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hat_plays_simsOh MAN I've been wanting to do this one for ages! Luckily, the longer I waited, the better the available meshes got. Patience is a virtue, AND I knew exactly how I wanted to tackle the textures by the time I got around to actually, you know, making them.
"The' ... 'tips at the end of shoelaces are called 'aglets.' Their true purposes is sinister." -- The Question
I needed a quote about laces. I'm sorry for linking you to TV Tropes.
When I was first researching Medieval clothes online for the purposes of Simming, I stumbled across Matilda La Zouche's Livejournal. There's so much great stuff there, but of particular interest to me was her short-sleeved kirtle with wide front lacing. She'd determined the contrast panel under the lacing was a simple placket, not another dress, though Cadieux has found evidence of that working both ways.
For my purposes, though, a placket was ideal. Using a smooth-waisted skirt bottom by JacciRocker (with FantasyRogue's poulaines added by Oph3lia) and an untuckable long-sleeved top by Cynnix, I was able to pretty gosh-darned closely replicate Matilda's kirtle.
Lemme tell you a few things about the basic construction.
Here are four CAS Sims wearing the placket top in CuriousB's Robin's Egg, but Kirtles in Verdigris (Teen Lady), Forest (Adult Woman), Sand (Elder Peasant), and probably Seal (Child Peasant). Yes, I was just grabbing from one end of the catalog, but I wanted to show that this is a seriously cross-class setup-- and how different the colors can look in non-Du-Lac combinations. You've got thousands of potential color combinations!
That's right, for the first time, you're not stuck with my taste in color combos!
Here are those same four Sims all in Terracotta kirtles, with plackets in Ocean (Teen), probably-Spruce (Adult), Safety Fuse (Elder), and a self-placket in Terracotta (Child). Her Ladyship may be blinded by all the orange in my CAS screen, but those different splashes of color on the chest can help make a world of difference.
Then again, so can random color combinations! These are, I think, Red Wine and Ocean (Teen), Spruce and Primrose (Adult), Seal and Safety Fuse (Elder), and Robin's Egg and Dawn (Child). And hey, you can see a hint of yellow stocking on that adult lady! That brings me to my next detail!
How the tops work. See, I alpha'd out the sock area on the kirtles, and stuck matching hosen textures onto the shifts. Stockings match the plackets, for that extra little hit of contrast. Or color matching, whatever you want to do. Here's a close-up-- a Spring Leaf stocking with a Primrose gown.
Also, you'll notice the socks don't come up to the knee on kids with most Maxis bottoms-- that's because kids' legs are mapped differently for some mad reason. Because I desperately wanted to texture-reference these (and they ARE texture referenced; adults are the masters), and because not much of the stocking above the ankle shows, I was not at all fussed about the stockings creeping downward.
Speaking of things I should point out...
I don't think I can fix this. It appears that part of the texture necessary to the shoelaces not being funny colors is also mapped to the bottom of the dress (which as you can see, MOSTLY shows through as the shift color). I feel bad about it, but I'd rather something you're not usually looking at than something that would catch your eye be funky, if something has to be funky. EDIT: Oph3lia very kindly fixed the mapping so this error doesn't happen. There will be a separate download link for meshes-- be sure to grab them and let them overwrite the originals!
But while I'm showing you that green kirtle, here it is on the lady upright-- look, a pregmorph! More than a pregmorph, in fact; these are sorted for Casual AND maternity! You can only change your Sims' maternity clothes if you a) have clothes flagged as Maternity and b) have a pregnant Sim or BoilingOil's Plan Maternity OUtfit. (You CAN categorize separates as anything you like in SimPE; they'll show in game at least under the standard clothing-change dialogue as long as they're ALSO categorized for Casual. They don't turn up in Body Shop and I haven't tried them in CAS.) The nice thing about planning a custom Maternity outfit for your Sims is that not only will you see them wandering around in them in-game, the custom outfit will show in the loading screen, reducing the need for default replacements.
Okay, a little boilerplate, because I have more pictures. Yes, these are texture-referenced; adult files are the masters. No, I do not have separate Elder meshes; I don't use them in my game and honestly, after texture-referencing 164 files, I'm tired. I don't have any other body shapes, either, but I wish I did.
