Late 16th Century Venetian Style Peasant Dress

 

Materials

3 1/2 yards of red linen/cotton blend from Fabric Mart

1/2 yard of cotton duck cloth

1/2 yard of white cotton

1/2 yard of linen rayon blend stripes from Fabric Mart

DMC thread because no one carries red linen and I thought the event originally was a weekend ago

White linen thread from Thimble and Plume

A boot lace

3 ish yards of trim I bought from Lace & Trims on ebay

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Pattern

I used McCalls M7763 for the bodice but with edits. I upped the neckline by at least a good inch. I took two inches off the front shoulder strap and redesigned them to be more narrow at the top. I took some off the upper inside of the front side seam as well.

The skirt is just pleated yardage that I then attached to the bodice. The apron is well, a rectangle with a long, thin strap of material to make the ties.

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First Wearing

I didn't get the chemise I wanted to wear with the outfit done in time.  I ended up just wearing a blouse I found at Goodwill that looked close enough.   

The bodice probably could have been laced a bit tighter but, overall, it was pretty comfy to wear.  I love the length of it and will probably make a couple more dresses from the pattern.

It was also the correct outfit to wear as it was pretty warm in the sun at the event.  Unfortunately, I had to leave early because the pup wasn't used to the heat.  She's fine - she cooled down quickly on the car ride home- but I just didn't want her to get sick.   

Research

It was pretty much based on the same images as I used for my friend's dress a couple of years ago.  This one in particular:

Pietro Ronzelli: Nativita di Maria, Chiesa del Carmine, Bergamo

I just did the inverse colors - primarily because I didn't have a bright red Venetian dress.  Now that I do, I think I'll work on making more chemises to wear with my dresses and gowns.  I'll need them come Pennsic!   Who else is going?

12th C Linen Dress

I had a lot of fun with this one. The material is 100% linen I got from Fabric Mart. Orginally, I wanted a nice Norse outfit with it. However, after seeing the material, it demanded to be more a 12th C Bliaut than anything else. Inspiration:

Both the above were taken from here. They are both middle of the 12th Century and I just love the dropped neckline to show the undergown. Patterns: Really, the teal undergown is your basic A-line tunic. The pink overgown, is pretty much a a-line gown with self drafted sleeves. There wasn't much that was complicated about this outfit which is why I love it. I've been wearing it during the online training I've been taking for work because why the heck not? Materials: Linen and thread. That's it! More stuffs: I wish I did have more to say other than it is so terribly comfortable and fun to wear. It's an easy dress up/dress down type of outfit which I love. I might add trim to it but I think it works as is.

Sari made into a 1490's Venetian dress

I made this back in May and forgot to post it.  Self-drafted out of a sari I found at a thrift store last year. Although the paisley pattern on the sari isn't accurate for the late 15th/early 16th c   (EDIT: Please see my latest research here on the paisley print actually being pretty accurate for the period) , the sari was too pretty to not be made into something.

The pallu of the sari ended up being the faux underskirt and the gauntlets. The bodice is made from the blouse piece and part of the hem of the original sari skirt. I cut up the sari skirt into five panels - three panels have a "flower" design on them and make up the overskirt fronts and the back of the dress. The plain (it has the hem treatment but not design on the body of it) parts of the skirt became the sides of the gown. The upper part of the skirt had a lovely trim detail that I cut off and made into the trim you see around the open front and around the faux front on the bodice.

It fits really well.  I can't wait for this COVID to be over and I can wear it to an event!

Yellow knit!

Back in August 2019, I bought one of the Fabric Mart Fashion Bundles.  It's just a mystery box of six yards of fabric.  In it, I got a yard and a half of a red knit, a couple of yards of a white cotton with a 1980's rainbow print on it, and almost three yards of a modal blend banana yellow knit.  Since this past weekend, I've been working on garments from the yellow knit.  In total, I made three items from it and I also made a shrug from the red knit (still have plenty left to do something else with the red knit!).

By no means a pretty picture but these are a very practical pair of gym shorts.  They are from New Look pattern number 6139. I'm not too concerned about how they look because, well, gym shorts.   They did come out well though.

