More about my Tudor theory

[frualeydis]

The reason why I think the open and closed gowns are the same in the More picture is that clotehs were very expensive in the 16th century. You didn't buy new clothes when you became pregnant, or got tired of them as you do now. Especially not your best clothes. Thus it would be much better if you could use the same gown. It would be both easier and cheaper to remove a plastron and stitch together an open skirt, if it was open which wasn't always the case, than to make an entirely new gown
The only way of finding out if it could have been so is to make the dress and try. The problem is of course that I don't plan to be pregnant again, but that can be reasonably faked with pillows, at least good enough to try the theory. So that's what I'm going to do. I just have to decide what fabric to use for the kirtle and what to line the gown with. I also started on a version of this for Rickard yesterday and it will have priority. I made a mistake cutting the gores so it will only be 270 cm wide and not 343, but it's pretty wide anyway for a man's tunic. I'm making it from a lovely burgundy silk twill.

Comments

[ginger-dragon.livejournal.com]

That's a good theory. It's easy to forget at times that you looked at clothes differently when you made them totally by hand, fabric was expensive, and washing wasn't easy.

I still remember the feeling of revelation when I read how difficult it could be to get frech water in majort cities in the 18th century. Something of a duh-moment, no wonder people wasn't as clean then as today- to take a bath took time and money. I had never thought of it from that angle before.

I LOVE history. :-)