Yes, just like the Front-Laced Lady, I'm providing a resource kit for folk who DO want to do more body shapes or extra recolors. It's a lot lighter because I did it all as pngs rather than psd files.
The kirtles are mostly Sherahbim's Lady textures-- actually what I did was grab the Volatile texture of both my Du Lac and Front-Laced Lady gowns and horribly, horribly mangle them in Photoshop. The shoes are all FantasyRogue; I just lightened them a bit to run color actions properly. The shift is my loose shift, so it's largely Io's textures; the placket is the front of the Du Lac gown with an extra hem added, so it's Sherahbim's. Stockings are my own; the color combinations match my short smocks with stockings in Part 3 of the Chausseur posts.
Meshes are by Cynnix and Oph3lia with bases, bits, and bobs by HP, Jaccirocker, Trapping (who I missed in tooltip credits), FantasyRogue, and somewhere along the line someone credited Io, so I'm crediting Io, too. Color actions are by Pooklet, Aelia, and CuriousB, as usual. All files are compressorized, and all tooltips have been expanded to ridiculous length in SimPE, so praise be unto Quaxi and DJ, as usual. Also as usual, I owe a thank-you to Lyn for making sure I had a working copy of Photoshop.
This is a late 15th Century gown (IE, after 1450). It's technically a little late for my game-- I like things pre-plague-- but it's something I knew I could make, and make attractively, and I know damn well my game is a mishmash of continental High Middle Ages styles, anyway. I seriously considered adding a belt, but every time I went to do it, I ended up not liking it as well. If somebody out there wants to add belts, go for it, and tell me where I can download them. (I also thought about adding an apron, but I didn't want to have to change the alpha every time.)
Generally how this one would've been worn would be as a day dress, in the warmer months. The kirtle itself would be a color the lady could easily afford; the placket maybe something a little more richly dyed, since it takes such a small piece of fabric. I love it on pregnant Sims and kids, because it certainly looks adjustable.
There's quite a bit of variation in the color of shoes and laces on the kirtles; the most common combination is Jet laces with Safety Fuse shoes, but Earth laces and Brisance shoes pop up a lot, too, whenever Jet seemed too harsh and Safety Fuse didn't seem rich enough. Some kirtles have sort of almost-self-colored laces, especially among Pooklet's naturals; a very few rich colors have Gold or Caramel laces. Feel free to grab the resource kit and make your own color combinations if you think I wasn't creative enough.
The kirtle should work with MOST untuckable-waist tops, but I won't swear to that; I know it works with the basic untuckables for Maxis and Aquilegia Androgyny bodyshapes.
Nothing is townie-enabled because I am not uploading these twice. Nope nope nope not happening.
Okay, download links!
Pooklet Naturals Kirtle Swatch | Aelia Autumn Kirtle Swatch | CuriousB ACYL Kirtle Swatch
MEDIAFIRE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download TF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download CF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
---
SIMS FILE SHARE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download TF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download CF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Pooklet Naturals Placket Swatch | Aelia Autumn Placket Swatch | CuriousB ACYL Placket Swatch
MEDIAFIRE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Placket MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Placket MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Placket MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download TF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Placket
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download CF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Placket
---
SIMS FILE SHARE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Placket MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Placket MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Placket MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download TF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Placket
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download CF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Placket
FIXED MESHES
Grab these and let them overwrite the originals in my zip files; they prevent the upskirt UV issue.
HAT'S MEDIAFIRE | OPH3LIA'S DROPBOX | HAT'S SIMS FILE SHARE
Download Resource Kit: Mediafire | Sims File Share
Included are base Volatile and Time Bomb textures for kirtle bottoms and placket tops, select guides for shoes, laces, and garters, and a text file of texture-referencing numbers and tooltips. I ask if you decide to convert this set for Elders or for another bodyshape and just texture-reference, that you please do all 82 colors (so nobody's stuck searching for their favorite) and please drop me a link here.
Wanna help me feed my cats?
In case you feel like dropping me a buck or two, should you have a buck or two to spare. Donors get two things at the moment: a) a link to the Super Secret Cat Gallery, full of pictures of the cats you'll be feeding, updated sporadically when the cats do something photogenic and I'm fast enough on the trigger to catch it, and b) a link to the list of content I have done-but-not-screencapped, nearly done, partly done, or in the planning stages, and the option to suggest what ought to be in the next batch of things I focus on.
