Late 16th Century Dutch Cloak

Sorry for the bad picture. My Dutch Cloak is finished!

First, the inspiration:

Taken from Katerina's Webpage

http://www.kostuemforschung.de/1207.html

These are just a few of the examples I found. This style was worn pretty much everywhere in Europe in the late 16th Century. I liked the trim layout of the purple extant one so I loosely based my trim layout on that.

Making the darn thing:

I decided on epaulettes, full sleeves (rather than hanging sleeves because that got complicated), and I used red wool for the fashion fabric. I purchased the red wool at a local thrift store for $3.90.

See? As for the yellow tag regarding cleaning, I'm 99.9% sure this was a thick wool blanket at one point in it's life and that it had been left in someone's mothball filled hope chest. It still faintly smelled of mothballs. Not so faintly when I ironed and steamed the jacket.

Anyway, I also used what had been blue silk curtains for the lining also from the thrift store and also just as inexpensive. The trim is the same trim I used on the German gown last week. I still have some more... It was originally 35 yards and I have no clue how much is left but it's still a lot.

I have no clue what else to use it on...

I'll figure out something.

Anyway, the Dutch cloak!

The cut is just a generic sleeve pattern I've developed over the years, a trapezoid shape for the body, cut on the fold so I didn't have to sew the shoulders, and the semi curve of the epaulets.  Originally, I was going to have cuffs and a collar but those got thrown out.  I ended up not needing the cuffs, I just folding it all in and whipstitched the edge.  The collar...yeah.  Not fun.

Altogether, this is a pretty easy pattern to make.   I really love the cloak and it's WARM.  I wanted a short cloak for Pennsic since it's a muddy year, again.  No sense dragging a cloak through the mud when I can just put on an extra petticoat or say screw it and put on leggings (not like anyone will see!   My skirts are all to my ankle at least.).