Tag Research

A Stitch In Time

Jennifer Kanter
Basting while I watch experts for more construction tips

This weekend is all about basting. I’ve begun the construction of Brian’s doublet by basting the interlining layer to the exterior wool instead of pinning, per The Modern Maker.

Brian wants to be able to wear this doublet during rapier combat without maile underneath. As I have concerns that the weight of these layers will not pass the rapier punch test as is, I’ve begun considering options for adapting if that is the case. While rewatching the Stitch in Time episode in which the Tudor Tailor’s Ninya Mikhaila recreated the Black Prince’s padded jupon last night, I determined that it’s not possible to pad this one to increase its resistance, as Ninya estimated that padding and quilting requires an additional 10% increase in the size of the pattern piece. A quick discussion today with Arianna suggests that if needed, I’ll be adding an extra layer of interlining if that remains a concern once I’ve pad stitched the body pieces. If needed, I can also reinforce the shirt, but I hope to not need to add a special shirt to complicate his dressing. I will test some fabric remnants soon with Mistress Arianna so I can decide what needs happen.

Today was spent helping friends work on clothing for their upcoming reign, and while there, I was discussing my pending dress project with Mistress Guiliana and Mistress Arianna. Both were encouraging, and Arianna sent me home with a booklet to read on constructing the sotanna. The booklet is made by Margo Anderson to accompany her Italian Renaissance Lady’s Wardrobe Pattern, and while a modern source, reviewing it should help me confirm some of my understanding of how the pieces of this garment are meant to come together. The section on sleeve poof construction options looks particularly useful as I begin planning the decorative elements to be incorporated into my gown.

But I hated my class on Renaissance Florence…

Jennifer Kanter

Of all the places, what’s my inspiration for a 16th Century dress? Florence! More specifically, the closet of Eleanor of Toledo. After a whole college semester complaining about how much I hated the Medicis and their convoluted intrigues, I’d never have dreamed I’d willingly go back to studying that period.

But it turns out that everything I disliked about the idea of wearing Elizabethan clothing with it’s stiff bodices, fussy farthingales, and starched collars gets set on its ear in Florence. It seems that when she married into the Medici clan in 1539, Eleanor brought her easier moda alla spagnola to court and maintained aspects of that style dress for decades.* And while the clothing in her portraits was by no means casual, the style doesn’t give me the impression I’ll feel confined, as so much of the fashion in portraits from the Elizabethan Court does. Most notably, the long pointed waistline on the Elizabethan bodice and the farthingdale didn’t catch on in the same way through Florence yet in that period. Yay!

And as a wonderful coincidence, not only are there extant tailor manuals from late 16th C & early 17th C in Spain**, the doublet that Brian loves was patterned by Duchess Sibilla Daine, whose Laurel was Master Jose de Madrid***, who literally wrote the book on working from those Spanish manuals. I intend to work from her pattern, drafted in 2021 for his Pelican elevation garments, to make the arming doublet he’s requested for his elevation to the Order of Defense. I feel reasonably assured that following Master Jose’s guidance to create Brian’s coat will help prepare me for the new tailoring skills I’ll need to build a fitted bodice for myself based from those Spanish manuals.

*COX-REARICK, JANET. “Power-Dressing at the Courts of Cosimo de’ Medici and François I: The ‘Moda Alla Spagnola’ of Spanish Consorts Eléonore d’Autriche and Eleonora Di Toledo.” Artibus et Historiae, vol. 30, no. 60, 2009, pp. 39–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25702881. Accessed 23 Dec. 2023.

** Alderondo, Abner. “A Master Tailor’s Manual.” Folger Shakespeare Library, 10 Jan. 2023, www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/a-master-tailors-manual/. Accessed 23 Dec. 2023

** Master Jose de Madrid is better known as Mathew Gnagy, a fashion professional who publishes instructional materials as The Modern Maker (https://www.themodernmaker.co/)

And so it begins

Jennifer Kanter

Welcome to a new century! I concede. With a MoD elevation in the house in 2 months and 2 days (YAY BRIAN!), I need to actually sew 16th C like I mean it. Add in a bittersweet store-closing sale at Jay’s Fabrics, and suddenly silk and wool is coincidentally not only affordable enough that Brian gets new garb, *I* am getting a 16th C dress. After 23 years of resisting (literal) peer pressure to make something fancy. So okey dokey. Let’s do this.

The Modern Maker: Men’s 17th Century Doublets

Browsing the order of construction for Brian’s new MoD doublet before I ever pick up the scissors. Because spending my sca early years wearing baggy tunics with “Flashdance” necklines taught me something.