"The' ... 'tips at the end of shoelaces are called 'aglets.' Their true purposes is sinister." -- The Question
I needed a quote about laces. I'm sorry for linking you to TV Tropes.
When I was first researching Medieval clothes online for the purposes of Simming, I stumbled across Matilda La Zouche's Livejournal. There's so much great stuff there, but of particular interest to me was her short-sleeved kirtle with wide front lacing. She'd determined the contrast panel under the lacing was a simple placket, not another dress, though Cadieux has found evidence of that working both ways.
For my purposes, though, a placket was ideal. Using a smooth-waisted skirt bottom by JacciRocker (with FantasyRogue's poulaines added by Oph3lia) and an untuckable long-sleeved top by Cynnix, I was able to pretty gosh-darned closely replicate Matilda's kirtle.
Lemme tell you a few things about the basic construction.
Here are four CAS Sims wearing the placket top in CuriousB's Robin's Egg, but Kirtles in Verdigris (Teen Lady), Forest (Adult Woman), Sand (Elder Peasant), and probably Seal (Child Peasant). Yes, I was just grabbing from one end of the catalog, but I wanted to show that this is a seriously cross-class setup-- and how different the colors can look in non-Du-Lac combinations. You've got thousands of potential color combinations!
That's right, for the first time, you're not stuck with my taste in color combos!
Here are those same four Sims all in Terracotta kirtles, with plackets in Ocean (Teen), probably-Spruce (Adult), Safety Fuse (Elder), and a self-placket in Terracotta (Child). Her Ladyship may be blinded by all the orange in my CAS screen, but those different splashes of color on the chest can help make a world of difference.
Then again, so can random color combinations! These are, I think, Red Wine and Ocean (Teen), Spruce and Primrose (Adult), Seal and Safety Fuse (Elder), and Robin's Egg and Dawn (Child). And hey, you can see a hint of yellow stocking on that adult lady! That brings me to my next detail!
How the tops work. See, I alpha'd out the sock area on the kirtles, and stuck matching hosen textures onto the shifts. Stockings match the plackets, for that extra little hit of contrast. Or color matching, whatever you want to do. Here's a close-up-- a Spring Leaf stocking with a Primrose gown.
Also, you'll notice the socks don't come up to the knee on kids with most Maxis bottoms-- that's because kids' legs are mapped differently for some mad reason. Because I desperately wanted to texture-reference these (and they ARE texture referenced; adults are the masters), and because not much of the stocking above the ankle shows, I was not at all fussed about the stockings creeping downward.
Speaking of things I should point out...
But while I'm showing you that green kirtle, here it is on the lady upright-- look, a pregmorph! More than a pregmorph, in fact; these are sorted for Casual AND maternity! You can only change your Sims' maternity clothes if you a) have clothes flagged as Maternity and b) have a pregnant Sim or BoilingOil's Plan Maternity OUtfit. (You CAN categorize separates as anything you like in SimPE; they'll show in game at least under the standard clothing-change dialogue as long as they're ALSO categorized for Casual. They don't turn up in Body Shop and I haven't tried them in CAS.) The nice thing about planning a custom Maternity outfit for your Sims is that not only will you see them wandering around in them in-game, the custom outfit will show in the loading screen, reducing the need for default replacements.
Okay, a little boilerplate, because I have more pictures. Yes, these are texture-referenced; adult files are the masters. No, I do not have separate Elder meshes; I don't use them in my game and honestly, after texture-referencing 164 files, I'm tired. I don't have any other body shapes, either, but I wish I did.
Yes, just like the Front-Laced Lady, I'm providing a resource kit for folk who DO want to do more body shapes or extra recolors. It's a lot lighter because I did it all as pngs rather than psd files.
The kirtles are mostly Sherahbim's Lady textures-- actually what I did was grab the Volatile texture of both my Du Lac and Front-Laced Lady gowns and horribly, horribly mangle them in Photoshop. The shoes are all FantasyRogue; I just lightened them a bit to run color actions properly. The shift is my loose shift, so it's largely Io's textures; the placket is the front of the Du Lac gown with an extra hem added, so it's Sherahbim's. Stockings are my own; the color combinations match my short smocks with stockings in Part 3 of the Chausseur posts.
