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.