I have plans to make myself some new clothes, but first I must make my lovely wife new clothes. I made her a Flemish peasant outfit once many years ago, and it seemed like time to try it again. I’d already done the combination of side-back laced kirtle and front laced overgown that everyone in the world has done, so I opted instead for a front laced kirtle and short jacket. There are a couple of examples in Brueghel’s Wedding Dance, conveniently showing similar jackets from the front and back:
This detail shows the seam lines in the back.
This image shows the front neckline.
I’ve always wanted to do something like this with a square sleeve head inserted into an arch-shaped armscye, so it should be interesting. I cut some rough rectangles that I thought would approximate the pattern pieces, then draped them on her while she was laced into the kirtle. I turned down the corners at the top to make the neckline, and took in the center back seam until it fit right, trying to keep all the pieces as simple as possible. The sleeve pattern is drafted from measurements.
I managed to cut all the pieces out of some black wool that used to be a cloak at some point, and cut the lining from some medium weight teal cotton that I’ve had for probably 15 years. I’m wrapping the wool around the edges of each piece and putting it all together by hand. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it done by this weekend when she needs to wear it…