Finished Costume

[atherleisure]

I wrote earlier about how jenthompson and I got together with our respective families for an outing to the Texas Renaissance Festival. Jen has now kindly shared the pictures she took of me so now I can write about my clothes for the outing.

Pictures first, information after.














Nice, stiff cuffs. Well, at least they started out nice and stiff. They got a bit limp over the course of the day, but they never got floppy or anything. They were crushed by children quite a bit but still looked good. They just didn't have the stiffness they started out with. I would guess that people used fresh cuffs on their gowns or jackets often.


And my wildly anachronistic garters. I completely forgot about garters until the day before so late 18th century it was.


Now the technical details.
The smock (not shown) is just bleached muslin made after the pattern in The Tudor Tailor. I used the low-necked, narrow-sleeved version, and it took about three yards of 36" muslin, though it would have taken exactly the same amount of 30" muslin. I had to take about 2.5" out of the width of the sleeves because they would have been much too bulky under the jacket sleeves. They could have stood to be an inch longer, but I didn't worry to much about it. It's mostly machine-sewn, though some of the felling was done by hand, and the neck and sleeves are hemmed by hand.

The partlet started as a pattern from The Tudor Tailor too, but it went through some modifications, including getting a collar stand and ruffled collar. It's made from a quarter-yard of linen/cotton blend because I decided the white linen I had wasn't fine enough. I'm quite pleased with it. I basted it to the smock so that I wouldn't have any issue with it creeping out of the jacket. I thought the collar on the jacket did a terrific job of keeping it held up at the back but falling open at the front like you see in paintings. It's completely hand-sewn, and I'm pretty proud of it.

The petticoat is based on miscellaneous information, much of which reine_de_coudre helped me find. The bodice pattern started as the Eleanora de Toledo bodice from Patterns of Fashion, though I modified it a bit. The skirt is rectangular panels pleated and whipped to the waist. It's made of a light-weight green wool. The skirt is lined in peach linen, and the bodice is interlined with two layers of cotton twill and lined with muslin. The whole thing is hand-sewn. It is unboned and was quite comfortable for the day. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't spring away from the waist very much. I think I needed a wool with more body; I hadn't realized just how well this one draped before I started the project. Everything else about it is great. It weighs a ton on the hanger, but it's not bad at all when being worn.

The jacket is peach linen lined in places with muslin and in other places with white linen. It ties at the front with light blue silk ribbons. It's based on the Margaret Leyton jacket patterned in both Patterns of Fashion and Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns; I used the latter as my starting point. It's hand-sewn with the main assembly done by turning the seam allowances under and whipping pieces together. I think it came out rather nicely. My only point of dissatisfaction about it is that it pulls open a bit at the center front. I know there has to be some gap with the ribbon closure, but the bows pulled tighter in wearing it so that there was a larger gap than I want. I need to figure that one out, but I'm still very, very pleased. (I was a little uncertain about the color, but peach was listed as one of the colors used in the Elizabethan period on elizabethancostume.net "Documented in 'Elizabethan Costumes from 1550-1580'". That satisfied me.)

The coif and forehead cloth I've shared before. They're both hand-sewn with lots of rolled hems. For the faire, I wore them back off my forehead a bit for a different, but still period look. I found that they stay put well if pulled over the hair-line as in the pictures I posted previously. I also found that they stay put well if set back rather far as shown in these pictures. They don't want to stay in between. That being said, when I wore them last week, I fidgeted with them a bit, trying to pull them forward, but when I left them alone, they never tried to slide any further back, even after a ride on a rather high swing.

The cuffs are made from the same material as the partlet and were made following the information given in Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns. I made the pleated rectangles deeper than the originals since I wasn't putting any lace on them, but otherwise they're similar. They're fairly simple - rolled hems and darted to fit bands and basted into the jacket sleeves. When wearing the jacket, the cuffs are pinned closed (much to the surprise of my son when he tried to take my hand by running his hand down my arm). I soaked them pretty well in spray-starch, and it seemed to work.



I see while I've been working on this off and on today, Jen has posted something else about the faire. She's got the only picture I know of of the two of us, and it came out pretty well. My husband took this one at the very end of the day.



And now the $64,000 question is "Does it look like something out of Little House on the Prairie?" I think not, but obviously some at the faire did. What do you think?

Comments

[jenthompson.livejournal.com]

You look fabulous and nothing like a prairie girl. Those people are idiots.

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I know they're idiots, but I had to ask.

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

It's the blue ribbon bows! Nothing says Laura Ingalls like a blue ribbon at the neck. Just kidding. People probably see a cap/coif/any sort of period headgear and thing it's a sunbonnet. People are like that. :p

Seriously, you look great! I love the simplicity of the ensemble and how all the pieces come together. And the jacket is too cute!

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed wearing this and didn't feel constricted or uncomfortable at any time.

I wouldn't mind being mistaken for Laura Ingalls (or rather her sister Mary) if I were actually in 19th century clothes, but 17th century? Really? :)

[m-of-disguise.livejournal.com]

What a great outfit! I love the soft pink of the jacket. I agree with mala_14, it was probably the coif that made them think of Little House. XP Any sort of head covering seems to automatically equal Victorian. (Or Amish...I was asked if I was Amish last time I wore Regency to an event. XP)

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think someone else thought I was Amish or Mennonite. Because at a Renaissance festival it's apparently weird to wear Renaissance (or just a little post-Renaissance) clothes.

[reine-de-coudre.livejournal.com]

oh, it's SO sweet! you look wonderful! now you can come play at jamestown :)

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's always nice to be complimented by someone who knows the era well.

The next time I make it to that area, I'll definitely come back to Jamestown. I'm definitely missing my proximity to Williamsburg and environs. And the fall color. We don't have fall color here.