One such is L'ange guardien, by Henri Decaisne.
There are two versions of the painting, and I like this one better. It was painted in 1835-36. From what little information seems to be out there about Decaisne, he was an historical and portrait painter.
Now, upon examining the painting, it is clear that the mother is not wearing a corset. Her outfit certainly doesn't strike us as Victorian. Must be one of his historical interpretations. Okay, I can deal with that, let's do some research.
Now, upon examining the painting, it is clear that the mother is not wearing a corset. Her outfit certainly doesn't strike us as Victorian. Must be one of his historical interpretations. Okay, I can deal with that, let's do some research.
I was able to gather that the outfit depicted is most likely Italian, originally from around the area of Naples. I could possibly be wrong, I'm basing that information from the very particular headdress that she is wearing. All bits and pieces of information - which remains scattered, thin, elusive, and haven't brought up a name for the headdress yet - point in the general direction of being worn by Italian women.
The next clue is brought by the chemise, or rather, camicia. The sleeves that go all the way to the wrist, and their fullness definitely rules out being originally from the 19th century. Let's roll back in time until we find what period it comes from. 18th century didn't have such long sleeves, they stopped at about elbow length. 17th century, much like that of the 18th century in the second half. Early 17th century seems to be a fit. So is 16th century.
Next up, her bodice. We can clearly see the curves of her form in it, and the fabric slightly rippling under her breasts. It's not boned. It confirms the theory of 16th-early 17th century. During the 16th century, stiffened bodices were just starting to emerge and become fashionable and would have been worn most likely only by the gentry.
It is also difficult to accurately research peasants, because there is so little remaining evidence pertaining to their everyday lives in comparison to what we still have from the higher classes. And generally speaking, high class clothing is much more impressive and interesting than that of peasants.
From this, I'm fairly confident that we can agree on say mid-late 16th century. Suits me.
Determining the layers that she is wearing and their materials is straight-forward.
Camicia: white linen
Bodice: natural linen lining, red wool georgette outer, edging in black silk ribbon
Underskirt: black linen
Overskirt: ochre silk-wool gabardine
Belt: same black linen as the underskirt
These are quite nice fabrics, and brightly coloured. She could be from the lower-middle class. Maybe these are her festive clothes? In any case, the bright colours are an indication that they are nicer fabrics than just plain ol' linen. Animal fibres dye more brightly and retain colour better than vegetal fibres. It makes sense that her bodice would be a thin wool. And for the over skirt, it looks like a nice thick fabric.
I used my 17th century cartridge pleated skirt (see my post from December 8) for the underskirt. Time period wise, it's still mostly correct, and it's an underskirt, so mostly not visible unless I hike the overskirt.
Then I decided to make the belt. I finished it in Februrary, and it had been sitting, dejected, on a shelf since then.
A picture during construction. At this point, I've finished the rolled hem on both sides, picked out all the crosswise threads from one end, and tied the remaining lengthwise threads into little tassels to create a fringe.
After that, still in February, I sewed up the side seams on the ochre skirt - leaving a 10 cm opening on each side, as I was planning on having a double-tie fastening system - and hemmed it. Then it sat dejected on a chair until a week and a half ago, when a violent rage came over me like a storm of bundled up, frustrated energy that needed to be released. And so I pleated the waistband - I used rolled pleats, because I decided that I'd never used them before, and I already have a skirt with cartridge pleats, and two with knife pleats - until it was the required half width of my waist on both the front and back panels. I used twill tape on the back panel to secure the pleats and extend into ties. Along the front panel I used a silk ribbon - that I had bought in Paris in September because I liked it, and never really intended to use it for this purpose, but which happened to match my fabric perfectly.
Pleats ready to be sewn down. I left the turned down edge raw on the inside of the skirt. I don't think it will ravel too much, no worries to be made over this.
As soon as the skirt was finished, I decided to start on the camicia. As I had only ever made an 18th century chemise and my only other references to under garments are for the medieval period - since all my books are in a box in my parents' basement while I'm in Germany - I had to do some looking around. I came across this website here that details quite well how to make a Venetian camicia from A to Z. I looked at the diagrams and briefly read through her notes. They were helpful, though I didn't feel like reading every single thing on the page, as I only needed a few key pieces of information. Such as the size of the underarm gussets - which are quite large at 9" - as well as the width of the sleeves and some clues on the construction process.
Working with only two metres of fabric, I couldn't include the two extra side panels, which isn't a problem anyhow, the camicia is already quite full.
On Friday (Apr 24), I took the preliminary pattern I had drafted for the bodice back in February and made a few changes. I elongated the front wait into a point, and I moved the shoulder strap seams. Then I cut out one layer from the natural linen, basted them together and tried it on. For a first try, it was almost a perfect fit. I raise the back waist to reduce the puckering and fiddled with the front points, and then I cut a second front to use as interlining. Then I sewed the entire thing together, along with a strip of twill tape at waist level to prevent stretching and to give more stability to the bodice. I cut out the bodice in my outer fabric, sewed it to the lining, and put more twill tape into the front edges. Like this:
Then I turned it right-side out, and started to apply the black ribbon edging.
It was tedious to sew this part on, but really satisfying once it was done. Also bound the armhole with the ribbon. And then onto the eyelets. According to the period and the painting, it is spiraled lace, which means that at the top and bottom there are two eyelets level with each other, but in between they are all offset by an equal amount. My eyelets look fine right now, but I might have to redo them in the future. I should also stabilize them with a small metal washer on the inside.
Then I got to dress up! Even though it was 2 in the morning. From this point on I have mostly really lame cellphone-mirror-selfies, you know the type. Warning has been given.
Sideview, I'm quite happy with it.
Then when I tried to take it off I realized that I was stuck. Couldn't get the lace back out of the eyelets - until I had the idea to use a large darning needle and gently stretch a few eyelets.
Once freed, I put on the camicia and jumped back into the bodice.
And into the underskirt.
And into the overskirt.
And finally came the belt.
I'm definitely proud of myself for sewing the whole thing by hand, though I realized how much I miss my Precious. I never claimed to be fully sane in the first place, and I think I've left some of that somewhere during the past week. (Sewing till 2-3 am almost everyday for a week and a half almost nonstop can't be healthy, can it?)
I already knew that I'm not incredibly fast at hand sewing, and the sheer amount of time it took me to complete these pieces confirms that fact.
Nonetheless, now I have a spiffy outfit to wear whenever I feel like it's the 1500s.
