Thursday 30 January 2014

1580s Doublet

This doublet is based on the pattern for a 1585 woman’s doublet on page 107 in Patterns of Fashion 3. I based the rest of the outfit in the illustration on a picture of a woman in a doublet in the introduction to the book.
In my stash I had a remnant of gold brocade that I had bought at a curtain shop that was closing down. I decided to use the wrong side for the doublet because the right side is quite bright and shiny and I didn’t want my doublet to look so rich. There are two layers of linen as interlining which holds some light boning (linen isn’t so expensive when it’s fluoro orange!). On wearing I didn’t think the boning was enough so I now wear the doublet over my effigy stays.
The fabric I used for lining is completely synthetic but was quite nice to work with. I made this doublet when I was still in school and as I hadn’t made a properly lined garment before I took it to school for help. I wasn’t studying textiles at the time but the textiles teacher was my home group teacher and she very kindly gave me a few lunchtime lessons. 

When I finished the doublet I found that the peplum overlapped in a way I hadn’t expected and I wasn’t completely happy with the collar but I was reassured when I saw an extant doublet at Warwick Castle (when I went to England) that had the same issues.
The camica (or undershirt) is made from muslin and constructed entirely from rectangles. It has a very loose weave. Camicas are usually white and I suspect I made up the idea of having a coloured camica – I certainly can’t find that I have any evidence of coloured camicas being historical. The camica and skirt are both hemmed by machine, which horrified me last time I wore it because I wouldn’t make it that way nowadays. I would guess the skirt fabric is a very fine stretch corduroy but from a distance of more than a foot away it just looks like a heavy velvet. The skirt consists of rectangles cartridge pleated to a waistband.
When I do my hair for this costume I don’t use bobbypins to hold the braid in place, but instead ‘sew’ my plait to my head with a ribbon to form a bun.
 I made a flat cap to go with the outfit from this tutorial.

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