Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Flemish Working Women's Outfit

Did I mention that I have costuming ADD? No? Well...I do. Majorly. It's a bit of a problem considering all the free time I have on my hands right now.

Well, two weeks ago, after doing some research on flemish 16th century lower class for a friend of mine who is having me help her make garb, I decided to have a stab at making one myself. I have also drooled for a long time over Drea Leed's site and the flemish information she has there. I also have, at various points in the past, stumbled on dress diaries for the time period and drooled over them.

I haven't done enough research at this point to enter anything, but I think I will have a new outfit for Egil's. Yay!

The kirtle (underdress) is the linen/rayon from Joann's (it's okay...) and only the bodice is lined. I used knife pleats because those work the best in an underdress. Cartridge pleats are lovely but not for a kirtle. The kirtle is side lacing, and surprisingly easy to get into.

I will take more pictures later. It's really hard to take pictures of yourself wearing a dress I might add. And I am horrible at the self timer thingy.

The outer layer is wool lined with a linen/cotton. Both are striped, and I really like the effect. The colors aren't normally what I would associate with Flemish stuff, but both fabrics are from my stash.

I am currently on round 4 of pleating the skirt. In the picture you can see round 2. Frustration!!

Cartridge Pleat Attempt #1: Everything was going brilliantly, I love cartridge pleats by the way, when I realized that the end of my pleating thread had come unsecured and all my pleats fell out. Curses! $%$@$

Cartridge Pleat Attempt #2: Got the skirt all attached (as pictured above), and I realized that my bodice was too long and not hitting me right. Plus, after looking at other peoples overgowns, I realized that I liked the look of the overgown better with a flat front. I had angled the two fronts down like my kirtle initially. So, off came the pleats and I chopped off bits of the bodice.

Box Pleat Attempt #1: I decided at this point that I was going to try box pleats. From the backs of the gowns I have looked at, it doesn't appear to stand out quite as much as cartridge pleats do. And, box pleats make more sense for a lower class gown as they use less fabric to achieve fullness. Not that I am making a definitive statement on what they used. So, I pinned the sides and center back of my skirt to my bodice, pinned half the pleats and started sewing. My luck was not with me. I got to the middle of the back and realized it wasn't the middle of the back. I had pinned the center back of the skirt to the side of my kirtle. So I had half the skirt left to pleat into only 1/3 of my bodice. Oops, back up.

Box Pleat Attempt #2: Keeping fingers crossed that this one will work. I have half of my skirt pinned and it looks great! I have three knife pleats in the very front, and then double box pleats across in order to accomodate the amount of fabric I have. I did knife pleats in the very front so that it would lie flat and flow into the double box pleats which are very thick. Please Please Please, let this work.
Posted by Picasa

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the above comment might be spam.

BUT. Thanks for the post on this. I REALLY need to get started on mine, but I need to make my shift first.

https://www.reconstructinghistory.com/tudor-elizabethan.php?s=&c=8&d=115&e=&f=&g=&a=231&w=2

Should be the link to the article I was talking about with the 'underbust' style kirtle.

Unknown said...

I finally took a close look at that one. Thanks for sending me the link. That would be fun to construct. Really very similar to what I did. Just laces a little lower.

Anonymous said...

Hello! FYI: I Pinned a link to this entry with the following caption: "The Sinister Spinster: Flemish Working Women's Outfit -- another good blog. Excellent costume thinking, imo."

Anonymous said...

Hello! FYI: I Pinned a link to this entry with the following caption: "The Sinister Spinster: Flemish Working Women's Outfit -- another good blog. Excellent costume thinking, imo."

Anonymous said...

Hello! FYI: I Pinned a link to this entry with the following caption: "The Sinister Spinster: Flemish Working Women's Outfit -- another good blog. Excellent costume thinking, imo."

brocadeshopping said...

Hi , thanks for sharing your information. Here the company provides fashion apparels on online shopping with low cost budget and latest trend models apparels.
Party Wear Online Shopping
Party Wear Tops Online Shopping
Salwar Online Shopping