Accessories
Armor
Art and Images
Arts and Crafts
Basic SCA Info
Books
Camping
Cooking
Combat/Fighting
Costuming/Clothing
Dance
Embroidery
Fabric
Fiber Arts

Furniture
General Research/Misc.
Heraldry
Housewares
Name Research
Needle Arts
Newcomers' Links
Patterns
Persona Development
Sewing Supplies
Shoes
Tents
Weapons
Woodworking

Basic SCA Info (Newcomers' Links)

The Society for Creative Anachronism - The official website of the SCA.

The Kingdom of Meridies - The official website of the Kingdom of Meridies (Loch Cairn is part of the Kingdom of Meridies)

What is the SCA? - From the official SCA website.  Contains in-depth answers to questions newcomers often ask.

SCA Demo.com - A website on some of the hobbies-within-the-hobby that SCA people do (archery, costuming, etc.).  Includes pictures of various activities, including some of the more exotic (like falconry) that you don't see at most events.

Frequently Asked Questions - SCA, Inc.  (Pdf website)  Not so much answers to FAQs as everything you ever wanted to know about the SCA, including all rules, regulations and legal notices.

Stefan's Florilegium - Not the prettiest website, but Stefan's Florilegium is legendary among SCA folks for the depth and breadth of information available on it.  It's like the SCA encyclopedia.  You should start with the articles in the Newcomer's section and branch out if you see some other topic of interest.  As most of the information has been gathered from online discussions, it is still in that format, but it's trimmed up and categorized so that it's not really hard to read and follow.

Loch Cairn Yahoo! Group - An online forum just for our shire.  Sign-up to hear the latest announcements and chat with other members.   

Costuming, Patterns and Shoes

Clothing Research and Construction Techniques

Modern Costume Patterns for Medieval Clothing - A website by one of our members, it contains an up-to-date listing of Butterick, McCall's and Simplicity patterns (along with some contruction notes) which are acceptable for use in the SCA.

Medieval Dress for the Casual Re-Enactor - Another website by a member, this one contains information on acceptable fabrics to use making costumes, as well as what shoes, hats, jewelry, etc. to wear. 

Festive Attyre - Costuming research and beautiful replicas (not all of her costumes are medieval/Renaissance, but their proper time period is clearly noted).

Sempstress - Blog with information on various Renaissance hats and costumes.

Costumes by Lynn McMasters - Replica costumes from a variety of periods.  Get inspired!

The Medieval Combat Society: 13th and 14th Century Female Civilian Costume - Lots and lots of pictures of stone and brass effigies depicting 13th and 14th century women; great for costume documentation and research. 

Manesse [Codex] - Pictures of late 13th and early 14th century women; great for costume documentation and research.

Elizabethan Costume Review - Lots of pictures and notes on Eliabethan portraits, with an eye to costuming. 

La Cotte Simple - Great information on cotehardies, including the grande assiette cut.

Lining a Kirtle the Easy Way - Instructions for lining garments three different ways.

Making Chausses and Braies - Includes both civilian men's underwear and military underwear.

Making Cloth Buttons - How to make cloth buttons.

Medieval & Renaissance Material Culture: Men's Heraldic Surcoats - A collection of contemporary images of men in heraldic surcoats.

Stitching the Standards Project... The Moy Bog Garment Reproduction - A diary of one woman's attempts to recreate the Moy gown.  Pay particular attention to her section on making cloth buttons using a wooden form; they are MUCH easier and faster to construct that way, and give a more uniform look. 

Reconstructing History -  A lot of articles on clothing; she is also one of the preeminient researchers of medieval Irish clothing

Clothing for Purchase

Revival Clothing - Good-quality and authentic clothing for purchase.  Even if you make your own clothing, check out their clothing pages; many outfits have pattern sketches and pictures sources at the bottom that you can use for your own research.

Historic Enterprises - Well-researched replica medieval clothing and goods. 

Patterns

Simplicity - One of the three major pattern makers in the U.S.  Buy direct.

The McCall Pattern Company - The second major pattern maker.  Buy direct.

Butterick - The third pattern maker.  Butterick has the best-looking medieval costumes of the three.  Buy direct.

Reconstructing History - A variety of well-researched patterns, including hard-to-find information on Medieval Scots and Irish clothing and German Landskenect.  Not for beginning sewers.

