This is a velvet doublet and silk skirt combination I originally made for Twelfth Night; instead, it debuted at Tir-y-don's Baronial Investiture in March.
The Doublet
The doublet is cut to Master Jose de Madrid's system of thirds, a method of drafting Spanish-style doublets with not maths required. I did as I usually do, and drafted the pattern from my measurements onto muslin. A large portion of time was spent tweaking the fit, altering the curve of the back, and raising the waistline (I always cut the waist too low).
Once a good fit was achieved, I cut the layers of the doublet: one layer of black 100% linen lining, one layer of cotton canvas interlining, and one layer of black velvet fashion fabric. I also cut lightweight shirt flannel to pad the chest, upper back/shoulder, and the collar. This provides a bit more structure to the finished garment, and helps achieve the characteristic swept-back collar of the doublet.
With waxed linen thread and a fairly heavy needle, I pad stitched the flannel to the interlining fabric. The stitches do not need to be perfect; the point is to attach the flannel to the interlining in such a way that it does not shift around later. You do want to make sure that the knots, if you use any, are buried in the nap of the flannel or else you will be able to feel them through the lining fabric.
After finishing the pad stitched, I pinned together and handstitched the body interlining and lining fabric together (step one of flatlining). At this point, I tried the whole piece on to recheck the fit; I ended up taking in the lower back curve another .25 of an inch as a result.
Here, I had to take a break and attach the rows of braid to the velvet pieces. I used waxed black silk thread in a very fine gauge so the stitches do not show on casual inspection. I arranged the strips of braid-and-velvet trim in diagonal rows slanting up from the center front to the side/shoulder seams, and placed them approximately 1 inch apart. The raw ends were treated with FrayChek until the final binding could be added.
Turned the interlining/lining piece so that the interlining was sandwiched between the lining and the exterior, and whipstitched the open edges (front, collar, bottom). I then attached the sleeve lining (no interlining) at the cuffs, turned, and whipstitched the raw edges inside along the armscye.
To cover the raw edges and create a finished look, I bound all the edging with black bias fabric. However, I skipped the bottom edge; instead of binding, I cut and attached a three piece skirt of black velvet lined with black linen and bound with bias strips. Once the construction of those pieces was complete, I whipstitched the skirt pieces to the raw lower body edge with black silk thread.
To finish, I attached 18 pairs of black hook and eyes (store purchased) to close the front.
The Petticoat
The other half of the garment is a simple rectangular skirt cartridge pleated into a waistband. The skirt and guard is made of a low-slub silk dupioni; the skirt is olive green, and the guard is mandarin orange. I made the waistband to my waist measurement plus two inches for hemming and fastening, then evenly cartridge pleated the skirt fabric to the waistband. It is fastened with two skirt hook and eye sets.
Finished Outfit
A formal gown, rather. In a small fit of pique over a much-delayed book order from Amazon, I cancelled the order and turned the money to fabric. eBay really is my friend when it comes to finding fabric for SCA projects; a few days ago, I spotted a storefront that carried peau de soie satin for under $4 US. Other seamstresses and tailors out there will understand what a temptation that is. Winging its way toward me is 8 yards of 60" wide delustered smoke grey bottom weight satin.
I just need a plan. See, I have a bad habit of buying fabric before I have a good idea of what it wants to be. I've been working on breaking this habit because wool and linen is not exactly cheap (even with strategic coupon usage and cunning dye jobs), and I really see no point in letting a piece of linen rot to threads in my stash. Plus we're a bit strapped for space right now, and I'm trying to keep the piles more manageable.
Having broken my "no fabric without a Plan" resolution, I needed to find something to use this for. Originally, I thought I'd make a massive late Elizabethan confection with a big starched ruff-- maybe even one that needs a supportasse-- and bows and beads and whatnot. And then I realised that this would be foolish; frippery doesn't much suit me or my persona. So I turned to my collection of images gleaned from Google and started browsing. This is what I found:
A portrait of Eleanora di Toledo by Alessandro Allori, c. 1560. This would have been just a couple of years before the Duchesse died (in 1562). Honestly, I did a lot of retroactive searching on this image because I was convinced I had the provenance incorrect. This does not, to me, look like an early 1560s gown; rather, it looks more like later period Spanish, with the flared collar and double doublet layer. However, there it was in black and white-- 1560. More poking around followed. In early stages like this, I like to look around and see what other folks have done with similar styles; it's how I figure out the larger scope and sometimes smaller details.
Alaina Blackram's Lavinia Fontana dress project was the first other item I turned up. I had the privilege to take this lady's Florentine dress class at the Known World Costume Symposium in 2004, so I've seen her workmanship up close and know it and her research to be wonderful. Alaina's dress shows the same doublet under another doublet type of layering, from 1580, so at least it was a style that persisted and therefore might not be too unusual for a 1580s Englishwoman. I also got some ideas of how to trim the back of the outer doublet.
