No lie, this jacket wouldn't have come into existence were it not for Mistress Isobel's website showcasing her various gorgeous late 16th/early 17th century jackets. I'm as suseptible to influence as the any 16th Century supermodel, so it was only a matter of time before I gave into the itch and made one of these jackets for myself. I based this one off the pattern of the Margaret Laton jacket in the Victoria & Albert Museum, as illustrated in Patterns of Fashion: 1560-1600, first draping the body of the jacket on my dress form and then scaling up the sleeves from the book.

I made the decision to handsew this and I had a deadline for Purgatorio in about a week, so I was really working against the clock to get it finished in time for the weekend. All in all, it took me about a week from start to finish, with the most time consuming part being applying the trim, which had to be stitched down on both sides of the ribbon over every seam. I decided to make a black linen kirtle to wear with it, the bodice of which is entirely handsewn, but the skirt was machine sewn (I was running out of time and finished the machine sewing only hours before leaving for the event on Friday. And the hem was sewn in by hand at around 1am on Saturday by candlelight). There are a couple of things I want to change on the sleeves... Mostly I feel like I didn't get the sleeve head exactly matched into the armscye correctly... It was close, but examining the pictures of the jacket from behind you can see it's a little off. The sleeves are also a touch too short... It may be that I will have to remake them entirely, but for now, they're not terrible so I can live with it.

The jacket was designed to be worn open to the waist, as seen in the pictures above, or closed. I will be adding silk ribbon ties down the front, but in the pictures above the jacket is simply pinned open to create the effect of lapels. This is extremely attractive on anyone with a weak chin (hi!), as having a ruff closed all the way up to your neck tends to accentuate the lack of jaw definition. That's the reason why I almost always wear my ruffs open... It just looks more flattering on me. I know! I'm vain! What a surprise! The jacket is also currently lacking cuffs, which will be added at some point, and I am comitting a serious sin in not wearing wrist ruffs either. Scandalous!

Wearing the outfit caused quite a stir at Purg. No one in the West Kingdom is currently doing this particular flavor of Elizabethan, so many people were excited to see it being worn. The compliments never seemed to run out! This has easily been my most admired outfit in a long time and I think you can see why... Mistress Isobel wasn't kidding when she said that this particular article of clothing is "amazingly flattering". It really is! I'm so smitten with this little jacket that I've already decided to make more. :)