Italian Peasant | ||||||||||||
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This design came out of a desire for comfort and a need to be able to get dressed by myself. I was planning to go to Bristol's final week-end and wanted to be in costume, but didn't have anyone to go with me/help me smooth all of my skirts over my hoops. It's also usually sweltering in August, and I didn't feel up to a corset. I made all of these realizations late Sunday night, the week before I was going. I quickly came up with a plan, spent my day off on Monday sewing up a storm and finished the details in the evenings. I can't beleive I pulled it off in a week. SourcesI took my inspiration from various works by Vicenzo Campi, an italian artist working in the late 16th century. He did multiple paintings of italian working class women. The thing I like about the women in these images is that their clothing is simple, but still made with lively color and simple decoration. Take a look at Jen's Italian Working-Class Dress Gallery for some examples. ConstructionI am wearing two skirts under a front lacing kirtle. I have a scarf around my shoulders and tucked into my bodice front. I am also wearing a white caul and straw hat, an apron, a pouch and carrying a basket. The kirtle is made from 5 yards of tea-stain colored cotton broadcloth and trimmed with scraps from a green cotton bedsheet. I draped the pattern for the bodice on myself with minimal bloodloss. The pattern came out perfect and I'm never going back. The skirt is a simple rectangle of fabric knife-pleated to the waist of the bodice. I handworked eyelets using green embroidary thread to match the trim. I used Marion's tutorial as a guide, and they have to be the best eyelets I've ever made. One of my underskirts is a simple pale blue cotton affair I made a few years ago. I also made a new skirt out of 2 and a half yards of marigold colored wool. It was 60" wide, so I just cut the length in half, turned the pieces on their sides and pieced them back together to make a slightly longer rectangle just the right height for me. I knife pleated it to a waistband. The apron was made from some cotton scraps. I just sewed a rectangle to a long piece from the selvage and tied it on. The coif is pretty basic. The scarf is just a rectangle of linen, edges unfinished. The straw hat is something Jeff brought home from the thrift store for me one day. It's not really the right shape, but I like it anyway. I don't have a picture of them, but I'm wearing a pair of $10 payless mary janes with some cutowrk designs on the front. They looked better and were more confortable than I expected. Assorted ViewsClick on the image for a larger vie.
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