In 2007, I was given the opportunity to play a middle-class character in the Street cast at Bristol. It took a little while to figure out who I should play, being not constrained by playing a real historical figure, as with St. George. I settled on Theophila Chatterly, town Match-maker, which afforded me a lot of opportunities for play, and gave me the chance to finally construct the Flemish ensemble I’d wanted to make for years!
The hat was a simple shallow flat straw hat which I pinned and sewed orange and blue flowers onto; these hats were popular in this time and into the 1700’s; you can find them at Revolutionary War sutlers, usually. I got mine from Smoke and Fire.
The dress is made up of two separate garments: a blue wool kirtle and an orange wool overdress.
The kirtle used the Princess Elizabeth pattern from Jean Huinisett’s book for the bodice; it is lightly boned with white steel and laces up the back. the skirt has only about three yards or fabric in it, to reduce bulk, and is box-pleated into the bodice.
The overdress is a heavy orange wool that is left open in the front and laced with metal eyes and orange grosgrain. The bodice is boned and the skirt is five yards cartridge-pleated onto the bodice, lined in yellow cotton. It was very heavy and stretched after a few weeks; I had to construct a small bustle pad to hold it up in the back!
The back of the overskirt is drawn up and pinned with a large kilt pin; this style was often drawn up in some way, as this was the garb of a working woman who had to keep her good skirt out of the way.
The oversleeves are brown cotton drill, with hand-covered wooden buttons at the wrists.
The partlet was white cotton, using a Period Patterns pattern. The button is another wooden bead I hand-covered to match the orange/blue color scheme. Yes, I’m that kind of crazy.
Frequent faire-goers might have noticed me in a different ensemble the last weekend of Faire; this was a mostly borrowed outfit, with a bodice purchased from Felix’s. It was nice to wear something a lot lighter that I didn’t have to labor over myself, though I love my Flemish!