Elizabethan Embellishments
Fabric manipulation can be a good way to add surface texture to a middle class costume that can't support the richness of a lot of trim. Of course, it can also be used, in richer fabrics, for noble costumes.
Slashes, Cuttes, And Pinkes are all names for various types of holes in fabric. It is believed that the style originated with mercenary soldiers whose clothing became slashed on the battlefield. At any rate, the style caught on and is one of the characteristic design elements of Elizabethan costume.
Slashes are straight or shaped cuts over 2" long. Cuttes are small straight cuts, and pinkes are holes, either round or a decorative shape, usually under 1/4".
In period, slashes were either faced, bound with braid, or left unbound and allowed to fray along their edges. For this to be an option, they should be cut out of a firmly woven fabric, and the slashes should be cut on the bias. Felted wools or leather can be used with no worry about fraying, but other fabrics will work. Sometimes some fraying can add interesting texture. I've had good results on fabrics ranging from velveteen to cotton sheeting to silk satin.
The edges of slashes were sometimes sealed with wax or other substances. Fray check, glue, or other substances can be used, but care should be taken that they do not show on the right side. If speed and durability, rather than historically correct methods are desirable, some fabrics can be backed with fusible interfacing before cutting, which will seal the edges. If a fusible tricot interfacing such as Easy Knit is used, it can be dyed to match the fabric using cold water dyes. This prevents contrast edges from showing.
Some people like to use scissors or rotary cutters for slashes. I prefer to use an Exact-o knife with a curved blade, which allows me to "roll" into the cuttes. For pinks, I use leather drive punches.
Applique as we know it, cutting shapes of fabric and applying them to other fabrics, was rare. Occasionally, embroidered motifs were cut out and appliqued to another fabric, but this seems to have been used in home furnishing more often than for clothing.
Smocking was in its infancy at this period. In some German portraits, you can see very regular tiny pleats that were probably held with threads, but the technique of embroidering on top of the pleats to make designs or pictures was not yet known in England.
There were some other methods of gathering and pleating fabric for surface texture. For example, some partlets show what seems to be crisscrossed rows of shirring creating a diamond pattern.
embroidery was very popular in Elizabethan England. England had been a center for ecclesiastical embroidery for hundreds or years. It has been theorized that with closing of the monasteries, many skilled embroiders turned to decorating clothing instead, causing the fashion for embroidered clothing.
Embroidery was done both by professionals and amateurs. All women with any leisure time embroidered, even those in very high positions. Mary, Queen of Scots, was a superb needlewoman and spent much of her imprisonment embroidering.
Blackwork embroidery was one of the most popular styles of the 16th century. It consisted of monochrome embroidery, usually black but sometimes other dark colors or even scarlet, worked on white linen. the stitches were counted patterns in geometric forms, worked either as bands for edgings or as filling stitches on larger, naturalistic motifs. The stitches were sometimes augmented with gold threads and spangles, or owes, similar to sequins.
Polychrome embroidery was worked in silks, often augmented with gold and silver threads. Naturalistic patterns of plant sand animals were popular, as were symbolic designs.
Metallic embroidery was worked with bullion threads. They were couched onto the surface of the fabric with silk thread. Metallics were often combined with pearls or other jewels on clothing.
Whitework embroidery was often used for ruffs and undergarments. It could incorporate drawn thread work, cuttwork, and faggoting. Many of the large ruffs we think of as lace are actually whitework.
Canvas embroidery, or needlepoint, was also popular, but seems to have been used more often for home furnishings such as pillow or curtains than for clothing.
Trim is one of the things that can make or break a costume. Too much or too little, the wrong kind or the wrong color, can be disastrous.
Types of Trim
Bands
The most available type of trim was plain bands of fabric, contrasting in color or texture or both. I like to use commercial bias tape as trim, as it is durable and cheap, or to make my own bias tapes using a Clover bias tape maker.
Wide bands of fabric were often used along the edges of clothing, where they were called guards. Guards could also be embroidered, or otherwise embellished.
Ribbon was also used, but use grosgrain or, for nobles, velvet or brocade, not satin ribbon. It looks best sewn with a small straight stitch, as close to the edge as possible. Remember that most ribbon cannot be sewn smoothly on a curved line.
Braid
Braided trims were widely used. Confusingly, they were often called lace in the period. Many upholstery braids look great for this period. Braids are available in all fabrics from cotton to wool to metallics, but the most common today are the acetate and rayon upholstery braids known as "guimpe". Watch out for the ones that have a series of little loops. If you don't handsew each and every tiny loop down, the entire thing will snag and unravel like the stitches on a sack of feed. Guimpe is often made of acetate, which is subject to discoloring.
Metallic trims should be used for nobles and, sparingly, upperclass costumes. They are available in many different qualities. Try to avoid the "plastic" looking ones with the very shiny finishes.
