The heat of summer seems to be the time when Elizabethan lords and ladies come out in layers of weighty brocade to watch noble knights challenge one another dressed in about 60 pounds of metal and leather.

One year at the Society for Creative Anachronism’s Pennsic War encampment, the temperature reached 104 degrees and battles were canceled for the day.

But there are alternatives for required period “garb” when the temperature rises.

While the upper echelon of King Arthur’s day — kings and queens and royalty — may be required to dress in rich velvets, most peasants at medieval events have choices.

“People in SCA might get some fabric for $10 at Jo-Ann Fabrics and make a simple dress. They are more practical in their dress because they are camping,” said Cheryl Brasch of Butler, a medieval designer who sells her garb at both the Pennsic War Encampment and the Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.

At the renaissance festival, even actor/tour guides portraying commoners are required to wear layers of clothing and always wear hats because “that’s what people wore during the Renaissance,” said Michael Mykita, a cast member at the festival this year.

Mykita’s wife, Angela, designed most of his — even his hat.

“For his coat, vest and hat I used heavier home decorator fabrics, the velvets, velveteens, brocades and broadcloths. That’s how they were then,” she said.

Cast members are responsible for their own costumes.

The SCA’s broader time period, 400 to 1600 A.D., also allows for lighter alternatives.

Morgan Foley of Philadelphia, who sews for Brasch, wore a skimpy cotton floral midriff-exposing top that tied at the front with a coordinating sari, one of the designs Brasch created for the SCA encampment.Another woman wore a patterned jeweled bra and billowy pants. “It’s a middle-eastern tribal belly dancing outfit,” Brasch said of her creation.Bare-chested men in “skirts” and loincloths were fairly common on the campground, too.Brasch, like many of the merchants who sell their wares at such events, has turned her penchant for sewing into a full-time job. Her company, Ageless Fashions, brings in five figures at the Pennsic War event alone — 20 percent of her annual income.Of the 200 vendors at the Pennsic War, Brasch said that about a third of them are clothing merchants.Although Brasch formerly worked as a schoolteacher, she eventually decided sewing costumes full time was more lucrative. She moved from the Philadelphia area to Butler County because of the Pennsic War. Travel expenses to the encampment for her and her gear had been $2,000.“Sixty-thousand miles a year is not unusual for an SCA merchant. I try to do a minimum of 12 events a year,” she said, taking international tavel into account as well.And she’ll go the extra mile for her customers. “I flew to North Carolina to get fabric last night,” said Brasch, who keeps a sewing machine on site for special orders.

Brasch describes her tent as something like a Gap store for re-enactors, with racks of skirts, shirts, dresses, pants and vests neatly organized in a variety of patterns, colors and sizes.She said she can put someone in a costume, head to toe, for about $80.Most SCA festival-goers have five to 10 costumes, she said. The most expensive outfit on her rack, a Queen Elizabeth gown, goes for $550.At the Pennsic War, merchants make most of their money at the annual Midnight Madness sale, when they offer extra discounts. But Brasch also does costumes outside the fairs.“I did 17 weddings between October and January. ... For Christmas I used 500 yards of cotton to make Inuyasha (a Japanese character from a cartoon program) costumes. People gave them as Christmas gifts,” she said.