The Infamous Butt Pants

My Work With the Savante Sture Suit

(Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c 1560-1620. New York. 1985)

Figure 1: And artist's rendition of Savante Sture's suit. (Arnold, p.57)

I found this suit in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion and fell in love with it at first sight. The suit was worn by Savante Sture when he was murdered in Upsala Castle and was preserved by his widow who had it locked in an iron chest in Upsala Cathedral.

Savante's suit consists of a doublet and pluderhose. The doublet was made of black velvet, as were the panes of the pluderhose. The puffs of the pluderhose were made of a "greenish-grey silk, of a similar texture and weight to modern silk paper taffeta." (Arnold, p. 57) They are formed by gathering the silk in sections and stitching the sections to stay tapes which help support the puff. (Arnold, p. 59) The pants also had a row of eyelet holes sewn at the waist so that they would lace into the doublet with points. The eyelets were reinforced on the inside of the pants with a row of linen. The whole suit is trimmed with black velvet strips that have been cut on the bias. Each strip has been slashed slightly on the strain grain and is edged with the same greenish-grey silk, which has been sniped. A black silk cord placed on the center of each strip completes the trim. (Arnold, p. 57) Narrow strips of velvet have also been sewn around the wrist and neck of the doublet and the bands of the legs and snipped to form tabs. A codpiece completes the pants. It is held in place by leather points laced through eyelet holes. It seams to have originally been stuffed with straw though the stuffing has long since deteriorated. (Arnold, p. 59) The doublet also had a lacing strip made of linen sewn into its waist. Eyelets were worked into the lacing strip so that the pluderhose could lace into the doublet with points.

Pluderhose seem to have developed from trunkhose. The style originated in Germany where it remained very popular from the 1560's on. While they were paned like trunkhose they were not padded or bombasted like trunkhose. Rather they were worn lose. Length varied from mid-thigh to just below the knee, but were most often worn just above the knee. (Arnold, p. 59) Although they do seem to have been a mainly German style, it does appear that the fashion, though not as popular as other pants styles, did eventually find its way to England. There are examples of Queen Elizabeth’s hosier making “a payre of Hose of russet clothe for Jacke our said foule with lyninges of lynnen and wollen welted all over”. Most likely these were trunk hose and quite possibly pluderhose. This style seems to have first been the favorite of clowns and fools before it became fashionable. (Arnold, p.206)

I chose to make a similar suit out of green linen and white silk. I chose these materials because they would have been available in period. I used the pattern from Janet Arnold's Pattern's of Fashion, enlarging it to fit my body and lengthening the pants from above the knee to below. I lined my suit in white linen and made the lacing strip in the waist of the doublet out of the same linen. All the eyelets in the lacing strip of the doublet and in the waistband of the pants have been hand sewn using the example given in Textiles and Clothing (Crowfoot et al, p. 164). Rather than duplicating the elaborate trip of the original suit I chose to use a simple cotton tape to decorate may suit. The stitches from where I sewed the tape to the suit are still visible, just as the stitches that attached the trim were visible in the original garment. The puffs of the pluderhose were made using leather stay tapes similar to the original garment. I have also topstitched all the seams of my suit by hand. Topstitching was a finishing technique used in period to add strength to seams and to keep them looking flat and "pressed" in a world were garments were not laundered as ours are today. The original codpiece was stuffed with straw. However, I have chosen to stuff mine with polyester stuffing because I feel that the period stuffing would be too harsh on a sensitive area.

Figure 2: Savante Sture's suit today. (Arnold, p.16)

Project Journal

I've selected the materials for my suit. The actual garment is made of black velvet and green silk similar to modern silk taffeta. In the interest of cost I have changed the materials and chosen to use green linen instead of black velvet. I have also chosen to use white linen as the base for the pants and doublet rather than fustian which was use in the original garment. I have also chosen a white habatoi silk rather than a silk taffeta. Linen would have bee available to tailors in period and the silk habatoi had the finished look that I wanted. I debated about using duponi silk because I liked its stiffness and weight but I eventually chose to go with the more finished look.