The shrug is out of the same yellow modal knit and is edged in black lace.  The pattern is a modified Simplicity 4334.  I elongated the sleeves to elbow length because I don't want super short sleeves.  This looks fabulous on.  Also, I highly recommend the pattern if you can get your hands on it - it just has a lot of useful basic items and is a good wardrobe builder as the linked page suggests.

The above images are of the red shrug I made from the cotton blend (I think?) I got in the fashion bundle and a yellow t-shirt dress.  The shrug is also from Simplicity 4334 - with slightly shorter sleeves but still longer than the pattern.  The dress is McCalls 7432.  

This is the dress without the shrug and yes, it looks funny on the dress dummy.  That's because the dress dummy is a size 6 and I'm...not.  It's also short waisted and I'm not.  The dress actually fits well but is a bit clingy.  I might make a longer jacket to go with it or just wear the dress under sheer overdresses for now. 


I promise, some actual SCA clothing is coming soon!  I just need to clear out some of my "work" clothing projects and the UFO bin.   Also, I was waiting to loose some weight before I start back on garb.  Luckily, I'm finally managing to keep my weight down and, hopefully, can make some neat looking garb starting next week. 

Happy Easter!!!

Since, where I am, we are on lockdown, I decided this Easter to bring out the decorations as much as possible.  The tablecloth is a piece of barkcloth my Mom gave to me a bit ago.  I love the color and know enough about barkcloth that I am not cutting that up.  Instead, I just hemmed the edges.  

The chair covers are one of those thrift store disappointments turned into a lucky find.   I bought what I thought was 3 meters of linen for €10 back in February at my favorite thrift store.   When I unfolded it completely when I got home, rather than a small bit of embroidering near the hem, there were three large cut out and embroidered pieces in the middle of the fabric.  I threw the fabric to the corner until I decided I wanted to have a nice Easter dinner outside.

I realized the cutouts in the linen just happened to be the same shape as the back of the chairs.  I drafted a patter, cut everything out, sewed it up, and have two nice white linen chair covers for the garden chairs.  

The bunny on a top hat was just fun.  I bought that when I went out to get hand sanitizer.

Not the greatest picture but it works!   This is the dress I made out of some silk blend I got at Fabric Mart.  The lining in the body and the cuffs is also silk.   

The pattern is McCalls' 4061 and is from 1974.

I had to edit it a bit because the original pattern was just a bit too small.   I also drafted my own sleeves because I never like the pattern sleeves - no one needs that much ease!!!!   

The dress itself was pretty simple and straight forward.  I messed up the collar a bit but the rest of the dress came out well.  I think it might work slightly better with a knit material instead.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter!!!

New Look 6495 in black and magenta cotton knit!

This is a project that has been lagging in my UFO pile for a few months.  With Zona Rossa, I finally got around to making it. 

I did view C.  If I do the pattern again, I'd probably do view D as the skirt is LONG.  It's lovely, but it's longer than you'd expect because of the weight and stretch factor of the knit. 

I used a cotton knit I bought at Fabric mart last year or the year before that.  It was one of their sales. I didn't change anything about the pattern since I haven't done this one before and I'm always a bit antsy about knits. 

Not the greatest picture and in full Covid Fashion wear.   I didn't make the jacket - I think I got that at TJ Max years ago- but the mask and the dress are both things I've sewn.  :-) 

The yoke on the dress is funny - it's too big in the armscye and you can see it's concave at the neckline.  I think, if I make this again, I'd skip the bodice section and just draft up my own bodice.  it's not bad, it just isn't perfect though. 

However the skirt?  The skirt is perfect!   I am in love with the way the skirt flows on this dress!   It's so lovely!   I'll probably end up wearing this dress tomorrow for fun and amusement because, eh, why not?  It's not like I have to be anywhere right now. 

Carnivale Gown based loosely off of Felicity's Christmas Gown

After the Ball

The gown above is what I wore to the Mascheranda Ball during Carnivale in Venice.  It was one of the last balls (probably the last one this year) for the Carnivale season.  I had fun (even if I almost fainted at one point) and absolutely loved my gown.  It needs some small touches, but overall, it is one of my favorites so far.

