Doublets and Jerkins and Vests, Oh MY!

The doublet was a close-fitting, waist-length jacket, with a narrow skirt and/or tabs, called piccadils, around the waist. Often it would have removable sleeves, for comfort, and stuffed winglets at the shoulders. Gentry would use expensive fabrics and decorations for their doublets, as an expression of their station. A jerkin was any sleeveless outer garment, similar to the doublet, used by all classes of society. By removing the sleeves from a doublet, you could transform it into a jerkin. In the middle and lower classes, the jerkin was work-a-day wear, so it was more practical and loose fitting than a noble's garment. This is a new version of my jerkin instructions. It uses a shirt pattern. It's a little more complicated than the old version because this one has a collar, and a button placket.

The fabric is a midweight wool or wool blend, in twill or standard weave. Cotton duck is fine if you want an inexpensive alternative. Cotton is not authentic however, being a rare product and not as sturdy as linen. Denim did not exist, though it is commonly used today, and courduroy was never allowed for the lower classes.

How much to buy? Double the drop from where your shoulders join the neck down to about the calves. This will give you not only enough fabric for the body of the jerkin but also extra fabric for the collar, skirt, piccadils and winglets. You can also, if you wish, use a complementary color for these extras.

What color to buy? I bought white and dyed it forest green for my model, and it worked wonderfully. Colors you choose must not be too bright, as the colors used in Elizabethan times were derived from plant, mineral, and animal sources. So if you dye it, dye the fabric before you work, to a medium hue. If you buy it, buy one in a color that looks natural, as if dyed with berries or flowers. Color names like russet, lincoln or forest green, spice, indigo (caution: indigo is the color used by servants and apprentices,) rose, straw, wheat, corn, or shades of brown are correct. And they must not be vivid or brilliant, but rather muted and earthy. This puts neon pink right out of consideration, and absolutley throws paisleys out the window. No purples or true black, nor metallic, damask, or embroidered fabrics. These are for the nobility.

At the same time that you buy the fabric, buy a basic shirt pattern with a square hem. Dress shirt patterns will work too, but they have shirt tails that you have to cut off. What we will use are the patterns for the front of the shirt and the collar, and we will alter the pattern for the back of the shirt.

Typically, a jerkin extended just below the waistline, and on the pattern you will see where the waistline is marked. Here is where we focus on the length of a jerkin. To do this, put on a shirt that buttons all the way up the front, and measure down the center from just where the collar joisn the shirt, to your navel. The navel is the marker for the waistline. Add about 5/8" to that measurement and compare it to the pattern. If it matches the pattern, great. If it is longer or shorter than the pattern, adjust the pattern accordignly. From this point, we determine the length of the jerkin below the waist. The simplest jerkin, actually a tunic, fell to the tips of your fingers, if your arms are hanging down, and had no piccadils. Not much else needs to be done if you want a real peasant look. If you want piccadills, then mark the pattern about 2 5/8 inch below the waistline.

As a side note, you'll see 5/8 inch mentioned numerous times on this page. That's a seam allowance added to whatever piece you are cutting. It's extra fabric beyond the actually seam line. If you cut the altered patterns exactly at the line you draw, without a seam allowance, it would end up being shorter or smaller than your measured. So whenever necessry, special note will be made to add a seam allownance of 5/8 inch.

On slightly upscale jerkins, the main portion of the jerkin, called the bodice, would have the lowest point in front end just below the bottom of your belt buckle, and the sides would be at the waistline making a curved hem. Then a skirt would be added that flared out a bit to lay flat against the hips and act as backing for the piccadils (the flower-petal-looking things you see below.) The skirt could be any width from two inches to as wide as your hand. So decide before you cut whether you want a skirt or not, and then how wide you want the skirt.

The back of the jerkin will use the back of the shirt pattern combining it with the yoke. You'll notice the back of a shirt has two pieces, one that stretches across the shoulders, and one that makes up the rest of the back. The yoke is the part that runs across the shoulders. Tape the yoke pattern and the back pattern into one piece. You'll notice that the back pattern is wider than the yoke. This is because most shirts have a box pleat in the back for extra room when you reach forward. Since this jerkin has no sleeves, it does not need that extra room, so fold the back pattern until it matches the yoke. Make the same marks for the waistline in the back as for the front., adding that ubiquitous seam allowance.

Here is an important point about the pattern. The sleeve opening on the back pattern is deeper than on the front. Leave it that way. It's the side seams that have to match in length. So use the waisltine to match the front and back, not the sleeve opening.

Here is where we discuss the skirting for the jerkin. Cut strips of fabric about as wide as your hand, plus an extra 5/8 inch all around for the seam allowance, and a little longer than the bottom of each bodice piece, to become the skirt. For the two front parts of the skirt, if you want it to stand out a little, then cut it slightly STRAIGHTER than the bottom of the bodice, though still slightly curved. If you want it to stand out dramatically, make it perfectly straight. You cut the skirt longer that the hem of the boddice to compensate for that curve. But for the back skirt, you have to cut it slightly MORE CURVED than the straight hem of the back bodice piece, in order to get it to lay flat against your posterior. Now pin the tops of the skirt pieces to the bottom of the bodice pieces, with right sides together, to see exactly where the corners of the bodice meet the skirt. IF you have more fabric beyond those marks, trim it off evenly, so that you only have the required seam allowance left.

