This is a more tailored version of Ye Olde Floppy Gathered Hat. This is a great hat for merchants, or for French or Italien male characters, I think. I don’t like it as well for women. (That’s purely a personal bias.)
5 CommentsTag: 1500s
The Floppy Gathered Hat is a rather unstructured, lower-class looking hat. There’s nothing pretentious about it, especially when it’s made up in a soft fabric.
1 CommentTo Pattern the Brim

To make the Brim pattern, you will need:
- a Flexible Ruler
- a Regular Ruler
- Paper (notebook/printer and larger)
- a Head (the one the hat is meant for)
- Scissors
- a French Curve (optional, but nice)

Reverse applique is the process of sewing two layers of material together with the stitches forming some sort of design, then cutting away the positive areas of the top piece of the material. This creates a nice, strong design. Reverse applique using leather is seen in at least one surviving suit of men’s clothes from 1615-20 (Arnold, Patterns of Fashion, pgs 30, 90-2).
Leave a CommentThis is a very popular style of bodice amongst the english during the Elizabethan period. It shows a distinctive inverted arch to the neckline.
2 CommentsThe kirtle is sort of a general purpose under-dress. The pattern
being drafted below is actually somewhat earlier than the elizabethan period
— I’m basing the seam placement on Fouquet’s The
Virgin of Melun.

In case there was any doubt in anyone’s mind, I love working
with leather. I think it can add a very sophisticated touch to a costume, and,
let’s face it, the number of people who do leather work is limited. I’ve been
wanting to try the reverse applique leatherwork technique shown in Patterns
of Fashion (in one of the men’s doublets – the one with the gillyflowers – I
forget whose that is) for several years now.
I noticed a while back that most of the bodices in Alcega’s
book and several other period tailor’s books show a slight backwards S curve
at the front edge. That seemed like it would accommodate the bust and belly
a little, and I was feeling …
This is a corded effigy style corset. The idea of using cording
instead of a more normal boning belongs to Jen, who did a lot of research in
that direction in the course of her
Italien dress. The pattern for this corset more closely follows…