Hi everyone, I’m writing a book set in Elizabethan England where the main character has to make shirts out of thistledown. I’m having a hard time knowing how she’d go about it, having absolutely no sewing or tailoring experience myself. She starts with the raw material, but then what’s the next step?
It doesn’t have to be super accurate to the time period or even the material used. I’m just wondering if y’all know any old clothes making resources I can read.
Thanks in advance!
If she's starting with raw thistledown, you're going to want to look into spinning, either with a wheel or a drop spindle, and weaving. The how-tos are fairly simple, and modern hobbyist materials will be enough of a resource. Be aware that spinning enough thread to weave with takes a very, very long time.
As for sewing the shirts, the two best books would be The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcom-Davies, and Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 4. The former is more geared toward reenactment, but it has a very accurate shirt pattern with appropriate instructions. The latter is a book of patterns taken from extant shirts, ruffs, and other linen things from the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, so it's extremely accurate.
Seventeenth-Century Women's Dress Patterns is similar to Patterns of Fashion, and has a pattern for a woman's nightshirt(?) that is essentially made just like a man's shirt. This book is quite new and has an INTENSE level of description of construction methods.