Burda Style For people who sew

Description

Every spring, there is a huge Renaissance Faire in the very next town over from me, and every year more and more people go and have a lovely time in the imaginary village. Plus they sell roasted turkey legs! So this year I determined to go.

Faires are set in different times and places, and the authentic clothing of that setting would be the most appropriate thing to wear. This particular faire is set in the late 1600s in England, so when researching clothing I stuck to that period. I chose to make peasant clothing because I only had about 2 weeks to make everything. I did all of my research online, although there are several very good books on the subject in print.

This page covers only the men’s peasant breeches, but the overall project I undertook consists of the following elements:

male biggins
female biggins
jerkin
bodice
chemise
male shirt thing
shin wrappings
male hat
breeches/slops
underskirt

Needless to say the past few weeks have been a sew-fest, as the Faire is this coming weekend. My family is getting sick of all the fabric everywhere LOL but honestly these peasant style garments made of rectangles go together fairly quickly . . . .

To our modern eyes, these are not the most becoming clothes in the world – they are not particularly fitted or body-conscious – an element of many folk patterns! However, we tried it on the other day and it actually looks pretty spiffy – loose but not oversized or baggy. I used a leather drawstring to gather the waist. The peasant version of these are longer than those that middle class and upper class people wore. I did not make a full-on, museum quality reproduction garment, but one that would appear to a casual observer to be fairly authentic. I used a machine to do the stitching and the button holes. The fabric is incredibly inauthentic – it is a rayon crinkle type fabric, but because it is large weave and unevenly colored, it looks somewhat like home-dyed linen. The shin wrappings are seen to the right of the photos.

Material Notes

rayon, old pants for the shin covers

Difficulty

Novice

Categories

For

Men

Garment Type

Costume

Style

Romantic

Material

Cotton, Linen, Wool