A Paunchy Man's Doublet

[Sean M]

Because of the events of the last year, I have an opportunity to try tailoring a 1360s style doublet for someone whose waist is about as big as his chest rather than 4-6" smaller. We have plenty of art and surviving armour showing solutions from 1450 onwards, but not so much from my period. It seems to me that less formal art often shows the waist dipping a bit in front, while beautiful precise art tends to show those amazing high flat waists. Harmand thought that the narrowest part of the front of the pourpoint of Charles de Blois was about 6 cm lower than the back seam.

BSB Cgm 6 Legenda Sanctorum Aurea and BNF Latin 511 Speculum Humanae Salvationis are both from Alsace and show some of these less ideal forms. The St. Barbara Altarpiece in Helsinki is an early picture of a big guy in a doublet-shaped garment.

After talking this over with Mac, it seems like the most important thing is to make sure it has a waist so the skirt can do its corset thing and the top half can do its ballooning out thing.

Decisions: - long enough in the skirt to keep me decent
- small armholes (a grande assiette would be too much for my drafting skills)
- sleeves with an upper arm, a lower arm, and a cuff like the pourpoint of Charles de Blois
- black moleskin facing, linen lining, possibly one extra layer of linen
- pattern drafted with chest, height, waist, and hip tapes divided into 48 fingers (Matthew Gnagy's interpretation of the 16th/17th century Spanish system)
- not sure how much will be quilted. I have a lot of 80% cotton / 20% polyester batting handy, my standby of Warm and Natural would be hard to get due to the current situation. Looking at art, the skirts are almost always quilted around the body, and the lower sleeves are usually quilted around the forearm
- probably some machine stitching
- buttoned front and probably sleeves, but not a crazy number of buttonholes
- ideally, loose enough to shrug off my shoulders and wear dangling from the skirt like we see in 15th century art.



My second mockup on the first fitting. This has a lower back waist than we usually see in art, I could have tried 1 or 2 fingers higher. The next steps are to lengthen the skirt in front, get the skirt as tight around the hips as possible, and remove those stress lines in the chest.

Edit: you can see the thread on my second doublet (the white linen one) here). I don't remember if I have a thread on the first doublet, the blue half-linen one.

[Sean M]

If you look at the second mockup, you can see stress lines pointing towards the turn of my belly. (Photo with lines c/o Mac)


I let out the front seam between 1/4" at the neck and 1/2" at the turn of the belly and those wrinkles went away.

One mistake I made in laying out the front was forgetting that I have to allow extra for the front opening. Luckily, I added just enough seam allowance for alterations that I could add that fabric, plus make the curve a bit more generous over the belly, and still pin it together.

Mac suggested that I move the side seam forward so front and back have about the same amount of fabric, versus 3/5 in the front and 2/5 in the back. I also want to move the back waist, either raise it up significantly or drop it a finger or two to the trousers waist. Charlotte J liked to create these without a waist seam and place the waist by watching where the fabric wanted to crease across the back.

[jenzinas]

As an aspiring paunchy man, I appreciate your research. also, the lines are looking really nice in that revision.

[Sean M]

the surgeon reports that the patient lives! The blue marks the proper side seam versus the various basted-on parts.



I tried on the two-part sleeve, and discovered that the U where the upper sleeve meets the lower was about 1/2 finger short on each side and the lower sleeve was 3 fingers longer than from the bend of the elbow to the wrist.

[Sean M]

A load of buttons and other things arrived from Billy and Charlie.

On the weekend I will make another toille. After some staring at myself in the mirror and experimenting with belts I think I can put the waist high in back and still hang the skirt off the waist not my shoulders.

[Sean M]

The next stage of the doublet was slowed by making and finishing the short gown. This is only a yard / 90 cm long. It is wool flannel over a weft-faced silk-hemp-cotton blend. The buttons are cloth with wooden discs as cores, the collar is interlined with one layer of linen.



From the outside it looks good ...



Spread open as well ...



But something went wrong cutting the lining around the armscyes and the shoulder seam. Apparently its common in 18th century clothing for the lining to be pieced together from random offcuts, but figuring out how to solve this blocked me on this project for months. Now to add the last buttonholes and one button and finish closing the lining at the hem!

Studying the MoL Textiles and Clothing book and some of the fragments and surviving garments in other places left me with a suspicion that my Gnagy-influenced hand sewing is too concerned with hiding the stitches. Late medieval tailors seem to have liked rows of running or stab stitches with the pricks 2-4 mm (1/8") apart. That would give an effect much like modern machine stitching, with seams you can see if you look closely. If I finished the hems that way, I would only need one row of stitches to fasten both the folded hem and the folded lining.

