Polish Dress

September 29, 2009 at 10:47 pm | Posted in Tailoring | Leave a comment

In addition to the SCA I also do some Polish Hussar reenactment with my husband. Or rather, he does the reenacting and I act as gofer for the entire company, since I don’t have a costume. Well, no longer! I am bound and determined to get dressed for the next event.

It’s very difficult to find solid documentation for what Ukrainian peasant women were wearing during the seventeenth century. The only picture the re-enactors could get for me looked like it was probably not contemporary, but I’m going to go with it. The outfit the woman in the picture is wearing looks like the generic kirtle with a short/no sleeved bodice top that everyone in that period seemed to have been wearing.

So far I have fitted the bodice to myself. I had my husband wrap me in duct tape, and then used that as a pattern. It would have been perfect except that I’ve never made anything with a lining before, and I forgot to take into account the fact that the lining would make the finished product slightly smaller. Oops. So it’s a very, very tight bodice. My husband it thrilled.

I made all of the eyelets on Sunday, which took much longer than I thought it would. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if it’s because the bodice is just slightly too tight, but I needed a million zillion eyelets to keep it closed without ugly gaps. (This is an exact number. I counted.) I wanted to spiral lace it, but when I had to add twice as many eyelets as I had intended my husband talked me into changing the pattern. We’ll see how that works out.

I’ve cut out the skirt, and now I just need to pleat it and sew it. I also want to make an apron before the event as well, since that would be a vital part of the outfit. Pictures soon to follow!