Late Tudor and Elizabethan Gowns

c. 1545-1610 A.D.

Contains patterns for 3 Late Tudor gowns and 3 Elizabethan gowns.  The stomacher, underskirts and undersleeves are not sewn to the gowns (sizes 8-18 included).  This pattern goes well with MM052, MM090, MM092 and MM093.

The late Tutor period was a time of transition and uncertainty with 3 rulers in 11 years (not to mention Lady Jane Grey, who only ruled for 9 days), and the country endured violent switches from Protestant to Catholic and back to Protestant again.

Very few new elements of woman's style appeared during Edward's short reign.  During Mary's reign, through her marriage to Phillip, Spanish styles (favoring dark colors) were reintroduced, but the basics of the previous styles remained the same, and men's fashions were more flamboyant than women's.  The elements of women's styles, including the Spanish farthingale (MM090), lasted into the 1570's.  However, under Elizabeth's rule woman's fashions came to dominate the court.  In the 1570's the drum farthingale (MM090) radically changed the shape of woman's skirts.  Other less sweeping changes also occurred, such as the high standing ruffs.  "Elizabethan" styles lasted well after her death in 1603 - the new king saw no reason to pay for new clothes for his queen when Elizabeth had left such an extensive, ornate  wardrobe.