During lockdown I watched one of the Borgias series. I know that people have very strong feelings about the two different series, but I happened to pick the one with Jeremy Irons because my lockdown partner is a fan of Jeremy Irons. Agree or disagree, it’s a moot point; that’s the one that I ended up watching. I’m only bringing it up now because I was intrigued by Cesare Borgia’s palate. As much as the costume designer kept him in dark, emo shades, there were occasional glimpses of color. I liked the balance of a black with a dark burgundy or red-wine colored doublet. It showed his broodiness while not cloaking him completely in black. Finding linen or cotton fine enough for a shirt like that may take a while, but last fall I was at a special fabric sale, and found some beautiful burgundy brocade and instantly knew that it would be a Cesare Doublet.
[1] [2]
I had a pattern traced and ready to go, Simplicity 4059, and cut out a sample in cotton to see how it fit on my model/intended victim. I’m glad that I’m working on better sewing habits because it turned out to be a hair small, and I had to make a few minor adjustments. Okay, so technically I got excited at this point and didn’t test the adjustments before cutting my main fabric, but I was fairly confident at that point that the adjustments would probably work. I also considered adding some trim decoration to the doublet like in the pattern or in one of the sample images above, but decided that that fabric was already busy enough, and that the detail would get lost - a lot of work that wouldn't even be noticeable to the casual observer.
I was also excited to test out this particular pattern because the main body only has 3 pieces: the back and 2 front panels. I got some luscious silver stripe fabric from a friend a little while back, and I want to do a chevron stripe in the front, but I want to do it with as few pieces as possible to limit the work of the pattern matching. Well, there are also a bunch of hanging peplum tabs, but I’m hoping that those will be more forgiving.
I also just got a hat pattern through a Patreon subscription, and had dreams of making a matching hat to go with the doublet, however once I got the body of the doublet cut out it quickly became apparent that there would not be enough material to cut the hat as well. Alas and alack. Moving on. I debated cutting the undersides of the arm flaps and peplum tabs out of the lining material instead of the brocade, however, I started asking myself the question, Why? What would that do? Okay, so maybe I would be “saving” some of the brocade fabric, but for what? There was always the chance that the undersides would become visible, and I’d rather see the burgundy than the black lining. Also, the brocade is much stiffer than the lining. Frankly, the brocade is significantly stiffer than any interfacing I have, and I could probably get away without using the interfacing with 2 layers of brocade…Hmmm…So instead I used up almost every scrap of the brocade cutting out the doublet. I even added a facing around the front opening. That bit was still a little loose, and we discussed leaving that section folded open, so I wanted it to look nice. For the record it was sold as 50”x30” plus a little extra. The main portion made up the body, one shoulder flange, one or two peplum flaps, and the facing. The rest was mostly just used to cut the peplum flaps, and there were a LOT of them. Fortunately they fit together geometrically, so I could use one to cut the next one. That helped save time and effort cutting.
Only a few small scraps left over - definitely not enough for a matching hat! Maybe a pouch?
Next it was time to start cutting out the lining fabric. There were only 3 pieces, but it was not fun. First of all, I’m not used to dealing with fabric that isn’t cotton, second of all, it was super slippery. I had to just pin it as best as I could, and trust that it was mostly doing what it was supposed to. Mostly. Even my notches came out with weird shapes. I definitely should have used more pins. That is a clear lesson for the future, but I think it’s important to remember that a fabric like this is always going to do a good bit of what it wants, and not listen too closely to what I say, so just keep that in mind!
Since I wasn’t working with a facing pattern, I had to make a decision here, and I went for the simplest option I could think of in the moment. I zig-zag stitched around the outer edge of my facing piece so that it wouldn’t fray, and then stitched it to the lining inside the seam allowance. If the fabric had been less bulky I would have turned it under and stitched the outside of the facing into the lining, but it was really bulky, and I didn’t want that showing through to the outside of the garment. I *should* have tacked the outer edge of the facing to the lining at this stage, but I didn’t. Oh well. I’ll learn that lesson later. What I did learn while I was zig-zagging the facing is that the black fibers in the burgundy brocade are definitely polyester. This stuff is plastic and scratchy. It’s a good thing it’s going to be worn over a shirt or the person wearing it would probably be very uncomfortable.
