A Peasant Costume for the Renaissance Faire

Simplicity pattern 3809 has the honor of being my first sewing project with a machine. I have also never worked with a pattern so it was learning time pretty much the whole time. I started this project in early March and hoped to finish it before the Ren Faire in April. The skirt is from costume A while the bodice and top are from costume B. 

The skirt is made from cotton and was fairly easy to make and took about a week to make. The first thing I did was hack off about 5 inches from the bottom of the pattern. After that it was fairly smooth sailing. I had the most trouble with the hemming; when I'm wearing it it's slightly shorter in the back than the front even though laid out flat it's even. I really wanted to learn to hem with my machine but I couldn't get the fabric to sit right under the foot and kept messing up. I have a feeling a hemming foot would be really useful. I ended up ripping the hemming back twice before going back to hemming by hand. Maybe next year I'll make an over-skirt to this costume (I'm thinking blue).

Some things I would change about the skirt:

• Make it fuller 
• Make it more historically accurate (the pattern uses a zipper). Maybe turn it into a drawstring skirt
• Make the skirt bottom straight to make hemming easier.
• Hem skirt more (I kept tripping on it on my first outing)

I decided to go with the shorter sleeve blouse from costume B and made it out of cotton muslin because I have yet to go to the fair when it wasn't hot. It took me a little time to understand the blouse but in the end I figured it out. I also decided to make my own 0.5 inch bias tape because I wanted the edges to match the blouse. I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong and the sleeves don't look pretty but it will be at the gathered edge so I'm hoping that it will cover the mistakes up. The top of the blouse went a lot better when I switched to 1 inch bias tape instead. I think my main problem was the size of the bias tape, other than that making the blouse was fairly straight forward and only took me a week to make, less if you just count the days I actually worked on it.

Some things I would change about the blouse:

• Make the blouse body longer 
• Shorten the neck elastic (it's just a little to big when resting on the shoulders)
• I might try longer sleeves next time
• Maybe make them less poofy

Finally, the bodice is made from suede with interfacing and a cotton lining. I would have liked to make the bodice with spring steel boning but Jo-Ann's doesn't carry it, so I had to use the plastic boning instead. I made a muslin prototype with the original pattern first but it came out too small despite the measurements stated on the back (I used the biggest size). Although, it shouldn't have been surprising that the bodice wouldn't fit the way I wanted to after looking at the picture on the envelope. The bodice sides are at least 2 inches apart.

Instead, I used the information on this Ren Faire site* to help me construct a new pattern. While I like the construction of the simplicity pattern better, I didn't really know how to adapt all the pieces to the size I needed so I went with that site's instructions. I made a muslin prototype of the new pattern as well and because it fit well I used that as my actual pattern on the suede, interfacing, and lining. I used two layers of interfacing of medium weight Heat and Bond fusible interfacing on the muslin lining and then sewed the boning onto that. Next I sewed the right sides of the lining and the suede together, leaving the bottom open so that I could turn it right side out. I closed the bottom with suede bias tape. Last I put in the grommets for the sides and the shoulders. All in all it took about month to finish because I kept messing up and ripping back.

Some things I would change about the bodice:

• Add peplums
• Use spring steel boning instead of the plastic ones (the plastic ones conforms to the shape of the body)
• Cut longer ribbons for the shoulder strap (I only used about 1 ft./arm) 

 

And to top it all off, a snood. For a more detailed look, see my ravelry project page. I adapted it from the Snood Deux, a pattern I found through Ravelry. I originally made it just to go with this costume but I liked it so much that I think I'll be wearing for other days too. I also made the purse a couple of months ago for my costume but I think I might go with a basket next year.

Next year, I'd like to make a gypsy costume using the simplicity pattern 5359 but I have also been commissioned by my family to make some clothing and costumes for them.










* Also has a lot of good info for the other pieces of the costume. Next time, I might just modify 3809 with the patterns on this site.