English: Late 16th century Venetian breeches

Since I have been working full-time since last year’s fall I haven’t had the same amount of time to put into sewing projects and blogging, hence the blog posts will come farther in between. I have also almost excklusively been working on commission projects since a year ago, which has given my hobby a different, predominately more interesting, character.

Here are pa pair of so called Venetians breeches from the second half of the 16^th century. One might say that this Venetians from ca 1550 hailed the advent of the breeches’ long reign in Western European fashion. As opposed to the garish trunk hose these Venetians were generally much simpler to their design and cut from plain coloured fabrics.

The breeches shown here are based on a pattern from The Tudor Tailor and they are cut from a dark grey wool for suit-making. The fly front has six wool buttons and the back of the linen-lined waistband is closed with a lucet cord. The top of the breeches are full and the fabric is gathered and sewn to the waistband, but they taper towards the knee. There the breeches are fitted with simple vents that are tied on the inside of the knee with lucet cords of wool. All seams were made by hand using waxed, unbleached linen thread (35/2). All joined seams are backstitched and felled seams, which is a good idea to use on unlined breeches whose seams will be exposed to more stress as well as more wear and tear than other garments.

It might be interesting to note also that this early type of 16^th century breeches lived on among the peasantry in Scania well into the 19^th century, chiefly in the area around Ingelstad. Note the striking resemblance between these 19^th century breeches from Ingelstad and the breeches I have made:

ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИЕ СЛОВА ПИРАТ

Кто же такой пират?

Слово это — греческое, и его первоначальный смысл — «предприимчивый человек», «охотник за удачей». И, конечно, в открытом море? Утверждение о жизни пиратов как о «морском приключении» в такой же степени является нормальным для древних островитян и жителей изрезанных берегов, окаймляющих тихие бухты, как для современных англичан — назвать сегодня обычный переезд «путешествием».

В Древней Греции, еще до рождения Гомера, «пейратес» — это всего лишь моряк, выходящий за пределы прибрежных вод и не довольствующийся только работой по перевозу товаров или людей из одного греческого порта в другой греческий порт или ловлей рыбы недалеко от берега, в пределах видимости своего дома (ловля рыбы в открытом море еще только в далеком будущем, да и то лишь в небольшом объеме, так как в Средиземном море рыба водится, в основном, вблизи берега).