Brocade is attached at the shoulders and flanges are added. Do the same to the lining. Okay, elephant in the room…the lining on this sucker. I was not happy with how it was attached. I’ve seen this done before, but not in a while. Unless your seams are lined up perfectly (hard to do when your lining has a mind of its own…) this stitch and flip method is always going to come out ugly. Like yeah, it works, but they didn’t even bother to understitch it! I’m so glad that I put a facing in the front, because based on how ugly my underarms came out, I can’t begin to imagine what my center front would look like. At least the underarms are usually covered by the arms themselves as well as the flanges. The armholes desperately need understitching, but I’m not sure how to add it in because of the way that the top is lined. Grrr… It works, I just really want to make it prettier, or maybe just not bag-lined. Like why did we decide that bag-lining was the solution to everything? If I ever make this doublet again I’m researching alternate construction methods, because this one just irked me too much.
Sew ALL of the peplums and turn them and poke those corners nice and tight. Getting the peplum bits lined up is tricky. You want to make sure that they are evenly spaced with no weird gaps or overlaps and that they are the same length. I recommend basting them before stitching so that you can easily move them, that’s what I did, and I’m glad; it’s much easier to stitch over basting than pull out tight stitching.
Okay, now that all of the pieces are attached, you can come to the realization that you definitely aren’t going to fold over that facing and you really should have tacked the facing to the lining. Time to stitching it down. Okay, now all of the pieces are attached, and that means folding up the lining, and stitching it to the doublet just above the peplum seam. I’m actually proud of that seam. Usually my hand-stitching relies on giant basting stitches, but for this one I took much smaller stitches. Not anything that would impress a Victorian ladies’ maid, but growth for me.
Then of course there was the mild panic as I searched for the golden frogs that I clearly remembered purchasing for this project, but couldn’t locate. I searched through several bins, but finally located them in the last bin – not just the last one I checked but the last bin of sewing supplies.
I attached one of the frogs to prove the concept, but determined that it was getting late, and didn’t want to chance attempting to place the others while I was too tired. I brought the project to work with me where I intended to finish it at lunch but was only able to determine placement and add two more frogs before my break ended. Finally when I got home from work I was able to add the last of the frogs before heading out with friends, and my recipient was pleased with the final product. It was worn to the renaissance faire and looked great!
Did I mention that this fabric basically can't be ironed? Like, you can put an iron to it, but the iron can't be very hot because it will just melt the fabric, and if the iron is on a low setting the fabric is too heavy to feel any effects from the iron. tldr; sorry for the wrinkles.
Was this project a stash-buster? All of the supplies for this project (except the thread, a gift after I used up my last spool) were purchased for this project, but they were purchased at least a year ago. What is a stash? How long must fabric be owned before it is part of the stash?
I’m inclined to call this project a stash-buster because it involved using materials that had been sitting and taking up space for an extended period of time in my stash. While I did have a project in mind when I bought each of these supplies, the excitement and newness of them had worn off. Just because I still remembered the project shouldn’t count against anything – in fact it should count in favor of actually completing the intended task, even if it took longer than intended.
Sources:
[1] Jessica Menezes, Pinterest, accessed January 1, 2022, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/59391288809787821/
[2]"Cesere Borgia Photo," Fanpop, published 2011, https://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25400000/Cesare-Borgia-cesare-borgia-25459408-1500-2000.jpg
Item: Doublet
Challenge: Purple
Material: Brocade
Pattern: Simplicity 4059
Year: The show runs from 1492-1503, and mostly in Rome, but I think that the broader term "Renaissance" is a better description of this costume piece. Notions: Thread, Frog closures
Hours to Complete: 11 Hours
Cost to Complete: *Will update if I can find the receipts, but I cleaned my sewing space last month.
How Historically Accurate is it: Not very; it's far more on the costume inspired by history than the history side. But I can acknowledge the difference, and some projects simply are what they are.