Category: Clothing

Alborghetti Suit: Sleeves

16th century

Both sleeves are on the doublet now. Here’ some pictures of the sleeve installation process:

The wool and linen lining are sewn together by machine and turned through the wrist end. The edges are pressed and the seam whip stitched together. Here the wool has been sewn; later the linen will be sewn with another, looser whip stitch. There is an opening left at the wrist and at the shoulder, where the gusset will be inserted.

The shoulder wing has been basted into the top of the armscye.

The sleeve is sewn into the armscye, starting from the shoulder seam on the doublet. The wing is included in this seam.

The finished sleeve seam, with a triangular gap that will be filled with a gusset.

A scrap of wool is placed over the hole. The edges are traced with chalk, brass rubbing style. An arrow shows which side will attach to the armscye.

The wool is trimmed, and the first corner is turned under for basting.

The edges of the gusset are turned and basted in place, turning in each corner as it is reached.

All edges are basted.

A scrap of linen is pinned in the middle of the gusset and trimmed to shape.

The edges of the linen are turned under and pinned in place.

The linen lining is sewn in place.

The gusset is installed!

Alborghetti Suit: Sleeve

16th century

 I finished binding the doublet edges, threw together a couple of shoulder wings out of scraps, and whipped up a sleeve pattern. I got one wing and sleeve on and it looks like it will work, more or less. I need to try it on with the right shirt to make sure it’s not too snug, but I have hope.

The morning after:

On reflection, I think even “a little snug” is too much. I’m going to recycle the wool for canions and redo them. It’s a little wasteful, but I have a few yards of the wool left and nothing else that needs it but the trunk hose poofs and codpiece.

Alborghetti Suit: Eyelets and Binding

16th century

I’ve got about half the eyelets in on the trunk hose waistband, and made some good progress on binding the edges of the doublet. The doublet edges had been kind of floppy and wavy, but (As expected) the binding has given them some great structure. I’m doing about a 1/2″ binding in cotton velveteen, which is larger than I usually do, but it’s intended as a visible design element. The visual difference between the wool and velveteen is quite striking. I had contemplated adding some extra stripes of velveteen aside from the edges, but the stuff I’m using would need to have its edges turned under, and the synthetic stuff that doesn’t fray looks different enough that I think it wouldn’t be advisable. I suppose I can always decide later.

Alborghetti Suit: Waistband and Belt

16th century, Casting

Last night I tested how the doublet and trunk hose would work together. I pinned the trunk hose foundation to the lacing strip on the doublet, then put everything on and tried to sit down. The pins in the back immediately popped out. Discouraged but still hopeful, I went back and basted the doublet and hose together instead, and this time it seemed to work much better. I went ahead and covered the waistband with black wool, and plan to put eyelets in it sometime this week. I’ll also start working on binding the edges of the doublet and putting in buttonholes. Also sleeves. Each piece will bring me closer to the final fit of the whole suit. Finishing the trunk hose will probably happen last.

Something else that concerned me was whether the looser fit of the doublet would affect how my belt would sit at the waistline. The good news is that I think the belt won’t have any problem staying in place. The bad news is that my current belt is a good bit too short and can’t easily be lengthened. Since I sand cast the current clasp, I can’t just pour up another one easily. Instead I plan to make a new clasp in a stone mold. I looked at several different styles for the new clasp, and I think I’m leaning toward this one:

It will be easier to cast the loop if I don’t have to mess with rivets, and I’ll be able to move it to another belt more easily. Rather than casting a closed loop, I think I’ll make a flat bar and bend it into a loop. I can replace the lion head with an owl face as well, though it’ll take a little trickery to be able to cast both sides out of one mold. I have some ideas about how to manage that. I may just use the old S-hook for now until I decide I really want to make a new one. It would take a well-registered two-sided mold, which is hassle that I’ll avoid as long as I can.

Alborghetti Suit: Recycling and Wings

16th century

I decided that I’m never going to wear the old black linen doublet again, so I’m making it an organ donor. I took the lacing strip off it, refurbshed it some, and installed it on the new doublet. There’s a bit of a gap in the back, but that should be fine; I can always make an extra bit to fill in that spot if I really need a point in the back. The old doublet also had a perfectly good set of thread wrapped buttons that deserve to see the light of day again.

I haven’t yet decided whether or not to put shoulder wings on the doublet. Most of the Moroni portraits feature jerkins that cover up the shoulders of the doublet, so it’s hard to say what would be most appropriate. There’s certainly room for them under the puffed cap sleeves on the jerkins, though. This doublet has fairly substantial wings, while this one seems to have none (though it is a bit of a weird case in many ways). This portrait shows small wings, but it’s also a good bit later, so who knows how it compares. My grey suit and blue suit both lack wings, while the red suit has them, so I may go ahead and add some small wings just for kicks. I can always get rid of them later if I change my mind, I suppose.

Alborghetti Suit: Doublet and Trunk Hose Foundation

16th century

The doublet has the skirt and collar attached, but still not finished. The trunk hose foundation is put together (white linen lining and medium weight navy cotton(?) interlining). I built the foundation based on my tweaked pattern, then whip stitched it to the bottom edge of the doublet. I had to cut back the center front opening a couple inches on each side and hack 3.5″ off all the way around the waistline, but better too big than too small! If it fits the same in real life as it does with a few stitches and pins, I may actually be able to sit down comfortably in this suit…

Alborghetti Suit: Doublet Body

16th century

It’s a terrible iPad picture, but I’ve got the doublet body put together and lined. When I put the mockup on, my wise wife said I needed more room, so I added width accordingly. After putting it on at the current stage, I finally had the realization that perhaps the doublet should fit more like a modern suit coat (structured, yet loose) rather than a sausage casing. I’m curious to see how this plays out as the project progresses…

Alborghetti Suit: Patterning and Doublet

16th century

Starting from my new body block and the trunk hose foundation pattern from the Bronzino suit, I made some alterations and seem to have a viable candidate. I cut the white linen lining, black wool shell, and heavy wool interlining for the doublet body and have begun putting the pieces together…

Alborghetti Suit: Beginnings

16th century

The plan for this suit is to make something nice and simple that fits comfortably. The style will be from 1550ish, based largely on the Moroni portrait of Count Alborghetti and his son:

Clearly, there’s not much to see on the father’s clothes, so the person of interest here is the son. A basic doublet, unpaned trunk hose with canions, falling band on the shirt collar. After going through my stash today, I think I’ll try to squeeze this out of the last 4 yards of my B. Black & Sons black tropical wool, trimmed with black velveteen. Black-on-black is a very common color scheme in the contemporary portraits (for example, the elder Alborghetti here), but it’s sorely under-represented in the SCA. Black doublet, black hose, black netherstockings (of yet undetermined fabric), black black black. I made one black suit about a million years ago, but I think I can do better than that now.

So the first step is to get out the junk fabric and work out my pattern, and then see if I actually have enough wool left to manage it…