Centuries-Sewing

Tag: 16th Century

  • Hand Sewn Petticoat Bodies/Bodice Work in Progress

    Hand Sewn Petticoat Bodies/Bodice Work in Progress

    I forgot to post these, I’ve slowly been sewing away on petticoat bodies from caramel colored wool. Linen/cotton canvas interlining, linen/cotton lining. Sewn with the broken backstitch, running stitch and whip stitch in linen thread. The project has sat in the time out corner a few times.

    First, when I trimmed the neckline corner down a tiny bit too far, I ended up darning it as a fix and reinforcing the area. Second I tried it on and it was too tight! Bah, I need to adjust my bodice block. Thankfully I had an extra large seam allowance in the back so I was able to let it out, but once I did that the back neckline started to have issues. After lots of basting, pressing, and re-basting I sewed up another 1/4 an inch and that seemed to fix it.

    The lining is in, the armscyes bound, so it just needs eyelets and a tiny bit of clean up, oh and the petticoat. I have 5 yards of red wool (lucky e-bay find) which should be enough for a new kirtle *and* the petticoat if I am careful with my cutting.

     

    petticoatbodiescut

    petticoatbodiceshoulderstrap

    petticoatbodiceshellside

    petticoatbodiceshell padstitchedinnerpb

  • Juan de Alcega Tailor’s Pattern Book: Manteo or a Skirt of Cloth Part 2 – Construction

    Juan de Alcega Tailor’s Pattern Book: Manteo or a Skirt of Cloth Part 2 – Construction

    After way too long here is part two of the manteo or petticoat (part 1 written in 2014 can be found here), to recap here is the layout suggestion I ended up using from Alecga.

    Manteo de pano para muger

    Since my fabric is 60 inches wide I did not need to piece the “B” section and was able to cut it as one curved shape.

    Manteo de pano para muger_puttogether

     

    manteo cut out

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Measurements

    I changed the measurements to fit my own size.

    (more…)

  • A Velvet Cloak with Silk Taffeta Edgings

    A Velvet Cloak with Silk Taffeta Edgings

    A very very old project (6+ years maybe?) has found a new home. It is based on the circle cloaks found in Patterns of Fashion, made from many scraps of black cotton velvet and a scarlet linen/cotton/rayon blend for the lining. It is a bit shorter than the ones in PoF, in part because as it sat in my closet and the outer fabric grew, the lining grew. I ended up hand-basting all around the outside of the cloak and trimming everything as even as I could make it. Which left me with an uneven lining in some areas.

    So I took the extra fabric I had from the lining (still had some!) and cut a very wide 4 1/2 yard long section of bias tape, sewed that through both the velvet and the lining, flipped it up, and hand sewed the folded edge down to the inner lining. (Phew!) That done I make a collar from the off cuts of the shortened cloak, lined it with more of the lining fabric and stitched it on.

    But I was going through several layers of fabric, thankfully the whip stitch works great there, but it looked a bit messy and I didn’t want the stitched to rub. So I took more scraps of the lining fabric and made a narrow band to cover the join and hand sewed them on. Finally I bound the collar top with scraps of black silk taffeta, snipped along the edge to give it some texture.

    But then the hem of the cloak did not match the collar edge (and I wanted a stop gap in case the cloak lining decided to grow again). This meant more silk taffeta! I cut 4 strips of it about 4 inches wide, folded them horizontally and machine sewed them together. Then I hand sewed the strips down along the hem of the cloak twice. Once to the red lining and the second time through the velvet to keep the taffeta band from rolling up.

    More edge snipping to match the collar, a set of twill tape ties and it was finally done.

     

    cloakfull copy cloakedge collarcloseup collarbias

  • Making a 16th-Century Leather Jerkin: Further Research into Spain

    Making a 16th-Century Leather Jerkin: Further Research into Spain

    The majority of the inventory excerpts are transcripts from http://www.anastasiorojo.com however, the translations and missteps are my own. I’ve found a handful of cueras mentioned in inventory lists. Some are made of leather, others of fabric, they are cut, trimmed and in one instance lined in velvet. This is by no means exhaustive and in some entries, I’ve included non-cuera garments as they were listed.

     

    1585 TESTAMENTO E INVENTARIO DE BERNARDINO VIZCARRETO, NATURAL DEL PIAMONTE Y REGIDOR DE VALLADOLID

    cuera: yten una cuera de cordovan con beinte y dos botones de oro;
    One jerkin of leather with twenty-two gold buttons

    yten una cuera de cordovan bieja aforrada en bayeta negra
    One old jerkin of leather lined with black baize

    http://www.anastasiorojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1585-VIZCARRETO.pdf

    1570 INVENTARIO DE SEBASTIÁN DE SANTA CRUZ, MERCADER Y HOMBRE DE NEGOCIOS DE BURGOS.

    quera: yten una quera de raso negro sajado;
    a pinked/cut jerkin of black satin

    yten una quera de terçiopelo negra forrada en felpa parda;
    A jerkin of black velvet lined with brown plush

    yten una cuera de terçiopelo berde;
    An old velvet jerkin

    yten un jubon de raso negro picado y pespuntado muy roto;
    A very old doublet of quilted(?) black satin

    una cuera guarnezida de pasamanos de oro aderezada con anbar
    A jerkin decorated with gold lace and trimmed with amber(?)

    yten una cuera de raso guarneçida de terçiopelo
    A jerkin of satin trimmed with velvet

    yten sus cuera y mangas de lo mismo
    Another jerkin and sleeves of the same

    http://www.anastasiorojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1570-STA-CRUZ.pdf

     

    1595 TESTAMENTARIO, INVENTARIO Y BIBLIOTECA DE GASPAR CLAVIJO, CARPINTERO MORISCO VIEJO

    quera: yten una quera tapetada de cordoban bieja
    An old black leather jerkin

    http://www.anastasiorojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1595-GASPAR-CLAVIJO.pdf
    1571 INVENTARIO DE BIENES DEL MARQUÉS DE TÁBARA, EN SUS CASAS DE VALLADOLID

    cuera: una cuera de cordovan llena de pasamanillos aforrada en terciopelo negro con mangas de lo mismo;
    A leather jerkin with narrow lace lined in black velvet with sleeves of the same

    otra quera de cordovan camuzada llena de rebeticos de raso negro aforrada en tafetan negro;
    A leather jerkin of ( Camuzada, possibly Gamuzada – Chamois color?)  with black satin and lined with black taffeta

    otra cuera picada con un pasamano biexo.
    An old pinked jerkin with trim

    http://www.anastasiorojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1571-TABARA.pdf

     

    “Richer than We Thought: The Material Culture in 16th Century St Augustine”

    2 cordovan doublets

    Goods of Dona Mayor de Arango (1570) http://elizabethancostume.net/cyte/node/239

  • Part 5 of the Elizabethan Kirtle Sew-Along Renaissance

    Four videos today, this weekend I’m going to shoot some more.

    Pressing and prep for the sleeve seam allowances

     

    Pressing the seam allowance with a seam roll when the sleeve is too narrow for the board.

    Sewing in the lining at the top of the sleeve.

    Hand sewing the bottom of the sleeve shut.

     

     

  • Part 4 of the Elizabethan Kirtle Sew-Along Renaissance

     

    Marking the eyelets out for spiral lacing

    Cutting out the sleeves (the wool is from my stash and the wrinkles would not steam out)

    First pass of sewing the sleeves together.