My Spanish Farthingale, Myself

With the help of the internet, I set out last week to construct my second piece of shape wear: a Spanish Farthingale.   I found it difficult to discern proper dimensions because of 1. the dearth of full length paintings of women during this period (circa 1558) and 2. the fact that I am approximately a full 8 inches taller than the average Elizabethan woman.  The practicalities of modern theatre also took their toll: at 5'10" there is a good chance that I'll be the tallest women in a given scene (I often tower over men, too) and I don't want my already large presence + voluminous skirt to completely over-power any tableau that I join.  So my goal was be as historically accurate as possible while maintaining proper proportions and trying not to overwhelm everything around me.  Here we go!

During my design process, I've been been taking inspiration from this portrait of Bess by Steven Van Der Meulen.  Called the "Hampden Portrait," it is thought to be the first full-length portrait of the Queen, painted in 1563.  This is just the period I'm looking to re-create, so it's a great resource.

My trim placement and partlet design are also influenced by this painting

What we've got here is an exaggerated trumpet shape, which (unlike most iterations of the Spanish Farthingale) appears to be flared at the bottom.  Liz is also probably wearing a modest bum-roll to get that almost horizontal lift of the skirts around her waist.   I suspect that the flare shape is not actually from her support garments, but from the heavy weight of her voluminous skirts doing an elegant sweep- farthingales at the time seemed to end several inches above the ground so that the wearer could walk comfortably, and the Queen's skirt is widest right where it hits the floor.

To begin, I checked out these instructions from the Elizabethan Costuming Page: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/farthingale/period.html.  Those are based on Juan Alcega's description of how to make a farthingale, which (rock star costume historian) Janet Arnold also studies in her book series.

 I didn't use any of the same measurements or finish my waistband the same way, but I took Alcega's example and began by creating a gored skirt, with four triangular gores attaching to rectangular front and back panels.   I picked a light-weight, faux silk Polyester Nightmare (tm) fabric from JoAnn's for my farthingale because I wanted it to be 1. lightweight and 2. slippery.  I've had problems before with petticoats 'catching' and sticking to my overskirts, so I wanted to make sure that my farthingale would be nice and slick and let the petticoat slide over it naturally.  So far, there hasn't been a downside to this fabric choice, but we'll have to wait and see how it holds up to wear!

I chose to finish my waistband with elastic, as opposed to the more common snaps or ties, because there will already be so many bulky things around my waist (petticoat, bum-roll, overskirt) and I didn't want any more strings or stiffened waistbands to get tangled in.  I wanted to make my boning channels from grosgrain ribbon, but the closest color match at Michael's was satin.  So satin it is, and I hope this won't come back to haunt me.

The gored skirt on my mannequin.  We were having family visit, so I dressed the form up to prove that I am actually up to something, not just making a huge mess.

I had extra fabric, so I decided to make a ruffle!  This took forever (36 yards, serged on both sides and gathered) but I am glad that I did it- I really gives the garment a more 'finished' look, and I hope the ruffle will keep the overskirts from collapsing too much below the lowest hoop.  My skirt is about 3.5 yards wide at the bottom.

Poly nightmare fabric is your friend.

My boning is from corsetmakingsupplies.com and came in a 12 yard roll, which was just enough for my 4 hoops.  I didn't cut it initially, because I wanted to experiment with the size of the bottom hoop.

    

The farthingale with one hoop, worn with my bum-roll and the moss silk petticoat.  It doesn't look quite right- I think I'll be slimming down the sides of the bum-roll.  I can also see the bone pushing against the petticoat and causing an ugly line, which is a big no-no. 

Well, here is that portrait-appropriate flare shape, but it looks like a mess.  Not quite there yet.

Progress!  Here is the skirt with two boning hoops in it:

The left side is sticking out way further than the right- the is solved by sliding the hoops through the boning channels until they lie more evenly.  Eventually, when I decide on a final shape, I'll tack each hoop in a few places to keep them from shifting.  I also chose to stagger where the boning channels open and the hoops connect: this is so that if the hoops are weaker at their connecting spots, the whole skirt won't buckle along one line and turn into an oval or an egg-shape.

The skirt with all the channels sewn, but no hoops inserted.  This thing is huge- I had fun wearing it around, pretending to know Flamenco dancing.

