Hi, this is all of the information I've been able to learn about the cut, fit,
seam placements, and fabrics of Claire's many bodices in Outlander seasons 1
& 2. In this video I'm primarily focusing on the bodices, and a bit on the
skirts and stomachers. None of her accessories or knitwear, and none of her
dresses or other irregularities. Someone else may have already done this research,
but I wasn't able to find it. Maybe it's buried away on some archive or forum, so
I thought I'd put up what I've figured out, as it could be helpful to somebody else.
Once you start taking screenshots, you soon fall down the rabbit hole of
gloriously mix-matched woolens -- they seem endless.
But according to Terry Dresbach, costume designer for Outlander, for
season 1 she settled on 4 skirts and 5 bodices that Claire wears regularly,
varied by mix-matching the pairings and adding some stomachers, accessories, and
knitwear. However, the loophole is the word
"regularly". There do appear to be somewhat more than 5 bodices in season 1.
My count landed at 8. Catriona Balfe was cast only two weeks
before shooting began. So the costume team had only two short
weeks to create her wardrobe. That is somewhat of a boon to us, because with
the shortened timeline, it is extremely likely that the wardrobe department made
a single pattern with a perfect fit, then used subtle variations to make all of
the bodices from the same base. There are three bodices that see the most
screentime. They're virtually identical in cut, with the same neckline shape,
skirt in the front, pleated peplum in the back, seam placement, and sleeves. The only
thing that separates them is color. Code names are the blue skirted bodice, the
brown skirted bodice, and the olive skirted bodice. The olive skirted bodice
has a narrow dark trim on the neckline and down the front. The brown
skirted bodice starts out plain, but later on it appears to get a makeover. It is
given a wide braided trim, though I'm not confident in my interpretation. It
appears twice with trim but because of the lighting it looks like two radically
different colors. But the texture of the braid looks the same. And when it first
appears, it has braids around the sleeves as well, but later the sleeve trim is
gone. Because we have no logical, in-universe reason for removing trim, I'm
going to leave it with a question mark. There is the velvet bodice, which has the
same back, but does not have the same skirt, rather it flares out. The sleeves
are similar, but more fitted, and lace onto the bodice with a leather cord.
And the center front of the dress meets, and is closed with hooks and eyes. There
is a narrow placket behind this to cover the corset between the hooks. At the end
of the witch trials, this bodice is ripped down the center back. This gives
us a nice chance to glimpse the inside edges. Claire continues to wear this torn
bodice until she reaches Lallybroch, and then it is never seen again.
R.I.P. velvet bodice. Then there is the blue laced bodice, which is nearly
identical in cut to the velvet bodice, but it again is parted to show a
stomacher. It has the same sleeves and flared out bottom front. The sleeves lace
on, sometimes with a leather cord, sometimes with a finer blue cord. This
bodice is part of the regular season 1 rotation until Claire dons it at the
end of episode 13, and wears it through the rest of the season. Then it is
presumably also retired. And these are, I believe, the 5 regular bodices Dresbach
was talking about. But there are 3 others. There is the tan tartan
bodice, which is the same cut as the blue laced bodice, but instead of sleeves,
knitwear is laced on to the arms. This bodice is only worn once in episode 4.
There is the chevron vest, which Claire frequently wears in her medical station.