Then to make the final mockup / toille of the doublet.

[Sean M]

Third mockup from the back showing the higher waist



Edit: here is the third mockup with the front pinned at the intended buttonhole line and let out a little at the turn of the belly so its more similar to the drawing with the lines above



For comparison, version 2 with the side seams moved forward and the waist a bit lower than version 3 is below.

[Sean M]

I dropped the waistline about half a finger at center back and 2 fingers at the side back. New version is in the blue shirt, old in the red shirt.



It feels closer to the version with all the scraps of fabric added here and there. I could drop the waistline at the side back another finger.

[Sean M]

Here is a sketch of how I want this doublet to fit on my pandemic body. Profiles are based on photos.

[Konstantin the Red]

My first and only crack at sleeves à grands assietes came out just fine. I was amazed at the superb mobility at the shoulder, even with a sleeve close-fitted to the forearm. I followed the pattern given in Tournaments Illuminated, lo these many years ago now. The method ran a) measurements and laying these out on newspaper for roughing the pattern in; b) some re-measuring and revising the shapes, then trying for fit. c) With the paper patterns okay, these were transferred to some light fabric, and the pieces basted-stitched together to test fit and revise, adding more or trimming off excess. A helper on this phase speeds it along. d) Then, with the pieces finalized, the outer cloth and quilted layers cut using the light fabric as a pattern, laid together interlayered so the seams did not lump, alternating each layer back and forth over the seam line in a pattern like interlaced fingers. The seams end up double stitched -- strong.

If it's doable first crack by a not very experienced seamster using this pattern, it's doable by you too. I recommend not quilting the sleeves too tight, or you lose some of the mobility. There's enough ease in the upper sleeve if you can slide a hand in between the sleeve and your arm without having to really push. A little extra ease about the shoulders makes an armyng-doublet work. Enormous armholes filled with a sleeve top that flares like a trumpet seems to be the secret.

[Sean M]

Hi Konstantin,

if this goes well, I may make a fourth doublet in green linen with a grande assiette. But I want to focus on one variable at a time, and I want to see what wearing a doublet with the most common type of sleeve-bodice join in my period is like. Then I will be able to compare it to the blue grande assiette doublet.

The simpler construction would also have advantages for customers of Fréres Bonis Merchant-Tailors if I ever launch that business.

[Sean M]

Mocked up one sleeve in the remains of my second bodice mockup.

Redrafted the upper back and lower back based on 3.1



Folded the black moleskin right side to right side and traced the pattern onto it adding one finger at the side seams and one finger at centre front as before. I am also moving the side seam one finger back.

Got out my samples of various kinds of batting and decided which to use and whether and how to pre-wash.

I may make a sample piece about 10 cm / 4" wide and 10 cm / 4" tall and try machine quilting it.

[Sean M]

The batting is dry. I made up a patch of one layer of the black moleskin, two layers of Warm & White batting, and one layer of mediumweight unbleached linen cloth. I did three rows of 'standard medieval running stitches' by hand and then will try machine stitch for comparison. Someone on corporate social media believes that the quilting does not affect the shape or drape, of the garment, so I think this photo will be helpful



The same patch which drapes down without quilting stands straight out with the quilting. The rows of stitching on the vambraces of the farsetto of Pandolfo III Malatesta are much closer together, more like the quilting on kendo armour.

[Sean M]

I have now cut one layer of Warm & Natural quilt batting for each sleeve, and two layers for the fronts, upper back, and lower back. That is about 400 g of cotton if I use up all the scraps. I basted the batting to the black moleskin.

I cut the 2 vambraces and 2 upper arms from the black moleskin. I decided to give this doublet a 'wrist length' sleeve not a 'trumpet-mouthed' sleeve hanging over the back of the hand. I can work out that other style of sleeve later. I suspect it just needs two rhombuses for each cuff.

Tomorrow I will cut up some of the scraps for extra padding, baste the linen to the moleskin + cotton, and start machine quilting. I also have to cut the 2 cuffs from scraps.

[Len Parker]

This looks like a paunchy guy from your period: https://armourinart.com/249/403

[Sean M]

I have finished basting the sleeves and cuffs. One decision is whether to use black and black thread for the machine stitching, or black on the outside and beige on the inside. I think I will use black and black because dots of the beige thread show through on the right side if I mix the threads up.

The rows of stitching will be about 1 finger apart. I am not sure what to do with the S curve of the upper sleeve. Should the rows of stitching try to follow the curve and gradually straighten out as they approach the elbow, or be straight everywhere even if there are 'half rows' at the shoulder?