Four hoops! I'm leaving the channels open and unfinished for now- I want to be able to keep adjusting the size. 

Four hoops, with the petticoat on top.  I'm very happy with how the petticoat is falling at the hem- nice and elegant, not caving in or collapsing at all.  I'm not so sure about the shape, though- it's more like a 1860's bell than a 1560's cone, but not offensively different than the portrait.  I'll keep fiddling around.  

I'm glad that I chose to only use 4 hoops, instead of the more usual 5-7.  I can't see the channels at all under the petticoat (yes!) and it's hanging relatively naturally.

It must be the hoop skirt influencing me- while I worked on this, I began to think of my character as an Elizabethan Scarlett O'Hara.  Although I haven't been officially cast, my director mentioned that one possibility would be Lettice Knollys, the Queen's cousin.  Historically, she was a social climber with fairly loose morals who was very popular with the men.  I imagine Lettice as flirtatious, tenacious, prone to jealousy, and a fabulous dresser- just like Scarlett!  She liked to marry up and steal other people's boyfriends.  In the recent BBC mini-series "Elizabeth; The Virgin Queen" Lettice even tries on the Queen's gowns and jewelry when no one is looking.  A 16th century Mean Girl!

Bring Up the Booty

It was a busy week in Elizabethan-Costume-Land- I finished hand sewing the binding on the inside of the stays (the outside seam is machine stitched), dyed my gown fabric under the expert tutelage and supervision of a master dyer (Ms. Tiffany L.) and whipped up a bum roll.  Things are really starting to move along!

Dying is messy!  I wanted to keep the colour of the fabric very similar, while making it a bit darker and richer

Sample swatches:  original fabric is on the right, with progressing dye formulas going left.  These are darker than the final outcome because they have been rinsed but not washed, so no almost no dye at all ran off.  

The final fabric, compared to an un-dyed swatch.  It's amazing how different this cotton sateen looks in different lights- right now I'm looking at it right now at at dusk under electric light, and it looks very green.  Sometimes it seems peacock blue, sometimes turquoise, sometimes aquamarine.  Very versatile stuff!  I'm going to run the entire bolt through another wash n' dry cycle before cutting it, to reduce the chances of the colour bleeding or rubbing off.  

Although it's a (relatively) small difference, I think that the dye job took away the "icy" quality that the fabric originally had, especially in the sun.  The new colour is still bright and bold, but not pastel. 

Trying on my newly completed corset with the bum roll!  The green petticoat was a stitch-and-dye project from years ago- an effort to reclaim some very wild looking mustard yellow textured silk.  I'm wearing it over a vintage (possibly 50's? 60's?) single hoop petticoat made of net, which was found in my great-grandmother's attic.  I'll be making my own Spanish farthingale in due course, but wanted to try on some of the layers with the existing hoop to get a sense of how the proportions will work.

Booty booty booty, rockin' everywhere.  

My bum roll is made of cotton (left over from the stays) and stuffed with poly-fill from the craft store.  I may decide to take some of the stuffing out (it's currently very ample) but it may well compress and deflate with more wear.  I based the pattern on a diagram in Jean Hunnisett's wonderful book Period Costumes for Stage & Screen: 1500-1800.  Jean created the costumes for the fantastic BBC miniseries "Elizabeth R," which were largely based on portraits and are considered some of the most accurate representations to be put on screen.  Her book series in an amazing resource, and even includes patterns for some of the designs used in the production! 

New Sketch

The biggest pitfall with constructing my own designs is that I always end up second-guessing myself.  After doing quite a bit more research and watching the fabulous "Elizabeth R" mini-series from the seventies, I've changed my mind about the bodice decoration.  There is so, so much documentation for "T" and "V" shaped trim on bodice fronts, but not really anything to support my previous stomacher-style design, which I fully admit was inspired by Sandy Powell's designs for "Shakespeare in Love", which are absolutely gorgeous but not exactly accurate.  Sandy has stated frankly in interviews that her designs match the tongue-in-cheek, romantic comedy feel of the movie and weren't meant to be exactly representative of the era.  I agree design choices, and the final product is gorgeous, but I think for this project I'll be erring on the side of historical accuracy (with provisions for the needs of modern outdoor theatre, of course) and move away a little from that inspiration.

