Here is my Doublet Bodice Diary. It is a felted wool, French cut doublet bodice with a linen blend inter-lining and iridescent silk dupioni lining, with silk satin ribbon binding.:
09/16/03
I decided that I needed to make a diary of this doublet so I get it done. Eventually.
If you’ve seen my Elizabethan Dress Diary, you know the reason I did a front closing bodice with no side or back seams was because of the conjectured pattern piece from Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold. I thought about it and wondered, “Well, if they can do it for dress bodices, why not for doublets?” I’m not the only one who thought of it that way, because I found a reference to the possibility of that very same thing in Janet Arnold’s Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d. Eureka! Now to see if I can do it.
Ok. I made a muslin of the doublet, just estimating where I needed to have things, and draped it on myself. I looked pretty darn silly. I got it to the point where I thought it looked pretty good, and that’s where it stayed for a few months after I got laid off from my job. 
But then when I got my new job at Haberman Fabrics, I found this really nice red wool coating. I bought it and washed it thoroughly and it felted up nicely. I then cut out the piece of the doublet from it. I then sewed up the shoulders, and had a heck of a time trying to fit it to myself. Mom to the rescue! She pinned it up the front and helped me fit the shoulders better, not to mention put me in my corset properly before doing all of that.
So I know I need to line and interline it. I happen to have some red/black shot (otherwise known as iridescent) silk dupioni and some linen blend. The shot silk is going to be for the lining, and the linen blend is going to be the interlining and be the base for any boning I add to the doublet. I fixed the shoulder seams and I added the collar to the wool.
And did you know my little dog can pick out the most expensive fabric in a room? That’s where she always goes to sit. I had 3 piles of fabric, silk, linen and wool. So first she goes and sits on the silk… and no matter how many times I try to chase her off, she keeps going back to it. Then I pick it up and put it away, so then she goes to the wool, after I pick that up, she goes to the linen, and then after I pick that up she skips the pile of cotton I had out for another project and goes and sits in her bed which is made from some nice upholstery remnants from work.
Back onto topic. In the photos of my faithful duct tape double which corsets to my correct corseted size pretty well, the center front has a weird flap, that’s going to sit flat and I’m going to have buttons all down that center front area. So after I took these photos, I took some (I’m sorry, Gasp!) Dritz featherweight boning and made a casing on the linen blend interlining where the center seam is going to have the buttons. And then I started sewing the silk lining and the interlining together and that’s where it stands as of now. What I must do next is the dishes.
09/17/03
Well, I got the dishes done. Tonight I even made supper. This can be very risky if you’ve ever had my food. People look at me funny when I ask for my bacon burned and that’s how I like it because that’s how I’ve always made it and it never fails to turn out that way for me, so why is it so hard to do it in a restaurant? Ok…
Anyway, all I really got accomplished between then and now was to add boning to the center front seams and sew the under and lining together. The boning is actually at the very edge where the front seam will be, there is extra just like on the wool doublet and just in case I screw up royally. You can kind of see a little of the boning up on the top of the first photo… it’s really cheap stuff. I’m considering quilting the lining and underlining together to give it just a little more firmness.
09/21/03
I’ve quilted the lining. Thanks to Evelyn who gave me the idea from her jacket (which she used every stitch on every machine at Universal Sewing Center) which turned out very cool, I used all the different stitches on my sewing machine. Which is about 8.
Now I’m not sure if I was just tired, or if the quilting made the lining smaller, but it doesn’t seem to fit the wool shell now. I’ll have to take a look at it tomorrow when I have time and I’m not tired.
I also picked up some button looping from work, but I forgot and put them directly on the lining, and now I’m going to have fun trying to put the wool onto that… Like I said, I’m going to look at it tomorrow.
You can see my latest read in the background, The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Allison Weir. Chris is convinced I’m going to have every Tudor/Elizabethan book published in my bookshelf. Reading this stuff just seems to make me more passionate about the costuming part of it.
Also, as you can see from the photos, it took less than 5 minutes for Bella to find out that silk was reachable, and she had to go and sit on it. That’s a silk noil bow she has on, so she can wear her very own silk. I took these pictures of the interlining to better illustrate the quilting.
11/17/03
Since September, I’ve sewn the lining into the doublet at the bottom and the neck, I still need to work on it more. I’ve been swamped with other stuff such as making the corset for and hemming the bridesmaids dress for my friend’s wedding, making the pirate jacket for my husband’s Halloween costume, starting on my brother in law’s Halloween costume for next year and working on some blackwork for Christmas presents.
2/22/04
I’ve been bad not finishing working on the doublet. I know. I did wear it to Wassail, but it wasn’t quite finished, and I found that the shoulders sloped down really far and I wasn’t crazy about it. See bad picture, of me & little Bella to the right. This was from the Jubliatores photo album, they performed for our Wassail (Jan 10th) and it was fabulous!!!
I trimmed up the shoulders and re-attached the epaulets, then I went through and started binding all the edges with silk ribbon, using silk thread. There are more than 20 little pearl buttons and I the button holes are actually elastic bridal button hole tape. I need to do it differently, but I’m not sure how yet. I wore it at the end of the Golden Seamstress
The skirt is a simple pleated black linen skirt. The partlet with sleeves doesn’t have a collar…yet, and is made from an pre-embroidered linen with black and white trim cuffs that hook and eye closed.
This is at Bristol, I’m in my red wool french cut doublet, my red corset, my red linen skirt, my red wool cloak (based on an 18th century design, I use it for F&I) and a caul and purchased (yard sale) hat. I had forgotten my smock at home, so the shirt is literally a men’s dress shirt with the collar cut off from walmart.
