Katherine Parr Dress

This is the dress I wanted to make. I knew mine would not be an exact replica, that would be near impossible unless I was to weave my own cloth and to hire a jeweler.

The dress has a stomacher, fur lined sleeves, a drop front waist which means it probably has a bum roll and it the wearer has on a farthingale or hoop skirt. Pearls on the stomacher, fore-sleeves and the fore-dress. a jeweled chemise, don't forget the hat, belt and jewelry.

After several trips to the LA Garment District to find material that wasn't the standard "Oh look, she used the same fabric as the pillow's on my sofa",

material, I located what I wanted and purchased it. All 14 yards... just for the

overdress. I found the fabric, (another 12 yards) I liked for the fore-dress or underskirt and fore-sleeves at a local discount fabric shop.

I started off by making a "Dorthea"

style body, that is I made a corset. The original portrait has an elongated, low front. Mycorset needed to provide the under shape for theovergown. It was, I thought, pretty easy. I took my usual coset pattern and added a sloping point in the center front and then boned it well with metal stays. I added two eyelets to the center front down low for my bum roll strings to pass through. The strings need to stay low in order to keep the front of the roll out of the way of the stomacher's smoothness. The strings feed back to front. I also added two large snaps at the center front waist that the petticoat would fasten to.

I already had a chemise made that had red gems sewn around the

neckline and large sleeves with a bit of gold tone lace-like trim that looks to be embroidered at a distance. Perfect.

I needed to make a kirtle/petticoat or skirt for the underdress. I tried first, to make a boned kirtle with the skirt. It did not hang to my satisfaction and puckered right at the front where it needs to be smooth. Using one of the The Tudor Tailor's suggestions from the book, I made a Henrician petticoat. While I am not pleased with the pleat I made on the front sides, it looks great. I like the low cut front and back, those fewer layers made it cooler to wear. Each side is laced and has a minimal use of boning. At this point, I marked the front of the corset and attached my snaps. Yes I know, I should have used hooks. Bite me. :)

Then to tackle the bodice of the gown. I wrote to the ladies at The Tudor Tailor in England for a bit of advice and they suggested that for the part of bodice that was to be

under the stomacher to use some type of canvas. The photo to the right is my first attempt. The center point would have been to narrow and to short once the skirt was attached. Also the plain canvas was just wrong. I went to Jo Ann's Fabrics and found some nice tan canvas to use both as a lining and as the forefront where the laces are.

I revamped my pattern and cut a new front section and attached sewed it all together. The new design and fabric color made a nice difference.

First I knife pleated my fabric, making the pleats flow from the center back towards the front. Then carefully, I pinned the skirt to the bodice, checking every few pleats to make sure I had them even. There is nothing worse than sewing something like this and then having the silly pleats not be even! I also needed to attach the skirt in the front at a lower point on the fabric to keep the design going around me, even.

With great delicacy and a lot of care, I basted the skirt to the bodice using the longest stitch on my sewing machine. Before I did the final sewing I double checked the sizes of the pleats and where they landed on the bodice. I was in luck, I only needed to adjust one. Before I did the final attachment, I loaded up Regina the mannequin with chemise, bum roll, farthingale, and adjusted the height to match mine. It looks pretty spiffy at this point. After the skirt was sewn on and the bodice finished everywhere but the sleeves, I let the dress hang for 3 days before having a friend pin the hem's for me. Traveling to Paul's house, I dressed in the full undergarment regalia and the petticoat and stood on his coffee table while he pinned the hem. Then adding the gown, we did the same. Once I arrived home, I decided to use hem tape to make the bulk less and sewed both hems.

To make the fur sleeves, I followed the advice of David and cut from the back. Using a perma marker, I traced my pattern onto the back of the faux fur and then cut with a razor blade. This allows for the fur to be cut but not the individual hairs! What brilliance! Carefully pinning the fur to the outer sleeve every few inches, I basted it on, turned it and looked how the fur laid around the seams. It was pretty cool the way the hairs were kept from the seams. The few places that needed to be fixed I did by pulling the hairs with a corsage pin and then sewed the two together. I do not have a photo of this but you get the idea.

The only thing I had left to do was the fore-sleeves, the part that shows from under the fur. They were simple enough to make but took me all day to do the pair. I had made my pattern, cut the slashes, backed the slashes and turned them. Adding a strip of linen to the back of the sleeves, I puffed the fabric and stitched the backing and linen down by hand. There is a minimal amount of beading on the sleeves, they don't show much below the massive amounts of fur.

The hat was made by cutting out a crescent shape where the points would lay just in front of my ears. I used needlepoint plastic and covered it with black linen and made a coif of black linen. The beads and trim were hand sewn. The jewelry was easy to make, finding the right beads proved to be tough. The belt was made of cording and had knots and large holed beads. The original girdle or belt is made up of cording with mini cameos and a small clock at the base above the tassels.

Now that I have worn the dress there are a few minor changes. I need to trim the amount of fur from the underside of the sleeves around the elbow. I need to add a little more beading to the petticoat and I need to fix the hat, it didn't quite curve right over the head. Overall, I am very pleased with it.