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.
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.
I changed the measurements to fit my own size.
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 buttonsyten 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 satinyten una quera de terçiopelo negra forrada en felpa parda;
A jerkin of black velvet lined with brown plushyten una cuera de terçiopelo berde;
An old velvet jerkinyten un jubon de raso negro picado y pespuntado muy roto;
A very old doublet of quilted(?) black satinuna 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 velvetyten 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 sameotra 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 taffetaotra 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
Long have I coveted Scott Perkin’s leather jerkin, which is based off the jerkin at the Museum of London and written about in Janet Arnold’s “Pattern of Fashion”.
But I am not a leather worker*, I didn’t want to get a very nice hide and ruin it with my amateur attempts. So I filed the idea away in the back of my head until one night I came across some leather on eBay.
It was cheap and looked like there was enough to make a jerkin, one press of the buy now button and I good. The blitheful glow of a new project set in. I started planning out how I wanted it to look, what buttons I would need, to slash or not to slash?
But then I realized an important question needed answering, did women ever wear leather jerkins?
The common assumption is that it’s a male garment with origins as armor, and possibly evolved into the 17th-century buff coat. (I am not an armor historian if this is incorrect please let me know.)
In “Patterns of Fashion”, Arnold mentions:
“Alcega gives pattern diagrams of some petticoats or skirts (‘saya’) with ‘a jerkin, a little cassock such as women use in Spain’ as Minsheu translates ‘sayuelo’; others are with a ‘cuera’, translated by Minsheu as ‘a Spanish leather jerkin’. The latter is a bodice which has apparently taken its name from the leather from which it was once made.”
The diagram referenced in the quote
Language is a living thing, the meaning of words change. In my look through the English translation of Alcega’s book, I found some of the translations questionable, but I am inclined to agree. Paño or cloth, being mentioned in the layout means it is not being made from leather.
Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary 1660 lists the following:
Part 2: Digging through some Spanish and English Inventories.
*I did make a leather jerkin a long time ago out of chrome tanned suede cut from skirts from the thrift store. I looked like a badass female Iago in it, but I’ve learned a great deal about sewing since then.
References
http://blog.museumoflondon.org.uk/leather-jerkin-well-examined/
http://garb4guys.blogspot.com/search/label/Leather%20Jerkin
The Mauritshuis collection Anthonis Mor van Dashorst (and studio), Portrait of a Man, 1561
Libro de Geometria, Pratica, y Traça
Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary 1660
First, all the photos!
This project started several months ago before I moved, got married and several life thing reared their head. So my recollection of the construction process is a little fuzzy. After a few late night fb conversations, a friend of a friend needed better clothing for 16th century interpretations. I needed practice doing some men’s wear and pretty much said throw the fabric and measurements at me.
General inspiration from paintings and manuscripts:
The unpaned trunkhose are roughly based on Don Garzia de Medici’s in Patterns of Fashion, and staring at the shapes from Reconstructing History’s trunkhose pattern. They are linen, lined in a linen blend that is cut shorter than the outer fabric to give them some poof.
They are not stuffed but there is a band of linen to act as interlining about the pleats. I cartridge pleated them at the waist and whip stitched each pleat to the waistband from the outside, as if I was making a ruff. This sandwiches the pleats between the waistband and makes them stand out when worn, the linen band interlining then supports them.
They close with hooks and bars with a wide fly flap underneath, ideally for this era there would be a cod piece, however I have not found much on unpaned trunkhose with a cod piece save for an italian painting or two.
The waistband is just a 2 inch rectangle of linen folded over and pressed down.
The bottoms are cartridge pleated to a linen band that is then folded up and whipstitched down inside to prevent the stitches from rubbing.
Special thanks to Daniel Rosen of http://oldenglandgrownnew.weebly.com/ and other Facebook folks who where kind enough to let me pick their brains on trunkhose fitting and rise depth.
The doublet I drafted from early instructions that would later become: http://www.amazon.com/The-Modern-Maker-Century-Doublets/dp/0692264841 . I cut a mock-up in cotton twill (which was about the same weight at the linen) and took it up to St. Augustine for a quick fitting. I scribbled some notes to myself on it and then had to put it aside as planning a wedding/holidays/unpacking from the move took up a ton of time.
Fast forward a month or two and I take the mock-up back out and look at it, look over my notes and cut the linen with extra inlays and seam allowances. Fitting #2 everything is looking pretty good! I got my kickstarter copy of the doublet book in the mail and I sat down for a few days of cutting and pad stitching.
The wool in the chest area is left over medium suiting weight from one of my kirtles it has a lovely body, and I wish I could find more of it. That got pad-stitched to the canvas and in turn flatlined to the linen. I prepped the other pieces, over locked the parts that needed it and the deadline got moved up and I had about 5 days to finish everything.
Cue slamming out about 40 hand sewn eyelets in 2 days, a few 17 hour work days, more padstitching and eating lots of cherry tomatoes.
For the rest of the construction I followed most of the steps laid out in the doublet book.
There is no visible machine stitching from the outside, save for the buttonholes.
All the main seams I machined save for setting the sleeves, I hand set the lining in place so it could be switched out later as needed. The buttons are sewn in using a technique similar to the leather jerkin in Patterns of Fashion, which will allow them to be replaced easily.
The facing fabric along the collar, edges and doublet skirt was going to be a blue rayon, but I changed that to a black silk taffeta, it looks better and will wear better with less bulk. The binding is bias cut strips of linen that I snipped every 1/2 inch to break up the solid color of the fabric and give it some texture. This treatment can also be found on Cosimo de Medici’s clothing.
And in a final fit of too much caffeine I fingerloop braided some points to lace the doublet and trunkhose together.
Over all I think I was successful using donated fabric and juggling several plates to get this project done. The fit is spot on, the use of linen as outerwear is something that is still being researched.
For my first crack at men’s wear I am pleased, I learned a lot and look forward to applying what I learned to the next project.
Some work in progress shots of a 16th century black linen doublet.
Doublet front basted and shaped.
Under side of the doublet front, canvas and pad stitched wool.
Under side of the doublet back, more canvas and pad stitched wool.
I’m in need of a new underskirt or petticoat for my 16th century clothing. I’ve been using the same cotton broadcloth one I made back in 2005, for years now. It is serviceable, but it adds a lot of bulk at the waist and it isn’t very authentic in construction or materials.
So it is time to for a new one.
I have 3.5 yards of a lovely wine colored, lightweight worsted wool donated to me by Noel. (Thank you Noel! <3 )
I’ll be drafting the pattern on the fabric and hand sewing the whole thing with linen thread.
I’m working from the Spanish version of Alcega’s Book. The english translation is out-of-print and painfully expensive. I’m not a native nor fluent spanish speaker so google and a few other resources will be heavily used.
I’m using the translated chart of symbols from the tailors book into modern inches from the Curious Frau’s site.
Taking some inspiration from Other Andrew’s The Alcega Project.
And keeping in mind the information of the Modern Maker has posted about his study of the patterns on his blog and on the Elizabethan Costume Facebook group.
Definition from “Nuevo diccionario portatil, espanol e ingles: compuesto segun los mejore…“
Manteo: s, m : a church man’s cloke; a woman’s under petticoat.
Language is a fluid thing, always changing. The above definition is from 1728 far later than the 16th century. However even later dictionaries simply list it as a cloak or mantle. Context is key, when it is listed as Manteo de Muger, chances are it is a skirt.
I’ve started a small collection of images from Civitates Orbis Terrarum from the Historic Cities website. More to come when I have time to comb through all the different versions and crop and adjust the files.
