The Middle Class Outfit c. 1580

My newest outfit, a costume for a prosperous middle class lady, circa 1580. These pictures, all taken October 13, 2001 at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire North (RPFN), show the entire costume, except for the sleeves, which will be added later.

Detail of the fabric. It's a chenille upholstery remnant I picked up from Hancock's.

The pattern pieces for the doublet. I chose to use an "all-in-one" collar but failed to take into account that A) I needed more fabric in the collar, particularly at the back and B) there needs to be a large horizontal dart at the nape of the neck in back for the collar to fit the back of the head and neck properly. I ended up cutting too much out of the collar to make it look right. Lesson learned. :)

Front view of the bodice before I attached the skirt.

Back view of the same.

Detail of the buttons. They're clay.

A full length picture of the outfit. The skirt is double box pleated and stitched to the doublet. I'm wearing a small bumroll, 2 peticoats, a linen high-necked chemise and my effigy corset. It was a really comfortable costume all in all!

A 3/4 picture...

Another full length picture of the outfit, with my friend Marny to the right. She's wearing my wench outfit... Ain't we cute

The hat. This was an attempt to combine two styles of hat... The Italian bonnet which has a cartridge pleated crown into a round brim and what I call a "riding hat" which has the shaped brim. It worked fairly well, except I was making this largely at 2:00 AM and there's a few things wrong with it. Still, it wasn't too bad!