Yet Another 1480s Florentine dress...

... But this time, I think I finally perfected my pattern!

I've made two other attempts at this style, here, and here.

The first rendition, the blue gown, had some weird issues with the front closure. I learned a lot on that one. The second one, in turquoise, is much better on the front closure issue, but the bodice pattern isn't quite right. It's not as supportive as it needs to be - things creep downwards, and have to be periodically readjusted.

But no longer! May I present the purple gown!

This is my, "Ta da!" pose.

I basically took the bodice pattern from this project, moved the closure to the front, and took it in a good three inches directly under the bust, and inch or so from each seam. There's no way for the bust to creep downward, so everything stays where it's supposed to be. With no boning whatsoever. And, it's more flattering.

The skirt is still a giant rectangle knife pleated to the bodice. And on this gown, all stitches visible to the exterior were sewn by hand. It does develop a crease under the bust after wearing it for a while, but this doesn't bother me terribly.

The sleeves are in two separate pieces. The top portion laces to the shoulder and extends to just above the elbow. This is laced to the bottom portion, which is open along the outside of the arm, and held together with ribbons. This allows for some nice chemise poofs at the elbow and along the back of the forearm.

And here's some photographic proof of my hand stitching:

I also got some pictures in my overgown. Which looks awesome with this dress.

I also had to get a profile picture, like in so many of the period images.

One more...

Thanks to the crazy-talented Daisy Viktoria for taking all these pictures for me.

I've got several projects that I've been working on. I'm making three (count them, three!) Burgundian ensembles before Twelfth Night. Because I am overly ambitious, and perhaps a bit crazy. But seriously, why make one when you can make three? And I'm working on my red silk Eleanor of Toledo gown. Not as quickly as I'd like - I've been out of town too much recently for serious sewing. But I'm getting back to it now. More updates are coming soon!

Going Greek (as it were....)

Highland War is a small war/large camping event that my local group hosts every labor day weekend. In the desert. And it's reeaaaallly reeeeaaaaallllly hot.

So hot that I wasn't able to face the thought of lacing myself into even my coolest linen 15th century dresses.

So, what's a girl to do? Go Greek, of course. It's pre-period, but worth it for these very hot wars. These are very simple ancient Greek dresses. I'm not sure that it even counts as sewing. It's a tube of fabric pinned at the shoulders. They're all made of linen. I also brought a couple of friends, and dressed them up in Greek dresses as well.

Here's Lizzy:

Here's Joella:

And here's me:

Here we are pretending to be Greek statues:

And here we are being Grecian Urns from that one scene in The Music Man:

We also took a normal picture:

I made a second Greek dress for the following day, when sadly, my friends had to go home. This one is handkerchief weight linen, and silk for the top layer. My face is slightly sunburned from the previous day.

I was really proud of figuring out the hairstyle. I pretty much copied it from a picture of an actual Greek statue.

More actual sewing soon. Also, adventures in shoe making.

It's a Banner!

This probably classifies as more of an embroidery project than a sewing project.

I had a friend offer to teach me how to make a resist-dyed silk banner with my personal arms (as registered with the College of Heralds in the Society for Creative Anachronism, for any non-SCA followers), but our schedules never quite got together. But as the fall camping season approaches, I really wanted to go ahead and get one finished. So, I decided to stitch one together out of what I had laying around.

I registered my device only a few months after joining the SCA. In heraldry-speak, it is:

Argent, in pale a peacock azure perched on a threaded needle fesswise point to sinister sable within a bordure azure.

It's made of linen. I appliqued the needle and peacock onto the white background by hand. I basically just folded the edges under and whip stitched it down. Then I stitched the blue border around the white field, and attached the back lining and the top loops by machine. The feet were especially tricky, but I think it turned out well.

All the detail on the peacock is hand embroidered, with black perle cotton that I had laying around.

The wing details, the peacock's eye and crest, and the feather eyes are outlined with a stem stitch.

For the tail feathers, the shaft was outlined with a chain stitch, and the feathers were edged with a singe feather stitch (which seemed appropriate).

For the thread going through the eye of the needle, I simply couched down a braided cord.

Right now I have my banner hanging on the wall of my sewing room, but when I go camping, I plan to display it outside my pavilion. Maybe I'll still make a dyed silk banner some day, but for now, I'm perfectly happy with this one.