The final project will be a padded leather peascod doublet like the one in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (For pictures please see thisWeekly Inspiration.) However, as I would like to be able to fight in this doublet, I wanted to test my patterns and how it would feel to fight in a padded doublet before begining the final leather one. So I have decided to do a "Proof of Concept" doublet out of linen first.
The quilting has been done on the machine with silk and cotton thread. The heavier silk thread was wound onto the bobin and, with the bobin tension loosend and the thread tension tightened, the doublet was quilted with the cotton thread on the inside of the interlining where it will never show once the doublet is put together and lined. This technique, which I learned from Kirsten Niemann, creates an effect that looks similar to backstiching with the heavier thread. The doublet is padded with 100% cotton batting.
This is how my Proof of Concept Doublet currently looks. Over all I'm fairly happy with the fit but I don't think I exagerated the peascod enough and I also had some difficulty with the sleeves and getting them to fit into the arm holes correctly.. I am happy with how the sleeves fit now, but since I was having difficulty with the patterning I decided not to quit them this time. So I'm probably going to do a second Proof of Concept doublet befor I attemped the final project in leater. I still have to topstich the seams and I've decided to redo the collar since I'm really not satisfied with the unstiffened collar but that will go very quickly.
10/11/06: Project Update
After nearly completing v1.0 I ran into some issues that I was not happy with. I wan't happy with the stiffness of the collar (or lack there of) and after trying it on and wearing it around the house the peascod wasn't quite right and the sleeves needed some work. So I decided to put it on hold until after Pennsic. While I was at Pennsic I fought quite a lot in my leather doublet that was patterned after the fencing doublets in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. Orginally I had decided not to use this pattern a second time because I thought the straight waiste was unbecoming. However, after wearing them so much at Pennsic I decided I had been too hard on myself and that the straight waiste was much more becoming than originally thought. So, with all the issues I would have to go back and fix on doublet v1.0 and my new fondness for the other pattern I decided to scrap v1.0 and begin to pursue v2.0. I will continue to leave this gallery up so v1.0 can be compared to v2.0. Enjoy!
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