Thanksgiving Pilgrims – Paul and Pamela

Let’s go back to sometime in November 2016, Thanksgiving was coming soon, and I thought it would be fun to make two Pilgrims. I wanted them to be as historically accurate and detailed as they could be while still being simple.

So I did a lot of research on how the Pilgrims dressed, how many layers they wore, and what each garment was called. It was so much fun! I learned that the Pilgrims didn’t wear all black clothes with big white collars, tall hats, and buckles on their shoes, their everyday clothing was actually very colorful!

When I try to sketch out my ideas it never really turns out how I see it in my mind. But this time I did make a couple of sketches, here they are (please excuse the smudges and terrible handwriting):
I wasn’t sure what their names would be until writing this post, but I’ve decided on Paul and Pamela. Also, at first I was thinking that they would be husband and wife, but now they look more like brother and sister.

Paul stands 12 ¼” tall and Pamela, stands 12 ⅝” tall.
I used Lilly Sugar N’ Cream, and my 3.5 mm hook to make both dolls.

Pamela, wears a tangerine colored petticoat, a yellow waistcoat, a white ruffled collar, and a coif on her head.

Paul is wearing black stockings, purple breeches, a purple doublet, a small ruffled collar, and a black “felt” hat.

Now that I’ve quickly described what they’re wearing, let me go into more detail.

Let’s start with Pamela’s clothing:
A petticoat is an ankle-length garment, and it is basically what we would call a skirt today, sometimes women wore many petticoats at a time.
A waistcoat is a short, long-sleeved, close-fitting jacket. I designed the waistcoat to be kinda low-cut, so the shift (more on that in a bit) could be seen underneath, I thought that look was really pretty.

Underwear back then was a long-sleeved loose-fitting garment worn next to the skin. For women it was called a “shift”, and for men it was called a “shirt”.
And a coif is a close-fitting cap that covers the back and sides of the head. Sometimes women also wore felt hats over the coif.

Now for Paul’s clothing:Stockings were generally knitted of wool, and sometimes sewn with linen or other fabrics.Breeches are baggy knee-length pants, and a doublet is a short, long-sleeved jacket worn over a shirt. The doublet is similar to a women’s waistcoat.

Hats were made of felt, and had wide brims to shade them from the sun.

Here are some more pictures of Paul and Pamela:
I hope you enjoyed reading about Paul and Pamela!
Leave a comment and tell me what you think about them!

Until next time…

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