Introducing Lettice Knollys

I'm so pleased to announce that this coming summer, I will be playing Mistress Laeticia Knollys (Lettice or Letty to her friends) at the New York Renaissance Faire!  Letty was a fascinating woman: 1st cousin once removed to Queen Elizabeth, she came to court at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign as a Maid of Honour while her father had a seat on the privy council.  Strikingly physically similar to the Tudor queen with a pale complexion and red-gold hair, Lettice was thought to be a possible bastard grand-daughter of Henry VIII with his mistress, Mary Boleyn.  Lettice was known for being quick-witted, fashionable, somewhat morally lax and very flirtatious.  The Faire takes place in 1560, when Lettice was either 16 or 20 years old (historians disagree on her date of birth) and unmarried, living with the other Maids of Honour in attendance on her Majesty.

She became notorious later in life for her rumored scandals and ostentatious lifestyle and was banished from court when she married Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth I's lifetime friend, companion, and rumoured paramour.  Although the two fierce red-headed women had gotten along well in their youths and Lettice had been a "favourite," they never repaired the rift and remained distant long after Dudley's death; Elizabeth once referred to Lettice as a "she-wolf".  By all accounts Dudley adored his wife, and was known to be very devoted to her and treasure her council.

Although Lettice never returned to court, her son Robert Deveraux (Earl of Essex) eventually became a favourite of the aging Queen, though he hardly deserved the honour and was executed for treason after launching a failed coup and attempting to "rescue" her Majesty from the pernicious influence of her councilors and seize the crown.  Lettice outlived all three of her husbands, her two daughters, her sons, and the Queen, eventually dying on Christmas morning, 1634 at the impressive age of either 91 or 95.  In compliance with her wishes, she was buried next to Robert Dudley and they rest together at the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick near Kenilworth Castle, where they had lived together.

How to play a notoriously stylish and alluring court lady in her younger years?  I'm thinking a big fancy gown is in order.

Cartridge pleats!  Since we all know that Beauty is Pain, I decided to use a historically accurate technique and hand-sew the pleats into my skirt.  This involved very carefully marking my fabric after inserting a layer of baby flannel under the fold, then putting in two rows of running stitches.  That's 24 feet of hand stitching!  

But every moment is worth it when you pull up those gathering threads and see the lovely, rounded, fan-like result.  This is also how Elizabethan ruffs were made.   

I marked the edged, center, and half-way points with safety pins before gathering the pleats to ensure that they would go evenly onto the waistband. 

Here are the pleats pinned to the waistband; each one had to be individually hand-sewn to the band at top and bottom, which took at least 4 hours.  My fingers were very sore from forcing the needle though the baby flannel and tightly-woven cotton sateen.  

My mannequin doesn't wear the bodice particularly well because she lacks the necessary squishy bits.  Although the mannequin is actually smaller than me, the bodice appears too tight to close.  

Everything looks classier with hems.  I love how the cotton looks in low-light; it really brings out the teal / green tones. 

Finally, I put the gown on for the first time! It's still far from complete, but now you can clearly see the overall shape and proportion.

Feeling like a princess!  Or, more accurately, a Countess-to-be.  

Slow Progress

The good news is, I've been commissioned for some work at a well-acclaimed local theatre!  Yay!  The bad news is, this means I haven't been able to work very much on my Elizabethan gown.   I'm super excited about my work at the theatre, because I'm learning some new skills and have two exciting historical tailoring projects;  a 1927 ladies' wool plaid suit, which I completed last week, and a 1810 yellow 'Spencer' cropped jacket and matching dress, which I'm working on now.  Although I won't post pictures of my commissioned work here, you will eventually be able to see these projects in my official portfolio at samanthareckford.carbonmade.com.

Although work was slow these past few weeks, it didn't stop completely!  

First things first, I drafted a pattern for the gown bodice, and had a sitting over my corset.  The tricky thing here is that my mannequin doesn't wear the corset very well (lack of squishy bosom) so I need to fit it on myself, which isn't the most convenient.  Once my sister gets home from college, I am going to force her to be a fit model, as she is almost my same size.  

Once I corrected the bodice pattern, I cut if from both a nice dense cotton twill and the dyed blue fashion fabric.  I sewed boning channels into the twill, and cut the steel bones to match.  I hadn't planned for the bodice to be supportive without a corset, just nice and smooth, but it's turning out pretty hefty.  Hooray?  

My fabric is big and my table is small!  To cut out the skirt piece, I rolled it Torah-style onto two tubes.  This fabric continues to be confounding, looking completely different under diverse lighting conditions. 

Sewing a strip of baby flannel onto the top edge of the skirt, to support the cartridge pleats.

I sewed my gold trim onto the bodice pieces before flat-lining them to the twill, so that the stitches would be sandwiched between the layers.  I also wanted to get the trim on early so that it could finish nicely into the cording and I don't have to worry about fraying.

Once everything was trimmed and lined, I sewed my seams together and drafted some straps, which will mostly be covered by my sleeve puffs.  

The bodice back, with cording in the seams.  This is more theatrical than historical, but Lord have mercy, I love how it looks.  

This... almost looks like a garment?  Needs more piping.  I'm pausing on the bodice to get the skirt going, because I want to fit them together before finishing any hems.