Shirt and breeches are almost finished
Work on Shakesbear’s new wardrobe continues apace. His shirt and breeches are finished except for the hand sewing, and I am moving on to finish his doublet today.
In researching men’s Elizabethan clothing, I have come to the conclusion that his breeches are of the type called slops, which are described on elizabethan-era.org.uk as “loose, very full, hose reaching just below the knee, very large and wide and ending with wide, highly decorative bands of material (called guardes).” In addition to slops, there were trunk hose (very short, covering just the trunk of the body, and worn with tight fitting, full length hose beneath), French hose (semi-fitted, below the knee, and paned – made of strips of fabric covering a full inner lining), pluderhosen breeches (paned slops with a very full inner layer pulled out between the panes) and a number of other types enumerated in the link to elizabethan-era.org.
Here’s Shakesbear trying on his shirt before I added the sleeves and sewed up the side seams.
And here he is being fitted for his doublet. The finished doublet will have a peplum, but here I was just trying to get the armhole seams situated correctly.
I am aiming to have his full outfit done by the weekend.