It makes sense as a work bodice because it has a looser wrapped front, with no
boning. There is no peplum in the back and the front does a weird, asymmetrical
thing. It is also sleeveless. Overall, a comparatively comfortable bodice for
work. And finally, there is the brown fitted bodice, which is my favorite. It is
one of the most iconic looks, because it featured in all of the promo shots. Alas,
I was very sad to realize that it only appears a few short times in the actual
show. This bodice is slightly different, which leads me to wonder if perhaps it
was an early prototype bodice that they kept around, even though it wasn't the
final look they wanted to go with. The peplum in the back is shorter, and the
pleats have been sewn shut to make one smooth flare. The sleeves end just above
the elbow, and these are the only sleeves that do not have a short split in the
back. The front edge has been tapered down to a smooth line instead of a
rounded neckline split down the front. There is a subtle braid trimming the
front edges of the bodice. By comparing commonalities between all
the bodices, I think we can come close to recreating the original base
pattern. Let's start in the front. There is a seam going down the center of the
bust, and extending all the way up the front
shoulder-strap. Every single one of her bodices has this seam, with the only
exception being the fitted brown bodice, which is a pattern anomaly. It has a
single seam more similar to a standard princess seam, supporting my theory that
this bodice was an early prototype. This leads me to think that the purpose of
the bust seam is probably just to give her a bit of extra room, which you can
see in the tan tartan bodice, by the way the seam curves away from the stripes,
replacing the function of the standard princess seam with something a little
more unique and stylized. Next is the side seam, which doesn't appear to be
perfectly centered at the side, judging by the placement of the seam in the arm's
eye. It appears to be offset slightly towards the back. I'm cool with that
though, as it's slightly more historically accurate. Then there are
five seams in the back: the center, then two curved seams on each side. The widest
seam meets perfectly with the front seam curving over the strap. The middle seam
ends just inside the neckline of the strap. At the base, each seam looks like
it may be an inch and a quarter, or an inch and a half apart. There is no seam
joining the peplum to the bodice. It is all one piece. The folds of the peplum
lay so smooth and bulk-free, I would bet that the entire back is sewn from one
piece, which is a very historically accurate method, but I do not know the
name of it. Which leaves the mystery seam. That phantom seam which haunted me by
flitting in and out of existence. Some bodices has clearly had it, some seemed
not to. I began to assume all the bodices had it, and it was only poor lighting
preventing me from spotting it, until this screenshot. The seam is clearly not
there. And suddenly, I realized the answer. That particular seam is not for the bust.
I went back over my screenshots, and sure enough, the skirted bodices do not have
the seam, the flared bodices all do. The chevron vest doesn't have it either,
and it is the only one without any kind of peplum. While the back peplum is one
piece with the bodice, the skirted fronts clearly have another seam. This indicates
to me, that the front of the skirt is made with another flared piece sewn in.
But the bodices that flare out without a separate skirt, must not have
been able to flare enough between the offset side seam and the center bust
seam, so another seam was added between these, to give the base of the bodice
enough flare to make it over Claire's ginormous bum roll. So if you're going to
create a base pattern for yourself, I would recommend you start with the
McCall's version. It's not bad. The American Duchess version offered by
Simplicity is more historically accurate, but less screen accurate. If you choose
to use the McCall's pattern, let me show you how I would adjust the seams once
I'd made my mock-up. This does not include any patterning for the pleats,
peplum, skirts, or flares. Those would be a whole separate process and would require
a lot more than an illustrated rough sketch. Hopefully this will give you an
idea of how to make the McCall's pattern a little bit more screen accurate. The
sleeves are pretty good, though slightly too long, and missing the back split. The
front peplum on the pattern looks way too flared, but it might be because the
model isn't wearing much of a bum roll. I've found that autumn is the only time I can
find good fabric for Outlander wools. Other times of the year it simply isn't
available. Wool isn't cheap but luckily bodices
don't take much. Unlike her skirts. I've had luck searching for wools on Etsy and
Mood. Jo-ann's and fabric.com sometimes have cheaper synthetic alternatives.
There is Burnley and Trowbridge for 18th century reproductions, and there are lots
of companies, usually UK based, that sell all manner of high-end Tartans and wools.
A Canadian mill called GK Textiles Limited holds the copyright of the Mist
& Stone tartan for the skirt, but they do not intend to weave more unless they
had a large enough order. The blue skirted bodice appears to be a rich blue,
from a soft wool, possibly a brushed twill. The brown skirted bodice is
lightweight, and has less color variation. It is caramel-y brown, but changes a lot
depending on the light. The olive skirted bodice is a tricky one. In some lights it
looks more tan or a green-tinged Brown. I would guess it's a mixed olive and khaki
tweed woven wool. The velvet bodice also looks more green to me, almost a sage
green silk velvet, though in some cool lights it takes more blue tone, almost
becoming a teal. And the blue laced bodice:
it has a larger, rougher weave. You can tell the wool is a courser quality. The
color is infuriating. It seems navy in some lights, but the sun washes it out to
a gray blue. The tan tartan bodice is a... tan tartan. I haven't been able to
identify it. The chevron vest is a striped fabric sewn into a chevron
pattern. I don't know what it was, though it looks lighter weight and tightly
woven to me. It might be wool, but not necessarily. Linen or cotton are
possibilities. And the brown fitted bodice is a heavy looking brown wool
with lots of color variation. It looks like a boiled wool to me. Let's talk
about closures. Controversial opinion: I don't think the laces go through rings.