Here is a doodle of my new idea for trim placement on the bodice.  I may or may not have done this during a staff meeting at my day job, please pardon / ignore the notes and type.

I know that is wasn't customary to have loose hair during this period, but I want to be a pretty princess damnit and ain't no one can stop me!  At least until my directors tell me otherwise. 

Corset Progress!

I've been working on and off for the past week on a "rehearsal corset"- a simple pair of stays made of inexpensive calico-print cotton and boned with jute twine and zip-ties from Home Depo.  I wanted to make an informal corset that could stand up to washing and hard wear, made of inexpensive materials so that I won't feel guilty submitting it to a lot of hard wear at the Renaissance Faire this summer.

Since this is my fist time drafting a corset, I've been proceeding pretty carefully and learning a lot along the way.  After making a muslin mock-up, I was satisfied with the basic shape of my pieces and ready to start.  The trickiest part of the cutting process was pattern-matching the front pieces-- the front opening is cut off-grain to allow for the difference between bust and waist measurements without having to resort to darts or princess seams, neither of which were used in the 16th century.

Front pieces, matched as accurately as I could manage

Once I had all my layers (fashion fabric, muslin interlining and corset coutil lining) I flat-lined them together and then sewed in the boning channels, using my machine foot as a guide.  Here are all the pieces with the channels sewn in,

Next, I basted the side-back seams together.  

Time for hand-bound eyelets!  I made 58 of these puppies, using a tailor's awl and button-hole thread.  It took my about three days, for a total of maybe 12 hours.   I was watching the 1971 "Elizabeth R" mini-series with Glenda Jackson as I sewed, so I wasn't being very efficient.  

Hand-bound eyelets, seen from the wrong side of the fabric.  These were actually pretty fun to do, although my fingers got sore from tugging the needle through the coutil.  I'll need to add a few more later, to attach the shoulder straps in the front and add points where my petticoats can attach to the stays. 

I drafted a simple set of shoulder straps once the eyelets were finished and I could lace the bodies onto to my dress form.  Now it was time to add the boning.  I used a double strand of jute twine, inserted with a bodkin, to bone the back and side-backs so that the bodice would provide support without being uncomfortable stiff.   I have very good posture (partially resulting form a spine surgery several years ago) and didn't want too much support.  The front is boned with 14inch plastic cable ties, the ends of which I smoothed out with a file meant for acrylic nails. 

With my boning in place but the corset still unbound and unfinished, I wore it around to an afternoon to make sure that I was happy with the level of stiffness, the front length, and so on.  Although the fit was generally pretty  good, I needed to scoop out each armscye (no one likes getting poked in the delicate under-arm area!) and adjust the front dip a little to be truer to my actual waistline.  At the first fitting, I liked the length but the tabs needed to be cut about 3/4 of an inch higher. 

Looking good!  Here are the stays this morning, after my pattern alterations.  

Now that I am satisfied with the shape, I'm going to do final trims on the boning, trim out the seam allowance, and bind this sucker up with bias tape.  

The Blue Elizabethan Dress- Introduction

I began daydreaming about this project back in January, and knew that I wanted to do a 'French Gown' in they style of the later 1500s, in either light blue or blue-green (which was called "watchet" by Elizabethans).  The full ensemble is going to consist of the gown as well as a shift, pair of bodies (corset), bum roll, fathingale, petticoat, forepart, partlet, removable sleeves and a miniature hat.  This will be my second large scale, independent historical design and production project- I completed an ensemble in the Florentine style of the 1490's back in September,  2014.    

Photo of my design rendering

 Planning stage is done, including purchasing fabric, and I began drafting a corset pattern yesterday.  I've decided to create a version of the famous "Effigy Stays," made of corset coutil and silk taffeta, with additional back lacing so that the stays will fit despite potential future weight change.   Here is my schematic sketch, which may or not prove to be incredibly wrong (it's my first time drafting from scratch!)

And a sketch in my notebook of how I'd like the corset to look.  I am going to make my shift with wide sleeves so that the gown can be worn without over-sleeves on the hottest summer days.  I'd still like a square, low neckline so that the gown can be worn with a partlet (for everyday wear) and without (for fancy occasions, evening, etc.)