The best ones are made by the Europa company. They are quite expensive, but most of the big chain fabric stores have them on sale at 50% off at Christmas time, and often at other times as well. . Christmas is the best time to shop for metallics in general, as they often have trims that just aren't available any other time.
Some glitzy metallics can be toned down by dying them darker, or to match the fabric you are sewing them onto (I usually do black). Ideally, the threads that hold the trim together take the dye and the metallic doesn't. YOU MUST DO A TEST before you do this, because some metallics will absorb the trim and you will be left with 30 yards of shiny black braid.
You can also tone down a shiny metallic by spraying it with a product called Dull-cote, obtainable from model railroad suppliers. The green gown in the Gallery is an example. I bought the trim under fluorescent light and didn't realize how chintzy it looked, so I bought a can, tacked 30 yards of trim to a fence and sprayed it.
Fur
Fur was occasionally used as a trim, but more often as a lining.
The white fur with the black spots on it is ermine, and should only be worn by royalty and nobles at ceremonial occasions.
Beads and Jewels should be worn only by the upper classes. For jewels, the Austrian crystals are best. I recommend the sew on settings rather than the pronged ones, which are designed for very thin fabrics only. Jewels were usually mounted in metal settings rather than sewn on by themselves. Bead stores sell filigree pieces to which jewels can be glued for this effect.
Avoid plastic jewels, and most of the metallic plastic settings. They almost always look like plastic.
Pearls, both real and imitation, were widely used, sewn on in strands, individually, in clusters or patterns, or mounted as jewelry. Be warned that most modern imitation pearls can not be dry cleaned.
Glass beads such as bugle and rocaille beads were a very new and expensive invention. They can be used sparingly as highlights on brocades and trims, but should not be worked into patterns on their own. Small gold or silver Metal beads were sometimes used as well.
Lace
Lace is a very new invention, is tedious and difficult to make, and is fabulously expensive. It should never appear on any peasant clothing. A lower middle class woman portraying a lace maker can use a very narrow lace, 1/4" or less, on a small piece such as the edge of a cap.
Lace should be geometric or stylized florals, not flowing, naturalistic forms. It is fairly heavy, usually starched to be more so. White, gold, silver, and black were common.
The maximum width is not more than 3" or so, wider laces are made by sewing strips of fabric together. Lace as a fabric does not exist.
Basically, lace can be needle lace, lacis, bobbin lace, or may actually be cuttework. Crochet does not exist yet.
Lace is only used on collars, cuffs, ruffs, and some headwear. When you see references to "lace" on clothing such as gowns, doublets, etc, it is heavier, what we would think of as braid.
Buttons
Buttons were used as fasteners on doublets, sleeves, shirts, and smocks, and also as non fastening decorations. They were made of bone, horn, or wood for the lower classes. Wooden buttons are not recommended for washable garments.
For the upper classes, gold, silver, and pewter were popular, often enameled and set with gems.
Another button style was wooden molds wrapped with thread in various patterns. This style was so popular that cast metal buttons were made that imitated the look.
Metal buttons should be shank style, not the type with holes drilled through them.
Using Trim
Trim with one scalloped or shaped edge should be placed with the scallop facing into the garment, not with the scallop on the outer edge.
Openwork trims such as metallic lace or braid look good laid over a contrast color ribbon or tape, i.e., a black doublet with gold lace braid over red ribbon.
If you are going to use machine stitching, straight edges trims such as ribbon or banding will look far better if you attach then with a straight stitch, very close to the edge, rather than zigzagging.
Trim and Class
Peasant costume should have little or no trim. Plain bands of fabric or matte finish ribbon such as grosgrain, or a very little embroidery, is all that should be used. Remember, your only leisure time to do fancy embellishments would have been on Sunday, when work such as sewing would have been forbidden, or at night, when the firelight was not strong enough and candles were too expensive to burn.
Lower middle class costumes can have more trim, but it should be the kind that uses leisure time, not cash. Slashing, cuttes and pinkes are good, as are bands of fabric either applied as trim or binding edges (guards). A small amount of embroidery is also good. Some kinds of braid are good, especially guimpes made of non-silky fabrics that could have been homemade fairly quickly.
Upper middle class costumes can and should use a wide range of ribbons, braids, and bands. Surface texture, rather than glitter, is the keyword. Lace can be used within reason, such as a narrow edging on a ruff rather than one made entirely of lace. Some metallics can be used, silver more likely than gold, and keep them quite narrow.
Noble costume can use almost anything, and often does! The challenge with noble costume is to make it as rich as possible without it becoming vulgar. It's far too easy to make a noble costume that looks like an explosion at the trim factory.
Try all your trim and fabric combinations together, and maintain balance. Lay them out on a table, or pin to a dress form, in approximately the arrangement you plan to use. Look at it close up. Look at it from far away. Take it outside and look at it in bright sunlight, if you'll be wearing it outdoors. How does it look? Take time on this step. I often make a sample, and carry it around with me for a week to be sure I like the effect.