I think they used large black hooks without the eyes. Look at the way the
laces sit. They don't fold on top of each other,
they go behind the bodice and come back next to each other, and sometimes you can
even see two tiny spots of light at the edge. Hooks would also be very practical
from a production point of view. Faster to lace and way faster to unlace. You
wouldn't even need to untie and retie the knots. Also, when she wears the bodice
without laces, it would be very simple to put pins in the stomacher, across from
the hooks, and loop the hooks around the pins. The lacing cords vary in color and
lacing style. They are seen in cream, brown, and blue. Some of the laces are
definitely silk ribbon, others appear just a tad more substantial. Sometimes
she does not even lace up the bodice, but pins it directly to her stomacher.
Speaking of stomachers, let's count these maddeningly diverse things. There
are one or possibly two simple boned stomachers. The ribbing on it looks
raised, but I'm not sure whether that is woven into the fabric, or accomplished
through some kind of tiny cording. There's the fancy beaded stomacher, worn
once to dress up an outfit. The tan tartan matching stomacher, only worn with
the tan tartan bodice. The olive matching stomacher, worn with the olive bodice
and once with the brown bodice. The whitework embroidery stomacher, worn pretty
frequently. A blue stomacher to match the blue skirted bodice, and one to match the
blue laced bodice. These may or may not be the same stomacher, depending on how well
the blues match. There is the blue floral embroidered stomacher, the tambour
embroidered stomacher, and the gold brocade stomacher, which only got one
short bit of dimly lit screen time, and everlasting life through promo shots. In
season 2 we introduced the smocked white stomacher, the smocked(?) blue
stomacher, oh, and I almost forgot the embroidered leaves stomacher. That is a
borderline excessive number of stomachers, but they do seem to be an almost
universal pattern, so there's something. There are supposedly
4 skirts worn in season 1. There is the iconic Mist & Stone tartan skirt,
there is a brown skirt, and there is an olive skirt made from the same fabric as
the olive bodice. This brings us to 3. Now this is only
speculation, because it's impossible for me to know for sure, but I think there is
a second brown skirt. There are so many shades of brown in her wardrobe, some of
them are impossible to distinguish in different lighting. But the brown skirt
sometimes appears to be a warmer, more reddish brown, and sometimes it appears
to be a darker more tree-bark brown. If these are, in fact, the same jacket, the
skirts would have to be different to have that level of contrast. So I'm not
100% positive, but my best bet is that there are two slightly different
brown skirts. And let's briefly talk Claire's return to Scotland in the last
few episodes of season 2. Her camp wardrobe has been mercifully slimmed
down. She has a blue skirted jacket. It looks identical to her season 1
version, but I don't think it is. The fabric color looks different in the
light, more of a muted gray-blue, with a looser, woven texture. I could be wrong,
but look at the shoulder seams. See how well it matches up in season 2? See how
it was in season 1? Methinks a different jacket. She also gets to keep
her olive skirted bodice and the matching skirt, which is the combination
she wears home to the 40's, to later be burnt on the funeral pyre of my sympathy
towards Frank. However I'm not confident about this identification. It might be
another recreation meant to look like her original set. It does appear to be
more olive-toned than her season 1 set, and it does make sense for the costume
department to want to give season 2 a clean slate, though one that still
maintains her original style. However, they do reuse her stays and at least one
stomacher, so I don't know, I'm on the fence. Her reduced wardrobe is
supplemented by a new tartan skirt, and her Chevron medical vest has been
replaced by an identical vest in a cream fabric with a textured checked pattern.
It even has the same piping and shell button closure. And that's it for season
2. She keeps up the variation with the stomachers and the knits, but overall,
for a camp follower I was very happy with this as a reasonable amount of
clothing to haul around battlefields. So, there you have it. I'm mostly working on
patterning right now and that's what I was paying attention to, less on the
fabrics and knits and such. I'll post more if I happen to
become obsessively focused on another element of her wardrobe, but please
comment if you have any questions or any pics or information that I may be
unaware of. All of this is pure speculation based off screenshots, and I
will take any additional information I can get.
I plan on backing up all of my screenshots to a Pinterest board, which
I'll link below. Also, let me know if you'd like to see further progress
working on pattern adjustments, mock-ups or a final piece.