Hello to the maybe one person out there who might still follow this blog!

I am not dead! I just got a full time job and started applying to grad schools which apparently takes a lot of time out of your life. Who knew?

Despite these developments, I have still found a small amount of time to devote to sewing and also Laurel’s recent posts on here have made me feel guilty about semi-abandoning this blog... Thus, I figured I would share my current project with you.  Like I have done for the past 3 summers, I am making a new dress for this year’s Colorado Renaissance festival.  Though this festival is largely an Elizabethan event, I have decided to embrace all time periods of the Renaissance and go a bit earlier.  The pattern I’m using is the 1470s-1500 Florentine Lady’s Outfit from Reconstructing History.  This is the most historically accurate pattern I have ever used, but I am taking some liberties and sewing a lot of things by machine rather than by hand (see: working full time, above).

The pattern has offers a lot of good suggestions for making your outfit HA, which has been extremely useful as few extant garments from the 15th century are still hanging around. I’ve therefore relied on a lot of art to guide me, as well as the experience of other costumers (namely Anea Costumes and the ladies at the Realm of Venus Facebook page).

All this to say that I’ve now finished about half the dress and wanted to share some pictures on here. First up, and not in the least historically accurate, are the shoes and stockings.  I found the shoes at a vintage store here in Denver, and the “stocking” are actually just a pair of nylon tights that I cut off and tied with ribbons.

Nothing about this is accurate, but I’m not really bothered by it. For now. (someday I’ll have the money to buy the stockings and shoes I want from American Duchess)

At the top of the last picture you can see the hem of the camicia, or shift, for this dress. This was made from instructions in the pattern, and with a combination of machine sewing for the interior seams, and hand sewing for the pleating and collar binding show in the picture below. The fabric is a cotton gauze; ideally, this would be made out of linen, but I’m a girl on a budget.

I have a sports bra on in this picture for modesty but it won’t be worn with the final outfit. In reality, the neckline is wider than it looks here, but my arms are raised up for the picture, making it hard to tell.

The next piece I finished is the underskirt.  I used a cotton/linen blend that I found at Joann’s on sale. I stiffened the hem (as was common) with a strip of upholstery velvet (as was decidedly not common) that I purchased at Joann’s in the red tag section eons ago and never used because it was so dang stiff (i.e. perfect for this task).  I trimmed the hem with a red ribbon that was left over from my Elizabethan gown (which I realized just now I never posted the finished product of...) from last year’s ren faire. 

Here you can see the material that I used to stiffen the hem:

And here is an example of how the hem can stand up on it’s own with this sort of material backing it:

This sort of stiffened hem can be seen in existing artwork like this Carpacci painting.  The underskirt itself was not suggested in the pattern, but other costumers, such as Anea, have used them in their thoroughly researched dresses, so I figured I would follow suit.  I don’t think black is quite accurate, but I liked it with the maroon color that the gamurra, or main gown, will be.

So, worn together, this is what I have so far:

(excuse the lame backdrop and the air dried hair and the sports bra)

I am pleased with it!  Next up is a saccocia, or pocket to be worn under the main dress, and then I will start on the gamurra, partlet, and maybe a coif.

That’s all for now!

xx