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.

Two upcoming projects

For my SCA persona, I've finally settled on mid-16th century northern Italy. And so, I want some clothes that are Italian. Italian clothes appeal to me because while they are sumptuous and rich and all the things I love about 16th century costume, they don't appear to be as uncomfortable as Northern European styles. After making and wearing my Elizabethan dress to an SCA event, I've noticed that the corset and farthingale and bumroll impose some limitations. I was no use in helping put up and take down the shire's dragonwing. I also had to sit straight up on the edge of a chair through most of the day. When I tried to go into the very tiny bathroom, I realized that my farthingale was not going to fit in there at all. I was afraid I was just out of luck until someone pointed me in the direction of the handicap port-a-privy (which was thankfully pretty clean).

Italian styles most likely use corsets, but not until much later than surrounding countries. Until very late in period, even the stays that were used seem to be much less stiff than their northern European counterparts. Farthingales and especially bumrolls are less prominent, or even optional.

And so, I'm planning to make two ensembles from 16th century Northern Italy.

First, to ease myself into this slowly, I'm planning to make a working-class dress. This was inspired mostly by the portraits of Vicenzo Campi. This one was the first to catch my eye:



The dress is slightly high-waisted, which a wide neckline and narrow straps. The skirt is pleated into the waist of the bodice.



This painting shows several more examples. I especially love the lady in green in the back with her detachable sleeves hanging down her back. It looks like the bodices were laced together either at the side back, like the lady in pink in the center, or at the front. You can also see how the lady in pink's sleeves are tied on with ribbons. The fruit seller in the previous portrait just has red ribbons handing from the lacing points.

And, of course, there's the well-to-do fruit seller with her extra-fancy partlet and beautiful coral necklaces. I think this shows how the basic dress can be smartened-up with a few accessories to go from scullery maid to well-to-do merchant's wife.



I'm planning to make the dress out of light-colored linen, and am planning to explore "boning" the bodice with hemp cord. This will hopefully give it some support, but still be flexible and comfortable, and maintain the correct, slightly curvy, shape. An embroidered apron will finish the whole thing off. For the portraits and discussion on Italian working-class clothes, the page on the Festive Attyre website was very helpful, and can be found here.

For my second project, I'm planning to step backwards 50 years or so, and make a 1520s Venetian upper-class ribbon-tie-front dress and balzo.

This project was inspired by the invaluable resource that is The Realm of Venus. The ribbon-tie-front dresses occur throughout the 1520s and 1530s, though they do become more ornate as time progresses. I'm opting for a more simple, 1520s variety.





The camica, or chemise, is wide and gathered at the neck, but open at the wrists. Waistlines are still high, and necklines are square or slightly rounded. Straps are narrow. Skirts are pleated to the bodice with box or knife pleats. Sleeves are attached with ribbons, and can be quite large. Some are gathered in cuffs, and some are just open. And in the most distinctive feature, the dress closes down the front, with a small gap through which the camica shows, with ribbons. Mine will be made out of emerald green silk suiting, which I found online for $6.50/yard. I'm thinking I'll probably trim the front edges and tie the front with black ribbon. I haven't yet decided whether I'll make matching or contrasting sleeves - it might depend on how much fabric I have left after making the bodice and skirt.

I only found one portrait of a woman wearing both a ribbon-tie-front dress and a balzo, and it is from the 1530s and a little more ornate, but both styles were concurrent, so I see no problem with wearing them together.



The balzo is a "rotund feminine headpiece" that originated in the 15th century in a very tall form. It fell into disuse in the late 1400s, then reappeared in the 1520s and 1530s in a shorter, wider version.





I'm going to attempt construction using the instructions created by Maestra Damiana Illiara d'Onde in her "The Wonderful, Bulbous Balzo" article. The frame will be made out of some of the reed I bought for corset-boning (there's a ton of it left). It will, hopefully, then be covered in black silk. Balzi were then decorated with bows or pearls or cords or artistic gathers in the fabric. I'm not sure where I'm going with that yet, but I'll probably add some green to make it coordinate with the gown.

I hope to start on the balzo tomorrow. I had intended to start tonight, but seem to have misplaced some of my materials in the Great Sewing Room Reorganization project. Pictures to come as things happen.