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Two Sixteenth Century Court Costumes |
| I made these costumes for
my husband and I. They were an exercise in economical
court costumes, which is something of an oxymoron. I made
them in 1990, for under $400, by shopping thrift stores,
sales, and using my employee's discount at a fabric
store. They were made from a set of snot-green draperies from the Salvation Army, which I dyed a darker green. The other fabrics are black velveteen and a lucky color match in iridescent taffeta. The gold embroidery on the sleeves and forepart are metallic knitting yarn, couched on by machine with a cording foot. The jewels are black plastic "jet" faceted, and plastic pearls. The trims were very inexpensive Christmas craft trim, toned down by spraying with Dull-cote. The jewelry was all assembled from cast-offs. If you look at the way the bodice fits, you can see that I made one of the most common mistakes: the bodice is cut way too long on the side seams, causing it to push up and wrinkle. I could also have goten a better fit by incorporating a shaped seam behind those diagonal trim lines on the bodice front. It looks as if my hoop is too short, but that's actually because it's pushing against the wall behind me and flipping up. And, of course, a real Elizabethan couple would never have been so matchy-matchy as this! |
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