Experimentation
I started the new hose from scratch, taking measurements and actually making a paper pattern. After cutting out the first leg I realized that I had drafted the top of the pattern wrong for putting the seam up the back of the leg, but I kept going anyway. The new foot design was a pain, and I eventually decided to scrap it and just make the heel in one piece with the leg and then add on the rest of the foot as a separate section as I've done before. I'm going to get everything else fitting properly and then do the feet last, since I actually have half a clue what I'm doing there. I pretty much guessed the way the pattern should go, and I guessed wrong. In this picture you can see (A) what I did and (B) what I think I should have done based on the gussets I've had to put in to get the thing to fit right. It'll end up wearable, I think, but not terribly pretty with all of its extra Frakenhose seams. The cotton is nice and stretchy at least, so the actual fit is pretty good. It's just a matter of having enough in the right places so I can move without hearing ripping or feeling a strain somewhere. It's been a process of add gusset, put on hose, squat, rip, remove hose, add gusset.
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Coat Plans
My plan is to make hose next, but that should be fairly straightforward. I'm going to try the foot construction used here. The first pair are going to be made out of that green stretch cotton so I can get my pattern right before trying to cut anything on the bias. After that i'll jump into patterning the coat. It doesn't seem like a terribly complex garment, but I've been fooled before. I'll probably base the body of the coat on the doublet pattern with a few extra inches added in. The sleeves will either be wide and tapered to the wrist or shortened and gathered to the elbow. There's a great variety in these coats, so I have lots of choices. A few are sleeveless, though I don't particularly care for that look. Some have a round collar with a corner at the transition to the front opening, while others seem to blend the two into a sort of "V"-shaped opening. I assume that the majority of the skirts are box pleated, and I will go that route, at least for the first one. Most of these coats also have a contrasting lining. My plan is to use black cotton/linen for the outer layer, with perhaps blue cotton for the lining. The real mystery for the coat is how to close it. None of these coats are ever shown closed. The only fastener I see is a point on the left hand side of one coat. Even on the doublets I've seen closed in this manner there's no obvious button or point. My current plan is to have a point on the left side and a metal ring on the inside of the right side for the internal closure. To secure the flap on the outside I'll use a small button. On an administrative note, I've been fiddling with the code for this site on a fairly regular basis, so if it looks like some posts are missing check back later and see if I've fixed it. Also, I wasn't really using the dated archives so I got rid of them and changed the permalinks to point to the category pages.
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A New Doublet
On Saturday I threw together a quick doublet to get a start on my Flemish outfit. I had a small amount of chocolate colored fabric from one of my recent shopping trips handy, so I decided to use it here. I had thought it was wool, but it turned out to be brushed cotton. Either way, it's very soft and a good medium weight. Since I knew I would be layering over it, I left it unlined. I wanted to keep the pattern as simple as possible, so I started with essentially a square vest shape with shallow armscyes. All of the shoulders on these coats and doublets are very wide to accomodate what look to be fairly unshaped sleeveheads. I've never really patterned anything by draping before, but I guess that's what I ended up doing. The first square shape wasn't hanging right, so I put a little slope in the shoulders, widened the armscyes, and narrowed the waist until it fit. I left a gap at the front opening both to match the paintings and to allow for any future narrowing of my own waist. The waist and front opening are finished with a doubled facing of the same material about an inch deep to give the lacing holes some added strength. The collar edge has a small rolled hem. The sleeves are wide and tapered, with only a slight curve at the corners of the sleevehead. The drape of the sleeves looks a little off, but that may just be due to a difference in materials. I don't remember washing this cotton when I got it, so it may change a little in the wash. Hopefully it won't shrink too terribly. I put in two of the three sets of lacing holes at the front opening to test the fit, and it's quite comfortable. All I have left to do is turn under the selvedges at the cuffs and put in the rest of the lacing holes. I'll probably put that off until I get a pair of hose made so I know where the points will be.
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Maybe Not
After some discussion with one of my readers and further inspection of the relevant paintings, I've decided to abandon my separate bases theory for now. There's simply not enough evidence to support it. What first put me on that path was thinking that the hose of the wedding servers must have been pointed to a doublet under the white garment. My experience up to now with pointed hose has been confined to mid 15th c. Italian hose, which were often entirely separate and thus would not stay up unless pointed to a doublet. There are many examples in Brueghel's paintings, however, of hose staying up without the aid of a doublet. This can be achieved fairly easily, I am informed, if the hose are sewn together in the back (as all hose of this period seem to be) and pointed together in several places across the front opening. This makes perfect sense, and I am eager to attempt such a construction using some of my old hose as a starting point. On the plus side, I was able to get a better look at the white cord on this grey coat, and it is clearly a white point threaded through a vertical pair of holes at the edge of the coat, presumably an internal closure. I will almost certainly make my coat with a flap closure across the front, as it seems a common and distinctive feature of this style.
category: /flemish/man | permanent link