Another 1480s Florentine Gown and Overgown

I enjoy wearing my 1480s Florentine gown so much that I had to make a second one.

The gown itself is made of a turquoise linen. Probably not a period color, but I enjoy wearing it. The bodice is interlined and lined, and has about five cable tie bones along the front of each side. It laces down the front with hand bound eyelets. In this version of the pattern, I eliminated the front curve from the pattern of my blue one - it laces much more smoothly. I also attempted to fix some of the shoulder weirdness present in the blue one, which was somewhat successful, but not completely. The skirt is simply a large rectangle, knife pleated into the waist.

The sleeves are of course, detachable. They tie into the shoulder of the gown at four points. They're solid until just above the elbow, and lace together with ladder lacing from elbow to wrist. I like this sleeve design much better than the sleeves on my blue gown. I couldn't seem to get the blue sleeves laced tight enough, and they shifted and looked odd. As I couldn't find any matching turquoise ribbon for lacing, I opted to go with a contrasting mulberry color.

The overgown is made of a completely non-period polyester cotton blend. It uses basically the same pattern as the bodice, but with a deep "V" in the front. The skirt is knife pleated to the bodice, and has a slight train. The only fastening is one hook and eye at the center front waist. I wanted to be able to put it on for court, and run around in just my linen dress the rest of the day. I tried it out this past weekend, and it fits the bill nicely. Here's another picture from another, much sunnier, day, before my sleeves were finished. With my friend Christmas, who made a similar dress.

As a bonus, here's a couple of pictures of me fighting the Frost Dragon in my dress.

16th Century Embroidered Partlet

After seeing the portrait of Isabella di Medici in Moda a Firenze, I have wanted to make an embroidered partlet. This partlet is made of white linen with an embroidered band, and an incorporated double box pleated ruff. The pattern was taken from this site, which has online copies of 16th and 17th century pattern books for embroidery, cutwork, lace making, and other goodies. I hadn't done embroidery before, (and had no luck with my attempt at blackwork - my eyes go crazy trying to count threads) so I simply traced the pattern onto the linen with a fabric pen that fades in water, and went over the lines with a chain stitch in cotton embroidery thread. When finished, I simply dipped the piece in water, and the fabric pen lines disappeared. I'm not sure if the chain stitch would have been correct for the 16th century (most of the references I saw for it were much earlier), but I feel that it turned out well. Pictures!

1560s Blue Silk Venetian

I was supposed to go to the Caid coronation today. The new king and queen stepped up in 16th century Venetian, and asked anyone who was so inclined to dress to match. I had been meaning to make a Venetian for a while, so I took up the challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't make it due to last minute car trouble. But here's the gown! And thanks on this project to to the Realm of Venus for consolidating all those portraits and being generally awesome.



Under layers consist of a separate Elizabethan style corset, and a silk taffeta underskirt, to give the skirt a little more body. The corset is left over from my burgundy velvet Elizabethan, and the underskirt is made of three yards of copper-colored silk taffeta, cartridge pleated to a band.



Over that goes the white linen chemise, and the dress. The dress is made from 6-7 yards of blue silk shirting that I found on sale from an online fabric store ($6/yard!). The bodice is constructed similar to the Elanor of Toledo square neck gown from the Janet Arnold book. It's cut in three pieces, and has a deep "V" in the center front. It's lined in linen, and interlined with plain weave cotton. I sewed three boning channels along the front opening, and filled them with jute cording. It keeps the center front line just stiff enough to keep the lacing from buckling sides, but isn't as stiff as rigid boning. Each side of the center, "V" shaped opening has sixteen lacing rings sewn along the inside edge. And of course, it's ladder-laced with gross grain ribbon.



Since the fabric was only 45 inches wide, I used four panels for the skirt, and cartridge pleated them to the bodice.

The sleeves were a bit of a challenge. I was beginning to run low on fabric at this point as well, which added to the challenge. I also, as usual, got in a hurry and forgot to take pictures of the intermediate steps.

I cut the lining in my usual sleeve pattern, which I plan to write about in the future. I cut the same pattern from the silk, for the bottom part of the sleeve. The top of the sleeve is made from nine, 2-inch wide finished strips of silk. A gathered piece of white linen is stitched between the silk strips and the lining. Lace cuffs are stitched on the wrist edge. The sleeves are attached to the bodice with six gold buttons and loops.





I have a number of accessories with this gown. There's a rather plain partlet made of very sheer white silk. I had a lot of fun making jewelery for this gown as well: a double loop gold and pearl necklace that ends in a pin/pendant, and a girdle with pearls and chunky gold beads. All the pearls are glass, and from Jo Anns. I very quickly (at about 9:00 pm last night) threw together a sheer white silk veil.




My favorite accessory for this ensemble was the Zibellino. These little critters are also called flea furs. I believe the original belief was that if you carried one of these around, fleas would be attracted to the pelt rather than to you. Then, it became one of those weird fashions that take on a life of their own.




I asked a friend to sculpt the head for me, out of sculpy. I received the pelt as a gift. I colored the head with a couple of layers from a gold leafing pen (found at Jo-Anns), then glued a small square of silk to the back of the head, and stitched the pelt to the silk. I thought this would be the best method, as I didn't want to glue the pelt. I then made a little "harness" for the head out of tiny glass pearls, and added a clasp so I can attach him to the end of my belt if I want to, like in some of the portraits.




Very very fun project. I hope I get to wear it soon. When I do, I'll take lots of pictures.