I had some issues with the sewing machine skipping stitches. Rethreading it made the problem go away.

When I redrafted the lower sleeve the last time, I may have removed 1/4" (5 mm) too much material from the sleeve at the wrist. if necessary I can add a little patch.

This looks like a paunchy guy from your period: https://armourinart.com/249/403

Len, let me get back to you on those. It looks like it might show an early DPU?

[Sean M]

On Friday I did enough machine sewing to tentatively baste one sleeve together



This let me confirm that when I have a shirt on, the lower sleeve is just big enough for the sides to touch but not big enough for a folded edge plus a buttonstand. Adding 1 finger to each side at the join between the vambrace and the cuff will solve that problem, and I can alter the pattern.



Curving the lower sleeve where it meets the vambrace about 1/2 finger deep will make it fit better there. I did not draft that in because its easier to take away fabric than add it.

[Sean M]

I added that width to the other lower sleeve.

Here is the first sleeve with the cuff attached. The cuff is big enough around to allow for a folded-in hem and a buttonstand.



Some Billy & Charlie pewter gets a cameo in this photo.

[Sean M]

I have basted the parts together. After the first few rows of quilting the lower back I remembered to mark the lines with a marker pencil or tailor's chalk.



The different layers do tend to drift over each other when I baste them. The lining is especially prone to this. I am not sure there is a good answer.

[Sean M]

Just a quick note for the jousters: I found another tournament book from around 1460 in the Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles. This one is by Antoine de la Salle, the author of Petit Jehan le Sainté.

Sylvie Lefèvre, Antoine de la Sale. La fabrique de l’œuvre et de l’écrivain. Suivi de l’édition critique du Traité des anciens et des nouveaux tournois. «Publications romanes et françaises », 238 (Droz: Geneva, 2006) https://books.google.at/books?id=eY_BM4GjZ9MC

Chapter 37 recommends that men preparing for a tournament wear "a demi-pourpoint of just two linens without anything more, which goes down to the waist" under their brigandines. Unlike King René's book, it adds that the hose are attached to this demi-pourpoint. With these two tournament books, the French decree for francs-archers, Johan Hill's Treatise of the Points of Worship in Arms, and the Earl of Arran's purchases of canvas to make "a false doublet without sleeves" or "a corslet to bear his grace's points" in 1552 (Schlusseler Bond, Dressing the Scottish Court, p. 150, 151, 239) I think we have reasonably good evidence for these sleeveless doublets in the 15th and 16th century.

It also alludes to the linen or canvas 'shrugs' for holding a pair of mail sleeves: "And within (the cuir boille vambraces and guardebraces) shall be well felted, and from the one to the other a double toille is sewn, which will hold them just like one which holds a pair of sleeves of mail." (Et dedens sont bien affeustrez, et de l'un a l'autre est une toille double cousue, qui les tient ainssy que de unes manches de maille. p. 314)

As an aside, I don't see where Elizabeth Bennett got the idea that this pourpoint was padded over the abdomen. Her French text of King René's book says that it consists of just two toilles, and no more, and goes down to the faux du corps en base which I translate as "down to the waist at the bottom."

Now back to making an ordinary doublet!

[Guenievre]

I have no idea whether you’re still on this board, but I was really impressed by the patterning you did on this - literally I showed it to my spouse-of-similar-physique several times as I read it as it gave me some ideas for next time I make him garb (it’s been a while.) I don’t suppose it was ever completed / photographed for sharing?

[Sean M]

I have no idea whether you’re still on this board, but I was really impressed by the patterning you did on this - literally I showed it to my spouse-of-similar-physique several times as I read it as it gave me some ideas for next time I make him garb (it’s been a while.) I don’t suppose it was ever completed / photographed for sharing?

Hi Guenievre,

thanks for the kind words! This project froze for the usual reason: I hit a problem doing something I had never done before and did not have energy to solve it. In this case, i could not deal with the linen lining crawling around over the layers of batting as I machine-quilted all the layers together.

I have been completely consumed with academic writing and job applications. At the end of March I will have more energy again. Hopefully I can get it unstuck! I hope that is clear but concise.

Its encouraging to know that someone else is interested in this project!

Sean

[Chris Flagstad]

This project froze for the usual reason: I hit a problem doing something I had never done before and did not have energy to solve it. In this case, i could not deal with the linen lining crawling around over the layers of batting as I machine-quilted all the layers together.

I've found it helpful to add a really big seam allowance, and start with the line in the center and work your way out, following a zigzag "Boustrophedon" path.

Probably a better option would be to baste it with a whole bunch of pad stitching.