Amish, Pilgrims, and other early Americana!!!! (Oh my)

spearcarrier

Hi guys! (And hoping I chose the right place to post this. I'm not quite asking how to, but it sort of a how to situation. But I figured it's also just chat, so... here?)

I'm verbose, so just bear with me, k? I tend to overchat!

So anyway, I'm a cover artist (although I could be SO MUCH MORE) and have had some requests lately for pilgrims, the Amish and other stuff the stock art sites just don't do much. And I've been looking around: it's true! The same model in a married woman's Amish bonnet is being used for dozens of different book covers!!! I find it to be a crime against art!

So I thought: shoot. I'll make me some Amish and pilgrim pictures. And got to looking around - and finding that anything old west was left behind with M3. Which isn't acceptable to me, durnit.

Okay fine. I'll *learn how to make my own textures!* (DA DADA DUM!) *and I'll share when I'm done!!* DADADADAADADDUMM

Here's the deal.

I want to make the following:

Amish women's dresses: there are three common styles, mostly determined by apron.
Amish women's bonnets: two styles for adults, little girls sometimes wear one but not always
Men's pants and shirt - and sometimes they wear simple overalls.
Men: straw hat
Shoes optional, although I have to admit Victorian styles would be awesome.
Some pioneer clothes, too, hyuck.

And just because I'd be able to make one accurately: a powwow tear dress set.

Seem easy? Ha.

For the men: I've figured out that Working Man for M4 is near perfect except for the suspenders. I'm not sure how to get around that. The Amish will stick to even wooden buttons if they can get away with it.
Straw hat? One of the women's hat pack hats has the right shape, but I'm not so good with the whole texture concept.

Women! - this is the tricky part.
After days of searching I have found a bonnet in Sensibility Expansion that's a little fancy but almost perfect for the black bonnet married women wear.
Dresses: gosh. Just. Gosh. There's Teri's Everyday Pioneer - which BTW is an awesome dress... except I hate the way it fits on the bosom. Very unrealistic. I could texture that sucker all day long. It's a near match for an Amish dress: it has an apron! Weeee.
It's also the same pattern used for a proper tear dress.
It bends well, it folds well, it comes with a nice bonnet which is close to the bonnet for unmarried girls - but putting hair under it has proven to be near impossible. And it has a thingie on the front of it - near perfect for one of the Amish styles 'cept it's too small.
But it's not quite there. The skirt gives me all sorts of ****. And that's only one style down.

And for the tear dress, the apron would need ruffles AND be able to be removed for a married woman. The bottom of the skirt would need ruffles. And above the ruffles would need to be a strip of cloth sewn in with gods eyes sewn in. I won't get started on looking for a shawl just yet. O_O

Rose's Western Gown is great, too, for later period stuff.

And I'm at a loss! And don't know what I'm doing!!!!! (And may have my Amish info wrong because we only studied them a short time in college! And I've only seen them a couple of times around the house.) And thought maybe you guys would be interested in chiming in.

carrie58

Well what I would suggest is go to the freepository thread and find Wilmap and have a talk with her she has a bunch of free clothes for Genesis,on ShareCG ,and I know she takes requests ,so you could get into her creation line .....

spearcarrier

You know I absolutely adore ShareCG. I had thought if I figured out how to do this, I'd share what I managed to do there. So far there I have one whole texture for folks. LOL.

Okay, I shall try to find this Freepository thread?

BWSman

for the hat for men; try The Fedora @ ShareCG
http://www.sharecg.com/v/42597/browse/11/Poser/The-Fedora

it has a straw texture as well as black felt and it will morph to the proper shape as required
(try Googling Amish hats & see what comes up).

Also; the suspenders in the Working Man M4 are fine for the Amish. The men usually wear collared; button up shirts (dress shirts) of muted colours (blue, grey etc) or white.
For women; the outerwear (coats; cloaks; outer bonnets)) will be black; while the dresses can be of different colours (usually muted) or simple floral patterns. The aprons can be black, white or a light grey and can be either with or without a bib. The normal bonnet is usually a lace/mesh type fabric or a plain white fabric.

I live near several communities of Amish (both the traditional and the more modern ones) so it's not unusual for me to see some on a regular basis.

nobody1954

One of my ancestors came to the US from England in the early 1600's. Would like very much to see some early colonist clothing.

3Don

Content Paradise has male and female Pilgrim clothing. I did a pose set for Pilgrims, available there, too.