Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Sture Suit: Finally (almost) Complete


Project:
              The full project will be a head-to-foot German renaissance outfit, patterned on the extant suit of Svante Sture.  All in all, this includes a doublet, pluderhosen, shoes, netherstocks, a hat, and probably a belt of some sort.  This documentation will only discuss the doublet and pluderhosen.

The find:
               The find this project is based on is the suit that was being worn by Svante Sture at the time of his murder on May 24, 1567.  The suit was saved and placed in Upsala Cathedral by his widow Marta.  The suit consists of a black velvet doublet and pluderhosen, trimmed with a greenish-grey silk.  The puffs of the pluderhosen were of the same fabric.  Overall, the outfit was fairly moderate—suitable for an older gentleman, or my more subdued taste.
The full suit. (From Patterns of Fashion 3, by Janet Arnold)
              
Pattern:
              The doublet is a fairly simple form of construction—single piece back (integral back collar), front pieces, sleeves with an interesting cap, shoulder wings, and a single piece peplum.  I chose to leave off the shoulder wings—in the first attempt at making the doublet I included them…then decided that I really did not like how they feel and look.  There were also a couple of pieces inset into the side, presumably to accommodate for weight gain—I left those out as well, because—while contemporary—they are believed to not be original to the pattern.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

14th Century Suit: A start

This is a (almost) completely new period for me--I have a suit of 14th century Russian, but it bears little resemblance to the clothing being worn by the rest of Europe at the time--and have done a couple of odd pieces, but not the full outfit I've been dreaming of for years.  Recent posts by the blog Exploring the Medieval Hunt have inspired me to make my own outdoors ready outfit (it was mainly that awesome square hood style)...with winter ready layers and accessories.

While I started out by looking through medieval huntbooks, I soon moved away from them--the ones I could find were either too late, or too early for the style I had envisioned...a close fitting cotte (I eventually went through every image I could find from my chosen time of 1370).  In addition to the required hosen (either red or brown), I want one or two hoods.  The first, a simple pull over liripipe hood, and the second as a square mantled, fur lined hood.