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I, just like probably many other people, fell in love with the various embroidered jackets that were worn in Elizabethan times – the Met Museum has one; the V&A Museum has one, two are described in “Patterns of Fashion”, many are pictured in paintings…
However, I was always afraid of the actual embroidery work – even if I had *partially* embroidered them with my embroidery machine, which, however, would not have been able to embroider everything (for example, it can’t do a chain stitch or sew spangles on…), it would have taken – well, like forever.
Maybe you can imagine how happy I was when I found this fabric:
I admit that it doesn’t look *completely* like the embroidered jackets. However, I think the pattern of this (woven, not embroidered) fabric at least loosely resembles the basic embroidery pattern of the jackets. Plus, I like the colors.
And… again… this is my jacket, so I can make it however and do with it whatever I want – and happily so 
This jacket also taught me something else: Never, ever try to wear Elizabethan clothing without the proper undergarments.
When I had half finished the jacket, of which I got the pattern from Janet Arnold’s “Patterns of Fashion – Cut and construction…” I just wanted to try it on. I did that over my everyday clothing, and the jacket didn’t fit. As in: Not at all. See for yourself:
For that moment I was a little unnerved and just laid the jacket aside – for several weeks.
One day, when I was wearing my Elizabethan stays, I just thought I’d give the jacket another try. I put it on and, surprise…:
Front side of the jacket, pinned to my dressmaking model *with* stays below
Back side of the jacket, pinned to my dressmaking model *with* stays below
…it fits like a dream! And I thought that I had enlarged the pattern in a wrong way! But, no, I didn’t – it was just about the missing undergarments!
There are almost no pictures of the making. In fact, I only have the above shown two pictures of the unfinished jacket.
Well, here’s the *finished* jacket, with a thick, yet soft linen lining and satin bindings on the edges:
I felt that I would need a proper petticoat for this beautiful jacket.
For quite some time I could not decide for one color; but in the end I made the petticoat of some peach-golden Dupioni silk – *very* fine Dupioni silk, which much more looks like taffeta than Dupioni. I know that Dupioni is so not period; but because I had the fabric at hand, I thought I could use it.
The silk was originally planned for a different gown – for the skirt of this gown from the movie “First knight” which someone wanted to order from me:
but that person never got back to me, so I basically just had this beautiful fabric in my closet for over two years without finding any use for it.
Here’s a picture of the finished jacket with the petticoat:
For the future I am planning to make a second petticoat, this time with a French farthingale; perhaps in satin. Plus, I’d like to enhance the already finished petticoat – perhaps a slashed border or something like that.
And perhaps one day I will be so insane to decorate the jacket with silver and golden spangles.