Today I fit the suit pattern. I fit the doublet pattern and the pants pattern both to me and to each other since I plan on lacing the pants to the doublet with points. The doublet is a little loose at the waist. I find it difficult to fit a man's doublet to both my chest and my waist and still maintain the look of a man's doublet because, well, let's face it, I'm not a man. So to maintain the masculine look I have chosen to fit the doublet a little looser around my waist. I am planning on lengthening the pants another 3-4" so that they fit just below my knee. I am also widening the first pane because it is thinner that the others which has caused it to bunch oddly in the crotch when I put them on. I have also ordered cotton tapes from Wooden Hamlet Designs to trim the doublet and to use as lacings.

Tonight I cut out everything but the silk for the pants and codpiece. I decided to leave that because I want to finish the suit and then fit the silk with a muslin pattern.

Tonight I began to sew. I pieced together the body and its lining as well as the sleeves, the shoulder wings, and the skirting of the doublet. I added picadilles to the cuffs of the sleeves and I am going to add it to the neck of the doublet, but not to the front of the doublet. Since I am going to use a simple tape to trim the doublet rather than the slashed picadile trim depicted in the original garment, I think picadiles down the front of the doublet and not the skirting (as in the original) would look silly.

By now I have finished the sleeves except for adding the trim and I have put together the doublet. The sleeves have been topstitched. The doublet still lacks the sleeves, trim, topstitching, and the strip of linen to lace the pants to. After finishing this much of the doublet, I have decided that I would make some changes with the skirting next time I do this project. The side seams on the skirting do not match up with the side seams on the body of the doublet and I plan to change the pattern so that they do match next time.

The tapes for trim have finally arrived! I have added the trim to the sleeves, shoulder wings, and doublet. I have attached the sleeves and shoulder wings and top stitched the entire doublet. I still need to add the linen strip to the waist so that the pants can be laced on, but I am going to wait until the pants are done before I add that in. I bound the lashes in the codpiece with tape. I took a couple of tries to get it right. The first slash I did I tried to sandwich the slash within a tape that I had already folded. This way was very messy. The second slash I did I sewed one edge of the tape to the outside of the slash and the folded it over and tacked the tape down on the inside. This way was still messy, but not a s bad as the first one and it was much easier to do so I thought I was probably on the right track. So I reversed it and sewed one edge of the tape to the slash and folded the ape over to the outside to tack it down. This gave a nice finished look to the slash and I would use this technique next time.

Over the past week I have begun to put the pants together; I first sewed together the lining. I messed up sewing the fitted butt two times and in the process the lining was so messy that it no longer fit together with the top. So I recut it and tried again. I sewed the lining to the outside at the waist and crotch I then turned my pants back right side out and whip stitched the outside of the pains to their linings. Then I topstitched all the seams that were not getting trim.

I spent the weekend finishing the trim. On Sunday I cut out the silk and stitched the right leg in. I had a little difficulty when I first started gathering the silk at the legs with the stay tapes. At first I tried to sewing them on by folding the stay tape in half and sewing first one side of the fold and then the other. However, even though this method secured the gathered silk nicely, you could still see the stay tapes on the finished side of the puffs and the tapes themselves didn't really look like those of the original garment. So I decided to try some other techniques. I decided to leave the tapes flat and sew both sides of the gathered silk on the same line by first sewing one side and the sewing the next side very carefully on the same line of stitches that I has sewn the first side. I was very pleased to see that my stay tapes looked exactly like those of the original garment. (Arnold, p16 fig. 92).

Today I repeated the whole process with the left leg. The pants are beginning the really take shape and I must say I am very pleased with the result.

I decided to add a small gather stitch just on the outside of the tapes to add a little more poof to the silk. I don't believe that this was done on the original garment, but once I tried it I decided I liked the look.

References

Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The cut and construction of clothes for men and women c1560-1620. Macmillian. London, England. 1985

Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd. W.S Maney & Son's LTD. Leeds, England. 1988

Crowfoot, Elisabeth et al. Medieval Finds in Excavations in London: 4 Textiles and Clothing c.1150-c.1450. The Boydell Press. Woodbridge, England. 1992.

Boucher, Francois. 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New York. 1987