A garment of which there are huge numbers of surviving examples, as well as painted depictions, is the late 16th century – early 17th century woman’s waistcoat or jacket. Such garments seem to be almost entirely English, and their survival is perhaps mainly thanks to their small size and intricate embroidery. It’s not very easy to cut them down and turn them into anything else!
Such garments were informal wear for noble women, while the gentry considered them formal wear. Decoration varied from simple wool embroidery on fustian to metallic threads on linen or silk, complete with hundreds of metal spangles.
Possibly the most famous jacket is the Margaret Layton one, since not only does the jacket still exist, so does a portrait of it being worn! Such a survival is rare for something for so old, and it gives valuable insight into how such garments were worn.
“The waistcoat has long, tight sleeves, narrow shoulder wings, semi-circular cuffs and a small curved collar at the back neck, dating it to about 1610. Made of linen, it is hand sewn and lined with coral silk taffeta. Originally the jacket was fastened with pink silk ribbons. In the 1620s, an edging of spangled silver-gilt bobbin lace was added. Fragments remain of the original silk ribbons used for fastening. The waistcoat is embroidered in detached buttonhole, stem, plaited braid, chain, couching and dot stitches, with knots and speckling, with coloured silk threads, silver-gilt threads and spangles.”
V&A Museum
The jacket had the lace added in the 1620s, but as fashion was changing, waistlines had risen. Rather than further alter the jacket drastically, Margaret Layton instead wore her petticoat higher up over the jacket, hiding its lower waistline.
For more pictures of the jacket, see its page on the V&A website. There are nearly 100 detailed pictures of the embroidery and construction!
Another jacket held by the V&A with a huge number of images is this loose fitting one from c.1590-1630.
“This simple unlined jacket represents an informal style of clothing worn by women in the early 17th century. Unlike more fitted waistcoats, this loose, unshaped jacket may have been worn during pregnancy. A repeating pattern of curving scrolls covers the linen from which spring sweet peas, oak leaves, acorns, columbine, lilies, pansies, borage, hawthorn, strawberries and honeysuckle embroidered in coloured silks, silver and silver-gilt threads. The embroidery stitches include chain, stem, satin, dot and double-plait stitch, as well as knots and couching of the metal threads. Sleeves and sides are embroidered together with an insertion stitch in two shades of green instead of a conventionally sewn seam.
Although exquisitely worked, this jacket is crudely cut from a single layer of linen, indicating the work of a seamstress or embroiderer, someone without a tailor’s training. It has no cuffs, collar or lining, and the sleeves are cut in one piece. The jacket was later altered to fit a thinner person. The sleeves were taken off, the armholes re-shaped, the sides cut down, and the sleeves set in again.”
V&A Museum
Unlike many other extant jackets, it is embroidered entirely in silk, without the use of metallic threads or spangles that are so visible on so many of the others. The fact that it survives while still being so loose fitting is also interesting, since it wouldn’t have been difficult to cut it down into on of the more fashionable jackets of the later 1630s.
One jacket that has been cut down and altered is this one.
The neckline has been cut down, cutting into the embroidery, probably so that it could be worn as a masque costume. The sides have been taken in, and the armscyes made smaller by adding pieces to them. It doesn’t seem to be a particularly skilled job, but since masques tended to take place in the evening, in candle light, it is unlikely that anyone would have noticed!
A jacket that was also altered for a masque (though in a very different way!) is also held by the V&A.
“Four pieces forming a woman’s waistcoat made of bleached linen and embroidered with coloured silks, silver and silver-gilt filé and spangles. The pattern of the embroidery comprises a lattice of geometric strapwork in plaited braid stitch with threads. Worked inside the strapwork compartments are flowers, fruits and leaves in coloured silks in detached buttonhole stitch. The grapes are similarly worked, but raised for a three-dimensional effect.
