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(The French Farthingale Diary is being worked on.)

               

         V1.0 Introduction & Background musings

         V2.0 Construction Notes, Pictures & Commentary

         V2.0 Wordless Pictures

         V3.01 IS HERE!!!




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V1.0 FRENCH FARTHINGALE INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND MUSINGS


For a long time now, I’ve wanted to make a reproduction of the gown Queen Elizabeth I wears in the Ditchley Portrait (click here to be taken to the Web Gallery of Art’s image of this portrait), but had no satisfactory “Great Farthingale” (as it appears to have been called at the time) to wear underneath the gown. Without the correct underpinnings, the dress would just not look right.


I had previously tried to make a French Farthingale (the most common modern term for the “Great Farthingale” of QEI’s time) using the “wheel” arrangement (V1.0), with spokes radiating out from the waist band which supported the main hoop that delineated the edge of the farthingale. It also had an attached (huge) stuffed bumroll underneath to support the entire contraption.


Sadly, the thing sagged at the back something fierce, and the poor actress playing the Queen had a droopy bottom for most of the show. I am sure most people had no idea what it was really supposed to look like, but *I* knew, and it bugged the daylights out of me…’low before and high behind’…well, her behind was everything but high.  After that show, I retired that design, but the challenge of engineering a better-performing model never quite left me…


So let’s let a few years lapse so that we come to the present…as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been wanting to make that repro Ditchley portrait dress for some time. I suppose the biggest reason for this is that I’ve been playing QEI myself for a number of years now, and that dress is what ole Queenie in her single-most recognized portrait (IMHO).


For a few years, I’ve been slowly gathering materials for the gown, but hadn’t put any effort into tackling the problem with the French (or Great) Farthingale until a fellow costumer posted a question about making one herself in an online forum I frequent. She was working on a late Elizabethan gown (for her own portrayal of Good Queen Bess) and reading the posts got me inspired to try to find a solution to the problem once and for all.  (This would be a good time to read those posts, so click here* to be taken to that discussion.)  And since this introduction is starting to get a tad long, I’ll continue with the actual construction notes after the addendums below.


NEXT CHAPTER: Construction Notes

Addendum 11-10-2007: Due credit must be given to some very clever costumers whose ideas were the inspiration that got me going in a very different direction than I would have gone had I not stumbled across this* discussion online. I linked to it in the posts I referred to above, but it no longer points to an operable web page, so I thought I’d put in a current link. Credit must be given where it’s due.
ADDENDUM 4-14-09:  DANG!!!  Now the two links above don’t work, either.  I realize now that the info the first link pointed to is gone for good since that forum was hacked more than a year ago now and all the old posts were lost.  BUT, I imagine that my inspiration is out there somewhere…I remember a name associated with it: Robin Netherton, so I’m sure I’ll find it, somewhere…when I do, I’ll be sure to post it…again…

ADDENDUM 4-16-09:  The question was again asked in the online forum I frequent about how to make a French Farthingale, and during the course of the discussion someone asked about an entry in Wikipedia that calls it an “Italian Farthingale”, which confused me greatly.

 

Not that I’m an expert costumer, but I did enough research while trying to come up with a design for this contraption that I think I would have stumbled across that term before now, and I NEVER came across a reference to an “Italian Farthingale”–not in this context nor any other, come to think of it.  It may just be one of those pieces of misinformation that gets quoted and re-quoted and then becomes “correct” just because it’s been repeated so much.

 

But just in case, I did a quickie search on the term “Italian Farthingale” and came up with these two links: this one from 1999 which also questions the term, even though it’s in reference to a much earlier style, and then this one from a book published in 1961 which may be the culprit behind the whole “Italian Farthingale” thing.

 

Now that I think about it, though, I wonder if it has anything to do with Catherine de Medici (an Italian) being such a strong personality in France…hmm…nah!–I still think it’s a modern term.  If anyone can confirm a period reference to an “Italian Farthingale”, please feel free to comment.

 

Until I can find otherwise, I’m going to be so bold as to state that there is no such thing as an “Italian Farthingale” and that it’s only A FEW modern costumers who use the term to differentiate between the 1580’s French Farthingale (bumroll) and the shelf-like style of the 1590s.  So why don’t we all just call the later style what it appears to have been known in period (”Great Farthingale”) and leave it at that?

