Navigation for this costume:
Introduction – Materials – Smock – Farthingale – Petticoat – Bodice – Skirtings – Rolled Sleeves – Overskirt – Forepart – Ruffs – Partlet and Sleeves – Jewelry making: Headdress; Necklace; Pelican Jewel; Sleeveband; Girdle; Wristbands; Fan – Finished gown – Funny Comments – Miss Starkie – Quiz
Funny comments by other people
Now – if you make such a gown, you’ll find yourself several times in various crafts- and fabric stores, looking for something that will match the decoration of the original portrait. For reference, of course, you’ll always carry the “Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d” around with you.
This will most certainly not happen unnoticed by employees and other customers of said stores.
Now – if you don’t live in an area in which such costumes are considered “normal” (…but which area in this world *would be*? If you know any – please give me a message, I’m most willing to move.), then this book and your constant looking forth and back will arise some questions… which are sometimes funny.
That’s at least what I did and what happened to me. I don’t want to spare you those comments; so… here they are:
(when looking in a craft store for half pearls):
“Oh, medieval, nice! Are you much interested in medieval clothing?”
(Good Queen Bess would have probably been very surprised to learn that she’s considered a medieval queen)
(when searching for the chemise trim):
“What, you want to make *THAT*? You don’t mean that, do you? It would be so uncomfortable to wear – you know, women were always in pain when wearing those tight laced Victorian corsets… have you not seen “Pirates of the Caribbean”? That woman there is also always in pain because she has to wear such a corset…”
(Yes, that’s probably the reason why women wore the corsets over several decades – they were masochists and *wanted* to live in constant pain! *groan*
Anyway – what do “tight lacing Victorian corsets” have to do with a fashion that’s 300 years older…?
I’ll spare you my comments on the ‘Pirates’ comment, and also the two-hours-discussion on the comfort of actual historical clothing that followed.)
(searching for an appropriate lace for the partlet (after that, I found it in my own closet…)):
Me: “Can I dye this white lace? The label says rayon, so I assume I can; but it feels like Poly. Can I make a burn test to determine the material?”
Employee: “No, Rayon and Poly can’t be dyed, silk can also not be dyed. Look here, I have a nice black poly eyelet lace which looks….”
(I didn’t hear the rest of the comment, because an employee of a fabrics store who tells me that in her irrelevant and wrong opinion “rayon can’t be dyed, because silk and poly can’t either be dyed” (please, anyone tell me what *those* three materials have in common…?), and suggests an ordinary poly eyelet lace for the elaborate lace border around the partlet isn’t much worth listening – so I simply left the shop)
(searching for a diamond-shaped netting for the partlet and sleeves covering)
Employee: “Oh, I have an idea! Go to the stockings department, buy some pairs of white fishnet stockings and cut them open…”
(I won’t even *think* about commenting here on using cut-open, extremely stretchy fishnet stockings material as partlet and sleeves coverings… though it has to be said that the idea itself was not *so* bad, if the material just had not been too stretchy…)
(my mother, when I told her on the phone what I was making):
“Can’t you just once in your life make something that you can actually *use*? What about new curtains for your living room, or a nice summer dress?”
(Thank you, mother – I now *have* a nice summer dress…. and could you imagine any curtains elaborately decorated with pearls, golden disks and “Quadruples”…? Giving it a second thought… hmmm… no, I’m too lazy to do something like that. Though – if I should ever win the lottery and obtain larger quantities of the acetate brocade I have used for the forepart, then I could make myself a queenly living room 
)
(when announcing that I assume that the gown all in all would weight about 25 kilograms):
“Good grief! How could anyone want to wear something like that? Is that some new kind of bodybuilding or workout?”
(Well, if it is, then I’ll consider it my favorite and will answer the question “Are you interested in any sports?” with “Certainly – I like wearing Elizabethan gowns!”)
Neither last nor least, I would like to introduce the young Miss Starkie to you.
Navigation for this costume:
Introduction – Materials – Smock – Farthingale – Petticoat – Bodice – Skirtings – Rolled Sleeves – Overskirt – Forepart – Ruffs – Partlet and Sleeves – Jewelry making: Headdress; Necklace; Pelican Jewel; Sleeveband; Girdle; Wristbands; Fan – Finished gown – Funny Comments – Miss Starkie – Quiz