The Inspiration:

The Couture Courtesan did a stunning recreation of the gown a few years ago that I got to see in person at one point. I really hadn't planned on making my own recreation but the silk taffeta I used was only €3 a meter and I cannot pass up a deal like that. Also, it is exactly the right color to make the gown. The silk taffeta begged to be made into Felicity's Christmas Gown. Since I've always been a fan of the pink front stomacher, I decided to go with that instead.

When planning out the gown, I wanted to keep it semi-historical as possible. I wasn't going to handsew the entire thing but I didn't want to get too anachronistic either. So, I decided to keep the colors and overall shape of the stomacher (more on that in a bit), the trim type (ie, the way it goes up and down the robings and is pleated), and the matching petticoat. When researching dresses with similar trims, I kept coming back to one thing:

Woman's Dress and Petticoat (Robe à la française) - LACMA

Robe á la Francaise- Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Robe à la Française - MET

They were all Robe à la Françaises and not Anglaise.  So, a Robe à la Française it is!  I may have bought uh....10 or so meters of the blue silk taffeta so I wasn't worried about fabric usage.  At all.

The stomacher on Felicity's dress is, of course, meant to kinda look right while also be expedient for making a doll's dress for little girls to play with.  The ombre pink ribbon with a twist in the middle isn't exactly period.  However, a very similar "look" was - this:

Portrait d'une femme en robe de satin bleu, 1760 Christian Friedrich Reinhold von Lisiewski

English American Stomacher - RISD Museum

Manchester Art Gallery

I kept with the three daggings meeting to make it look more like Felicity's dress, rather than add additional ones.  I used silver buttons, rather than pearls, mainly because I lost my beading needle and have no idea where it is.  I need to order a new one.

The materials:

The blue silk taffeta was really only €3 a meter at my local thrift store.  Once a season, they get in the "not quite right" fabrics from the designers in Milan.  These fabrics sometimes have something wrong with them - a spot here or a bit of undyed yarn.  I saw the orange stickers on the blue taffeta but I have zero idea what is wrong with it.  It looks fine to me.  

The pink shantung I got from Silks Unlimited on ebay for $17 a yard. They, luckily, have a pretty good selection and the color was exactly what I needed. I bought 5 yards and maybe used a 1/4 of that?

The silver trim is some trim I bought, I think, back in 2016 as part of a very large, very big bin of "just take it!" at a SCA shopping event known as Holiday Faire.  The entire bin (think enough to stuff a body in tubberware container) was $15.  And yes, I stuffed all the trims from that bin into my suitcase last year and brought them over with me.  Because...necessary.

The silver buttons were also stash.

The Pattern:

Technically, I used this:

To make a Robe à la Française.  Yes, it's not a Robe à la Française pattern.  In fact, my pattern, I seemed to have lost the sleeve too.  Basically, this was only a base and I went off from there.  I also drafted my own sleeve again.

The gown:

The skirt

The gown

The stomacher looking wonky 

Me, with the dress half off!  Ha!

It's not perfect, but I love it!  I still have some of the blue taffeta and a lot of the pink left.  I might make a very different gown out of it now that the Felicity one is out of the way!

HSM2019Sep:Katina's Pretty New Green 16th Century Italian Dress

Having fun at the Castle

Back of the dress

The Challenge: September: Everyday: It’s not all special occasion frocks. Make something that would have been worn or used for everyday.

Material: Avocado green linen, orange linen, cotton canvas (inner lining), cotton muslin (lining).

Pattern: Very heavily modified McCalls 2806 which is out of print. I used the bodice pieces only and drafted the darts out. I also changed the neckline and the width to fit Katina better.

Year: 1570s/1580s

Painting by Federico Zuccaro dated to 1579

Attributed to Pietro Ronzelli, date unknown

Notions:  The shoelace to lace the bodice up, thread, and my old green apron

How historically accurate is it? I machine sewed the insides but all the trim and the eyelets were done by hand so about 90%?

Hours to complete: I'm honestly not sure.  I know I started on it in September but I can't recall how long this one took - maybe five or six hours total?

