Farthingale

 Navigation for this costume:
Introduction – Materials – Smock – Farthingale – Petticoat – Bodice – Skirtings – Rolled Sleeves – Overskirt – Forepart – Ruffs – Partlet and Sleeves – Jewelry making: Headdress; Necklace; Pelican Jewel; Sleeveband; Girdle; Wristbands; Fan – Finished gown – Funny Comments – Miss Starkie – Quiz

I was so fascinated by this description in the wardrobe inventories of Elizabeth I.:

„(…) a verthingale of crimsen Satten striped with gold(…)“

…*SO* Pelican gown. *SO* mine.

Except, of course, that I could find no „crimsen Satten striped with gold“. Instead, I found a cotton weave striped with gold, which I made a basic farthingale skirt from.
To enhance the fine woven golden stripes, I thought it could not hurt to have some more „golden stripes“.
So I made the casings for the hoops of golden and cream cotton lace banding (backed with black twill strips which also work as hoop casings, for the sake of giving them more stability with the hoops inside plus to add some kind of darker „shadow“ backing behind the trims):

Here is one picture of the farthingale during the making – the middle hoop casing is still missing in this image and the farthingale-to-be is draped over my old, slightly longer farthingale in order to see if all hoop casings are running straight around the skirt:

Can you see the fine, golden shimmer of the tiny golden threads that are woven into the fabric? It’s just a detail – but I think it considerably adds to the appearance of the farthingale.

When the farthingale was finished except for adding the hoops, I dyed it (read my notes about ‚first cutting, then sewing and then dying‘ here) in the washing machine. This is what it looked like after drying – still without hoop steels because I didn’t get the steel I ordered by then, so I’m showing it in this picture *still* draped over the old, too long blue-white farthingale:

These detail pictures show how the golden threads in the fabric were even enhanced by dyeing the fabric darker. They look even better in person – the whole farthingale is glittering with each and every movement.

Beautiful, isn’t it? (I’ll admit without shame that I’m totally in love with my farthingale!)
I find it so nice that I think I can even wear this farthingale without any overskirt; maybe to not-so-historical events… perhaps in combination with my embroidered Elizabethan Jacket. Or I can wear my petticoat with it…
On the other hand I have seen pictorial evidence of Elizabethan skirts which actually *have* hoops on the outside; so wearing this beautiful farthingale without anything over it is probably not completely off-period, given that the bodice worn with it is long enough to hide the lumpy, usual farthingale pleating – for example, the embroidered jacket…

The next thing I would like to show you is the petticoat.

 Navigation for this costume:
Introduction – Materials – Smock – Farthingale – Petticoat – Bodice – Skirtings – Rolled Sleeves – Overskirt – Forepart – Ruffs – Partlet and Sleeves – Jewelry making: Headdress; Necklace; Pelican Jewel; Sleeveband; Girdle; Wristbands; Fan – Finished gown – Funny Comments – Miss Starkie – Quiz