16th c. Undergarments

blackworked partlet		V-necked partlet

The partlet on the left is my first attempt at blackwork embroidery. The designs are taken from a 16th century Italian sampler which can be found at Bronwen's amazing Blackwork Library. I used a single strand of Splendor 12-ply silk thread on 36 count even-weave linen to create the embroidery. The ruff is 1 inch wide and made with a heavily starched strip of linen selvage which I pleated using 1/2 inch double box pleats.

On the right is a V-necked partlet that I designed specifically to have an open, flared collar. You can find my pattern for partlet here. I found the instructions for making the ruff in an article at the Elizabethan Costuming site. To help the collar stand up nicely, I added strips of horsehair braid to the back, shoulder, and front edge seams between the two layers of linen. You can see this partlet being worn with both my Flemish working-woman's costume and my Italian working-class dress.

corded corset		Elizabethan corset

The corset on the left is boned entirely with hemp cord. It is made from medium-weight linen that is actually quite stretchy, and it is bound around the edges with linen bias tape. Each boning channel is a little over 1/4 inch wide (I spaced them by using the edge of my presser foot as a guide), and there are two strands of 1/8 inch hemp cord per channel. The back of the corset is un-boned except for a few rows next to the lacing edges. My pattern was loosely based on Eleanora of Toledo's pair-of-bodies in Patterns of Fashion, but you can use Drea Leed's custom bodice drafting instructions to produce a pattern that is almost identical to what I came up with. This is a very comfortable corset to wear, and it produces a much curvier silhouette that is appropriate for some styles found in Italy, Germany, and the lower-classes. You can find more information about using hemp cord for boning in this article.

My Elizabethan style corset is made out of heavy Russian linen and boned with 1/2 inch steel boning. This corset was not based on specific period examples or meant to be completely authentic; it was just intended to give me the proper cone-shaped silhouette and sturdy support. The pattern was inspired by the Tudor and Elizabethan examples in Jean Hunnisett's Period Costume for Stage and Screen, but my version added boned tabs at the waist and left off the straps. Unfortunately, my dress form isn't "squishible" so it is a little hard to get a feel for the fit in this picture, but you can see how it looks with a complete costume in the photos of my wedding gown.

Italian camicia	lower-class chemise	smock	blackworked shirt

The first picture is an Italian camicia that was made as a part of my Florentine Dress Diary The sleeves are made extra long and wide to produce the large puffs of fabric that are a characteristic of Florentine dress during this period (you can see this chemise worn with a complete Florentine outfit here). It is made of handkerchief weight linen which I bought from Fabrics-store.com, and the neckline is hand gathered using multiple rows of tiny gathering stitches, which produces a look similar to smocking. You can find the pattern and instructions for making this chemise in this article.

The next chemise was also made using the instructions in that same article, but it just uses more modest amounts of fabric in the sleeves and body. I was feeling a bit lazy when I made this garment, so I laid out the fabric so that the bottom of the hem and sleeves were on the selvage; that way I didn't even have to finish the edges. This chemise was made to be worn with my Italian working-class costume, since my other camicia was a bit too indulgent for lower-class looks.

In the third picture, you can see my linen smock, which was created with the help of the smock pattern generator found here. I had to make a few alterations because the original shoulder width on the pattern created from my measurements was much too wide. I've noticed that several other people have mentioned having this problem as well, but I was still very pleased with how it turned out after fixing that one issue. I designed this smock to be very tight through the torso to provide some additional bust support, but as a result, it won't fit over the shoulders or hips of my dress form! I'm pretty sad that I had to take a picture of it just on a hanger, but you can still see it being worn with my Flemish working-woman's dress.

Finally, the high-necked shirt on the far right was made out of cotton batiste with a strip of blackwork for the collar and cuffs that I purchased from Historical Enterprises. I stiffened the edge of the small ruffle with a single strand of fishing line, and it was pleated with 3/4 inch box pleats. I'm not entirely pleased with this shirt because the raglan sleeves are a bit funky, but it's not too bad when worn under a doublet, such as this one.