Corduroy question.

[Kate XXXXXX]

Remember also that there was a HUGE industry based on used clothing.  Fabric of all sorts was much more expensive and time consuming to produce at this time, so garments that the wealthy were finished with were sold on, given to favored servants, and remade for other folk lower down the pecking order.  What had been fairly sumptuous fabrics would turn up a long way down the social scales at third or fourth hand...

[Merry]

Remember also that there was a HUGE industry based on used clothing.  Fabric of all sorts was much more expensive and time consuming to produce at this time, so garments that the wealthy were finished with were sold on, given to favored servants, and remade for other folk lower down the pecking order.  What had been fairly sumptuous fabrics would turn up a long way down the social scales at third or fourth hand...

Good Point!  ....scraps of finer fabrics or lace would find their way into a lady's maids dress, bodice or kerchief.....and it continued to trickle down to the lower households, and finally peasantry, but by then they were showing wear.

[gypsylakat]

Antique that fabric! beat it with chains and rip it!

[Katie Bookwench]

I went back and re-read the initial post, and from what I can tell, HA was not a requirement. So I will put forth the following:

Corduroy is a good wearing, sturdy fabric, and makes attractive middle to upper middle class faire garb if you're not overly concerned about HA. I've used it extensively while on Cast at my home Faire, and with the wear and tear I've put mine through, I've been really happy with how it's held up.

Fine whale easily passes for velvet or velveteen at 30 paces. It also seems to have a better 'hand' than larger whale pieces.

Now... as to the whale -- I've used it in all different directions!

I cut my corduroy doublet back pieces diagonally, so that there was a chevron pattern at the center back when it was constructed. I did the same for the front center pieces. I had a bodice with a patchwork stomacher in different shades of olive, all corduroy - and each piece had wales going in different directions - it was generally symetrical, but still, all the wales were at a 45 degree angle from each other.

I don't know if the whale can be seen in this shot, but here is the doublet -- the skirt is of large whale (home dec cord) with the vertical stripe (center) and the 6" guard on the bottom is fine while cord. This was one of my first skirts to have cartridge pleating, and probably the second middle class garb attempts I'd done myself.

The picture is the the THIRD pic on the top row right.

http://bookwench.renspace.com/gallery/view_gallery.one?pid=244275