This diary is a chronicle of Sebastiano's Twelfth Night garb, which will basically be a gentleman's garb of the mid-late 15th century from around Florence or Siena. Basically the components will be a shirt, brais, full hose with codpiece, doublet (farsetto), overgown and a hat. The shirt and brais will be made of white linen and the hose, farsetto, overgown and hat will be made of wool.
Sebastiano has had his heart set on being Sienese in the SCA since visiting Siena several years ago, a situation that was reinforced we went to the Palio in Siena last summer. He is also somewhat enamored of the Italian Mercenaries of the 14th and 15th centuries. I think he might really want to be a Sienese fop who dabbles in archery.
When I read Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families Fortunes and Fine Clothing by Carole Collier Frick it seems as though the Sienese were actually considered somewhat foppish, at least in comparison to the more somberly dressed male Florentine. Most Florentine men of wealth seem to dress for their portraits in red and black, those being very expensive colors. From frescos we see many other colors including blues, yellows and greens. In Dressing Renaissance Florence it appears that wools or silks are the fabrics of choice as outer/fashion fabrics in Central Italy during the Renaissance, with white linen being used for undergarments. I'm inferring from some descriptions in Patterns of Fashion that many of these garments may have been lined in linen, so that is what I will most likely be using.
I've decided to concentrate on the doublet, gown and hose since if the other stuff doesn't get made at least earlier period pieces can be worn as undergarments. The wool for the doublet is a medium weight blue gabardine. I tried dying it twice and it isn't as dark as I'd like but it dyed very evenly. The overgown will be made of some medium/heavy weight forest green wool that fulled very nicely in the wash. I haven't gotten the wool for the hose yet but I'm thinking a darker red might be nice.
The best resource I've found for the doublet, or farsetto, is the site by Liz Jones.
The paintings that I'm also using as references:
Piero dell Francesca: Battle between Heraclius and Choesroes 1452-66 - this one clearly shows how the back of the doublet is constructed.
This fresco by Cossa of a horserace - shows men both in doublets and with the overgowns
Piero dell Francesca: Torture of the Jew 1447-1451 - showing both the doublet and an overgown.
My main resources for the overgown and hose are some of the fabulous recreations by the Companie of Saynte George in Medieval Military Costume, by Gerry Embleton and The Medieval Soldier by Gerry Embleton and John Howe. Additionally, The Medieval Tailor's Assistant by Sarah Thursfield has been very useful in terms of figuring out how to make the patterns.
I drafted the farsetto pattern by consulting The Medieval Tailor's Assistant and using the brilliant idea on The Tudor Costume Page website of using an old shirt. In this way a rather tattered old shirt was safely sacrificed and I ended up with a pattern that mostly fit and Sebastiano only got poked a few times with some pins. So far the main pieces of the doublet have been cut out in the lining, a linen/cotton blend, the interlining, some heinous mint green cotton canvas and the outer layer a nice blue wool gabardine.
While the Medieval Tailor's Assistant suggests that the collar is a v-back, I think the scoop back seem in the Piero dell Francesca fresco is more common so that is what I'm using for the pattern.
I'm not really sure what this garment should really be called. Thursfield refers to it as an overgown, while Embleton refers to it as a coat or jacket. I used the pattern from The Medieval Tailor's Assistant with the change of having vertical pleats on the top bodice part instead of diagonal pleats. I also think that these short gowns had a waist and a skirt instead of extending the full length from the shoulder.
This is the pattern for the bodice after have wedges inserted to make the pleats.
After digging the green wool out I'm doubting that I have enough for the gown. I might have to visit the fabric store but since I got the original stuff a year ago some changes might have to be made.
Because I wasn’t too certain about whether I’d have enough of the green fabric for the wool gown I decided to take apart the skirt of the German gown I made last year for Twelfth Night. It is made of the same wool and the bodice never fit quite right. If I ever get the Gallery section up there are some pics of the bodice and sleeves from that gown. I haven’t managed to cut this out yet but am thinking that I will do a mock-up in some other fabric first because I’m not sure about the pattern being as full as I’d like it to be.
On the 26th I made Sebastiano a cute little red hat made out of some wool blend felt. These hats seem to be all over the place in Italian frescos and paintings of the mid-late 15th century, noticeably in the works of Piero della Francesca. There seem to be a couple of varieties, some short and others more of the taller acorn type that seem to be in Flemish paintings. Also, there seems to be some that have a flat top pleated into a brim. I can’t tell if this is a ducal thing, like the hat seen in the painting of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, or if it is worn by others. The hat I made was based on the pattern in The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant and was intended to be short and round. The first version produced a kind of square pointy crown, which I think is seen in some of these portraits, but was not what I had intended. I simply curved the seam a bit more on these pieces instead of the more angled shaping to make the crown.
 |
 |
| Italian hat one - shorter and rounder | Italian hat two - squarer and more pointy |
As you can probably tell from the progress of this journal this didn't turn out to be a 12th night outfit after all. I had to go out sampling that week so I couldn't go and Sebastiano decided not to go in solidarity. Frustratingly little has been accomplished on this project although I've been working on it. The farsetto seems to have gotten shorter so finally last night I took out the shoulder and collar seams and am hoping that by leaving less of a seam allowance I can make it fit better. The pieces of the gown (cioppa) have also been cut out and I'm debating whether or not to line it. I've washed some linen/cotton fabric in case I get a last minute urge to line it. I'm also trying to figure out how to do the pleats so they hold. Oh, yeah, most of the seams are done in a more or less period fashion,The Tudor Costume Page website explains this better than I can.
Here's the post Estrella update - there was some scrambling to get things done at the war but since I wanted Sebastiano to be my example of male garb in my Italian Dress class everything got done.
The calze (hosen) put up a fight! I used the instructions in the Medieval Tailor's Assistant and it was right - you do have to make numerous toiles. I made at least 3. The codpiece was difficult to get into the right shape and I significantly altered the pattern from the book. After sewing everything together I think the hose are a bit too short in the inseam, I'm not sure how to alter that but they ended up looking just fine. I think the problem is that I didn't make the heel pieces long enough. Altering that might also reduce some of the wrinkles around the ankle. All in all a decent first attempt
The farsetto (doublet)was finished in time for Estrella although some of the eyelets were being sewn in camp. It ended up looking very nice. The cioppa (gown)still needs to be done. I'm taking out the pleats that I sewed in because I don't think that it hangs right. More on that to come.
 |
| Sebastiano in his garb at Estrella |
© Sahrye Cohen, 2004
Updated on February 25, 2005.
