unknown woman, 1605-1625 (image source: V&A Museum)
This doublet that’s been giving me such problems isn’t what it seems to be. I’ve had images in my head, but I’ve been using a pattern (well, an idea of a pattern from PoF3, the 1580s doublet) that’s based in the wrong time period. Doh! The neckline and sleeves I’ve been fantasizing about are all about 30-40 years later than the base I started with.
It’s not a 1580s doublet. It’s meant to be a 1610s bodice/jacket, rather like this, tho’ you can’t see much of it and the V&A debates what’s really going on in the portrait. However, let’s not trust what the website description says because that could well be incorrect, even by people who work at the V&A. See: March 2009 trip and investigation into a certain “Mary Queen of Scots” portrait that was painted over in the 19th century — no info about that on the website, but the paintings expert I talked to gladly pulled the file and showed me the 1930s and 1970s X-rays to prove it.
Elizabeth Vernon, 1618 (image source: Wikimedia Commons)
Anyway. This miniature on the right has the neckline, sleeves, and center-front opening I wanted. Likewise, this 1618 portrait (on the left) elaborates on the hanging sleeves I was imagining, plus the trim designs. This 1619 gown has similar lines, just look past the slightly gawd-awful fabric choice (hi, I’m wearing a sofa!).
Yeah, yeah, I’m pushing the envelope of the SCA period. But man, I love these shapes! Gotta have ’em.