Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Realms of Legend!

I'm Emily, and I'm the owner of RealmsOfLegend on Etsy, where you can find all manner of fantasy-, sci-fi-, and historical-inspired creations.  I'm especially fond of the Zelda series, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and the Elizabethan era, so products relating to those areas tend to show up more often in the shop.

I've been crafting in various forms since I was very little, and I have no plans to stop any time soon.  Over the last few years, I've spent an inordinate amount of time knitting and crocheting-- if you're a Zelda fan on Ravelry, you might have seen my Link's Gauntlets pattern-- but right now, my passion is Elizabethan costuming.  I've spent this term at college working on an independent study entitled "The History and Construction of Elizabethan English Costume," the results of which will appear in an upcoming post.  It's been a lot of fun, and I've learned a lot that I intend to apply to my shop's products.

I'm working now on a line of sort-of-historically-accurate Elizabethan outfits for 18" dolls-- "sort of" meaning that I've tried to preserve the silhouettes and styles of the time as much as possible, while keeping the prices reasonable and the clothes easily enjoyed by the dolls' young owners.  Some examples of this philosophy in action include pairing decorative period lacing with the convenience of hidden velcro, combining multiple garments into one to avoid bulk and facilitate easier dressing, and disregarding entirely some of the many layers worn by the typical Renaissance lady.  Some of these outfits are in my shop already, with many more to come over the course of this summer.

I've decided to start this blog both to give my customers a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into producing the items they see in my shop, and to let them share in my other crafting adventures-- from crochet to corsets-- as they unfold.  So join me here, and let the adventure begin!