Ever since I saw the Dutch 17th century paintings of people skating some 20 years ago, I have wanted to make one of those outfits. I have made a collection of historical Dutch ice skating pictures over at the web site of the Rijksmuseum, not all of them 17th century though.
But it is only the last years that I have allowed myself to make clothing from eras where I have nowhere to wear them, and then there was the need for proper ice :) We don't usually get these winters in Gothenburg.
Miraculously the cold came back after a short thaw with snowfall, and I have enjoyed over two weeks of skating on various ponds and bogs. The one that I skated on in my Regency outfit never got good ice again, but there is a bog with open water in the middle in a nearby nature reserve (2,5 kilometres walking from where I live) where people have cleared away the snow for skating.
So I decided to make a wool doublet to go with my linsey-wolsew kirtle that I made this summer. I had already planned to make one from silk damask for Gothenburg's 400 anniversary this year, but that celebration has of course been postponed due to the pandemic. The nice weather however put a fire under me, and I decided to make a wool doublet to wear for some skating photos.
It is now warmer again, around or just below zero and it snows quite a lot, so I am happy that hubby had the time and energy to go with me last Saturday to take photos of me skating in my early 17th century clothes.
And that I managed to make the jacket, and the weird starched hat.
Most of the women in the Dutch ice skating paintings which were my inspiration wear a black gown, hitched up, over a kirtle, usually with applied stripes on the skirt, like mine.
Hendrick Avercamp, c. 1620:
I did actually have enough of the fulled cloth for a gown, but it is way too heavy and bulky to be hitched up. So I settled for a doublet. This is also more useful for me, since it is something that is often seen in Scandinavian early 17th century pictures, and I can wear it whenever we will celebrate the anniversary.
Lower class women are seen in jackets on Avercamp's and other's paintings, usually in some kind of regional costume, but my costume is more an affluent burgher's style, so let's call it a compromise. And it is not uncommon with doublets on Dutch women in the early 17th century, just not when they're skating.
This was a stash busting project. The doublet is hand sewn from fulled wool cloth that my mum bought 23 years ago, lined with linen fabric I got from a friend after he cleared out his stash from stuff he hadn't used in over 15 years, the buttons are thread (I used perle cotton, because it covers better than the silk buttonhole twist that I had at home) over wooden beads that I bought to make buttons for
this outfit from 2007. They didn't turn out right then, but the ones that I made now I am quite happy with.
The "hat" is a combination of an undercap that I already had, and a new wired and startched creation. I need to do some changes on that, but it was thrown together in the morning before we went out to take the photos. With the anticpated hange in weather I was in a hurry to get this done. That is also why I am wearing a 20 year old ruff, that really isn't right, but was the biggest that I had.
And yes, I know that I should have a very different type of skates.
This is not how the ladies are generally depicted skating in those Dutch ice skating paintings.
This is more like it, more sedate.
And this.
Nice back view.
