Blue Jerkin

This is something I have been wanting to do for years. As I am loosing weight I have decided that this year, 2004 is my year for outerwear and underwear.

When completed I intend to were this one with my brown and blue gown, thus emphasising the blue in it.

13 Sep 02 The materials chosen. Velveteen outer with blue gimp braid that I have woven brown metallic cord through so that it blends with the dress I will be wearing it with. The satin weave cotton lining, and canvas mounting. The white thing is the metal boning.
14 Sep 04 This is the mounting on the velveteen ready for cutting. You can see the shapes of the pieces of the front, back and the collar. The pieces are very simular to the doublet/jerkin patterns in the Spanish tailors hand book.
14 Sep 04 These are the little 'petals' for the waist and shoulders of the jerkin as seen in the Malcontenta portrait.
15 Sep 04 This is the front of the jerkins lining with the boning in place. I have debated wether to bone or not. I decided on a compromise of one light metal bone and 2 lines of nylon boning.
15 Sep 04 This is the back of the jerkins lining with the boning in place. I decided on a compromise here also using short metal bones to hold the V shape of the back.
15 Sep 04 These are the little 'petals' for the waist and shoulders of the jerkin as seen in the Malcontenta portrait. Now all lined, clipped, turned and pressed. These take a huge chunk out of you time to do comparative to the rest of the garment. I actually feel like I am making a suit for puff the magic dragon. That is why I arranged these like scales for the photo. 17 Sep o4 I have hurt my hand and need to rest it. jerkin is on hold until further notice.
28 Aug 06 After a long break form this project I have restarted it. Hand stitched the braid into the outer layer of the jerkin. 29 Aug 06 After the braid is in the next layer of embellishment, pearls. I bought these pearls some years ago. I wasn't sure what I was going to use them on. As they were called 'black' pearls I felt they needed a special purpose. They are really more of a grey to light blue colour, they do go very nicely on the velveteen. 30 Aug 06 Ok I got carried away beading. I added some teeny tiny fresh water pearls to extend out the pattern. Now to put the outer and the lining together.
31 Aug 06 All in one piece, almost.
01 Sep 06 Finished.

I should mention that I have used only one meter of 110 cm wide velveteen for the outer fabric of this garment. This makes it a very economical addition to the wardrobe.

Both the centre front and the centre back have the classic Venetian V shaping. This meant lost of boning in both these areas.

Will I change anything? Yes. Unfortunately the shoulders are not wide enough. The arm holes should be at the point of the shoulder, if not a little beyond that. The shoulders on this jerkin sit about 3 cm short.

All intellectual content, composition, layout, designs and photographs, unless otherwise noted are copyright 2007 to Deborah Lane ©, or, copyright 2003 to Deborah Murray © also known as Mistress Oonagh O'Neill ©. All Original renaissance art works and artefacts are not copyright to me, and are shown for educational use only . If you see something you'd really like to use, please contact me!