ticoat under your farthingale to keep warm and to prevent any flashes of leg, put that on now. Petticoats were underskirts worn both for decoration (often an overskirt would be tucked up to display a pretty underskirt) and for warmth. Decorated petticoats were worn over a farthingale and bumroll (see the next two sections), but flannel under-petticoats are also documented as being worn underneath the farthingale. The tailors' patterns of the time, and surviving petticoats and skirts, most commonly show slightly gored or flared pieces gathered or pleated to a waistband. For more information on petticoats, visit this page on Elizabethan Petticoats Put on your farthingale/hoop skirt. The Spanish farthingale, worn from approximately 1540-1580, was a cone-shaped underskirt stiffened with willow osiers or other materials. The design for this farthingale was imported from Spain; hence the name . It was this undergarment which created the signature early Elizabethan A-line skirt . As the century waned, it gradually gave way to the French Farthingale, which had a different look altogether. For more info on the farthingale and its evolution throughout the Elizabethan era, look at the sections on the History of the Farthingale and Making Elizabethan Farthingales. The corset/pair of bodies. This was a close-fitting stiffened garment, usually with a wooden busk down the front to make it flatter and stiffer. The pair of bodies, or some comparative type of stiffening, is essential for all middle class and upper class Elizabethan gowns; even if you have a beautiful bodice and sleeves, the period effect will be ruined by the torso's natural lumps and bulges if you go without a corset, unless the bodice itself is heavily boned (in which case it is itself called a pair of bodies--you have to love period terminology). Look at the sections on the History of the Elizabethan Corset, Corset Materials, Corset Patterns and Sewing a Corset Together to find out ...
