Sarah Elizabeth

Sarah made this splendid Elizabethan outfit for her sister to wear to the Renaissance Faire this year. This is her first ever Elizabethan costume, and she made most of the outfit in just one week! Can you believe it? I am quite stunned by that level of talent. You can also see one more close-up picture of the bodice here. Please take a minute to read more about the outfit below the picture, and if you would like to contact Sarah, you can email her at outtersonse3983(at)mbc(dot)edu.

The gown went over the underpinnings of cotton smock, linen partlet, farthingale (my first ever!), and petticoats, and has a matching caul and headband. The outfit itself includes a silk under-bodice, forepart, matching sleeves, and a brown wool gown. We found two rings, shoes, earrings, and a necklace to go with the outfit at Goodwill.

The gown is made from three yards of wool. I used creative cutting and my sister's small stature to get a 150 inch wide skirt out of this. I drafted my own pattern for the bodice, based on Eleanora of Toledo's burial gown with some serious muslin fittings. The bodice of the gown is lined with wool and interlined with linen. The skirt is unlined. The brown guards are the same wool as the gown, thrown into the washer with black Rit dye, and the leather ones on the hem are from a Goodwill skirt. The pearls are from a 10-dollar necklace of freshwater potato pearls from Ebay. The farthingale has 20 feet of plastic tubing in it. The shoes are white brocade ballet flats. The linen partlet is a very adapted version of Jen's Flemish partlet pattern, with machine lace that looks vaguely bobbin-like sewn down the front openings. The forepart is layered silk-wool-linen, and is quilted and beaded with the same pearls that are on the guards. The headband (as well as the partlet and wrist ruffs) is based off of this painting. My sister embroidered the caul with a period pattern from the Blackwork Archive. The embroidery isn't finished - as I said, we had about a week. My choice of dupioni silk was mostly due to cost considerations - I would have gotten silk taffeta if I could have afforded it.