June 2012
This type of dress is worn by a young woman so I asked the daughter of Alessandra da Venizia to be my model. This dress is inspired by the Ausberg Panels showing the four seasons. This is from the April-June panel…The same panel that inspired my orange dress. You can see the panels online here: http://www.dhm.de/ausstellungen/kurzweil/season.htm
Inspiration for the dress
Finished dress! (The headband is missing.)
The outdoor shot in natural light shows the silk sleeves as purple. It’s a truer color that the indoor shot against the red curtain.
The dress diary begins with the pieces of the bodice cut out. The bodice is self-lined. The linen that I used is a heavy-weight linen, probably too heavy but it drapes nicely.
Outside and lining cut from the same black linen.
Back center seam and shoulder seams sewn together. Do this for both the outside and lining fabric.
The lining is pinned to the outside fabric.
The lining is sewing to the outer fabric along the neckline and front, and also the armeyes.
The bodice is turned.
The sideseams are pinned, then sewn.
The bodice sideseams are sewn, turned and pressed.
The bottom is pinned.
Bottom is whipstitched closed.
The lacing holes are made by hand. (Christie made the sleeve and bodice laces.)
The lacing strips are prepped. They are bias-cut pieces of the same black linen with hand-made lacing holes. I used the information in the Janet Arnold book.
The lacing strips are sewn to the inside of the bodice.
The skirt is prepped in the same way as the orange and blue skirts. The only difference is that I used box pleats on this skirt. A box pleat is photographed in the dress diary for the Blue German dress.
The bodice is pinned to the skirt.
The bodice and skirt are whipstitched together.
Finished bodice/skirt seam from the outside.
This is a test run of the finished dress and sleeves. I made a set of sleeves and a brustflek out of linen. It was important to get the size right before I cut into the purple silk.
The silk sleeves and the linen lining are cut.
Silk sleeves shown with linen inserts. This is preparation for the fake poofs.
The sleeve pieces are sewn together.
This is the center sleeve piece and the outer poof shown side by side.
The poof is gathered and sewn to the false panel.
Poof sewn to upper sleeve. The lower sleeve still needs to be attached in this photo.
The finished dress!
Back view.
Detail of sleeve laced into the lacing strips.
Mistress Sophia Kress helped me with the bodice pattern for this garment.
I made a set of yellow linen sleeves and brustflek so that Christie would have washable parts to wear to outdoor events. The silk sleeves, brustflek and belt are for indoor wear. For this reason, I made the sleeves laced-in. In the original painting, I believe that the sleeves are probably sewn to the dress.
There is a gold headband for this dress, which you can see in the test photo. It didn’t make it into the photos of the silk dress. More photos will have to be taken in the future!
16th Century German Costuming 