What to do with a train...

[lovetriangle]

Ok, the Pfalzgräfin Dorothea Sabina von Neuburg dress from JA's PoF has a train. And I like it. I've cut my skirt with a train but the reality is that I'll be wearing this outdoors over dirt, rocks, twigs, etc. 

I've see the Holbein sketch of the Tudor dress kirtled up in the back but I've never seen anything showing later period dresses pinned up. Is there such an example out there? Or any such evidence as to what late period ladies did with their trains out of doors? I really don't want to cut the skirt straight but I will if kirtling was just not done around 1600.

Comments

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want to reverse engineer it, assume that if people were kirtling up their trains in 1530, they probably were doing it in 1570, 1580, 1590, etc. since, at least as far as I know, detachable trains weren't in existence.

But yeah. Trains are nice in theory, but horrible in practice. I was sorely tempted to put one on the Eleanor Benlowes gown, but I'm glad I restrained myself. Katie had a good train on her Tudor gown and I watched people step on it all night even when it was kirtled up at the back, including herself (and a few instances where she forgot her petticoat was trained as well and stood REALLY close to closing elevator doors) and finally, someone just stepped really good and hard on the hem during a dance and ripped the whole front half of the skirt from the bodice, thereby signaling an end to the night's festivities.

So yeah, trains are more pain than they're worth.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, but you're talking to the girl who made my Cranach gown 6" longer than floor length so it would be "correct". nnnnnkay? I never said I was SANE... LOL!

I figured kirtling must have been done but I was hoping for a nifty image I hadn't seen before... *sigh* oh well. I'm still trying to figure out how someone would step on a gown that was kirtled... or at least in some way more significant than the kind of stomping that happens in my regular Eliz. clothing...

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Then go for it. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just trying to say that in *my* experience, it has been nothing but a hassle.

I'm still trying to figure out how someone would step on a gown that was kirtled

You and me both. I thought she'd be fine with the train kirtled up, but all I know is that Katie came running over to me clutching her skirt which was completely ripped out of the bodice, seething that someone had stomped on the skirt somehow while she was dancing. And I have yet to reattach the skirt, because it's just so disheartening to see all that hard work gone because some idiot can't keep track of his own feet in relation to a long skirt.

And he didn't even apologize! ::sigh::

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

LOL, I know what a hassle it is... that's why I'm hoping someone can talk me out of it! LOL!

But alas, I think Realm of Venus has just cemented my need for the train. ... now if only I could find a little boy...

"some idiot can't keep track of his own feet in relation to a long skirt. And he didn't even apologize! ::sigh::"
oh. my. god. Did she slap him? Anything? How could someone obviously damage someone else's property THAT badly and not bother to say sorry?!?!? I am astonished! But not surprised that he can't keep track of his feet. So few men nowadays can, as I learn teh hard way every single time I costume an opera that involves hoops, trains, togas, you name it...