(A side note: I don't really try to recreate clothing from other countries exactly as they were created in that country. Instead, I usually try to apply Elizabethan English aesthetics and construction principles, reasoning that my persona would most likely have taken a painting or sketch to her local English tailor. It's an idea I picked up from Master Jose de Madrid of Calontir.)
Sarah Lorraine's black and maroon gown dress diary was another point of reference. Unlike Alaina's gown, Sarah attached the outer bodice to the skirt, which seems to be the case in the Eleanora portrait.
Finally, I peeked at Melanie Schuessler's Elizabethan doublet, mostly for inspiration for the styling of the under doublet.
The Analysis
A preliminary analysis of the gown in the portrait was the next step.
The overgown appears to be based on a standard Spanish style doublet such as those found in Alcega's Tailor's Pattern Book 1589. The major difference between this style and the English doublets presented in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion and Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies' Tudor Tailor is that the back collar of Spanish doublets are usually cut in one piece with the body, while the English doublets have attached collars. This is by no means universal; that's just based on a pattern survey of a couple of books. I happened to have been taught to draft Spanish-style doublets by Master Jose, and I vastly prefer the gentle outward curve of the back collar of a Spanish doublet. It makes me happy.
The bodice appears to be attached to the skirt, although it's possible that the bottom edge of a detached bodice could be hidden under Eleanora's belt. The skirt, from what can be seen, appears to be cartridge pleated into the bottom edge of the doublet. There is no way to tell, from the portrait, if the front is flat, or if the skirt is one piece or split front. More research needed on this point.
The bodice looks like silk or satin, lined with silk or maybe a very fine linen (I would expect silk, given Eleanora's station in life). All edges of the bodice are bound with the same fabric as the outer shell; the binding is snipped at regular intervals all the way around the flared collar and bodice opening. The bodice closes, probably with hidden hook and eyes or lacing, from the waist to the lower breastbone, exposing the under doublet.
The sleeves are fairly complex. The innermost edge of the bodice seems to be bound with the same fabric as the outer shell, with decorative snips as at the opening and neck of the bodice. This is sandwiched between the armhole and the padded roll sleeve so that the snips still show and form a decorative border before the large padded rolls. The rolls also appear to have a double row of snipped satin running perpendicular to the body, at regular intervals around the rolls. Another strip of snipped satin forms a border between the rolls and the lower sleeve caps, which are shaped into points around the arm opening. I conjecture that there are two points at the top of the sleeve cap, with the underside being cut straight to allow for ease of movement.
The undergown is probably a different weight of silk, and is likely to be attached to a skirt as well. Not much of this garment is exposed in the portrait, but from what can be seen, the bodice is decorated with couched cord or braid in horizontal lines across the width of the body approximately 1-2" apart. The bodice closes with a row of self-covered buttons that are edged in vertical rows fo the same cord/braid. The striped effect is carried on to the sleeves and along the seams of each sleeve. The sleeves are fairly straight and slightly full.
My Idea
First, I must note that I'm not planning an exact replica of this gown. For one thing, I don't like embroidery nearly that much. For another, certain allowances for budget will have to be made regarding fabric and trim choices.
I'm planning to use the grey peau de soie for the outer gown. This is going to be a fairly severe dress with very little of the feminine touches like the curvy floral embroidery. Instead, I want to use 1/8" soutache braid and/or .25-.5" guimpe in a contrasting colour to do very simple seam covering. What I want to highlight is a. the fabric b. the cut c. the snipped edges and d. the stripe effects on the undergown.
I have no clear idea what to do with the skirt yet, especially in the area of trim and split vs. closed. I tend to prefer closed skirts, and I may just put some sort of guarding on the skirt. On a second thought, it would be lovely to acquire some narrow and medium width black velvet ribbon to use for trim on the bodice (narrow) and guards on the skirt (medium). I will probably end up lining the outer bodice with some black dupioni silk, if my favourite eBay source has some. I expect it will only take 3 yards, so that won't be too terribly expensive.
(A secret: I'm a bad, bad sempstress, and I rarely line skirts. I'm not convinced they were all lined, but I'm wavering on the point in this case. More on that later.)
The undergown should probably be silk as well. I'd love to make it from black silk, but I rather expect it will be linen. I'm a bit miserly, and I'd like to be able to wear the under garment on it's own at some point. At this point, I am considering making the underdress out of black (or maybe dark blue) linen, with the stripes of 1/8" silver soutache. Ideally, I'll wrap the buttons for the doublet, but that really remains to be seen.
Some things I want to find out:
- thread covered buttons that are flat-- are they period?
- what sort of hat?
- on the undergown bodice and sleeves, are the areas of fabric between the rows of cord/braid pinked, or are those pleats or just wrinkles?