If you want, you could combine the two front skirts and the back skirt pieces cut one long skirt that looks better, if you are not going to use the piccadils shown below.

For the piccadils. Basically these are squares that are sewn to the bottom hem. The can overlap a bit, so there is no empty space between them. As with the optional skirt above, make the squares about the width of your hand, plus 5/8 inch for a seam allowance. Clip the corners of each piccadil as shown. Fold the seam allowances under, at about the halfway point, and press them down. Then fold them under the rest of the way, and sew them down. This is a rolled hem finish. Note: you can also zig-zag the edges, and then you don't need to do anything more than fold the seam allowance all the way under and sew it down.

An important point: There is a "right" side and a "wrong" side to the fabric. The fabric that will be hidden from view is the "wrong" side, and conversely the side that people will see is the "right" side. Generally speaking, when you sew a garment together, you sew it "right sides together", in other words inside out, and the turn it right side out to wear. But when you are sewing things ON TO a garment, like a decorative patch, you sew the wrong side of the patch to the right side of the fabric. This is an important distinction to keep in mind.

Next fold under the raw edges of the skirt, except the top edge, 1/4 of an inch and press them flat. Sew the short sides of the skirt, with right sides together, at 3/8 of an inch from the folded edge, except for the front ends, of course. Then pin tops of the piccadils to the top of the skirt, with the wrong side of the piccadils against the right side of the skirt. Make sure that there is still 3/8 of an inch of free fabric on the front ends of the skirt. If not, adjust the width of the piccadils closest to the front ends until you get 3/8 of an inch left free. Then sew them all down somewhere inside the top 5/8 inch seam allowance. Now you should have a skirt with piccadils all with the right sides facing out.

Pin the top edge of the skirt/piccadil assembly to the bottom edge of the bodice, right sides together, matching the side seam allowances. Sew it down at 5/8 of an inch from the raw edges. NOTE: Because of the cumulative thickness of this seam, set the sewing-foot pressure on your machine to "light" and set the stitch length to 4 or greater.

Next, with the skirt and piccadils still up against the bodice, lay the right side of the front facing on top of the rightof the bodice (naturally the wrong side of the skirt will be facing up too) as illutsrated. Sew the front facing all the way up to the shoulder, too, and clip the corners so they will be sharp when you fold it right side out. THEN, when you turn it all out, the facing, skirt, and the piccadils will pop out correctly placed, and the facing will be properly turned under, too. MA-A-A-A-A-GIC! ***JUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO SEW THE FACING TO THE CORNER OF THE CENTER PICCADIL OR THE SKIRT!!!

"But Garb Monger! What about the back of the neck?! How do I finish that?!"

I am very glad you asked. I was going to simply say, "Use bias tape," but frankly I hate describing it here. Make a facing for the back of the neck like the one for the front panels by cutting a semicircular shape on the fold, so you have two perfect halves. For simplicity, make it just as wide as the front facing so it matches at the shoulders. Sew the facing to the back of the neck, cut notches in the seam allowance so it when you turn it right side out, it will not pucker.

Sew the front panels to the back at the shoulders and turn the edges under as before, press the seams flat and stitch them down. DO NOT SEW THE SIDES YET. First, you need to attach the winglets.

Actually, you can make piccadils here too. I like winglets, though. Lay out the jerkin flat on the fabric and use the arm hole to shape one edge of the winglet. add 5/8" seam allowance to that. Draw a curved line, like a stretched out sine wave, to make the other edge, and add only a 3/8" seam alloance for that. Notice how I notch the very tips. Cut out two of these for each winglet and sew them along the sine wave, notch the seam allowance and finish the remaining long edge. Bag them out. If you are stuffing them, do so now and sew the winglets shut.

Sew the winglets onto the shoulder and turn the seam under, stitch down only the winglet. NOW sew the sides together and topstitch flat. Lastly, fold down those last remaining inches of the arm hole and topstitch them flat, thus hiding the side seam allowances.

For the lace holes, use the button hole feature on your sewing machine. Make 5 on each side, spaced evenly. Lace up with leather. Shoe laces just don't look very authentic.

Believe it or not, you're DONE! This pattern adjustment will work for adults' and children's costumes. Children wore pretty much the same garb as adults, just smaller in scale. Look at the lad making an . . . well, you can see for yourself . . . of himself (literally) at the right. He's garbed much as an adult would be, with a full bodied shirt, baggy pants, and a JERKIN. The stockings he wears would have been made of cloth cut on the bias, which means cut diagonally across the weave, to make them stretch. Knitted hose were nobly expensive, then. We take tube socks for granted, but they would be a sign of some little wealth back then. Notice the tankard and bowl around his waist. Adults would carry much the same items. Now, move on to Shirts.