Dressing Rebecca
The other week, when Wendy and Tricia were here working out the directions for the various aspects of the goldwork, my Day Job involved preparing our newest colonial interpreter for work in the 1627 English Village.
When Rebecca came to pick up her clothes Tricia asked if she’d mind getting dressed in the office instead of taking her things to the changing room in the Carriage House. Rebecca was a great sport, posing for photos at each stage of dressing.
We thought lots of other people might be interested in the process, so here are a few photos.
First, Rebecca with her big pile of period clothes.
The second picture is of Rebecca and me sorting through her issue to choose the pieces she needed to wear that day. It was the first week of August, but the day was rainy and cold, so she chose a lightweight wool jacket.
Then we did a “before” picture - Rebecca in her 21st century things before the transformation.
Good sport though she was, we sent her into the bathroom with the first layer - smock, stays, bumroll, under-petticoat and shoes & stockings. You definitely want to do the stockings and shoes Before the stays.
The bumroll is a padded roll, looks like a sausage really with ties on the ends. Rebecca’s wearing it over her smock & stays and under her yellow petticoat to give her that early 17th-century bell shape. These padded rolls were worn in the 17th century, they’re not a made-up modern thing, and they were called bumrolls or farthingale rolls. Didn’t make that up. Here Rebecca is getting ready to tie her garters over her stockings to hold them up. Her petticoat is wicked short,
even for an under-petti, but I decided to go with this one because it fit her waist. The stock cupboard didn’t offer many other choices, the goods are pretty picked-over at this time of year. There isn’t enough hem to let down to make much difference. She’ll be wearing at least one petti over it unless she’s doing some sort of exceedingly messy work in which case better to have it short and out of the muck.
