> Black is pretty ubiquitous amongst the upper class. The color was one of the > more expensive ones to manufacture and maintain. Check out the "Golden Age" > of Dutch painting for instance. Also, it was supposedly one of Queen > Elizabeth's favorites - next to white. I'd say your only challenge is the > amount you have. Not quite enough for a whole outfit, but surely a skirt or > bodice which could be coordinated with something else.
It's also pretty ubiquitous of the lower classes too:) And middle. But usually in wool and silk. 5 and 1/3 yards is pretty close to 5m and I used that much of red linen to make my Cleves ensemble easily:) Big sleeves and all: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/2179604210/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/2178837383/ (the skirts rurn nack but are made to overlap by about 4" when closed.... yes perspective is way off in the pic I tried to correct for it but it didn't work!) I could probably have used even less because the back is two full width of the fabric with no shaping. I also have half length sleeves that the full sleeves pin to. I just folded my fabric in half and cut gored panels for the front, with piecing as you see in Alcega and the extant gowns: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/2165083275/ I could have topped and tailed the pieces too to avoid that seam, but I like it:) Each sleeve length is half the fabric width so I got both sleeves from about 90cm of fabric. It worked out as: 3X 1.2m for the skirt (3.6m) (a little too much reallt and I wound up with some strips left over) 80-90cm for the sleeves (so 4.4-4.5 for skirt and sleeves) 50-60cm for the bodice and half length sleeves. This was 150cm wide fabric (60") so I was able to use that little. For a narrower fabric I would have plotted to get more shaping in the back of the skirt to be able to get my full sleeves or just made a short sleeved gown only. I also have 6m of wide wool in cream to get through and I'm thinking surcoat and kirtle..... regards, Michaela de Bruce http://glittersweet.com (I have also made full gowns from double to queen sized blankets so had to learn to use period cutting to make best use of fabric!) _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
