Lessons learned from the Working Woman

So the outfit was finished in time and I was able to wear it the next day. Our local SCA chapter had been asked to provide people, crafts, and combatants for a demonstration of skills at a local library to celebrate the release of the newest book in the Game of Thrones series. I was the Fiber Arts Guild for the day, so I brought my inkle loom, a basket of assorted fibers both on and off the drop spindle, and some knitting in various stages of completion. I also got to test drive the Flemish Working Woman's outfit and boy am I glad I did.

Let's take a look shall we?

First of all, the bodice which had been skin-tight during the draping process was now quite a bit too big for me. Since both the kirtle and the gown bodice where based on the same pattern, I was SWIMMING inside them. I have since removed almost 4 inches of fabric from the center back of the supportive kirtle and I expect to soon do something similar to the gown, just so it doesn't look like I'm wasting away from some horrible disease inside my clothes.

Secondly, the lovely partlet doesn't have any ties at the bottom. While the underarm ties and the throat button held it on my body, the lack of a tie under the breast line caused it to flap around like an over-sized lobster bib.Today I purchased some adorable handmade brass pins that will slow that flap down quite a bit and prevent me from looking quite so much like a refugee from Red Lobster. I'm going to have to search for more though, as there were only 8 pins in the pin case I found at the antique mall and I know they're going to work out of the linen and vanish once in use. I'd like to get these from Wooded Hamlet but it looks like they're out of stock for now. Jas Townsend has some, but I don't like the eye at the top of the pin, I'd much rather have it flat.

Last but not least, let us consider that coif. Oh that saggy, baggy, what-the-heck-is-on-my-head coif...Well, that's not exactly what I had intended to wear. Poor planning on my part is my only defense. I had been planning to wear the wired attifet found in Margo Anderson's excellent Elizabethan Wardrobe Accessories that I had made for a production of Merry Wives of Windsor some time back. That first attifet was out of a lightweight cotton and was generally a very well-behaved hat, with only the minor habit of wanting to twist around on my hair after a few hours. Since I had discovered that wearing a coif might work better with a forehead cloth underneath (How To Wear a Coif ) I felt that a few moments work with some handy linen and I could solve that problem. However, I have apparently loved that hat not often enough and for too long, for it appears to be totally missing somewhere in the craft room.

Step the next was to try and build something in a rush. I've really been loving the sevenstarwheel Transition Coif and made it up all in a hurry to see if it would do. I thought my head was pretty small, but using those measurements I created a coif that just barely squeaked over my ears and the back triangle didn't cover anything. The pattern seems to work out in all the other particulars, so when I have the time I'm going to scale it up and try it again. Very likely I did something wrong since I was in such a massive hurry anyway. However, as I was building it, my inner nag kept going "It's the wrong period for the dress, you know that", the she was annoyingly right. At that point I did the appropriate thing and went to bed.

As I had to work the next day I grabbed an old linen coif that had been given to me a few years ago. I've never worn it before due to assorted reasons and it took some fiddling to figure it out. The coif is a sort of bag with a sewn on front flap and gathers on a ribbon in the back. By cinching the ribbon down as tightly as I could and tying it on top of my head I was able to keep the bag on my head. There's not enough ribbon to go around the whole bag and my hair as well and everything slid off every time I turned my head quickly.I may be able to salvage it though with a forehead cloth and a little thoughtful trimming.

I consider this outfit a success in progress. It's not perfect yet, but it's all on the right track and I'm going to be very proud to wear it all when it's done. Not that it will ever be done-done. I need to get the shoes right, and I need a pocket, and a really good hat, not to mention trading the cotton smock for a linen one and... we shall call it a work-in-progress.

And now, the fun pic to remind me to get back to sewing!

The Story of Two Dresses

For the longest time I've been wanting a Flemish Working Woman's Outfit. The whole she-bang like the one Lady Drea put together here
I've been making it in bits and pieces over the years and it never came out right. Most of the time this was because I skimped on the materials and tried to find short cuts in the pattern. Then I had a surgery on the schedule ( non-working gall bladder), and this left me with plenty of time to start working up my Flemish dress.
Step number one was the choice to go fully period for a middle/lower class gown and NOT wear any support. No corset, no pair of bodies, not even any boning at the edges for this one. I am one of those with a remarkable upper deck and I wanted to see if things can be successfully supported and controlled without the bones. I still have scars on my hips from a badly fitted corset worn to an anime convention.
Step number two: picking a pattern. After a considerable amount of back and forth with myself, I chose to use Caroline Johnson's kirtle pattern from The Queen's Servants . There is a great deal of arguement about if one should use a waist seam with the kirtle gathered into it under a Flemish gown, or if one should go for a smooth seamless look. I've always been more fond of the seamed theory myself, although the usual turn-back of the skirts and the addition of an apron makes it pretty hard to tell.

Clearly, I would need to add a fabulous hat, pin-on sleeves, a plain apron, and possibly a spindle to get the whole outfit to come together

One of the major reasons I picked this particular pattern however is that I suspect this is the same kirtle style found in one of my favorite portraits of the time.

This is Katalina or Catherine of Aragon in about 1503. See the layers? I'm guessing that she has on a smock, a black kirtle enriched with tiny golden Scallops of Santiago, a yellow plastron or stomacher of some kind, and then that yummy chocolate brown silk velvet gown. If I can get the Tudor kirtle to work my next step is hunting down bunches of tiny metal seashells. This dress has to be a multi-tasker!

After I picked the pattern, I asked a friend to drape it on me. As we were both fairly loopy on painkillers at the time, I'm not absolutely sure the pattern is what I'm looking for, but we'll see.I followed the directions on Constructing A 16th Century Flemish Outfit from the Elizabethan Costuming page and have discovered a few things I would recommend.
Sew your lacing rings to a strip of cotton twill tape in order to make sure you have the right number you will need with the correct spacing. I've tried to sew things directly to the gown before and it always gets out of true.
If your dress dummy isn't as tall as you are, there will come a point when you need help with the hem. Get all your layers on and ask for some help BEFORE you destroy a perfectly lovely skirt.
When in doubt, go back and look at the pictures again. There are loads of great dresses out on the internet. Search for images of "Flemish gowns", "Flemish Working Women", or " Flemish market day". Also see if you can find a group of costumers on-line who may have already done whatever you're stuck on and ask. They might have a few handy tricks up their sleeves as well.

In our Next Episode: Can these dress both be ready to wear before the demo on Friday? Will our Heroine remember to leave enough room for her arms in the sleeves?? Can ANYONE remember where I left my basket of spindles???