Meshes are by Cynnix and Oph3lia with bases, bits, and bobs by HP, Jaccirocker, Trapping (who I missed in tooltip credits), FantasyRogue, and somewhere along the line someone credited Io, so I'm crediting Io, too. Color actions are by Pooklet, Aelia, and CuriousB, as usual. All files are compressorized, and all tooltips have been expanded to ridiculous length in SimPE, so praise be unto Quaxi and DJ, as usual. Also as usual, I owe a thank-you to Lyn for making sure I had a working copy of Photoshop.
This is a late 15th Century gown (IE, after 1450). It's technically a little late for my game-- I like things pre-plague-- but it's something I knew I could make, and make attractively, and I know damn well my game is a mishmash of continental High Middle Ages styles, anyway. I seriously considered adding a belt, but every time I went to do it, I ended up not liking it as well. If somebody out there wants to add belts, go for it, and tell me where I can download them. (I also thought about adding an apron, but I didn't want to have to change the alpha every time.)
Generally how this one would've been worn would be as a day dress, in the warmer months. The kirtle itself would be a color the lady could easily afford; the placket maybe something a little more richly dyed, since it takes such a small piece of fabric. I love it on pregnant Sims and kids, because it certainly looks adjustable.
There's quite a bit of variation in the color of shoes and laces on the kirtles; the most common combination is Jet laces with Safety Fuse shoes, but Earth laces and Brisance shoes pop up a lot, too, whenever Jet seemed too harsh and Safety Fuse didn't seem rich enough. Some kirtles have sort of almost-self-colored laces, especially among Pooklet's naturals; a very few rich colors have Gold or Caramel laces. Feel free to grab the resource kit and make your own color combinations if you think I wasn't creative enough.
The kirtle should work with MOST untuckable-waist tops, but I won't swear to that; I know it works with the basic untuckables for Maxis and Aquilegia Androgyny bodyshapes.
Nothing is townie-enabled because I am not uploading these twice. Nope nope nope not happening.
Okay, download links!
Pooklet Naturals Kirtle Swatch | Aelia Autumn Kirtle Swatch | CuriousB ACYL Kirtle Swatch
MEDIAFIRE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download TF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download CF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
---
SIMS FILE SHARE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Kirtle MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download TF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Kirtle | Download CF Aelia Autumn Kirtle | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Kirtle
Pooklet Naturals Placket Swatch | Aelia Autumn Placket Swatch | CuriousB ACYL Placket Swatch
MEDIAFIRE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Placket MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Placket MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Placket MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download TF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Placket
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download CF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Placket
---
SIMS FILE SHARE:
Download YAEF Pooklet Naturals Placket MASTER | Download YAEF Aelia Autumn Placket MASTER | Download YAEF CuriousB ACYL Placket MASTER
Download TF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download TF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download TF CuriousB ACYL Placket
Download CF Pooklet Naturals Placket | Download CF Aelia Autumn Placket | Download CF CuriousB ACYL Placket
FIXED MESHES
Grab these and let them overwrite the originals in my zip files; they prevent the upskirt UV issue.
HAT'S MEDIAFIRE | OPH3LIA'S DROPBOX | HAT'S SIMS FILE SHARE
Download Resource Kit: Mediafire | Sims File Share
Included are base Volatile and Time Bomb textures for kirtle bottoms and placket tops, select guides for shoes, laces, and garters, and a text file of texture-referencing numbers and tooltips. I ask if you decide to convert this set for Elders or for another bodyshape and just texture-reference, that you please do all 82 colors (so nobody's stuck searching for their favorite) and please drop me a link here.
Wanna help me feed my cats?
In case you feel like dropping me a buck or two, should you have a buck or two to spare. Donors get two things at the moment: a) a link to the Super Secret Cat Gallery, full of pictures of the cats you'll be feeding, updated sporadically when the cats do something photogenic and I'm fast enough on the trigger to catch it, and b) a link to the list of content I have done-but-not-screencapped, nearly done, partly done, or in the planning stages, and the option to suggest what ought to be in the next batch of things I focus on.