- open skirts or closed skirts-- which were more common?
- jewelry?
This is going to be a lengthy project. It's one I want to get just perfect, and I want to take the time to get exactly the right fabrics and trims. I'm hoping to have it done maybe by Twelfth Night of this year. Depending on how I'm feeling then, I may like to enter it in Kingdom A&S next year.
I've been waiting on an order of fabric for Himself's SCA garb (to make a long story short, one of my partners has decided he'd like to play SCA with me). It finally arrived today, and turned out to be much better than expected.
It's a bit of a textured, standard 2x2 even weave soft grey wool plus something. The plus something came to light after I washed the yardage to get rid of dust stains and a vague smoke odor that belied the seller's claim to be a "smoke free home." No fulling = not 100% wool, but that's really okay. It looks and feels like 100%, and I'm not averse to a little plastic in my fabrics as long as they don't scream at me.
The seller comped us an extra yard, so it looks like I'll have enough to make him a nice doublet and loose Venetians out of it. We picked up new brushed silver metal buttons last week, and I still have tons of black bias tape for binding and simple decoration. The best part is, I think I may have gotten a piece of vintage fabric. The original yardage tag was still attached, and the price and script style on the tag (a paper tag stitched onto the fabric by its own string) makes me think this may be late 50s to early 60s.
In other happy mail news, I received a package from Halcyon Yarn. I've been planning a linen embroidered jacket based on the Maidstone jacket for a while now. My version will use a twisted lattice enclosure pattern, filled with single motifs of foxglove, pomegranate, and possibly pansies and one other fruit for interest.
The happy mail was 1600 yards of sapphire blue 2/30 silk embroidery floss. It's so soft I have to make myself not pet it. I'm not sure when I turned into such an embroidery whore, but I suspect it had a lot to do with feeling real silk floss for the first time. It's about painful to put off working on this jacket long enough to do garb for Himself for an event on the 23rd, and then the kirtle/fitted gown outfit and the loose coat for myself.
Handsewn. Purple wool jacket lined with red-dyed linen, bound with grey bias tape and closed with matching grey satin ribbons. Orange wool petticoat, unlined, with premade black bias tape guards. Blue wool winter cap based on a pattern from The Tudor Tailor. White linen under cap with simple blackwork in linen thread.
Worn over a linen shift with box pleated ruffles, embroidered linen effigy corset, linen petticoat, and period shoes.
Accessories include a pewter stirrup cross pendant and small malachite pinky ring.
Photo by J. Newton
Today in History: Oct.3 1226. St. Francis of Assissi, founder of the Franciscan order, died.
I need to start thinking about winter holiday gifts. I've given up distinguishing between holidays; I'm overwhelmed with Yule and Christmas and Hannukah and Twelfth Night and so on, so I do winter holiday gifts. I also figure that gives me extra time to make and mail things, since Winter Holiday Season officially lasts from Hallowe'en to St. Valentine's Day. Easter, if I'm particularly behind.
It appears that the candied orange peel confits from Kingdom A&S were an unparallelled success, so much so that I'm thinking food gifts are a good idea this year
Today in history: Sept. 29, 1399. King Richard II becomes the first English monarch to abdicate the throne.
I've been working on lots and forgetting to post. So today, I filled in the back posts. You might want to rummage a bit and see what's been happening. Or maybe not. In short, I am gearing up for major sewing projects over the winter. Pictures will happen.
This weekend's experiment with fabric dyeing seems to have gone relatively well, in the end. Frustrating and exhausting in the process, but not too shabby overall.
First, let me share that dyeing fabric in the bathtub is a raging pain in the ass. Sometimes literally. Especially when you're dealing with 4+ yard lots of linen and wool. I don't recommend it.
Second, I have been utterly, empirically convinced that RIT dye is good only for dying one's skin. Dylon is, however, the easiest to work with I think I have ever tried.
I bought red linen a couple of weeks ago. It's a screaming, Crayola cherry red, very plasticky looking. Much too bright for the 16th century. So I got the bright idea to fix the colour with a bottle of Wine RIT dye. I figured I'd get something in the raspberry/burgundy range. Now, I've had fine luck doing stuff like dyeing navy blue fabric black. RIT dye works for that, at least in small amounts. However, while the wine probably would have made a good overdye, even my 21 gallon dye pot was not large enough to let the fabric uncrinkle. So the result was a bit. . . uneven. And not the greatest colour. It came out kind of sickly purple, and I was really heartbroken. Linen isn't cheap, and I only buy what I need when it's on sale.
I let it hang dry and pondered all evening how to arrange patterns around the splotchy bits. Meanwhile, I tossed the wool yardage I found yesterday into a hot tub to soak, wash, and shrink a bit.
