My Medieval Houppelande Gown

Both of the above images are from the early part of the 15th century - the first is from between 1405-1410- and were a couple of my inspiration images for making a Houppelande gown.  

I had to go to an SCA event that had a theme of late 14th/early 15th century.  I've wanted to make a houppelande for a while so this was as good an excuse as any.  

The houppelande I made is based on the very early Italian styles for the dress.   I dyed some blue cotton brocade (the Italians had cotton) with RIT red Scarlett dye and it came out a stunning deep lilac as you see here.  The sleeves are my own pattern but the dress is a slightly changed version of McCalls M5155.  I changed the neckline for the body.   I had to piece the dress - which is very period and fine by me.  The sleeves are lined in some satin I had left over from my winter coat and the body is lined in some pink linen.   It's a heavy dress but not overly so.  I was quite happy to wear it...I just wish the belt didn't break...twice!

For the sleeves, I made a simple basic sleeve and then, rather than have the sides taper, I made them as big as I could at the wrist.  I ended up having to add gores to the sleeve to make it even bigger.