When I wore my green 16th century gown in the autumn for a photoshoot with Dalarnas museum, well I could only look down on the original closure and realize it didn't work anymore. The original was made from two long strips of fabric with hooks and eyes that I had sewn on. It didn't work for several reasons.
1. it was really fiddly to get all the hooks and eyes together, I almost always needed help to get into the dress. When I made it I had also miscalculated, so there were too many hooks, and it was uneven.
2. some years of struggling with the hooks and eyes had also made the stitches that held the strips to the dress itself starting to become undone.
3. I had struggled also because I have gained quite a lot of weight since I first made the dress and the hooks and eyes where under a lot of strain to keep the dress closed.
Another reason why I wasn't happy with it was because of how I had sewn the border of orange fabric over the closure. It was floppy, and it simply didn't look good. Since I came from an 18th century sewing background I had closed it with pins, but since I made it I have developed my skills in 16th century sewing quite a lot.
For the evening outside I knew that I wanted to wear my mustard kirtle under the gown. The gown is made to fit over my very tight, almost corsetlike undergown though, I knew that that was simply no way that I would be able to close the green dress, while wearing warm underwear and a good quality wool kirtle. I finally had a really big incentive to actually replace the hooks and eyes.
Above is the original strip with hooks and eyes. It has come loose from the bottom. Hooks and eyes were used in the time period, but if I were to use them again I would use bigger and sturdier ones, or get hold of replicas. I would also sew them on so that the hooks and eyes alternated.
I basically had one day to fix the closure. I cut out two strips of heavy, felted wool that I had at hand. I folded them double and used that as the lacing strip. This wool is a lot heavier than the green of the dress, but I wanted to have something that would really hold the lacing. I also made sure to make the lacing strip a bit wider, so that would help me increase the width of the whole dress. The lacing holes are not my most beautiful ones, but I am happy that I can now make a set of lacing holes in a day. They are made for spiral lacing, and there are 3 cm between each hole, but since they cross over to the other side it's only 1,5 cm to the next hole on the other side. This is just about the biggest distance I can have between the lacing holes. I will see if it works, but I might go back and make new lacing strips with less distance between the holes. That's the beauty of lacing strips though, they are easy to replace and you don't need to redo the whole dress.
The orange border down the front was removed and I sewed the lacing strips on with small backstitches.
Thankfully I still had scraps of the orange fabric so I cut out new borders for the front and sewed them on over the lacing strips. The borders and the lacing strips are also stitched together with some stitches just out to the border from every lacing hole. When lacing the lace is treaded between the holes, where there is an opening between the lacing strip and the orange border.
This is what the new opening looks like. For the original orange border I had made an angled seam between the border of the neckline and the border going down the front. For this new closure I simply just but the border up to the top of the neckline, leaving a straight seam between them. This is something that is seen in original paintings, even if it's more common that the neckline border goes over the front borders.
So why did I go for lacing instead of adding new hooks and eyes? Two reasons.
I have gained weight and it's a lot more comfortable and easier to adjust the lacing. Sometimes I want it looser sometimes tighter. This also allows me to use different kirtles under the gown, with the hooks and eyes I could only wear it with my tightest kirtle, which is also the least historically correct kirtle.
It's also so much easier and faster to close a dress with lacing, compared to hooks and eyes. I have really good trick for lacing that I'm happy to share, because I have never seen anyone do it like this.
I use a u pin, that you usually have in your hair. Put the lace at the bend of the pin.
And then simply pull the pin through the lacing holes. The u-pin is long and rigid enough that it's easy to tread. If there is a small lacing hole it's just a matter of squeezing the u-pin so it gets thin enough to get through. It doesn't have any sharp ends, unlike a needle, so it doesn't snag on any fabrics.
With the help of a u-pin I can easly lace myself up in a gown, much faster than when I have tried to fiddle with hooks and eyes.
Just the facts
What the item is: amset of lacing strips
How it fits the challenge: I switched out one kind of closure (hooks and eyes) for another one (lacing with handmade lacing holes) Giving new life to a dress that was getting too tight and worn out around the old closure.
Material: 20x30 cm of felted wool
Pattern: no pattern, just two long pieces of fabric folded double.
Year: 16th century
Notions: waxed linen thread
How historically accurate is it? 90% (much better than when it was closed with modern hooks and eyes)
Hours to complete: 6
First worn: For an evening outdoors January 23rd
Total cost: this was made from scraps, so even if buying new probably not more than $5.
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