How to Make Queen Elizabeth Clothing at Home

Make an Elizabethan gown at home using upholstery fabrics with cotton.

Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, is perhaps as popular for her gowns as for her unprecedented leadership during Britain's "Golden Age." Queen Elizabeth-style clothing is based on severe geometrical shapes that give dress wearers broad shoulders, wide hips and a very narrow waist. In the current age, Elizabethan gowns have been featured in Hollywood films such as "Elizabeth" and they are also worn at Renaissance festivals. It's possible to make an approximate version of a period gown from Queen Elizabeth I's times at home by researching that period and using a gown pattern.

Things You'll Need

• Drawings or pictures of Elizabethan gowns
• Soft tape measure
• Gown pattern
• Straight pins
• Pushup bra
• Chemise
• Corset
• Petticoat
• Farthingale hoops
• 8 yards of fabric for the interior and exterior of the gown
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Research Elizabethan gowns and gather photos or drawings of the gowns. It is difficult to gain access and feel to the original 16th century gowns, therefore the authenticity of reproduced Elizabethan gowns is often determined against portraits from the period or literary references.

2. Decide what type of Elizabethan gown you would like to make at home. During the Elizabethan period, the working class constituted more than 90 percent of the population; these women wore simple, modest gowns with less decoration. Meanwhile, noble women's Elizabethan-style dresses were made with more luxurious fabrics such as silk or brocades, and often had larger farthingale hoops to emphasize womanly curves.

3. Acquire an Elizabethan pattern for your gown. Given the complexity of Queen Elizabeth-style dresses, it is difficult to make a reproduction at home without a pattern. Companies such as Fantasy Fashions, Period Patterns and Margo Anderson's patterns all provide Elizabethan gown patterns. Accomplished seamstresses may modify a full, classical dress pattern into an Elizabethan gown.

4. Bring together Queen Elizabeth-style underwear to wear under the dress, including a chemise, corset, bloomers, farthingale hoop and petticoat under the farthingale. Consider wearing a pushup bra under the chemise to achieve a pressed bust line in the dress.

5. Measure the wearer while she is wearing the underpinnings. Take the measurements of the waist, bust, arm to waist, back, hips (in the farthingale), waist to hips, hips to floor and height, and any other measurements called for by the pattern.

6. Choose period fabrics for the Queen Elizabeth dress based on the measurements and according to the pattern directions. A full dress will likely require at least 8 yards of fabric for the interior and exterior of the dress combined. Silk, silk damask, brocade and velvet are most typical for the period and good choices for the exterior of the dress, but can be expensive. Meanwhile, upholstery fabrics are also an option; though heavy, the fabric can have elegant designs embroidered or impressed in velvet or lace. For the interior of the gown consider cotton, muslin or cotton blends that are light and washable.

7. Wash and dry carefully all of the fabrics for the gown. Iron according to instructions for the specific fabric. Hang the pressed fabric for the exterior of the dress on a hanger in a garment bag to set aside, folded with the face, or right side of the fabric, in to preserve.

8. Lay the fabric for the interior of the gown on a flat surface such as a large table. Using straight pins, pin the bodice, arm and full skirt pattern pieces for the interior on top of the fabric. Cut out the pieces according to the pattern.

9. Make loose stitches in a buttonhole stitch by hand on the armscye where the fabric for the gathered sleeve will be sewn. Following the pattern, insert the hooks and eyes into the front of the interior bodice. Pin the pieces together from the inside. Sew the back and front of the bodice together according to the pattern.

10. Pin the interior skirt sections from left to right, leaving 1/2-inch seam allowance on the sides and 1 1/2 inches at the top of the skirt. Make a gather stitch to cinch the upper part of the skirt sections. Attach with pins into the bodice, sew on the sewing machine to secure and remove the thread that functioned to make the gathers. Sew to the bodice. Pin the sleeves together from the inside to make a tube. Gather the sleeves so that they are the same measurement as the armscye. Ensure the interior dress is still inside out and pin into the armscye. Sew circularly around to secure, following the pattern. Remove the thread that functioned to gather the sleeves. Hem all exposed sides of the interior gown.

11. Try on the interior dress over the corset and farthingale hoops to ensure a tight fit. Make any necessary adjustments with pins and by hand before starting on the exterior fabric dress, which should fit very closely to the interior pieces.

12. Remove the exterior fabric from the garment bag and press out any wrinkles. Lay the fabric with the face down on a clean, flat surface. Arrange the pattern pieces for the exterior skirt and triangle-shaped bodice. Pin each piece, then cut out. Organize the pattern pieces in a pile to keep them in order.

13. Pin the skirt together first, according to the pattern. Sew to secure from the interior so the face is out. Attach with pins to the lower skirt and secure on the sewing machine. Bring together the pieces for the triangle-shaped bodice. With the face down, pin the back piece of the gown, then pin into the lower skirt, tucking the skirt into the smallest point of the triangle.

14. Hem all exteriors of the exterior dress using a whip stitch on a sewing machine. Gather by hand the top of the triangle-shaped bodice into an optional row of pleats for the bust. Secure additional adornments such as beads, roping and silken or shiny threads.

Tips & Warnings

• Draw and color a mock-up of the dress before starting to help you envision what you are making since the process can take some seamstresses more than a month. Pin it up on a wall close to your sewing area.

• Queen Elizabeth-style gowns are slimming for women of different sizes and body types.

References

• Elizabeth Era: Elizabethan Gowns
• Dawn's Costume Guide: Iron Dress
• "Daily life in Elizabethan England"; Jeffrey L. Forgeng; 2010
• "Couture Sewing Techniques"; Clair Shaeffer; 2011
• "How much is enough: Yardages Used in Late 16th-Century Women's Clothing"; Susan D Reed; 1994

Resources

• Margo's Patterns: Elizabethan Gowns