Footwear

SCA Boots - Boots for purchase (buyer beware - some of these boots are decent facsimilies of medieval boots and some are pure fantasy).

Bohemond - Handmade boots and shoes for purchase.

Talbot's Fine Accessories: Historical Footwear - How-to videos and patterns for making your own shoes (patterns and videos are for sale). 

Revival.us - Fairly accurate footwear (the most inaccurate thing on most of the shoes are hobnails, the existence of which in medieval shoes is debatable--they do, however, make your shoes last longer).  Mass-produced overseas, so cheaper than truly hand-made shoes. 

Footwear of the Middle Ages - Research and some instructions on shoemaking.

Pattens - Pattens are also known as chopines, clogs or overshoes.  This site provides a good collection of contemporary images of pattens.

Hats and Headgear

Sempstress: The Basic Brim Pattern - How to make a brim for a hat.  Intended for Elizabethan hats, but so basic, it can be the foundation for many medival brimmed hats.

Hat Shapers - Hat-making supplies, including plastic blocks for forming felt hats.  Includes some free videos on felting your own hats.

Medieval Clothing Pages: Articles and Essays of Interest to Costumers - Many articles on hair braiding, making medieval headdresses with modern materials, and how to keep a henin on your head. 

Tents and Camping Gear

Panther Primitives - Quite probably the most popular medieval tent makers in the SCA.  They also carry camping gear and other sundries (although not everything they carry is medieval; they do stock items for other centuries).

Blockade Runner - This merchant, located in Wartrace, TN, stocks Civil War reenactor goods, however, their canvas tents are also appropriate to the middle ages, but are cheaper than the same style of tent from Panther (you can also arrange to pick them up in-store and save yourself a hefty shipping charge).

Smoke and Fire Company - This merchant carries items for multiple centuries, but many things such as fire sets, tents, lanterns and other camping gear is acceptable to the middle ages. 

JAS Townsend - They specialize in 18th century re-enactor goods, but, like the other merchants, they have a selection of camping gear which is good for the middle ages.

If you are interested in making some of your own camp furniture, look in our section on Woodworking and Furiture.

Medieval Cooking and Cooking Wares

Gode Cookery - A non-profit organization dedicated to medieval cooking.  Features recipes, research articles, images of medieval cooks and cooking, and more.

house on the hill, inc. - Cooking and baking supplies, including medieval-style cookie molds (you can find medieval cookie recipes at Gode Cookery above), and gold and silver edible dust and edible paints to decorate your cookies.

Silver Dragon Pottery - Lady Maeve's website, selling handmade pottery for kitchen and table. 

Medieval and Renaissance Food: Sources, Recipes and Articles - Features organized links to a variety of cooking-related websites.

Pax Romana - Absolutely wonderful Roman sauces for sale (probably similar to those eaten in the middle ages).  The plum is yummy on pork!

Dance

SCA Renaissance Dance Homepage - A collection of organized links to a variety of dance-related websites, including medieval pictures and modern guilds.

Del's Dance Book - Dances organized by style, time and place.  Includes handouts for teaching classes, listing of the steps, and videos.

The English Dancing Master - Dances copied from a historical book (it does not, however, give a date for the book, so it may be post-period).  Contains simple dance instructions and simple sheet music.

Armor, Weapons and Combat

Heavy

Bokalo's Armoury - Leather, Aluminum and Steel armor; helms and basket hilts.

Von Sussen Enterprises - SCA-made and imported armor, helms, basket hilts and maile.

Stonekeep Armory - Steel and stainless steel armor and helms.

Thaden Armory - Steel armor and helms, including heat-treated spring steel.

Plastic Lamellar - A very cheap way to get body armor.  Assembly required.  Can be hidden under a cloth surcoat or leather coat to work in multiple centuries.

DarkHeart Armory - Custom-made armor and helms.

Truehearth Armouries - Steel armor and helms.

Torvaldr's Leatherwords - Leather armor.

Rapier

Zen Warrior Armory - Rapier armor, weapons, etc.

Darkwood Armory - Very fine rapier swords and basket hilts for rattan.

LinenArmor.com - Rapier armor made from linen

Techniques, Instruction and Research

Vita Porten - A site on fighting techniques in the SCA.

The Armour Archive - Online forum for armorer "talking shop."  You do not have to participate in the discussions in order to read information in the posts. 

The Arador Armour Library - Information on armor and weapons for the medieval and Renaissance periods.