First worn: September 28th, 2019

Total cost:  The avocado linen was $10 a yard and I had three yards to play with.  The orange linen was $7.50 a yard and I also had 3 yards of that.  I'm not sure how much I paid for the cotton canvas originally - maybe $4 a yard?   I only used a half yard for the project.   The muslin was $4 a yard but 90" wide so I only used 1/4 of that. 

I made two gowns like this - one orange with green trim which I started on back in August- and one green with orange trim - which I started on in September.   They are exactly the same in style - the colors are just reversed. 

Katina wanted a dress similar to my old dresses so this is one of the three I made for her.   The orange isn't as bright as in the picture but, well, bright orange is documentable (saffron with madder gets you safety cone orange).  I think she had fun wearing the dresses this weekend.

Easter Dress!

For my Easter dress this year, I used McCall's 7804 with a linen cotton blend I bought at Fabric Mart.  The dress is actually even nicer than the photos and a LOT of fun to wear.  It's a pull over so it's a bit loose but very, very comfortable.

The pattern pieces were straight forward and I didn't bother with directions.  The only real change I made was I forgot to cut out the back facing piece so I just zigzagged the back neck hem.  No biggie.   

The bib front can be a bit tricky but I just ironed everything in the middle of putting the dress together and it came out fine.  I also used a frixon marker to mark where the neck opening should be and sewed around that before cutting.  That seemed to help a lot.

The lace at the bottom hem is a vintage lace I had in my stash.  I wanted a bit of lace added to the dress but nothing too overly frilly.  

Overall, I'm going to use this pattern again.  The dress is comfy and looks nice on.  I might try the longer version of the pattern - I almost did with this fabric but I didn't feel like cutting out three curved flounces, each on a fold, and then gathering that up when I already had to gather the skirt itself to the waist.  Too much gathering.  

Christmas Dress

This is what I wore for Christmas Mass 2018!  :-)   The dress is out of a plaid silk and the jacket is out of black cotton velor.  The jacket closed well but it turned out the bodice of the dress was a bit too big and closing the jacket meant the neckline of the dress bunched up.   So...open jacket it is!

Patterns:


McCall's M6953 - The dress pattern
McCall's M7315  - The base to make the bolero

Dress:

The only real changes I made to the pattern were to make the bodice an inch longer and make the skirt a bit fuller.   Other than that, the pattern is pretty much exactly the same.   I'm glad I made the bodice longer - it's a bit short and I could have probably gotten away with an inch and a half.   I wanted a full skirt because I have a lovely black petticoat to go with the dress. 

The dress is made out of silk I got from Fabric Mart a few months ago.   It was on sale for $9.99 a yard.   It was sold as dupioni, I think, but it's really more of a shantung.   The bodice is lined in striped white cotton and interlined in duck.  I didn't bother reading the directions - the pattern pieces are all pretty basic- so I don't know if the pattern calls for an interlining or not.  However, if you do make this pattern, having the interlining in a heavier material helps a lot.  The only notion I used for the dress was a 22" long black invisible zipper.

Bolero:

I wanted black velvet but the cotton velor was on sale so...cotton velor it is!  I used the dress pattern M7315 as a base because I loved the side dart and I am terrible at drafting side darts.  However, the pattern proved to be nothing but trouble.  I knew something was wrong when I looked at the sleeve.  The sleeve pattern for M7315 for a size 12 (I went up from my normal size because jacket) is only 14" across at it's widest point.  That's including the seam allowance.   Ummm.....

Yeah.  No.   My bicep is about 17" snuggly.  The shoulder (ie, going around the armpit and over the shoulder) is 19"~.  There was no way the sleeve would fit.  Still, I was curious if they meant this to be an off the shoulder number or something else was going on. 

The first mock up looked abysmal.  I couldn't fit it past the "end of the t-shirt sleeve" length on my arms.  I took the sleeve off figuring something like that would happen and marked the mock up with a new armsyce (it was a good inch and a half off).   The mock up already had the curved front and the solid back that should have worked.   It did but it was just a bit too short.

Once I made all the changes, I tried a new mock up and it looked like it would work.  However, I didn't try it over the finished dress.   Turns out that the neckline of the bolero would be too tight over the dress and cause a bunch of bunching.   I ended up leaving the bolero unhooked like in the photo.