The reality is that regardless of what you want to call the “Great Farthingale” (other modern terms I’ve heard range from “French Farthingale” to “Drum Farthingale” to “Cartwheel Farthingale” to “Wheel Farthingale” to “Catherine Wheel Farthingale”) there *are* none of these extant beasties to study, only a few drawings (read: caricatures) from which to go by, so it’s anybody’s guess as to what they *really* looked like or were constructed.

 

So the answer to the question of what a French Farthingale actually is (and therefore how it’s made) will depend on what time period one is trying to portray.  I can see where a large roll, either stuffed or held out with lots of little mini-hoops (to create a tube) would serve by itself to produce the fashionable silhouette of the 1580s.  It seems clear to me, BTW, that there is no “Spanish” farthingale worn under the skirts of the ladies depicted in the link above.  It looks to me that wearing just a large roll with lots of petticoats would create the sought-after look of that time period.

 

My largest bumroll, which produces a 1580s look is only slightly larger than the woman on the left is wearing in this picture.  I know because I made it for her.  This is a shot of how it looks when she’s standing up straight.  You can see me in the background wearing one of my smaller bumrolls, but you can’t really see the silhouette because my arms are in the way.  I do wear a Spanish Farthingale underneath all of mine, BTW.  I think it creates the look I’m after better than just a bumroll and a bunch of petticoats.  That and it’s cooler to wear a farthingale in the summer.

 

But I digress…where was I…oh, yes I remember: the problem is that as the century came to a close the silhouette changed from a soft roll look to more of a shelf, AND the diameter just got larger and larger. IMHO, it becomes harder and harder to justify the shelf-silhouette as being produced by *just* a roll, and that’s where modern costumers have found varying solutions to the problem.

 

Practically speaking, anything larger than my largest stuffed bumroll becomes too heavy and hard on the hips to wear for an extended time if you’re wanting a c.1590s silhouette.  Also, the solution of adding a “shelf” made from radiating spokes that has so often been suggested as *the* way to achieve the look just didn’t work for me, which is why my solution was to make a hollow one.   Admittedly, I did not make my original “shelf” with caning.  I used plain old hoopwire, which may have been part of the problem (not stiff enough).

 

BUT, I still contend that my solution (a hollow shelf + bumroll in one with integral tilt built in) is much more comfortable than even the sturdiest cane “shelf” supported by a stuffed (read: HEAVY) bumroll.  I’ve worn my most recent version of the Great Farthingale a couple of times, for about 6 hours at a go, and it stayed put, didn’t shift, and was as light as a feather to wear.  I’m positive that wouldn’t be the case with a stuffed model.

 

NEXT CHAPTER: Construction Notes

 

V2.0 FRENCH FARTHINGALE CONSTRUCTION NOTES:


So, what I did was cannibalize the original farthingale and, well– it would be easier to just cut & paste what I wrote on the forum (ETA: thankfully, when I originally wrote this page, that old forum hadn't been hacked yet, so I was able to copy my post), so here it is:


Whoo-HOO!  This thread of yours intrigued me, SyRilla, and it’s got me motivated. I started working on my version of the “Drum Farthingale” a couple of weekends ago, and EGADS! I think I might have done it. It winds up having a flat top and doesn’t require a separate bumroll to support it.

It’s basically a rib-cage formed by stitching bias tape in a radiating manner from the waist outwards. Previous to SyRilla’s last post, I had always assumed the bumrolls in that caricature were stuffed. Then I thought, why should they be? So I made one without stuffing to see how it might hold up. It’s very light!!!

The final measurements are approximately 21.5″ from front to back, 28.5″ wide, and 9″ thick at the back. The pattern is made from two crescent-shaped pieces stiched together at the waist (inside of crescent) with a long rectange with tapered ends stitched along the outside edges of the top & bottom crescent. I added a long zipper to the outside top seam for convenience.

The bias tape casings are stiched along the side and bottom pieces and hold “bents” made of plastic-covered /farthingale hoop wires bent to shape. The top crescent was salvaged from my first attempt years ago that used radiating “spokes” with a hoop in the perimeter and a large stuffed bum-roll underneath to support the whole contraption.

