d put it up there, but I wanted to make sure I posted it here too, just to make sure it’s archived properly. Enjoy! For my supplies I am going to need some fabric, a needle, a bunch of colored embroidery thread, an embroidery

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Medieval Snow Day

Courtney / January 11, 2021

It snowed yesterday! It rarely does this at all in Texas, and almost never this much. I had to take advantage of the situation and get some photos of me in all my wool outerwear.

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Video: Making an Edwardian Skirt (and Bustle Pad!)

Courtney / January 9, 2021

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatirix makes (yet another) Edwardian Walking Skirt! Welcome back to the land of sewing. I don’t know about you, but the thing I really needed for my witchy, Victoir-edwardian history bounding wardrobe is a basic walking skirt. And since I just happened to have some heavy-weight linen laying around…. Here we

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A Yuletide Scribal Interlude

Courtney / December 25, 2020

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatrix takes a step back, mulls some cider, dresses up, and creates an achievement of arms for her partner as a solstice gift. It’s been a rough year. Enjoy this calm interlude and wonderful music.

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CAPE CULT: Making an American Duchess Cape

Courtney / December 11, 2020

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatirix joins a cult! A cape cult. Okay, I’m making the American Duchess Cape, in keeping with my penchant for jumping on bandwagons 6-24 months after the trend has, uh, stopped trending. It was a fun and relatively easy make, for all that I’m not the size of a museum mannequin.

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Lucet Cords (three and a half ways!)

Courtney / November 27, 2020

Tutorial Time-Stamps Basic Cord (turned): 00:03:18 Basic Cord (wrapped): 00:05:19 Beaded Cord: 00:08:35 Two-Color Flat Cord: 00:17:00 Two Color Round Cord: 00:25:45 IN WHICH our intrepid recreatirix walks through how to make lucet cords a few different ways. I’ll cover making the basic cord (both turning the lucet and keeping it stable), making a beaded

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“Viking” Coat: Historically Adequate Norse Outerwear

Courtney / November 13, 2020

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatirix finishes her historically adequate “Viking” coat project, and is wayyy too pleased with it and also herself. It’s honestly hard to know what a femenine Viking coat might have looked like: there’s very little archeological evidence that points in any direction. The best we can do is speculate. Come join

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Tudor Witch: A Historically Inspired Halloween Costume

Courtney / October 31, 2020

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatrix drops the video a day late (but on Halloween!) and unleashed her (not-so) inner Goth just in time for the holiday. This video also is a documentation of the creation of my entry for Mathew Gnagy’s Spooky Historically-Inspired Costume Contest. Come join me and see what works, what doesn’t, and

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Author name: Courtney