This costume was created for a renaissance themed wedding I was attending.  My goal was to create something comfortable to dance in, so instead of the usual full length gown I went with the Joan of Arc approach. ☺ This costume is a good example of how to alter a man's costume pattern for a woman, as well as how to modify a used clothing purchase for costume purposes.

Blouse C

I sewed the shirt in a brown cotton blend 'suede'.  The sleeves are pin tucked with copper metallic thread at 2 inch intervals in a diamond pattern and a copper bead is sewn at each pin tuck intersection.  The cuffs are embellished with two lines of an heirloom stitch pattern in the Viking Designer 1 in copper metallic thread and trimmed in a horizontal netted fringe of copper beads.  The collar is embellished with a single line of the same heirloom stitch pattern and with a satin stitch at the edge, both in copper metallic thread.  Prior to doing these embellishments on the blouse, I experimented on the matching pouch shown at the right. 

Deviations from the pattern: The pattern is made with sewn in cuffs, I lengthened the arms at the bottom to accommodate gathered cuffs.  The pattern calls for a tied closure at the neck and slits at the bottom of the side seams, I chose to do neither. 

Lessons learned: The heirloom stitch requires stabilizer under the fabric, which is visible on the inside of the cuffs.  I would make self lined cuffs, sandwiching the stabilizer in between and therefore making the stabilizer invisible.

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Cape  

I purchased the fur cape in a thrift/antique shop for very little money.  It was probably discarded because of the worn fur around the hooks and eyes as shown in the far right picture.  I replaced the hooks and eyes with brown frog clasps, which covered up the worn fur and made a regal looking cape for this costume.

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Doublet  

I sewed the doublet in quilted copper upholstery fabric and black velveteen, lined with black cotton.  The trim is a copper piping.  The clasps are antiqued gold.  The black gloves were a gift and the copper amulet was a costume jewelry flea market find.  

Deviations from the pattern: The Fantasy Fashions doublet pattern was used for everything from the waist up, but because the pattern is for a man, significant modifications had to be done.  In the interest of fit the front neckline was lowered, the front and back body length was shortened at the chest line, the front below the waistline was angled up, front darts were added, and the front width was increased at the opening.  I removed the front self facing because of the thickness of the quilted fabric and removed the split in the caplet because I felt like it. ☺ The Simplicity doublet pattern was used for the peplum, but because the pattern is for a very large man, size modifications had to be done.  The width of both the front and back were reduced to the measurements of the post dart bottom of the body and the length was shortened.

Lessons learned: The rightmost pictures are of a doublet I made some years ago from the Fantasy Fashions pattern, without any of the above modifications and I consider it one of my sewing disasters.  The length of the body is sized for a man, a woman's body is not nearly as long plus a woman has hips.  Thus the original doublet scrunched up at both the shoulder blades (causing a hunch back effect with the fabric) and at the back waist.  The front neckline is sized for a man, a woman's neckline is lower.  Thus the original doublet scrunched up at the front neckline.  The modifications I did make to the pattern for the original doublet were to add a zipper at the front and inset long sleeves (hard to see in the pictures as they are of the same fabric as the lining for the outer sleeves) and they were both bad ideas in retrospect.  Both modifications were made because I wanted to wear the doublet without a shirt underneath, the shortcuts made the poor fitting doublet more obvious as having a poor fit.  Despite all the modifications made to the copper doublet, I would make two more the next time: lower the front neckline just a little bit more and shorten the collar so it does not meet (and therefore overlap) at the front, which I did for the purple doublet.

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