Erik Sture fabric

I had to go buy it. I couldn't help myself, what can I say? Well, there was a sale at the fabric store too. I'm justified.

I've chosen black corduroy (I LOVE corduroy!) for the body of the doublet and pluderhosen, with a shiny pink/burgundy polyester taffeta for the general poufiness. The taffeta turned out to be a little more pink than I had hoped, but Tom saw it when I bought it and likes it, so I'm good. It's a more manly pink than some pinks, anyway. The lining will be either tan or black linen.


I've got an Idea!! It was inspired by all the pretty colours of shot taffeta that were at the store. What I want to do is make the 'poufs' (I really need a better name for them...) removeable. Then I could have them in many pretty shiny colours, and could change them when I wanted. Perk: this would also assist in the washing of the pluderhosen. Yes. I think this is what I shall do. Only problem is that with Erik Sture's pluderhosen, there are these funny waist panes/poufs. But I've been pondering this and I think may have an idea as to how to still make them removable. Perhaps eventually I shall draw a picture of my Idea, but I think I have to try it out first. ;-)

Paper Effigies...

I finished scaling up the doublet pieces for Erik Sture's doublet (which Tom will wear as Buckingham). And after scaling up, I decided to make sure all the pattern pieces matched up with each other. I doubled the size of the original pattern on the photocopier, taped the doublet pieces together, and stuffed the result with fabric scraps (which will eventually end their lives as the stuffing in a 1790s bumroll. Eventually ;-).


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I discovered a few potential problems. The collar acts funny in the back. I was afraid of this. The collar is very high, and the back neck piece curves quite a bit; I think I'll have to try this out in fabric to see exactly what it'll do. Other things to adjust are, the curving front (which will have to be significantly flattened) and the back doublet skirt (which slants in instead of out). The back might need a bit of adjustment across the shoulders, but I'm not sure of that.

Short and Stout... botheration

As I scale up the Svante Sture doublet patterns, I realize... Svante was a sort of short round little dude. Justin is not a short round little dude.

~sigh~

This means alterations. But they shouldn't be too bad.

Svante Sture

My friend Justin is playing King Richard the III, and I've pretty much decided to put him in Svante's costume. Slightly less fashionable, it is more the suit of an older man from then.

Left is a photograph of the actual pluderhosen worn by Svante Sture. You can see how the bag on the nearest side is turned into a pocket. There is actually a leather drawstring at the top, obscured in the picture by the doublet skirt. The trim is a little hard to figure out from this photo, but Janet Arnold has a few very detailed drawings in her book, and it really is quite interesting. I think I'll attempt the trim, although I've never really done slashing, and I'm not sure how it works...



This is my sketch of the suit. The pluderhosen are so strange. They have weird butts (pardon me, but they do!). I have absolutely no clue how they are put together - they're like no pants I've ever seen. In the pattern, the rise is about 4" wide. Now that, to me, would indicate major wedgie problems - but I've never made period pants before. I'll give the pattern a shot. I think that I shall actually make myself a mockup pair before attempting it on Justin. Anyway, below you can see what the pane pattern looks like, and maybe it makes more sense to you. If it does, please do comment and enlighten me! On the right side of the pluderhosen I have drawn only the panes, and on the left I have included the puffs of fabric between them.



So, do I decide what sort of fabric to buy before or after I make sure the pattern works? I'm inclined to buy it before. But then, I'm always inclined to buy it before, which has been unfortunate in the past. Hmm...

The Beginning

To sum it up, this blog is to document the costumes that I am making for a couple of friends for the play King Richard the III. Yes, the one by Shakespeare, about the Richard the III of England... and the costumes are Swedish. Or German (I'm still a little fuzzy on this point).

I happen to like Swedish/German costume (well, I think I like it - I like pluderhosen anyway. That's the important point.) So, my dear boys are going to be subjected to my attempts at pluderhosen *grins cheerily*. Ah, they haven't a clue what they've signed up for... Poor unsuspecting fellows.

I've checked out Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion from the library and have currently spent at least three hours poring over in, evenings. Pluderhosen are, in a word, weird. No offense to them, I find them fascinating, but they're still quite odd. Unique, in truth. BUT, I think I can puzzle them out. The only thing that I'm most definitely not anticipating making is the codpiece for each pair of hosen. I don't really do codpieces. I don't even really do pants on guys; the only reason I'm doing these is because I find them to be a challenge. Codpeices are a rather absurd and disturbing bit of male vanity, I think, and the thought of making them (especially for my guy friends) simply does not thrill me.

So... perhaps I shall simply ignore it until it refuses to be ignored. Or I could make some sort of very understated codpiece, just enough to preserve modesty. I think I'll take the ignore option. Much less strenuous ;-).