Talbot's Fine Accessories: Amouring and Metalworking - Books, DVDs and downloadable pdf's on armor construction and styles.

The Apprentice Armorer's Illustrated Handbook For Making Mail - The name says it all--from making your own links to "knitting" them.  (Butted-link style.)

How to Make Welded-Link Chainmail - Welded links are somewhat more difficult and more time-consuming to do than butted-links, but it's almost much more durable.

Making Chausses and Braies - How to make padded chausses for under-armor.

Supplies

R. J. Leahy Company - Rivets and wire (for making maile).

Brettuns Village Leather - Leather supplier.

Tandy Leather Factory - A popular leather supplier for SCAers, namely because they have stores in many metropolitan areas, so you can look at the leather before you buy, not to mention saving the shipping costs.  There is a store in Chattanooga and Nashville. 

Accessories, Housewares, Misc.

Historic Enterprises - Good replica household items, clothing accessories and more.

Steve Millingham Pewter Replicas - Absolutely great reproductions of pewter jewelry, spoons, belt buckles, etc.

The Pillaged Village - A good place for new people to shop for accessories.  Some of their stuff is fantasy, not medieval, but it's all relatively cheap, which is a boon when you're trying to buying one of everything to start with.

Historical Rosary and Paternoster Beads - History of paternosters/rosaries.

Billy and Charlie - Another source for well-price pewter pieces.  Their selection is smaller, but they're in the U.S., so S&H is cheaper and you can get it faster.  They also do custom designs.

General Research

The Red Kaganate - Info on nomadic hordes: Turks and Mongols

The Living History Library - Forum and some research links and pictures of other people's cool stuff.

The ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies - Articles and even entire books from and about the middle ages; no telling what you might find in here. 

The Museum of London - They have a lot of pictures from their medieval collection online. 

Virtual Pilgramage - A really neat concept: you follow a group of 13th century French pilgrims to the Holy Lands through pages of pictures and information on typical medieval pilgramages and the cities you would have traveled through.

CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts) - Many medieval Irish documents translated into English.  The various annals document names of important people, their deaths, skirmishes or wars of note--sometimes even the weather or outbreak of disease. 

Extant Medieval Resources - Site is by a member of our shire.  Includes pictures from various museums and castles around England and Scotland, plus notes.  Focuses on clothing, with some accessories and soft furnishings included.

The Victoria and Albert Museum - Excellent pictures from their collections of medieval art (including paintings, embroideries, some tomb effigies and more).

English to Latin Translator - This is a useful tool to help you translate Latin phrases that you run across in your research.

How Do You Say...? - This is a very good translator of French, German and several other languages (but not Latin) which often appear in medieval research.  It also translates English phrases into those languages, which can be helpful if you want to create a motto in another language; it appears to be more gramatically correct in its translations than other programs, like Babelfish.

Regia Anglorum - This website contains information on re-creating Anglo-Saxon England.

Misc. Medieval Arts and Crafts

Anvilefire.com - Blacksmithing information

BasketWeavingSupplies.com - As the name implies....

Fire Mountain Gems - Great source for beads and jewelry-making supplies

SCAToday.net: Medieval Holiday Gifts - Ideas for medieval-themed gifts.  Links to all sorts of medieval crafts, not just cheesy holiday crafts.

3-Fingered Gloves - Contemporary pictures of 3-fingered gloves, pictures of replicas, and a very simple pattern to make your own.

A Side Saddle - Contemporary pictures of medieval side saddles, and the author's interpretation on how one was constructed.

Bezants! - How to make bezants (medieval sequins) for clothing and embroidery uses, using modern tools.

Textiles Illuminated: An Online Study of Beadwork in the Middle Ages - THE site for medieval bead embroidery research. 

Book Vendors

AllBookstores.com - An absolutely indespensible tool when it comes to shopping for cheap books.  Simply enter the book you want and it will search all the major online bookstores and some independent ones for the best price.  Shows S&H price and calculates it into the total cost.  Also notes if the book is new or used. 

Chivalry Bookshelf - Brian Price's publishing house, selling many of his books on armor-making and swordsmanship, as well as some other well-researched books on similar topics, and some previously out-of-print archaeology books (like Armour from the Battle of Wisby) and reproductions of medieval books.

Alibris - Used, rare and hard-to-find books.

