Tudor Underwear

I see London, I see France, but my dear lady, I see no underpants.  In Tudor England the thought is that women didn't wear underpants.  If they did, they made them at home, perhaps from scraps of linen left from making shirts, chemises, coifs and other small items.  We have no written record, of women's underpants and therefore we have no evidence as to what really happened beneath all those skirts.  Registers contain records of cloth bought for specific projects and letters contain instructions for items of clothing to be bought or reworked.  Everything we know about clothing in this period comes from those types of documents and is combined with what we can learn about clothing from portraits and other images we have from the period.  There are a few examples of garments, but these are exceedingly rare.

So my project is moving ahead and I am fully kitted in the Tudor equivalent of the underwear we know about.  Shirt, Farthingale, and Corset.  I debated a petticoat and decided against.  As it is, if Halloween is not about two degrees Celsius inside the house, I am worried that I will die of heat.  What it will be like to wear all this clothing in the subway and in class I don't know.  To sit in this without the gown is a challenge, but my word, there is no slouching, whether you like it or not!

From Karen's Sewing Corner.  Shows a single laced corset.  Notice no bows.

The corset of this period was typically single laced, meaning a single cord going back and forth from one side to the other.   I've done ear ties so that I can tie it myself.  It's also back closing so gaps are not nearly as vital to the function of the corset.  As Karen's corset demonstrates, a front opening corset needs to close.  Also, I can't see the back when I'm lacing so I have no idea how it's laced.  The other thing I ran into was that my 15 year old daughter is not as meticulous with fitting as I would be and a dress form just does not cut it when it comes to fitting a corset.

The other thing I think I am going to change is take some metal out of the top two rings of steel in the farthingale in order to get a better cone shape.  I have also seen some farthingale patterns where the steel supports are closer to the waist.  After sitting in this one, I think the first ring is in exactly the right place.

Next step: The kirtle.