abendgules | Entries tagged with elizgown

As part of my long-term Cranach gown project, I've started first steps towards a hat, following instructions by Mistress Rowan of Lochac, who visited over the summer. She sat with me, to walk through the project, and sketched out instructions on how to model the brim, create the crown, and sew the layers together (I've posted pics of her sketches below).

The goal is a hat resembling the one worn by the centre princess in this Cranach portrait.

The tricky bit, IMO, is creating the brim that isn't a full circle. This brim looks to me like two half-circles, snipped at the midpoint, to create a notch over the wearer's left eye, and possibly a matching notch behind her head.

If you use millinery wire to create the brim, it mostly wants to go in circles or ovals. How do you create the notch with a sharp edge? Unless you're using a wire that can be shaped & bent more than round-loving millinery wire. Anyone know?

The pics below show the half-brims I've cut from pizza box to test out the shape, and the shape of the cardboard brim so far.

The last pic is a propos of not much - just some trim I found at Rouleaux's moster warehouse sale today. There wasn't much in the SCA line for trim - at least, there was some that was pretty, but not to my taste. My authenticity-mavin-ness doesn't let me buy 'fun' trim anymore, or trim that I can't place as plausible woven bands.

I also bought a quantity of double-sided velvet ribbon, and a packet of narrow grosgrain ribbon (now in the wash) that will both hopefully go on my 16th c. Elizabethan doublet and gown, as guards/ornaments.

page of instructions from Mistress Rowan

Current Mood: hopeful

How much is the right amount of decoration for the middle class matron I want to be?

Progress: grommet holes now freed of grommets, and finished neatly. A couple more holes added for good luck , and in hopes of helping to pull the bodice level on me (right now it shifts up slightly on one side, because I'm spiral lacing it, when I suspect it was made for X-lacing).

I've started finishing the neckline and armholes with black linen. Looks smart so far.

Right now I have a dark blue bodice and skirt, and a couple of linen and cotton foreparts - I'm thinking of stitching them together into a reversible single one, to give the forepart some body and weight. I also have an option to make a red brocade forepart, albeit in syntho fabric.

The sleeve puffs and tabs will have to be a coordinating fabric, possibly black wool, because I don't have enough original blue twill salvaged from the (v. short) tabbed sleeves. Colour options are black, green, murrey, orange or white wool. I'm leaning towards black for dark respectability.

I've long planned to add a couple of rows of guards to the skirt in black wool. I even have some black velveteen that could make good guards, though I don't like sewing it.

The real question is - how can I ornament the bodice suitably?

Do I add guards/borders, much like

liadethornegge 's red petticoat?

Do I add braid? I can make a very pretty wide undulating fingerbraid in cottolin or even silk, in assorted different colour combinations, and it would look very smart on the shoulder rolls and wings. I'd have the option to add more as I get richer, so to speak.

Should I concentrate the ornaments on the tied-in sleeves at a later date?

Unfortunately, I get bored w/ embroidery quickly, but I can applique and (inkle)weave and fingerbraid willingly.

I've searched for guidance in portraits online, but most of them are of nobles - the middle class women thoughtlessly didn't get their portraits done to help me out. Sheesh.

Any thoughts from the 16thc costume mavins on a good route to go?

Current Mood: calm

So I'm back to puttering with the Elizabethan gown 3Rs project.

Petticoat was fixed over the summer - taken apart, re-pleated onto a narrower band as cartridge pleats. A bit lopsided (more pleats on one side than the other! whoops) but noone will see it under my skirt.

Bodice: I've recut the neckline so it's square, and trimmed the lower back so it fits correctly. The sleeves have come off so I can reshape them into padded rolls. Some of the bones came out, as the neckline was straightened out. I've bought lacing tape so I can lace the bodice to the skirt, rather than using hooks.

As suggested by

lacedwaist I'm aiming for a middleclass outfit, c. 1580s or so: bodice, skirt, petticoats & foreparts, smock, probably detachable sleeves.

My big concern is the colour of the bodice and skirt. It's nagging at me. At one time I wouldn't have cared, but I'm growing more crotchety in my (SCA) old age.

I have a vague memory that in the 16th c, dark blue was either impossibly expensive, or deadly cheap, and suitable only for servants - too cheap for a middleclass woman. Does anyone else remember?

So I'm debating dyeing it. I can get machine-wash Dylon in a couple of shades of dark brown, and the colour stripper for pre-treating coloured things.
The trouble is that I'm not confident that the Dylon will 'stick'.

My past efforts at washing-machine dyeing have had good results, but they faded, particularly if you sweated into them. A bodice will definitely see some sweat, and I don't want it to stain my chemises.

Has anyone had good results with dyeing finished garments w/ Dylon? How well did it keep?

OTOH - can anyone clarify the business of the status of dark blue as a wearable late 16th c colour? I don't want to keep working on it - adding sleeves and guards - only to decide that I want it in another colour. Now (after I've finished raw edges) is the time to decide...

Lia? Hedwig? other 16th c. mavins? any thoughts or references?

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: home

Towards reworking my non-specific late-period costume into a recogniseable Elizabethan doublet and skirt: this is my work on the petticoat.
I'd previously used a two-layer petticoat, gathered at the wide waistband. Both layers are a sort of neutral colour cotton.
I've unpicked the waistband and gathering, pressed it to within an inch of its life, and now reassembled it into a single skirt (lighter-weight cotton in back, as it'll never be seen), and am pleating it onto a smaller waistband.

It's full enough to do cartridge pleating in the back and sides, but I want knife-pleating in the front, to keep down the bulk around my tum.
I'm still stitching down the pleating - my hands are rather sore from stitching and folding (and possibly from some knitting...) so this really is a WIP.

Yes, it's cotton - and not the wool form of cotton. I'm sticking with it because I don't have suitable linen I want to use in this project at the moment, and also because the whole project is something of an experiment. If it works, and I get a nice outfit out of it, I can always upgrade w/ a (red?) linen or silk petticoat in future. Till then, I'm using what I have at hand.

My hope is to keep pinning foreparts to this petticoat, and then wearing the blue skirt overall.

I've considered stitching together all the foreparts into a sort of pinwheel forepart skirt, where I could 'spin' them around to change forepart colours. I've seen it in the SCA, never known if it's an authentic practice (though using only good fabric in the visible front and cheaper 'filler' in back is arguably correct).

	Starting point: Lining of the petticoat Two layers of cotton, flattened in the front, gathered in the sides and back. Hoping to piece it into a more authentic (pleated?)petticoat, along with the other forepart pieces.
	Petticoat Previously used curtain cord along a channel at the bottom of the skirt to keep it hung down.
	cartridge pleating a petticoat This petticoat is assembled from the two layers that were in my old petticoat. I unpicked them, pressed them, and stitched them into a single tube, then started pleating, with flat pleating at front centre.