Very yellow (15th century man's doublet)

My friend and teammate, Ádám gave me a challenge. Can I make him a 15th century doublet that he can use for his gleeman character. His character does magic tricks, acrobatics among other things, therefore aside from keeping the period silhuette it was important to give him proper and full movement.

It was a challenge, because my experience with historical male clothing is very limited, I only made a few pieces for Norbert (who presetns totally different challenges, because of his bodyshape), however, one of the main reasons to accept the task was to change that. We talked about it, and agreed to work on it together. Adam gives his theoretical knowledge and research, and I, my experience as a sewer. 

My main starting point was this drawing, and a pattern draft.

I could have started with drafting the pattern, but I decided to go for the simpler solution, checked the internet for existing patterns from a company most deemed not to reliable, however, I had succes sewing with their patterns, and the final item would have to be fitted to the hell and back anyway. After two mock ups, the body was okay, but I was still hung up how to make the sleeves keep their appropiate shape, while add the necesssary movement. Then a side note in Opus Eleni's video (in which she made a 17th century rapier's doublet) gave me the solution. Adding a gusset, but not to the lengthwise seam of the sleeve, but o the armschye, like this:

From then the sewing was almost straighforward, though the very limited amount of fabric gave me a bit of a headache and prompted me to do some creative layout...

(umm, yes, piecing is period).

Since the body, the collar and the "skirt" needed reinforcement, in the form of interling with a piece of stiff canwas, as usual, lots of basting ensued.

One of the most interesting bit of this doublet is the standing collar that goes into a deep V shape down at the back.

After it was almost finished, and Ádám tried it on, we've seen that we was over-careful in leaving enough space for movement at the waist, so I took it apart, and took in a few cm-s from the waistline all around.

And the finished doublet. The uneven placement of the buttons were copied from a period painting, the sleeves have textile buttons. 

For the buttonholes I used the trick I figured out, when I made Norbert's 18th century waistcoat: I sewed them with the machine, because that way the machine stitching holds together all the layers and provide a guide for the handstitching, that I've done after cutting out the buttonholes.

Work photos: my phone

Modelled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto