Ensemble
for a Well-Off Peasant Child of Rural Flanders in 1560.
This is
the beginning of a long research project on children's clothing. I am especially interested in making sure
the components of this outfit can be worn by the same child for more than one
year. These garments are highly based
on the portrayals of children in the paintings of Peter Brueghel the Elder.
It
is especially important to note that Breughel portrays young children of both
sexes as wearing this style of clothing.
It is especially easy to see this by looking at his "Slaughter of
the Innocents" which is a portrayal of the biblical scene where every boy
under the age of two is killed, all of the victims are dressed in this manner.
Chemise:
Although no extant chemises exist from 1560 Flanders,
the English smock pictured at right[1]
is accepted as representative of the era, and an Italian smock of the late 16th
century is very similar in cut.[2]
This chemise is hand-sewn using linen thread on a very fine white linen/cotton
blend (I would have bought 100% Linen if I could find a good quality for a fair
price). Instead of using a facing on
the neckhole, I simply turned under the raw edges and self-hemmed it. It appears that the chemise in the painting
of Hans Holbein's daughter4 (c. 1528) is made in this manner as well, although it
has short sleeves. I made the Chemise
as large and as long as possible, knowing how quickly my three-year old is 
growing, I want her to be able to wear it when she's
eight. I am not the first mother to do
this – Figure 6 clearly shows a white hem peeking out from the bottom of a
little girl's dress.
This chemise was hemmed at the cuff and hemline with a
double hem. The neckline was simply
turned under and hemmed in place. I
used a double hem for several reasons.
First, this item has been and will be washed frequently and I wanted to
ensure its longevity. Secondly, the
chemise is quite long and a double hem was required to take in some of the
extra length.
Kirtle:
Since no extant kirtle exists from this time and
place, I have chosen to vary the chemise design by removing the sleeves, using
a rounded neckhole, and adding an extra gore in the front and the back of the
skirt. This adds a wonderful volume to
the dress. This is very similar to cuts
used during the preceeding 200 years.
I had an old linen garment which was worn out in
places, although the fabric of the skirt was in reasonably good shape.
The kirtle was hand-sewn using linen thread with a
backstitch. This kirtle was hemmed at the armscythe and hemline with a double
hem[3]. The neckline was simply turned under and
hemmed in place.
Once I had completed sewing the garment, I dyed it
yellow with turmeric(curcumin) using no mordant. Saffron yellow was the specialty of Basel
and Frankfort. This color can be obtained by many ways, including saffron,
safflower, and turmeric (bastard or Indian saffron).[4]
Unfortunately, this piece was worn in an
"emergency garb" situation and I believe the flank of the dress was
caught on a metal outcropping, ripping the dress I took this as an opportunity to research patches, and found that
most patches were applied to the top of
the garment and running stitched or hand stitched in place. I was very glad I had tossed a small piece
of the extra fabric into the dyepot with the dress, because the final patch is
not very noticeable. I also darned
areas nearby which I felt looked weak.
The kirtle is the best place for this sort of flaw to be as it is only
slightly visible Regardless of the
condition of the fabric, this kirtle will need to be replaced within a year,
due to the growth the child has gone through in the last four months.
Gown:
I based the bodice upon three sources. The first is an extant bodice found stuffed
in Scandinavian embroidery circa 1510.
The cut of this bodice is very basic –it has tubular sleeves with
gussets, a rounded neck, and a front closure.
There are remnants of a gently gathered slightly gored skirt. The bodice does not have eyelet holes and
does not have any obvious closure method.
The cut of the Scandinavian bodice closely resembles
that of Hans Holbein's daughter[5],
pictured at left about 1528. Again,
there is some method of front closure which cannot be seen.
Figure 8 shows a woman c. 1565 with lacing up the
front of her bodice, which is again shaped like both of the preceding bodices.
Although Breughel is a great painter, he often
neglects to add details like seams.
After completely surveying every figure in Children's Games I
have found one who has any sort of bodice closure. This is figure 3, showing a front closure of unknown method.
Figure 5 shows a child of 1560. The sleeves in this
picture are similar to those of the 1510 dress, and I chose to employ the shape
of the bodice and sleeves as the general outline for my garment.
Throughout the middle ages[6]
and renaissance, wool seems to be the most often employed for outer garments
for all but the very rich. This gown is
made from a tabby wool, which comprised the majority of finds from the 13th to
the 16th centuries in the Netherlands.
Tabby weave is the simplest, quickest, and easiest weave to produce.[7]
This gown is made from a red wool, like many of the
children in Breughel's paintings (see Fig. 1).
Red, obtained from madder root, is an easily (and cheaply) locally
obtainable dye for everyone in 16c Flanders[8]. It was most often mordanted with alum or
iron. Turkey Red is a period dye made
from madder with a tin mordant.
Because a bodice takes some strain, I chose to use two
layers of wool for the bodice. I
hand-sewed the bodice with wool, using a backstitch, then attached the sleeves,
and attached the skirt, which was slightly gored and had quite a few panels.
I chose to add two pieces of wool at the front closure
to attach the brass eyes I had made. This approximated the "mystery" closure of the 1510 gown
and added additional support to the bodice.
I did not readily have a silk or linen thread which
matched the color of this garment. I
decided to follow the idea of another seamstress and pull two threads from the
fabric and use them to sew the garment[9]. The thread was very strong and gives the
added advantage of matching the fabric.
Also, this used up what few scraps of this fabric I had. I have left only a 3x3" piece which I
am saving to patch the dress if I need to.
The gown was also hemmed with a double hem.
The gown is laced with a small piece of red silk tabby
ribbon.
ACCESSORIES:
It is commonly accepted that linen has been used
throughout the middle ages and renaissance for underwear, bedlinen,
headcoverings, and aprons[10]. This outfit has been worn about 6 times and
I have washed the partlet 6 times, the apron 3 times, the chemise twice, and
the kirtle and dress once (due to a potty accident).
Apron:
The apron is simply a large square or rectangle of
linen which has been hemmed. A knot is
tied at two corners, a tie is attached to each knot, and the apron is ready to
wear[11]. Breughel's aprons seem to be white or blue
with a few other colors (like green). I
chose to use white (See fig. 1, 2, 5, 6 ).
Partlet:
Children of 1560's Flanders wore a different partlet
than their mothers did. Figure 5 shows
the clothing for an adult (and for a bride) and a child. Note the woman's black partlet, which
fastens in the front and has a low décolletage. This partlet usually has a V-shaped back (like modern choir robe
yokes). However, the child's partlet is
basically a bib, with vestigial "ties" that are pinned to the back of
the gown. (See fig. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 )
Headgear:
The children portrayed in the Breughel paintings wear
a large variety of headgear, ranging from no head covering to tudor caps, flat
caps, to a veil or kerchief. After
studying the white headgear, I decided that they're well-folded babushka-type
headcloths. I made a large kerchief
(larger than the apron, actually) folded it, and tied it in the back. There are many depictions of this kind of
headgear in Children's Games, including figures 3 and 4.
Handkerchief:
Also included is a tiny linen handkerchief so the
clothes stay clean!
Shoes: (not
on display in this area)
I made some red leather shoes, which would have been a
grand treat for a child (The Adoration of the Magi shows red shoes on
one of the kings – see figure 9). I
based them on the shoes in Figure 7, which closely resemble the "Mary
Jane" style.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_____. Überreste von Leinenunterzeug aus der zweiten Hälfte
des XV. Jahrhunderts in Finnlands. From
German Costuming Journal, scanned and emailed to me by Drea Leed (Mistress Drea
di Pelligrini)
Arnold, Janet.
Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd.
Maney, London, 1988
Crowfoot, Elisabeth. Frances Pritchard and Kay Staniland. Medieval Finds from Excavations in London:
4. Textiles and Clothing c. 1150-c.
1450
Cunnington, C. Willet and
Phillis. The History of
Underclothes. Dover. New York, 1992
Davenport, Millia. The Book of Costume, Volume I. Crown Publishers: New York, 1948
Hand, John Oliver, J.Richard
Judson, William W.Robinson, Martha Wolff. The Age of Breugel: Netherlandish
drawings in the sixteenth century.
Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1986
Jacobs, Betty. Growing Herbs and Plants for Dyeing. Select Books, Tarzana, California. 1977
Klein, H. Arthur. Graphic Worlds of Peter Breugel the
Elder: Reproducing 63 engravings and a
woodcut after designs by Peter Bruegel the Elder. Dover, New York: 1963
Panofsky,
Erwin Early
Netherlandish Paintings: Its Origins and Character. 2 Volumes
Harvard University Press, 1958
Payne, Blanche.
History of Costume From the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth
Century. Harper and Row, New York, 1965
Roberts, Keith. Bruegel.
Phaidon Press, London, 1971.
Zupnick,
Irving L. Pieter Bruegel
-- Color Slide Program of the Great Masters
McGraw Hill,
New York. 1968