The bolero is lined in what I think is a poly blend satin lining...thing?   It was €3 a meter at the thrift store and I think it was one of the Ralph Lauren fabrics so I didn't ask too many questions.  It's lining. 

Anyway, that was the last project of 2018!   Hopefully, I'll sew a lot more in 2019 now that the sewing room is pretty much finished.

Halloween: Vannozza Cattanei's gray/green archery dress in the Borgias Part 1

The problem - because there is always a problem before the start of a project: I wanted something Venetian for Halloween - living here in Veneto- but I didn't want to do the 1550's/1560's thing because I'm trying to lose weight again. I wanted a dress that will fit for a while - which are typically the higher waisted gowns. However, I have a TON of the early 16th C gowns and didn't want to add another to my already bloated collection. Solution?

This.

I saw the gown and was immediately in love. It's very similar to many 1520's/1530's styles. Also, I happened to have a nice five yards of a lighter gray silk stashed away that was perfect for this gown. I'm not coping it exactly - mainly because I'm trying to go with mostly stash fabric - but I'm trying to copy most of the lines. So, the back...

The sleeves are detachable. There is a seam at the back sides but it looks like it has a zipper (not very Renaissance...) up the center back. Because I want to wear this to SCA events later on, I'm just doing lacing at the back sides. Also, it helps with losing/gaining weight that way. The skirt is gathered around and appears to really be just the typical rectangles with maybe some extra in the back. Again, SCA events, I'm just doing rectangles because trains and SCA events do not mix. Ever.

To start, I'm using a base I made from McCall's pattern 2806:

Really, the only thing you need to do to the above pattern to make it perfect for 1490s/1500s is take out the darts in the bodice. That's really it. The skirt is already just three rectangles put together.

I modified it slightly more than that - the shoulder straps are a bit long and the neckline is umm...more early 1520s and not sensible for anyone more than an A cup? So I raised the neckline, cut the straps slightly, also made the width a bit tighter, and I drafted out the darts so I could use this as a base.

The base!   I knew I had to add an inch or two to lengthen the bodice; I also wanted to move the side seam a bit and square out the neckline.  So, first, I drew around the existing base in brown marker.

Then, I took a red frixion (the kind you can erase!) marker and matched up the existing base back with the brown outline I just did.  I wanted to mark where I was moving the seem on both pieces and make sure the curve of the armscye was preserved.  

I only moved it over an inch, really.  You can see the new "red" outline for where I moved the seam over too.  

Inversely, on the back piece outline, I drew a red line to mark the new back side seam.

This picture is a bit hard to see but I squared off the back neckline.  I ended up doing the neckline in the back even deeper than this once I tried the mock up on.  However, the red lines mark the new template.

Front side bodice piece!   It has the new squared neckline and is lengthened.   

However, I realized when I tried to draw the correct length for the back piece that I didn't have enough room.  I ended up erasing the back piece and redrawing it all a lot higher on the paper.  

New back piece as well!!!

Comparison to the original bodice front, with the dart pinched and the new bodice front for the 1530's dress.  It's a lot longer and the neckline is higher.  Still, I realized I had a couple more issues that needed fixing still.  The underbust/rib cage waistline was 2" smaller than my actual rib cage.  My ribs do not shrink like my waist will.  They just don't.  So I ended up adding a bit to the bottom of the bodice so I can breathe.   Also, I didn't like the shoulder strap angle on the front bodice piece so I changed that as well.

The lining fabric!   I'm using teal silk dupioni for the lining.  The actual dress is out of the fabric pictured below.

This is going to be the skirt front.  It's just a 45" cut of the fabric.  The pink silk is silk I had on hand that I thought went well with the lighter gray/silver silk.  The dark lines are hunter green velvet trim.

This is the fabric for the upper sleeve as well as some trim ideas for it.  I like the idea of the pink with the silver trim.  I ordered some light green trim but it's not good for anything more than knitting or crocheting - it's recycled sari ribbon that was sewn together hastily.  I might check out the trim store here in town but, this is the direction I'm going so far.