Party Like It's 1649

I spent the early part of this week (amongst other things) making a fancy 17th century outfit for the party i went to last night. I've mentioned my reenactment hobby and i guess this post is where that hobby crosses paths with this one in the most beautiful and fluid way : )

In the 1640's it was all about having a short straight torso with major clevage and big-ass child bearing hips. Well, clevage is not my strong point but child bearing hips? Oh yeah, i can do those!
Because i had a small amount of time i decided to just make stays and a skirt in some pretty nice but completely fake silk!

Stays or A Pair of Stays is a 17th century corset. Back then it counted as underwear so wearing them alone isn't authentic but there were no paying public at the party so screw authenticity, i'll dance in my undies if i wants to!

These are from day one of the process, before i cut my thumb open trimming my steel boning to size : /

And these are from just after i finished hand sewing the last few details on; late at night, hence the flash!

I didn't take any pictures of the skirt whilst i was making it because it only took my a couple of hours and i just wanted to get it all finished! With so much stuff going on in my life at the moment it was actually really good to just sit down and make something completely selfishly!

This is what i looked like yesterday evening with all the finished garments on (the white under-dress is called a shift, i owned it already, i think i'd have gone nuts if i'd of had to make that up to!) The sun was shockingly bright so i look a bit daft in the pictures but whatever, you can still see the clothes :)

 

So there you have it, a 1640's OOTD! Including a glimpse at the making process. I hope i didn't geek out too much for y'all. I'm really quite a massive history nerd and get especially giddy over old school fashion so, yeah, fingers crossed i still managed to entertain and keep you interested!