This project came about during a small session of retail therapy and the joy of finding wool in Florida, in the summer for 5 bucks a yard.
That was the good news.
The bad news, there was only 3 yards of it. I decided to get it anyways thinking I could at least make a doublet and sleeves.
But once I got to the cutting table a plan had come to mind. The kirtle and low-cut bodice of cloth rash from Juan de Alcega’s pattern book was haunting me. Something about the diagram hadn’t added up when I tried to use it before, and that bothered me.
So I decided I would take another crack at it. I had 3 yards of brown wool and 3.5 yards of a navy wool. And while I have 2 lower class looking kirtles a nicer wool one couldn’t hurt.
Juan de Alcega Tailor's Pattern Book: Kirtle and bodice of rash cloth
The mm at the back waistline was throwing me off, how could it be 33 inches on the fold when the section of fabric it was laying on was only 16.5 inches wide? The total back waist measurement would have been 66 inches in all, which was more than the width of my fabric to start with. There was also an mm at the bodice length, which would make a pattern for a giant.
Something had to be amiss, so I looked over the other diagrams and found other skirts had simply m for their back portions.
Typos even with the printing press.
That problem solved, I taped together some newspaper and drafted the pattern to the measurements Alcega suggested just to make sure there were no more surprises.
It is taking me longer then usual because, in a fit of “well it isn’t that much work” I decided to sew the corset, boning channels and eyelets and so forth all by hand with silk thread.
This is not so much an exercise in insanity so much as wanting to see what I will learn from the experience, and so far I’ve learned a lot.
Like use a thimble, because your skin is not as tough as you think it is.
Take breaks so you don’t put too much stress on your wrists.
Watching David Tennant play Hamlet was kinda weird.
The cat will sit on your corset no matter what, and leave it covered with fur.
Ok, so the last two have nothing to do with sewing but I did get a lot of sewing done because of them. With the exception of the cat.
But after an hour and a half of Hamlet I did have this:
Slow going but not too bad, once you get into sewing with the back stitch there is something rather Zen about it and I managed to finish that side of the corset by the end of Hamlet.
The corset then got set aside for about a week as I worked on other projects and took care of some family concerns.
That was just long enough for my brain to wipe out all the useful hand sewing information it usually holds on to, and I found myself unable to recall how to do the back stitch.
Crazy I know.
So I decided to make myself a diagram just in case it ever happens again and I can’t find my sewing books.
After laying out the fabric I traced my pattern on to the drill and sateen then cut it out.
I left all the seam allowances in place (Which I will cut down later then I bind it.) save for the back, which I extended by an inch as I plan to fold that over as a facing rather then bind the back edges.
Flatlining the fabrics
Then I stacked the layer of sateen on top of one layer of the drill and hand basted all around it in the seam allowances.
In sewing terms this is known as flat lining it gives the sateen layer more strength then it would have on its own and will help prevent the bones from wearing through the fabric.
Next I pressed the seam allowances down on the side seams.
Then the side seam allowances were whip stitched down on the front and back pieces.
This method of construction calls for more hand sewing then if you used a machine, but the end result means you don’t have a thick bulky seam on the inside of the stays.
Pressing the seam allowancewhip stitching the seam allowanceThe inner and outer layers basted together
The outer layer done I set that aside and took the second layer of drill and pressed the side seam allowances down as well, but did not whip stitch them in place.
Then I stacked the two layers of drill together with the folded under/stitched down seam allowances facing each other.
All the layers were then basted through, going only up the side seams and the straps, leaving the bottom of the stays and the neckline open. I used a very sharp glovers needle for this, as regular hand sewing needles have some issues going through the heavy fabric.
Dorothea’s pair of bodies, line drawing by Janet Arnold
After looking through my closet, under the bed and other places that my costume end up hiding I realized I never got around to making a late Elizabethan corset or pair of bodies.
A tragedy that must be remedied.
The Tudor Tailor book has three or four patterns for late Elizabethan corsets, but as with everything in that book the patterns scale up too big for me.
Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg’s pair of bodies
Patterns of Fashion 1560-1620 by Janet Arnold has a pattern for Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg stays which she was buried in.
Those are a bit closer to my measurements but I was not looking forward to doing a mock up and fitting it.
So I decided to use my usual bodice pattern, took it in two inches, and modify the front to a mild point, as I didn’t want something quiet as extreme.
Arnold speculates that Dorothea’s bodies were made form three layers total, the top being a layer of silk satin mounted on a layer of linen, and then another layer of linen behind that. The channels for the bones were then stitched through all the layers and then each piece was over handed together before being bound around the edges.
