17th Century Costume Entry by Jeannine Haack

I created this costume because I loved the way men dressed back in the 17th century. They were such peacocks and so elaborate about it. Years ago I saw a 1 yard piece of home deco blue brocade that was perfect for the picture in my head of this fancy fellow. We're a Navy family so I've moved several times since I bought that fabric and the fabric moved with us. One day at a thrift store here in Kennesaw, GA, my current residence, I saw 5 yards of blue Moiré which complemented the 1 yard piece perfectly. Both had to be about the same age because they faded perfectly and the match was great!! Unfortunately when opening the 5 yard thrift piece, many parts of it were badly faded which gave me 3 good yards strategically cut. Next was looking for a pattern of a foppy 17th century men........Good Luck, there are none. So equip with the movie Rob Roy (the best fop costumes ever) and a Hook / Peter Pan Mc Call's pattern, I had a starting point. I taped pattern paper onto the Hook jacket to make the neckline a closer fit. I tapered the waist and added more pattern paper to widen the skirt of the jacket. I enlarged the cuffs and started cutting. Soon found out that my 1 yard of brocade was not enough to make the jacket so I pieced the moiré where i could. By shirring the sleeves and quilting the cuffs the moiré blended well with the brocade pattern. The vest is just the revised jacket pattern without the sleeves. Finding a coordinating fabric on the vest I used an old gold scarf, which was faded perfectly also. I found quickly that new fabric was standing out like a sore thumb compared to the other pieces. I purchased a silk blouse at Goodwill and cut about 7 inches off the bottom to create the jabot. I sewed some heirloom lace pieces that I had purchased at a flea market in California on the jabot ends and also the cuffs ends. I quilted the hat pieces, made a small casing at the top of the hat and ran wire threw it and molded it to my desired shape. The feather was a little tricky because no matter how I set it, it looked bad. So I trimmed a good 3 inches of feathers off the bottom and wrapped it with gold ribbon and knew this was the right look. I can't tell, if I had more fun making this costume or wearing it. You can decide from the pictures. Thank you for having this contest so we can show off a lil bit and share our creation stories. Hope you had a great Halloween.