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.
pleats are the bane of my existence! i've completely given up on projects after the 10th attempt at getting them to be remotely even failed. i tip my proverbial hat to you.
ReplyDelete(Tuppence O'Boon)
To get mine even, I measured and marked them exactly (mine are 1" deep) so that my stitches would line up and be perfectly even. It took all afternoon to mark them and put in the stitches, but when I look at the result it just makes me so happy!
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