I can only barely recommend this pattern. I made View 5, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. I consider myself an intermediate sewer.
The directions on this pattern are ATROCIOUS.
The pattern seriously underestimated fabric usage; you really need about 11yd. fabric. The instructions never even mentioned the 5-6 yards of lining needed for the sleeves. Sizing was quite weird, especially in the shoulders. And I’d suggest adding 5-6″ to the bottom hem;
The photocopied primary sources were neat, but directions careered all over the three handout sheets. The diagrams were worse than useless. I still don’t know if I was supposed to put a neckline lining on it because, though it asks you to cut a lining, it never tells you to put it on.
However, once you toss out the instructions, the pattern actually was fairly easy to put together. Use your common sense. The garment has only 3 pattern pieces. I also made the shirt, and that was easy as pie. Came out gorgeous and soooo period looking.
My boyfriend thinks it feels a bit binding under the arms, and it sort of looks it, but it’s not a bother to him. Bigger guys might need some reworking on this though.
I recently made the doublet and the trunk-hose included in this pattern. To my surprise, both went together without a hitch. I didn’t really read the directions for the doublet because I’d been burned so badly on the cioppa, but it was fairly logical to put together. I probably should have tried to fit it better through the upper chest — mine came out a bit big there. But overall, easy to make and easy to figure out. The hose required extensive fitting on my victim, but they also came out well.
Cassandra’s doublet is shown in the image.
Rated 3 out of 5
Tara LaBella –
I have to agree that Period Patterns are not for the inexperienced (or the faint-hearted). As to the men’s Italian Renaissance Garments, quite frankly I haven’t had the nerve to make more than the shirt. The pleated over-garments have instructions that I finally figured out but, I’m not yet sure if it’s worth the amount of work as set forth in the instructions. (Did Renaissance tailors have the work space and time to spend doing things this way?) The shirt assumes that you know how to figure out how much cording yardage you will need and then attach ties to the neck and cuffs. Although I cut out the men’s 42 chest size, it’s much too tight under the arms for the intended wearer. (It fits me fine but I’m not even 5′ 4″ and wear a size 12 ladies pattern.) It needs extending in the armsceye to neck length more than in the torso’s waist to hem length to fit anyone over 5′ 8″, and especially for anyone 6′ or above.
Rated 4 out of 5
Catherine Olanich Raymond –
I made View V, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. Like other reviewers, I found the absurd pattern piece layout, misinformation about the amount of fabric required, and the ridiculous directions made the entire project take at least twice as long as it should have done.
Period Patterns borrowed an old trick from the earliest Victorian patterns and drew all three pieces directly on top of each other. That means the sewer either takes a HUGE pattern sheet to a photocopy shop and have three copies of this sheet made so she will have three individual pattern pieces (the Cioppa consists of only three pieces) or laboriously fold and pin and transfer the pattern shapes to muslin, thereby creating pattern pieces. Neither alternative is practical or satisfactory.
It is not possible to make the pattern with 8-1/4 yards of fabric for the outer and lining in the large size. I needed 10 yards of the fashion fabric, 2 more yards than the patterns specifies.
The instructions sheet explains that the reason the directions meander over three separate sheets of paper is to save costs. That’s a poor excuse but, it’s a minor fault compared to the fact that, what the directions tell you to do (once you find them all and read them) is insane.
Cassandra O’Connor –
I can only barely recommend this pattern. I made View 5, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. I consider myself an intermediate sewer.
The directions on this pattern are ATROCIOUS.
The pattern seriously underestimated fabric usage; you really need about 11yd. fabric. The instructions never even mentioned the 5-6 yards of lining needed for the sleeves. Sizing was quite weird, especially in the shoulders. And I’d suggest adding 5-6″ to the bottom hem;
The photocopied primary sources were neat, but directions careered all over the three handout sheets. The diagrams were worse than useless. I still don’t know if I was supposed to put a neckline lining on it because, though it asks you to cut a lining, it never tells you to put it on.
However, once you toss out the instructions, the pattern actually was fairly easy to put together. Use your common sense. The garment has only 3 pattern pieces. I also made the shirt, and that was easy as pie. Came out gorgeous and soooo period looking.
My boyfriend thinks it feels a bit binding under the arms, and it sort of looks it, but it’s not a bother to him. Bigger guys might need some reworking on this though.
I recently made the doublet and the trunk-hose included in this pattern. To my surprise, both went together without a hitch. I didn’t really read the directions for the doublet because I’d been burned so badly on the cioppa, but it was fairly logical to put together. I probably should have tried to fit it better through the upper chest — mine came out a bit big there. But overall, easy to make and easy to figure out. The hose required extensive fitting on my victim, but they also came out well.
Cassandra’s doublet is shown in the image.
Tara LaBella –
I have to agree that Period Patterns are not for the inexperienced (or the faint-hearted). As to the men’s Italian Renaissance Garments, quite frankly I haven’t had the nerve to make more than the shirt. The pleated over-garments have instructions that I finally figured out but, I’m not yet sure if it’s worth the amount of work as set forth in the instructions. (Did Renaissance tailors have the work space and time to spend doing things this way?) The shirt assumes that you know how to figure out how much cording yardage you will need and then attach ties to the neck and cuffs. Although I cut out the men’s 42 chest size, it’s much too tight under the arms for the intended wearer. (It fits me fine but I’m not even 5′ 4″ and wear a size 12 ladies pattern.) It needs extending in the armsceye to neck length more than in the torso’s waist to hem length to fit anyone over 5′ 8″, and especially for anyone 6′ or above.
Catherine Olanich Raymond –
I made View V, the Italian Renaissance Cioppa with the big big sleeves. Like other reviewers, I found the absurd pattern piece layout, misinformation about the amount of fabric required, and the ridiculous directions made the entire project take at least twice as long as it should have done.
Period Patterns borrowed an old trick from the earliest Victorian patterns and drew all three pieces directly on top of each other. That means the sewer either takes a HUGE pattern sheet to a photocopy shop and have three copies of this sheet made so she will have three individual pattern pieces (the Cioppa consists of only three pieces) or laboriously fold and pin and transfer the pattern shapes to muslin, thereby creating pattern pieces. Neither alternative is practical or satisfactory.
It is not possible to make the pattern with 8-1/4 yards of fabric for the outer and lining in the large size. I needed 10 yards of the fashion fabric, 2 more yards than the patterns specifies.
The instructions sheet explains that the reason the directions meander over three separate sheets of paper is to save costs. That’s a poor excuse but, it’s a minor fault compared to the fact that, what the directions tell you to do (once you find them all and read them) is insane.