For my pair of I am using scarlet cotton sateen and two layers of cotton drill.
We all have old projects lurking in the back of the closet, things we made when the scissors were still fresh and sharp and we knew just enough about sewing to be dangerous.
They are given away. They no longer fit and gather dust as we move on to new projects, better fabrics.
This was one of the first gowns I made, the bodice was too big, and over time the fabric stretched. It lingered in the back of the closet for a few years before I took it out, tried it on and decided to fix it.
I pad-stitched my layers of bombast (warm and natural cotton quilt batting) together, leaving the seam allowances intact. I don’t know if the stitching will cause the layers to shrink, and I can always trim them down later. I am only padding out the front of the bodice, one layer going over the bust and the other layer stopping at the underbust.
The idea is to fill in some of the space where the bust meets the torso. This is also the area where I was getting wrinkles when just using a layer of twill and buckram. Pad-stitching will keep the layers of batting from shifting over time. In the end I had a gently curving layers of batting.
Cotton Batting used for interlining before pad-stitching
It would have been faster if I zig-zagged it on the sewing machine, but the end result would have been a flat quilted layer.
The batting layers secured I sat down with a leather needle and a thimble and started pad-stitching through all the layers to secure the batting to the bodice. This took a few days as punching through twill, buckram, batting, and muslin can wear out your fingers.
The end result however was worth it.
The layers of batting and pad-stitching stiffen the bodice just enough that it remains smooth yet slightly flexible. It does not sit flat when on the table, but rather curves and holds its own shape.
I took out my bodice block and traced off the pattern, tweaking it along the way. I cut a new mock up out of muslin/calico and fitted it. I don’t have any photos of the fitting, as I’ve been using the bodice block for some time now and finally have it more or less fitting me as it should. (But still I made mock ups as a just in case) The point hits where I felt it should, the back neckline had a slight arch like Elenora’s Funeral Gown. I only needed to take the shoulder straps up half an inch.
The red line in the photo is where my waist is and I marked where the neckline will hit once the seam allowances are turned down.
I then dated and labeled the pattern to save my sanity.
It is spring, it makes me want to clean and that usually means cleaning out the sewing boxes. Throwing out random bits of muslin that you can’t remember using the past few months and then a few days later realizing it was a Useful pattern you had mocked up. Hence why I label my mock ups, and usually transfer them to card.
The fabric and the "Cloth of Gold" lining. Bodice mockup
For the gown I have 6 yards of velvet, and cotton blend that will look great as the lining. Usually I would cut out the skirt sew it, and then on to the bodice and sleeves. But to shake things up a bit I’m going for the bodice first. It is smaller, I plan to sew it mostly by hand and I have several options open for how to go about it.
In the test dress I relied upon an interlining of twill and narrow plastic boning to give the bodice structure. This worked well, it kept the bodice point from curling up and I’ve used it in other costumes with no problem. But there is very little evidence of boning being used in Florentine fashion at this point in history. Moda a Firenze mentions the use of stiff linen, felts, bombast and even cardboard to give that smooth flat shape to gowns.
Portrait of a Woman- Met Museum
The use of stays or a corset under the gown is also debatable.
Anea has written a good article upon the matter of Renaissance stays in Italian Fashion. Her write up, and the lack of a mention of stiffening in Eleanora’s wardrobe accounts leads me away from using boning.
With all this in mind I gathered up my materials, due to cost, availability, and comfort I substituted cotton drill in place of linen, thin buckram and cotton quilt batting as bombast in place of wool felt.
(Trying to find 100% wool anything in Florida.. it doesn’t happen too often.)
To start I traced my pattern out onto muslin which will be a base layer for everything else. It will eventually be basted to the velvet fabric, helping support it and giving me very little bulk in the seam allowances.
Twill and buckram zig-zagged together
Next came the twill and buckram layer, which I cut without straps but with seam allowance, which will but cut away later. These two layers were machine zig-zagged together, and then zig-zagged to the muslin to prevent the layers from shifting.
Usually these layers would be basted or pad-stitched together, but as they were not providing shaping and to save time I used the sewing machine.
Bodice with just twill and buckram
The twill and buckram gave the bodice a paper feeling stiffened shape, and I knew from making the Unicorn Gown, I could at times use just those layers to stiffen the bodice.
But would it work with this style of gown?
I was also starting to wonder about the layers of bombast and how warm it might be.
So I tried it on with just the twill and buckram layers.
If fitted well, but after some wearing and perhaps due to my lack of good posture, wrinkles started to develop just under the bust.
I still didn’t want to add boning so I cut out my layers of bombast and started pad-stitching them together by hand.
