Gifts and Talents

I have this uncanny ability at finding items that possibly could make good garb. I ran across this 12% silk velvet jacket on eBay. Looked at it and said to myself that would make a really cute ladies doublet. Proceeded to purchase the item which was very inexpensive. Received it quickly and tried it on which it was an extra small. I was not certain with the way it was advertised,whether or not it would fit. It fit perfectly it was a little bit loose for what would be the measurements of my corset self.

Before as original garment

So proceeded to take the modern out of this garment. I seam ripped front pockets because there would be no pockets on the garment like this. After doing so and sewing up the seams. I was able to use the material from the pockets and make little guards for the tops of the sleeves. I took off the buttons off at the front of the jacket and the sleeves. Proceeded to paint the edges with gold paint to make them look more like a Renaissance style button. Then use a slightly lighter colored silk ribbon, attached it to where the button closures would have been. Using the buttons as accent going down the front of this doublet. I do still have two buttons leftover that are the larger variety and trying to decide if I am going to use them on this garment still?

During pocket removal

Have to add hook and eye closure is on the inside edge of this garment to make sure that there is a sturdiness to it. The silk ribbons certainly could tie the front of this, however they would be putting a lot of stress and warp the silk. So it is better off that I use hook and eye closures that can take some of the pressure off of the decorative ribbons. I figured that this jacket which features a peplum style skirting on the bottom, makes it almost look like a fitted ladies doublet jacket. As well as I want to add boning to the inside lining of this jacket to give it some stiffness and rigidity.

After modification and decoration.

 basic flash light.

 worn in warm light

Tightened up the fit around the waist when I handsewn some of the seams with a small pleat. So next is to try this on with a matching silk taffeta skirt that I had made all by hand. I still have as of yet to him this particular skirt. And I am uncertain if I want to do anymore decorating on this garment yet. I was thinking that if I do add anything it's either going to be more gold metallic or black. Just to give it a little bit of interest. However I want to look at finishing techniques and decoration techniques on lady style doublets before Adding any further decoration. This would definitely count as a gentle ladies jacket at this point. So it just really depends if I want to make it more court like or more upper-
middle-class.

For certain adding the boning on the inside lining, and adding small beads to the ends of the silk ribbon to keep from fraying. Need to add some trim around the waist line and the bottom seam of the peplum to cover up the lines from the pockets. It's all in how I want to decorate it. So many wonderful options yet, I will definitely make a decision because I'm consider wearing this over the
weekend. I plan on matching this up with a black worked coif, a velvet riding hat with feathers, and matching it up with appropriate dark color jewelry. Which will show up nice against the velvet.
Will post pictures when the ensemble is complete.


Well back to it,

Mairin