The Great 17th Century Outfit: Overview

As I might have mentioned previously, I caved and started working on the bodies for my early 17th century outfit (1610s). I'm justifying it because it's "for work"... 

The Fabric: 

I waffled for a long time over the fabric. There was some nice silk brocade from Puresilks that was close to my original inspiration image, but I have had dicey dealings with them in the past and I was impatient. :-P But Renaissance Fabrics was selling wool satin, which I've wanted forever, so I went with that. In "The Tudor Tailor", russells is described as "a luxury worsted with a satin weave." Bingo!

Plus, it's pretty. :-)

The Inspiration:

And it conveniently is similar to this miniature of Elizabeth Stuart by Hilliard!

So this is my new inspiration image. Now to buy lots of black trim, and make black thread wrapped buttons...

The Smock and Other Linens: I've bought this lace from The Tudor Tailor for my smock, band (fan-shaped collar), and cuffs. Need to get some linen, still... But the lace is the important thing, right?

The Bodies: I chose the "Elizabeth Vernon" style bodies. I'm almost finished with the boning channels! Well, sort of. I have the back and one of the two fronts done, and the second front has been started. Here's my progress so far:

Then eyelets, whipping everything together (literally), and binding...

What I'm not yet sure about is the skirts, whether they should be closed or open. I haven't found a good fabric for a petticoat to go with the wool satin. So we'll see... But there's a fair amount of work still to be done before I get to that part.