I figured I’d leave the old spokes in just to see what happened if I did, but I can’t tell if it would make one iota of a difference if I had left the top crescent “plain”.

If you’ll notice, though, there are places where the curved hoop wire is making the material poke out on the sides of the top piece a little and I don’t want them to poke through, so I may have to make some modifications to the bias casings or the “bents” themselves. And I’ll need to stitch some “tabs” to the back of the farthingale to secure it properly to my corset…I may actually need to make a new corset with a longer point in front as well (to secure the front of the hoop to the point) so that the angle stays fashionably low in front and high behind. Still, I think the basic design is sound.

I put it on with a skirt on top and the silhouette looked right…now I just need wider doors in my home…

  NEXT CHAPTER: Pictures & Commentary

  

V2.0 FRENCH FARTHINGALE PICTURES & COMMENTARY:


Here are some pictures so that you can see what I was describing:

Views from the top and bottom, back view showing temporary tabs that atach the farthingale to the corset, and side view on my mannequin:

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You can see where the bottom bents are poking up through the top crescent fabric, but that’ll be corrected in version 3, when I get to it.


All in all, it’s not too bad, huh? It looked like it would produce the correct silhouette,  but to be sure, I decided to put a full over- and under-skirt set weighing 4 pounds on top of it to see what would happen. The skirt was made for a Spanish farthingale, so ignore the drape…I’ll need to make a new gown specifically for this farthingale if I want the skirts to drape properly.

 

Otherwise, you can see that my farthingale produces the “flat top” effect that is seen in portraits. The pinning of the flounce was done in less than five minutes, because I was in a rush, but I think that more careful pinning will produce an even more authentic and period-appropriate silhouette. 


Front view showing half-pinned and half-plain effects on the skirt’s drape:

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So that’s what I’ve got so far.  Below are a few pictures of the actual construction process. I had to be selective and chose a representative sampling, so I probably left stuff out inadvertently.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Feel free to post a comment if anything doesn’t make sense.

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2 Responses to “V2.0  French Farthingale”

  1. Steffauri Vo'Naaia, on March 2nd, 2010 at 1:13 am Said:

    wow! this is just beautiful work :) I do a lot of costume design and layout myself, but unfortunately I’m not so talented behind a sewing machine! :p

    I recently (maybe about a year or so back) constructed a very large cartwheel farthingale to emulate the Spanish court dress of the 1660s, but you couldn’t really call it a “legit” piece; since I cannot sew, I made it from everyday items, but it held up beautifully!

    I used a basic hula hoop from a local Walmart and bought a cheap belt. I poked 12-holes into the belt where I wanted fasteners to go, and I just tied moderately durable pieces of thin rope to the hoop and fastened them with rivets into the holes I made in the belt. Surprisingly, it held up for the Renn Faire and even later for several conventions I attended that summer :)

  2. admin, on March 13th, 2010 at 10:02 pm Said:

    LOL!!!

    Great idea with the hula-hoop! You basically made the “spokes” out of rope and used the stiffness of the hula to get a nice rigid outer hoop that could keep it’s shape under your gown. What an ingenious solution. I LOVE it!!!
    Thanks for sharing, Steffauri!

09-12-07: Update! V3.01 IS HERE!!!


Here are some pics of the most recent version of the farthingale. I’ll add descriptions as I can, since I’m now in the throes of actually making the Ditchley dress, but I couldn’t not post about the modifications I’ve made in case someone else out there is working on a similar project. Here are some thumbnails. Click on each to see the BIG picture.

Side view:side view french farthingale v3.01 Back view: back view french farthingale v3.01Front view: front view french farthingale v3.01
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Please ignore how the thing sits on the mannequin…she doesn’t have a natural bustle to keep the back properly supported. Also, I’ve made a new corset to wear with this farthingale, which I’ll post on as I can. OH! And one more thing: in case you’re wondering why V3.01 and not just 3.0, the reason is that I consider the basic ribbed structure underneath the petticoat as 3.0 and when I came up with the idea of actually attaching the corded petticoat to it, it became 3.01. Just a technicality, but I think it shows the evolution of the concept. As we speak, I’m thinking of a few more modifications, which will bring it up to 3.02 (when I get to them).  Tell me what you think of it! 


Inventive.                              Lively.                              Multi-faceted.                              Appealing.