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My First Garb
1590s Venetian Camicia,Corset, Partlet and Gown
The
Inspiration....
Long before I actually started
'playing' in the SCA, I decided on my persona. I loved Venice and
her history, so choosing a courtesan persona of the late
sixteenth century was easy. Once I had decided that I started
surfing the net to find information. It was hard going - there
was no city-state specific information as it was all lumped into
the general term of "Italian Ren". Not only does the
term "Italian Ren" cover a long span of time, but
doesn't take into account the regional variations that occured
throughout "Italy" in the sixteenth century. It is also
used incorrectly quite often. There is early Italian Ren, late
Italian Ren, and the sixteenth century should really be split
into two - late Italian Rennaissance and Mannerism. But I
stumbled upon Holly's site and the link to her e-group, SCA-Garb,
and a garb and e-list addiction was born. One of the first things
I found out was there was a book of late period Venetian costumes
by Cesare Vecellio, reprinted by dover as "Cesare Vecellio's
Renaissance Costume Book". Cesare Vecellio lived and worked
in Venice, so it was, and is, a perfect resource for the Venice
of the 1590s. It was my first purchase in the quest for authentic
garb. This woodcut, "Venetian Lady in Winter", was the
inpiration for my first outfit. I decided to go all out and make
all of the bits required to complete the outfit: camicia, corset,
partlet and gown.
The
Obstacles....
Boy, were there some obstacles!
I had only ever made things from patterns, and was almost in
tears the day I realised I would have to draft my own. I had
relatively no knowledge of drafting, and was worried that I would
pick up modern tailoring habits quite different from period
methods if I studied modern books on how to drafting. But where
would I start? I had Vecellio and nothing else, and I had no idea
how the very wide 1590s neckline was achieved, and that none of
the patterns available would do. All I had to go on was "Cut
My Cote" and the knowledge that all garment construction
began with geometric shapes sewn together, so I determined to
start with that as a basis.
I discovered enough about
Venetian from that book and portraits to know that Venetian gowns
had one interesting feature different from other Italian dress -
a point in the back. By studying portraits I find it likely that
the point in the back developed at the same time as the bodice
front dropped from a straight line to a point. The difference
between front and back is that the point in back is pointy,
whereas the one in front is rounded. Thing is, I didn't know at
the time whether the point was all-in-one with the back, or if it
was a triangular shaped piece of its own, incorporated into the
back - that is, was the back one piece or three? Add to that the
lacing seen at the front which I have come to call ladder lacing,
and it made for one very difficult bodice to find a pattern for.
The
Materials....
Camicia: I bought 5 metres of
112cm wide 100% cotton voile in white. For the embroidery on the
fabric strip to hide the neckline stitching I bought 2 skeins of
white DMC cotton embroidery floss.
Corset: The corset is
constructed all in one piece: two inner layers of 100% cotton
calico*, and two outer layers of 100% cotton drill in white. Used
washers to re-inforce the lacing holes and white embroidery
cotton floss to overcast the washers. White poly/cotton bias
binding to bind the edges all 'round, and white cotton piping
cord to lace it. it is boned with spring steel stays.
I also had a lack of money at
the time. By the time I'd made my camicia, and my corset, the
amount I had left over for the partlet and gown was pitiful - but
where there is a will there is a way.
Partlet: A lucky decision to
visit my local chain fabric/craft store scored me enough fabric
for a partlet and veil for $3! Sure it's 100% polyester batiste,
but it was curtaining fabric and had little shine - just a nice
sheen - and a bit of texture. Because I had saved myself a bit of
money on the fabric, I splurged on a small amount (about 3m) of
satin bias-binding to bind the edges.
Dress: I stumbled on an
upholstery fabric remnant, on sale down from $18/m to only $6.
But it was only 3.4 metres of 147cm wide 80% cotton/20%polyester
fabric. How the heck was I going to get a whole gown out of that?
I bought it anyway - beggars can't be choosers as they say, and
the colour, pattern and weight was very good. I decided that this
was going to be a great experiment in doing what "they"
did - using as little fabric as possible. The lining for the
bodice was 100% cotton drill. I was quickly running out of money
so I made one inch wide, heavily interfaced, fabric loops for the
lacing out of some of this drill. The bodice was interfaced with
iron-on interfacing, and trimmed with deep gold gimp braid up the
lacing edges, across the chest, under the arms and across the
back. This was not totally correct method, although gimp braid is
a pretty good modern equivalent of what in period was known as
"passementarie", but I was yet to learn the finer
points of late Venetian embellishment.
(*Calico: in
Australia calico is unbleached, tightly woven 100% cotton fabric
with little slubs in it, often used for curtain linings etc.)
The Method....
The first step was to make the
camicia. I had already found Kass's great site "Reconstructing History", and her analysis of an extant Italian
camicia in Dorothy
Burnham's "Cut My Cote" really inspired me. I followed
her instructions as best I could (gussets are a real pain the
first time you try them!) and came out with something almost
completely 'period' - I used cuffs which I now believe to be a
modern costuming shortcut. I also used cotton because it was
cheaper than linen at the time. I don't have pictures of the
camicia worn alone (I'm a bit shy!) but you can see it with my
dress pics. (I will soon have instructions on how to sew this
camicia on my pages at Venus' Seamstress.)
Then I started on my corset. I
followed the instructions on Drea Leed's "Elizebethan Corset Page" and made a very basic strapless
corset, and, with the help of my laurel at an A&S meeting,
layed out the channels for the spring steel boning. In some cases
I had to cut them to the right size and file the rough edges,
dipping the ends in two-part epoxy resin glue to seal them. Once
that was done I could start on my dress.
