Florentine Dress

We had a theme for Coronation earlier in the month, Venetian.  I do not think I'd look good in a Venetian so I went with Florentine.  It's still Italy after all, right?  So I found a portrait that I liked.
This portrait is Madealena Doni, 1506 by Raphael.

I wanted to do something I'd never done before, sew with silk.  So after a trip to the garment district in Los Angeles, I came home with 6 yards of rusty colored silk, a yard of black silk and a yard of a pretty blue on blue brocade for the sleeves.

I had a friend fit me for the bodice and I was off.  I cut out two layers of inner fabric, one of canvas and one of heavy cotton and then one of the skin layer fabric and one of the silk.

Now silk should be back lined, that is to have an identical layer of fabric sewn to the silk.  So I cut out one more layer of the lining and sewed it to the back of the silk around the edges.

To my two lining layers, I determined where the boning would go down the front.  I do not really like rigilene, but used it because this dress curves over the bodice.  This style of dress isn't flat down the front like a Tudor.  I marked the lining for reference then sewed the rigilene in place, making three lines of stiffing.  One up the center and then two that flare out toward the neckline.

From here, I sewed the lining together at the shoulders and the side seams and included the inner layers in the seams.  Then sewed the fashion fabric together at the shoulders and side seams.   At this point the bodice is unfinished in the arms eyes, front and the bottom.  I will admit I got a little confused at this point.  I folded the lining over the inner layers and folded it down and zig zagged the edge.  This not only sealed the top of the rigilene, but secured the layers together even more.

 It looks funky, but it worked.  I then pinned the silk and backing over the exterior of the bodice and hand stitched it down around all edges.  I literally folded the silk over the edges and stitched it.

The bodice was complete at this stage, but I needed to add the black guarding.  (Guarding=guards the edges.)  I cut long strips of the black silk about 3 inches wide.  From the outside, I pinned the guarding to the fashion fabric and stitched it down.  Then folded it over the edges and stitched it down on the inside of the bodice which
hid the zig zagging.

I worked the center guarding first up the front, around the corner and part way along the neckline.  I then added the additional guarding that guards nothing (but looks pretty) up the front and around the neckline.  Using the same method that I forgot to take a picture of, I sewed the guarding around the arms eyes.

 The picture to the left looks funny and warped for two reasons. One the bodice isn't laced up all the way tight and second, self portraits of one's chest come out weird.

I marked where the spacing would go for the eyelets and sewed them in.  Then I attached these nifty looking jewelry findings over the eyelets and sewed them down.  The dress is laced up, across, up, across, up across, etc.  And is very difficult to do because the jewelry findings are in the way.

The skirt is also flat lined and is in three sections about 48" in width.  The sections were sewn together in a french seam and the skirt is knife pleated.  When I was satisfied with the evenness of the pleats, I sewed them down then stitched the lining down to hide all interior seams.    

I let the dress hang for 24 hours before hemming.

The sleeves were cut in two pieces and on a curve with a large elbow.  One side of the top of the arms is curved while the other half is flat for the under arm.  Both seams of the sleeve are french seams.  I attached two little rings to the underside of the sleeve cap on the bodice and two cords to the top of the sleeves to tie them to the bodice.  

The below picture was taken at Coronation.

Kimono's for Mercy... cause I can't remember her SCA name.

Our dear Mercy was finally asked to become a member of the Order of the Laurel for Pottery.  She's probably one of the best potters on the west coast, at least in my opinion.

Her persona is, I think a medieval merchant.  So no geisha clothes!!  (Get your mind out of the gutter!!)

So to make a kimono is relatively easy, a bunch of rectangles sewn together.  Right?  Yea, not so much.    Especially depending on what kind of fabric you are using.  Mercy had some lovely gold with little stripes fabric and some even better burgundy with gold laurel wreaths.  And she needed something to wear next to her skin, so I made a white linen kimono too.  Because she's a merchant, she wore a Hakama, a divided skirt that resembles a wide pair of trousers that she bought.

I was bad and did not take a lot of pictures.  She had a Folkware
Fashion's pattern that I used.  It consists of 4 rectangles, two front
and two back, 2 front facing angular pieces, 2 Sleeves and a collar.  The black and white picture to the right is from the pattern itself, showing the front and back with 2 sleeve length options.

I started with the gold fabric first, it was some kind of upholstery material I think.  Very tough to hand sew.  Did I mention just how much hand sewing there is on a kimono?  I suppose you could sew the entire thing by machine, but that's not how I roll.  I try my best not to have any stitching on the outside of my garments.  

All seams were french seams, that is to sew the wrong sides together, then turn the pieces and seal up that inside out seam into a new seam.  This makes for a very clean seam on the inside, something reserved for court wear or fancy dress. 

 I sewed the 2 back pieces together and then sewed the front to back on at the shoulders.  And then I sewed the front facing strip on.  It is a half size strip with an angular top that disappears below the collar.  I hope that made sense.     

Next came the collar.  Though it is just a long strip that goes around the neck,  it needed to be finished by hand.  But first I needed to finish the front seams of the facing strip.  The gold fabric was very tough and I had to use my leather thimble to protect my finger tip.  I don't like metal thimbles.  Once the facing was finished, I sewed the collar on and then hand finished it.   

For the sleeves, they are a simple short-ish sleeve.  The can be either attached to the body for the full length of the sleeve or to leave a little opening, for air flow I suppose.  Short in how much they cover the arm and short in length up and down.  Since the gold fabric was to be the inner kimono, I made a shorter length sleeve as you can see in the left of the black and white picture.  Doing french seams is easy enough but the fabric had a lot of substance to it and for the underarm it was difficult to do.  

The end of the arm is hand sewn and the hem put in.  

There are no visible rough seams on the kimono due 

to the french and hand sewn seams. 

The burgundy kimono is sewn in the same way.  But because it had a pattern to it, I did not put in a back seam.  The sleeves however, have a shoulder seam to make the pattern face the same direction throughout the entire garment. 

The white under kimono is made the same way but I didn't do french seams.  It also has a smaller collar because it is only an undergarment and not expected to be seen. I used my overlock machine for the seams and then added another line of stitching for structure.  

For the obi or belt.  The merchant class wore a narrow belt, about 5 inches wide that ties to one side.  The belt center is in the front of the person, wrapped around and tied in the front.  We chose a gold silk because it tied the garment together really well.  The white under kimono is not visible. 

Mercy in her elevation outfit with a bit of white Japanese style makeup on as what would have been done in medieval times. 

She looked great.