The waistcoat was probably altered in the 1620s to wear as masque costume. The fronts were removed, shortened and new gores added, then sewn to new silk backs (not meant to be seen when worn) The waistcoat probably had a scattering of silver-gilt spangles. Many more, each topped with a glass bead, were added, filling the linen ground and almost obscuring the pattern of the embroidery…
…The British philosopher and writer Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote an essay, ‘Of Masques and Triumphs’, in 1594, advising on the colours and decorations most effective for masque costume. He recommended spangles, ‘as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost, and not discerned.’”
V&A Museum
On that note, I think I’ll just present you with a collection of some of the other beautiful embroidered jackets still in existence!
Woman’s close-fitting long sleeved jacket, c.1610-1620 with “centre-front fastening and a round neck, embroidered with fine black wool in a pattern of barberries.” Museum of London 
Waistcoat, c.1610-1620. “While a number of embroidered linen waistcoats survive in museum collections, this is an unusual example of one made of silk. Its embroidery pattern follows the characteristic design of this period, with scrolling stems. However the floral motifs are quite abstract, moving away from the naturalism typical in embroidery in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
The waistcoat has been altered twice, first to reduce the fullness below the waist. The second alteration was in increase the width across the back and around the armholes, either for the original wearer or for another larger person.” V&A Museum
Jacket, c. 1615-1620. “A range of beasts, real and fantastic, flowers, birds and insects adorn the jacket, each enclosed within leaf, fruit or flower-shaped compartments as part of the naturalistic design.
The tragedy of this masterpiece of erudition and design is its deteriorating condition. The dye that created the inky black colour of the silk embroidery thread was fixed with iron. Over the years, the iron oxidises (rusts) causing the silk thread to disintegrate. There are to date no modern conservation techniques to halt this disintegration.” V&A Museum
Waistcoat Panel with a triangular insertion or gore, inserted into the lower edge. It is embroidered in a repeating pattern of strawberries in shades of pink and red to represent stages of ripening. The silver-gilt thread is worked mainly in plaited braid stitch and the silks in detached button-hole stitch. C.1615, V&A Museum 
Woman’s bodice or waistcoat (c.1615-1618) in linen embroidered with light blue, cream, light green, pink red and yellow silk, silver and silver-gilt threads and spangles worked predominately in corded detached buttonhole and plaited braid stitch with satin and sword edging and woven wheel stitch in a rinceau pattern of repeated flowers, including roses, borage and blue bells, foliage, butterflies and caterpillars within curling stems outlined with small red stitches. Burrell Collection 
Jacket, c. 1616: “In this seventeenth-century jacket, floral and vegetal motifs are accounted for with scientific clarity but assembled along traditional continuous meanders. Like seventeenth-century still-life painting in its global reach and analytical approach, the jacket suggests both abundance and taxonomy.” MET Museum 
“A bodice panel of ivory linen from a lady’s embroidered jacket, worked with curling gilt thread tendrils with pea pods, pansies, fruit, butterflies, dragonflies and caterpillars, English, circa 1620-30,” Christies 
Waistcoat, c.1620-1625: “The blackwork embroidery is of exquisite quality and is worked in a continuous pattern throughout the body of the garment. The extremely fine speckling stitches create the shaded effect of a woodblock print. The waistcoat is unlined and embellished with an insertion of bobbin lace in black and white linen at the back of each sleeve, and a edging of bobbin lace in the same colours.” V&A Museum 
Waistcoat, c.1630-1640. “The high waist and full sleeves set into the back of this jacket are characteristic of women’s dress of the 1630s. The pattern of ornate and complex floral shapes was probably inspired by Italian woven silks of the same decade featuring similar designs. Chain stitch, satin stitch, back stitch and speckling stitch have been used in the embroidery.” V&A Museum 
Waistcoat, c. 1630-1640. “The style of embroidery is quite unusual: a striking design of meandering lines rather than the naturalistic floral patterns typically seen on earlier embellished waistcoats. This abstract design is probably imitating the ‘wave and flower’ patterns of Italian woven silks of the 1620s and 1630s. The sycamore motif used here may be symbolic of sorrowful love. Also unusual is the waistcoat’s modest fabric; a mix of cotton and linen, called fustian, which was often used for linings. The embroidery, however, is carried out in silver thread and embellished with silver bobbin lace and silver spangles.” V&A Museum