Elizabethan kirtle

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*** Finally! The "Kirtle of Perpetual Procrastination" is complete! I'm now one step closer to finishing that elusive fitted gown outfit that I started planning an embarrassingly long time ago (like, an absurdly long time ago...to that point that it's getting ridiculous). I first sketched out this version some 3 years ago, but I now know that so much about the outfit --from the materials to the colour scheme-- isn't supported by historical evidence, and as a result it's languished a bit. It…

Well, I finally can make installment #3 in making this Elizabethan dress! And it's Kirtle time! Or I guess, 'petticoat bodies' time would be more accurate in this case. I also apologize ahead of time for the picture quality. My only camera right now is my iPhone, and it's proving to be…

The kirtle was a garment that supported the bust and created the correct silhouette for the period. It was worn over the petticoat, and from the 1540s onwards, over the farthingale. It seems that the kirtle bodice was stiffened in some way, usually with buckram. This was a stiffened linen which may have had additional stiffening consisting of some kind of “boning”.

Explore ~jkrystyna~'s 282 photos on Flickr!

*** Welcome to the photo dump for my new blue kirtle (the construction of which was recently documented in my latest Dress Diary). Based on early 16th century illustrations, the kirtle laces up the front and features short sleeves, a 'V' back, and a shaped skirt (constructed with piecing). It was originally inspired by a page from Catherine de Medici's Book of Hours. Although less popular later in the century, blue seemed to be a fairly ubiquitous colour in the first decades of the 16th…

Blue Linen Dutch Kirtle | Faerie Queen Costuming

*** I'm not exactly sure what this garment is meant to be... A gown? A kirtle? The inspiration came from the Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608, a collection of images appropriated and later redrawn and coloured by Thomas Trevelyon. I fell in love with this image immediately. It appears to be a single front lacing layer worn over an exposed smock, paired with an apron and a linen partlet with attached or integral ruff. Now, it's never a good idea to take coloured drawings at face value and it's…

I love my blue dress, and I have redone it so many times now, but one thing was bugging me. It is to bright for what I want to do. I am aiming to do a lower class woman, a woman that could have bee…

*** This is another project that has been on my to do list for a while. It started almost exactly a year ago: I made my first mock up during the July long weekend last year and took these photos over the same holiday weekend this year. It was meant to be a quick summer project, but it was almost immediately derailed...because I have the attention span of a gerbil. I'd wanted to make a red kirtle for ages and fell in love with the bold, black and yellow accessories of the one featured in the…