Using mismatched fabric in garments

[Tibbie Croser]

There's a green figured velvet doublet in Patterns of Fashion which was let out later at the side seam with a completely different piece of figured green velvet. Does anyone know how common it was to use slightly mismatched fabric in the same garment, as in this example?

I'm curious because I have multiple remnants of red wool fabric, in slightly different textures, weights, and shades of red. If I made a lower-class gown or coat, say, and used one remnant for the torso, another for the skirt, and a third piece for the sleeves, would I have any historical justification? (Note that these pieces are all different shades of the same color, not contrasting colors.)

[brewer]

Common as muck, at least in C16 England and the Netherlands. Above all things, remember this: Labor is cheap, materials are expensive. Then add: Piecing is period.

When something wore out, garments would be combined all the time. We have reams of dox supporting not only different types of fabric in the same basic color but in different colors and types of material. The bodice might be yellow while the skirts are red. Or two different types of red material. Or... If you have two gowns, one with a flaw in the bodice and another with a flaw in the skirts, you don't send both to the rag-man - you combine the bits that are still good and only sell on that which is beyond saving.

Go forth and make your project. You're 100% supported by evidence.



Bob

[Tibbie Croser]

Thank you, Bob. Was this true for all kinds of garments, both men's and women's, or mainly for women's gowns and kirtles? In Brueghel pictures, I think I've seen a few men's outer jackets/short coats with sleeves and body of different-colored fabric, but otherwise I haven't seen much artistic evidence for this kind of mixing in men's clothes, with the huge exception of Landesknechts.

[brewer]

Both, so far as I'm aware. The caveat is that such mixing is seen much more often below a certain socioeconomic stratum: the higher you go on the scale, the less likely you'll be to find it.

Cheers,

Bob

[Black Swan Designs]

+1 on brewer's answer, but be completely prepared to have people ask you why you bothered to make the garment in the first place if you didn't have enough fabric.

Yes, I know this from experience.

Gwen

[Baron Alcyoneus]

There are even garments that have been made from completely different types of garments, like doublets made from pants.

Materials expensive, labor cheap, like he said.

[brewer]

@Gwen: Srsly. I have a pair of reconstructing Irish trews which have been patched and patched and patched, with ever-coarser fabrics. They were very carefully chosen to match as closely as possible the patches on the original bog-find trews. I've been asked why I don't get new 'tights'. I just chuckle and use it as an interpretive opportunity.

@Alcy: