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This is the grey and silver costume that I made the week before Bristol opened this year. (Apologies on the image quality - you can only expect so much from a 50$ toy digital camera.) The costume itself is representative of the particularly uppity segment of the Elizabethan middle class. It is made of grey courderoy. If you look at the larger photos, you will see that the center bodice peices and alternating skirt peices are cut on the bias and have silver lame thread couched between the wales of the courderoy (every other wale for the bodice pieces, and every 8th wale on the skirt peices). There is also blue velvet cording between all of the peices of the bodice and the skirts. The hanging sleeves are of blue velveteen, lined with silver windsor satin. The decoration on the sleeves is made from blue satin ribbon with grey gimp on either side of it. The doublet collar/center is edged in black fur, and lined in blue velveteen. The forepart is also blue velveteen. The decotation on it is blue satin ribbon, edged in a silver trim with small poofs of silver thread. The very bottom of the forepart is done in silver tristed fringe. The hat is an escoffion, done in the blue velveteen. it is decorated in the silver trim from the forepart, and with some silver lace and blue sparklies on the flat back. The feathers are antique burnt ostritch, with little spangles on the tips. They are very hard to see in this photo.
The costume started with 8 yards of grey courderoy that I bought from another costumer about two weeks before faire opened. I think he was a little surprised when i wore the dress opening weekend. ;) There's about 4 spools of heavy silver lame thread in there - I used two threads together for each line of couching so that it would show up better. It's pretty spectacular in sunlight.
The costume is officially upper middle class, and not lower noble, for two reasons. The first is that I have sworn up and down that I would never ever *ever* try to make a noble out of courderoy. (I know it existed, I know it was obscenely expensive, but these days it generally just looks cheap.) The second reason is that I have also sworn up and down that a noble gown cannot be made in a week. Therefore, it is upper middle class. Trust me, it all works out ok this way.
On a construction note, the bodice is made differently than I normally make bodices. In order to get the bias cut panel in, I had to redraft my bodice pattern to move the center seam a little more towards the center and higher onto the shoulder. Essentially, I have redistributed the bustline curve over two seams, instead of just one. I don't recommend this at all. First off, it's kind of a pain. Second off, enough of the bodice is cut on the bias that it does stretch and shift a bit. It's probably not noticable, but it really annoys me.
