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The images above and to the left are pictures of my new italien style woman's doublet being worn after the italien fashion; that is, sans farthingale. This is always a nice option to have if you anticipate ending up in a crowded room. The doublet was finished in time for the winter faire party for bristol back in january. Theoretically, I have some better pictures of the full dress with farthingale coming along any time now, but for the moment, I'll just put up the polaroid scans that I have. (Note: better picture have been procured, and posted above and to the right....)
The doublet and skirts are made of a heavy brushed cotton - another $2/yard special. My mother said the fabric was a 'heavy small whaled whaleless corderoy', or something like that. She knows these things. This one did not need to be dyed. The doublet is fully selflined with the cotton. There are two lines of boning in front. The boning casing is made with biased tape sewn to the inside of the lining piece, so that there are no stitches visable on the outside of the doublet. The boning runs to just below the corset line. The doublet is shaped by a pair of curved seams at the side front and side back. In the closeups on the dummy, you see an epaulette at the shoulders. The epaulette is there as a mounting for the double shoulder roll in the finished doublet.
The trim on the doublet is rows of open work oatmeal colored midi-braid surrounded by dark red gimp, layed chevronwise (in V's, for the non-heraldry literate) on the front and back of the doublet. Please see the closeup of the front of the doublet, modelled by my dress dummy (the Lady Jane Beige). Actually, the trim had to be put on the doublet pieces before they were sewn , so that they ravelling ends of the braids could be safely hidden in the seams. Getting the braids to match up at the center back seam is more difficult than you might imagine - not only do you need to measure everything so it comes out in the same place, but you need to keep the braids from slipping past eachother while you sew. I don't think I will do anything quite like this again!
The skirt is lined with very cheap costume satin, so that it moves freely. Had I been thinking, I would have gotten the satin in yellow or green or some color that I am not likely to use as an underskirt. I didn't realize this until the night before I was supposed to have pictures of the costume taken, and then I had to go on an emergency fabric run to try to find an underskirt fabric that did not clash with the red, and did not make me look like I was decorated for xmas. The green underskirt in the full pictures above is actually striped, with a triple row of gimp braid along the bottom. The back and top two halves of each side of the underskirt are faked with cheap black broadcloth. The overskirt is just shy of 6 yards of fabric gathered down to the waistband. It is heavy. (Combination clothing and exercise equipment.) It drapes beautifully, though. I was happy with the end result.