Heraldry, Name Research and Persona Development

Early 16th Century Scottish Lowland Names - Exactly what it sounds like.  The first page has general name information, with links off it to lists of names.

SCA College of Arms: Names - Names.  Lots and lots of names.

SCA College of Arms: Heraldry - Articles on heraldry.

SCA College of Arms: Armorial and Ordinary - The complete listing of every registered device in the SCA.

CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts) - The various annals are an especially useful tool to document Irish names and for Irish persona development.  Edain's family lineage is based largely on information from the Annals of Ulster and the Four Masters.  When researching Irish names, find a name in the English translation and note the section number, then look up that same section number in the Irish version to get the traditional Irish spelling. 

Jewish Names - A collection of links to various databases that record Jewish names for various times and locations throughout the middle ages. 

Fiber and Needle Arts

Fiber Arts (Spinning, Weaving, Cordmaking, Knitting, Etc.)

Ravelry - Knitting and crochet forum and pattern-share site (requires free registration)

Paradise Fibers - Supplies for spinning, knitting and weaving

The Wheel Thing - Spinning wheels and spinning supplies

The Joy of Handspinning - Has supplies and demonstration videos and also articles such as, "Selecting the right spinning wheel."

Little House Spinning and Weaving Shop - Spinning and weaving supplies.

Handknitting.com - Supplies for knitting.

Camilla Valley Farm - Knitting supplies

Knitting Pattern Central - Tons and tons of free knitting patterns for everything imaginable.

Golding Fiber Tools - Weaving and spinning supplies.  They also have beautiful hand-carved lucets.

The Dragon's Lair - Selling lucets and inkle looms (they will also custom-build looms to your measurements).  Nice folks, usually at Gulf Wars.

Basic Instructions for Creating Period Cord with a Lucet Using a Turning Method - The title says it all. 

Needle Arts (Embroidery, Lacemaking, Etc.)

Berlin Embroidery Designs - Embroidery patterns, some of which are based on historic patterns.

Berlin Embroidery: Couched Metal Threads - Real and faux gold metal thread for embroidery.  Very hard to find!

The Lacemaker - Lace-making supplies, as well as cording supplies (lucet, kumihimo, etc.)

The Realm of Venus - Extant examples of lace.

The Needles Excellency - Blog by a fellow SCAer on embroidery. 

Woodworking and Furniture

Articles by Charles Oakley - Ideas and pattens for camp furniture.

Furniture Collection by House Greydragon - Patterns, pictures and information on making camp furniture.

Tom's Project Notebook - Pictures of a woodworker's projects.  Be inspired!

How to Make a Viking Toy Horse - The article doesn't mention it, but you should NOT use pressure-treated lumber for wooden toys because it contains arsenic and other toxic chemicals that you don't want a kid putting in his mouth.

Fabric, Notions and Sewing Supplies

denverfabrics - Best known for their selection of linen, although they also sell silk and wool. 

Dharma Trading Co. - Best known for their white silk (although they sell it in other colors).  Also the source for silk paints, dyes and fabric for making silk banners.

Fabrics.net - Some of everything.

Fashion Fabrics Club - Probably the best prices on fabrics of all the online stores.  Constantly rotating inventory, so look frequently and jump on good deals as soon as you see them.  As far as anyone last knew, you do not have to buy a membership in order to purchase or get the best price, but that may change at any moment.

Manhattan Fabrics - Designer fabrics.  Never know what you're going to find, although they tend to carry a lot of silk. 

Discount Fabrics USA - Many different types of fabrics, including brocades.

i luv fabrix - Best known for their brocades.

Gypsy Caravan - Best known for their brocades, including for vestments.

Richard the Thread - Supplies and notions for hatmaking and corsets.  Hard to find things like boning and buckram.

Sir's Fabrics - A large, nearby fabric store (located in Fayetteville, TN) with a little bit of everything.  They sell some of their regular fabrics online, but the real bargains--linen and wool remnants for $4-$7/yd--are in the store only. 

Medieval Art and Images

Gode Cookery Presents: Medieval Woodcuts Clipart Collection - A lot of great medieval woodcuts for free, non-commercial use. 

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts - From the National Library of the Netherlands.  An absolutely fabulous collection.  You can search images by keyword, or browse by subject.

Maciejowski Bible - A very important piece of 13th century medieval art; it is frequently referred to by reenactors.  Contains many battle scenes and images of odd weapons and armor.