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!

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.

1480s Florentine gowns

My best friend and original Living Dress Form, Natalie, decided to come and see me for an SCA event. And so, of course, I had to dress her up. As such, I needed something amazing that could be accomplished in a short amount of time, as I only started a week or so after Pentathlon. And, I wanted it to be Italian, as we both love the country.



I decided to stay away from the 16th century, since Natalie wouldn't be present for a fitting. I settled on a late 15th century Florentine dress. Here are some period portraits. Thanks is once again due to the Festive Attyre website for consolidating all these images in one place.






And here's how it all turned out:



We're each wearing a handkerchief-weight linen camica with the neckline gathered into a band, and the sleeves left open at the wrist, Venetian style.

Natalie's dress is made of red linen. It laces at both sides with hand-bound eyelets. Lacing on both sides probably isn't strictly necessary, but I made the gown before she arrived, and I wanted to have some wiggle-room in case it didn't fit correctly. Happily, the fit was almost perfect. The neckline is cut in a deep V, and is attached across the front with two cords via 8 metal lacing rings. The skirt attached to the bodice with knife pleats.




The sleeves are separate, and attach to the shoulders of the gown via 6 hand-bound eyelets. The sleeves are sewn together until just above the elbow. Below that point, they're laced together with metal lacing rings.




The necklace is also of my making, of beads from JoAnns. And I also braided her hair up in a not-quite-period, but still quite fun style.



My dress is of blue linen, and laces up the front with hand-bound eyelets. I need to ask someone to drape a similar pattern on me, as the shoulders aren't quite cut correctly on this one. I cut a curve in the front center opening, but I think it's not quite right - I should have cut a gentler curve that started a little lower. My bodice is interlined with a single layer of linen canvas, and I have six cable-tie bones across the front to maintain a smooth line under the bust. My skirt is also attached to the bodice with knife pleats.




The sleeves are attached to the shoulder with hand-bound eyelets. My sleeves are not connected at the back of the arm at all, but lace the entire way down, with a cut out for the elbow. I had originally planned to make hand-bound eyelets for the backs of the sleeves as well, but ran out of time, and ended up using ribbon loops. I attempted ladder-lacing, but the sleeves buckled, and were generally wonky and not tight enough. I'm going to try to lace them spirally next time.





My necklace is also made of beads from JoAnns. My real hair braided in two braids, which are then crossed and pinned at my neck. I have a false braid running around the top of my head, "taped" in place with a blue ribbon.

I also made overgowns, but we didn't wear them except to take a couple of pictures. These are the tabbard-style overgowns - I think I would be more likely to wear one that was more fitted.




All in all, I was very pleased with the way these gowns turned out. And we had such a fun time at the event. When Natalie returned home, she found this on her facebook - we've come a long way since our first costuming adventure together.

1580s Italian Working Class dress

I actually finished this project in late January, but haven't posted about it yet.

I entered this dress in the Caid Pentathlon, and won first place in Costume Construction at the beginner level (!!!!!). Here it is displayed at Pentathlon:



Rather than re-typing a dress description, I'm going to use the description from my Pentathlon documentation.

The dress consists of a chemise (or camica in Italian), a bodice with attached skirt, detachable sleeves, an apron, and a partlet.

Camica or Chemise: The camica is made of a remnant of cotton I found in a thrift store. The neckline is gathered into a ruffle, and a narrow band of the same fabric is stitched around the neckline to hold the ruffle in place. The sleeves of the camica were gathered into a ruffle with a short slit running up the back of the arm. Two eyelets were sewn into sides of the wrist, so they could be laced together with a ribbon. When the ribbon is removed, and the sleeves can be rolled up above the elbows.

Dress: The bodice and skirt are made of light green linen. No commercial pattern was used. The general shape is taken from burial dress of Elenor of Toledo, as described by Janet Arnold in Patterns of Fashion 3. Though Elenor of Toledo’s dress is a higher class, I felt safe to assume the basic shape would stay the same. The bodice is made of three layers. An interlining consists of two layers of linen sewn into ¼ inch channels and “boned” with a mixture of jute and hemp cord. The lining is yellow linen, and the outer layer consists of light green linen. It laces spirally up the center front by means of a ribbon sewn to either side of the center front opening, and tacked down at intervals, which acts as substitute lacing rings.



The skirt is made of three A-shaped panels of light green linen, and is cartridge-pleated and sewn to the bodice. A small gap if left in the center front of the skirt below the center opening of the bodice to allow the wearer to get in and out of the dress. The gap is generally covered by the apron. The bodice and skirt are trimmed with a narrow band of black wool. Four hand bound eyelets are sewn into each shoulder to provide lacing points for attaching the sleeves. Or, when it’s too hot for sleeves, ribbons in a contrasting color can be tied through the lacing points and allowed to dangle over the camica sleeves.

Sleeves: The sleeves are made of a medium-weight bright yellow linen. My original intention was to choose a yellow in a slightly more muted tone. However, this color was a result of ordering fabric online, and once it arrived, I found I liked it. The sleeves are fairly narrow and simple in shape, and are often depicted in a color other than that of the rest of the dress. Mine have four hand-bound eyelets to match the four on the shoulders of the bodice, and are laced in with short pieces of narrow black ribbon.

Partlet and Ruff: The partlet and attached ruff are made of hankercheif-weight white linen. The ruff is made of a 2 inch wide finished strip of linen, and is set in double stacked box pleats. The partlet is finished with a narrow hem and stitched to the ruff.
Apron: The apron is made of medium weight blue linen. Many of the aprons depicted have some sort of trim. As such, I wanted to liven up my plain blue apron, so I decided to make my apron in three finished pieces, then join them in white crochet threat using a twisted insertion stitch.

Accessories: I sometimes wear this dress with a straw hat when outdoors, as two Vecellio engravings depict lower class women in northern Italy wearing straw hats. When indoors, I generally wear my hair in a high bun, and leave my head uncovered. On my legs, I wear linen stockings and purchased leather shoes. The only other accessory is a mock coral necklace, as illustrated by this well-to-do peasant woman from another Campi painting.

I love how this gown turned out. The colors are so bright and happy. However, I did have some trouble with the bodice. The jute and hemp cord seemed to hold up well and provide sufficient support when I initially tried it on. However, after wearing it for a two hour car ride, it seemed to loose its supportive abilities. Or perhaps the linen stretched. But by 11 in the morning or so, the first day I wore it, it had developed a deep crease under the bust line. Sadly, I didn't realize it was so bad before this picture was taken, and it turned out to be the only picture I got that day.



I need to fix this. I'm thinking about partially deconstructing the bodice and placing 6 or 8 rigid bones strategically across the front of the bodice. I would like to try hemp boning again, with thicker hemp cord. This bodice was boned with mostly jute cord, which is much less stiff than hemp. A quadrupled length of thin, jewelry weight hemp was used in the front of the bodice, but I believe thicker cord would work better.