Whilst wearing the camicia and
corset I measured myself. Using the geometric construction ideas
floating around in my head, I based by back and front sections on
rectangles the width required, and the back was cut to the depth
I wanted the point. I took the back section and drew a V - the
point being centre lower back and the upper points ending where I
wanted the shoulder straps to be, which for late 16th century
Venetian is very wide appart indeed! I cut this rectangular back
section along the V in back, which gave me three bodice back
sections. I added a seam allowance to these pieces on more
fabric, and stitched them together again to form the V-shaped
seam I believed to be part of the Venetian V-back design.
The front rectangular section I
cut smaller than my chest measurement by the width I wanted the
front lacing opening to be plus enough to fold over - this was in
fact a good way to use very little fabric. I then stitched the
back rectangle to the front rectangle (no shaping at this point,
just straight seams down the sides). I pinned the bodice on
around my corset inside out (there were no shoulder straps at
this point) and pinned the front opening edges in place. Taking
the excess side fabric in a pinch, I had an assistant pin along
the side so that I had an idea of how much shaping was needed. I
then took it off and re-cut and re-stitched the side seam, this
time angling it in from under the arm to the waist. Once that was
done I again tried it on, this time right side out, and drew the
waistline with a marker on one side of the bodice, from the dip
in back, up and over the hip/waist, and down into a deep rounded
dip in centre front. When I was happy with the arc of this
waistline, I took off the "bodice" and cut along the
seam line, folded the whole bodice in half and used the cut line
of one side to draw an identical curve on the other half of the
bodice, which I then cut along. Tried it on once more and it fit!
I was then ready to use the
fabric pattern pieces to make permanent one from thick brown
wrapping paper. I used the fabric pattern to cut the lining and
dress fabric. I cut separate shoulder straps from long strips of
lining and dress fabric - this not only helped to save fabric,
but it made it easier to place them exactly where I wanted them
and to adjust their length. I used a short legth of twill tape to
join the two halves of the front into one, and to give the skirt
something to be attached to in front. I cut two 16th century
sleeves from a pattern provided by a lovely lady on the SCA-Garb
list. What I had left I made into two skirt panels the width of
the fabric, with V-shaped sections cut out in centre front and
centre back. I drew these shaped sections by folding each panel
in half lengthwise (the fold being centre front or centre back
point). I starting the line at the depth of the
'natural-waist-to-bodice-point' measurement and drew it out as
far as twice the measurement around the bodice point from hip to
hip. the back was marked and cut in a similar manner. Shaping
these section avoids the problen of the skirt fabric not hanging
straight when it is attached to the bodice.
I interfaced the bodice and
attached the shoulder straps on the back. I attached the lining
at the top of the bodice leaving small gaps for the front
shoulder straps, turned it right sides out and inserted the
self-lined shoulder straps, and basted them in place for ease of
adjustment. I slip-stitched the lining down at the lacing edges
and, starting at the top, machine stitched the pre-made fabric
loops in place through all thicknesses. This was hard going. Once
the loops were in place on both side of the front opening I could
temporarily try on the bodice and lace it up so as to make final
adjustments to the shoulder straps. Once the final position of
the straps was determined, I took off the bodice and stitched
them in place. I used the 'eyes' from sets of large hooks and
eyes as sleeve attachement points on the underside of the
shoulder straps.
The front and back skirt panels
were sewn together. Without folding over the cut edge, with
strong thread I ran two lines of running stitch evenly around the
top skirt edges, about .5cm and 1.5cm in from the edge - the
bottom "in-and-out" row of the running stitch must be
identical to the top row, leaving tails of at least 15cm. Each
stitch was about 1.5cm long. When pulled together, these threads
pull the fabric into pleats.
This, unbeknownst to me at the
time, is called cartridge pleating. But unlike most methods of
cartridge pleating, I do not either fold the top cut edge of the
skirt over before making the lines of running stitch - this is
because it uses unnessary fabric and add to the bulk making the
wasitline seam difficult to sew. Nor do I attach by sewing the
folded edge to the bodice with tiny stitches in each pleat - it
really doesn't look like this method is used on Venetian gowns.
The folds seen in Venetian gowns aren't stiff, they are soft.
They don't stand out stiffly, they puff out nicely.
The way I do it is to turn the
bodice right side out, the skirt inside out, put the bodice
inside the skirt and layer the two cut edges together, side seam
to side seam; pin; adjust pleats so they are concentrated in back
and over hips, pin pleats in place, and backstitch through all
layers with very strong thread, going through and over every
pleat - stitching must be small and tight. If you have a strong
enough sewing machine you may be able to accomplish this step by
machine. Once the skirt was attached I slip-stitched the lining
down over the waistline seam to hide it.
I then sewed the sleeve seams
together and made small hems in the wrist and sleeve top. I
stitched lengths of ribbon to the sleeve tops in place to
correspond to the eyes on the underside of the shoulder straps. I
hemmed it and it was then finished, and i was very happy with it
as my first real piece of garb.
I made the partlet following
the historically accurate method on The
Renaissance Tailor
site. It was fairly easy - I cut a rectangle of fabric wide
enough to go across my back and long enough to go from under the
bodice edge at back to under the bodice edge at the front. I cut
out a long strip up the centre front wide enough for the opening,
ending it in a curve corresponding to the back of my neck, and
bound all edges with the satin bias-binding. Added ties at the
waist and that's it.
The Pictures....
  
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