This wool. The colour. Oh, my G-d. Does anyone really wear orange wool? And I don't mean clear orange, or mandarin. I mean a sick, fleshy, coral colour. I can't imagine. While I was at the fabric store, I picked up a couple of packets of dark brown Dylon dye, thinking I would dye the orange a chocolate brown.
Today, I bypassed the dye pot altogether and just mixed the dye, salt, and hot water directly in the bathtub (oh yeah, the landlords will love me for that). Dumped in the wool, agitated it for 10 minutes, and then left it to sit for 45 minutes. In the meanwhile, I started eyeing the linen and getting more and more annoyed. Finally, I yanked the whole yardage off the tub rail and dumped it into the tub with the wool and let the whole mess stew.
To make a long story short, the results were. . . interesting. Nothing turned chocolate brown, but it did all turn better colours. The coral wool is now a medium, pinkish terracotta (I think a bit of the wine dye leached out of the linen). And the red splotchy linen is now a mostly even, deep oxblood red.
Okay, time for something more cheery. I haven't really had time or energy lately to do much sewing, so I've been planning and stockpiling for the winter. I figure it'll be cold enough that I'll be happy to have a pile of fabric in my lap.
Now I have a clutch of little-small shipments heading my way. I ordered a bale of 1.75 mm boning reed from Corsetmaking, so I can start on the three sets of boned bodies I want. Then I ordered linen thread, a new cherrywood lucet, striped woven garter ribbons and two brass garter buckles from Wooded Hamlet. If the thread makes me unhappy, I've decided, I'm going to look into buying linen lacemaking thread as my friend Eva suggested.
Still left to purchase are things like curved needles, a bit more linen, embroidery thread (silk or wool), more embroidery needles, wooden beads and embroidery floss for buttons (about 200), and an appallingly expensive lot of silk ribbon. I adore the mandarin silk from Wooded Hamlet, but it's going to cost more than the fabric for the garment. As my dear Girl might say, "Y33p3rs!!
Happily, with the new determination to handsew everything, I think the only things I want still are a pair of wooden pattens from Armlann and a bit more jewelry, probably from Sapphire & Sage. Yes, it's paste and pot metal, but what else would a slightly socially-conscious middle class woman do? And besides, I don't need/want much. Maybe a ring and some slightly more fancy stuff for special. Most earrings I can make myself.
I just sat down and dug through Artemisia's website and made myself put events on the calendar. Unfortunately (?), some of my Saturdays are already booked. It does look like I'll be able to make the events I "ought" to attend this year, though.
Sept. 9 Coronation
Sept. 30 Baron's Champion (home Barony, afternoon trip only)
Oct. 14 Crown Tourney
Nov. 18 Baronial Birthday (home Barony)
There's others I wanted to go to more than the ones in my (geogaphically) home Barony, but they fell on things like Speech Workshop weekend. I'm also undecided whether or not I'll be feeling brave enough to go to events in December. If so, I'll probably go to Solstice Court down in Utah; it amuses me that of the four events already listed, half are my home Barony and half are the big Barony in Utah.
Coronation and Crown Tourney are not generally events on my docket, but they feel like obligation events. I want to be at Coronation because Michael and Sati, whose Champion I am, are stepping down. I should be there to get. . . erm. . . transferred, for lack of a better phrase. And the same bit of obligation is present for Crown Tourney-- I'm technically a kingdom representative, so I should be there to help greet the new heirs.
There's a raft of things other than this I wish I could go to. The Baron's A&S Championship in Loch Salann (Salt Lake). Not to compete, but to judge and be a presence. Our former A&S Champion was in poor health and rarely went to events, so I think people are not used to seeing one hanging around. It's not like it's a big important job, but I feel I should make an attempt.
Snagged from Arnaud directly, though just everyone is doing it.
- What costume (that I could realistically pull off) would you like to see me do?
- What costume (with no constraints on time, skill, or money) would like to see me do?
- Which costume that I've completed do you like best?
- What genre or time period costume do you think I should do more of?
Comment and then post in your own LJ!
* * *
Well, sewing just didn't happen this weekend, although lots of planning did. I picked up five yards of off-white linen at the fabric store-- I would have preferred pure white, but they were out indefinitely, and a 50% off coupon cannot go waste. It's not terribly off-white; it's not the "natural" colour people seem to tend to associate with "lower class" in the SCA. It's just not blinding white. Also picked up thread for sewing the yoga clothes and a chunk of beeswax. Talked myself out of settling for cotton thread, deciding instead to take Fru Aleydis' advice and order some lace-making thread.
Now my main problem is figuring out what to do with all that lovely linen. I hate it when I get so set on making sure I purchase something that I forget what I wanted it for. I strongly suspect that it's for the embroidered jacket project; I'm thinking of making the outer shell out of the embroidered linen and the inner lining out of the pale green linen that was originally intended to be the jacket.
on Tentative A&S scheduling [archive]