Completed cotehardies for a client

I finished these two cotehardies (aka gothic fitted gowns) for a client. She wanted them to be similar to two dresses I made for myself, just without all the heavy hand stitching.
These are both late 14th century styles, though they are still present in the early 15th century.

The first dress is made of linen. The second is made of cotton velvet with silk sleeves and belt.
My intern Dani helped me sew on all these buttons. There are so many! How sumptuous!

My similar dresses:
http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-cotehardie/
http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-velvet-cotehardie/

My Old Green Kirtle

This is my old green kirtle, made in early 2007 to wear underneath my Burgundian over gown. This dress is a pretty ubiquitous 15th century style. I have newer and better kirtles now, but Jocelyne makes this one look so good, so I thought I'd share! She's also wearing my velvet belt and my linen coif, both of which were made sometime around 2011-2012.

http://www.faerie-queen.com/green-kirtle/

Van Der Weyden / Memling Kirtle

This is a Nether­lan­dish kir­tle from the 15th cen­tury. Though the style is not exclu­sive to Rogier Van Der Weyden’s or Memling’s paint­ings, I used these sources as my pri­mary inspi­ra­tion. This kir­tle has a waist seam and a sep­a­rate skirt, and the front closes with lac­ing rings and hand­made cord. This is my first waisted kirtle, and as much as I love it, I have to say I prefer the fit of the non-waisted kirtles. That said, I won't stop making these because they are also lovely!

The belt is made of vel­vet with metal fil­i­grees.
The ruf­fled veil is linen. I hand stitched all the edges!
The sleeves pin on. They're made from a bit of brocade I had in my remnant stash.

This style was also worn under the famous Bur­gun­dian, or Nether­lan­dish, gowns, in addi­tion to being worn on its own. I intend to make a new Burgundian gown in the near future, and that was my excuse to make this dress too.

The last photos are me being silly, trying to pose like the women in the very dramatic scenes I stared at for hours when I made the dress.

You can see more photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/van-der-weyden-kirtle/

Green and Purple-ish Cotehardie

In case it wasn't obvious by now, when it comes to SCA period, I LOVE late 14th-early 15th c. So I made another one! This is one of the cotehardies I'm most proud of. I made all the buttons by hand, and I also did all those millions of button holes by hand (fun!). This is patterned with gores in the sides and back. The gown is single layer linen because I live in southern California.

The veil I'm wearing is white linen. It's a pretty basic frilled veil style.
The belt is made of velvet with metal filigree bits I sewed on.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/early-15th-century-cotehardie/

Mid-15th c. Flemish / Netherlandish Waisted Kirtle

My first waisted kirtle for the SCA! Of course, I have made a large number of modern waisted dresses with this type of fit before, but it's always monumental when it's a new historical style for me. ;)

This was based largely on Van der Weyden and Memling's paintings, mid-15th century Flemish / Netherlandish. This project actually began as an underlayer for a new "Burgundian" gown. However, it takes little time for a simple layer to turn into a whole complex project for me.

Nothing new was purchased to make this dress.
The kirtle is made from some linen I had lying around, which turns out to be linen/rayon blend. The sleeves are made from scraps of brocade I also had lying around. The belt is a scrap of velvet with filigrees and chain attached. I have a collection of filigrees, which was perfect! The veil is linen.
The front lacing loops are very small metal lacing rings, and the lacing cord is finger loop braided.

This is my second frilled veil, this one larger than the last. I'm not a very girly girl, but I really like the subtle "girly"ness of frilled veils, and I think I may make them my new "thing".

I also made a new underdress, but I can't fit it onto my incompressible mannequin, it's so incredibly fitted.

Medieval Marketplace

We recently went to Medieval Marketplace, an SCA shopping event at a local park. We took Laura with us, so I dressed her up. She happened to fit perfectly into my old green kirtle. I made this kirtle in a rush right before Gulf Wars the year I joined the SCA and suddenly needed a week's worth of garb. Anyway, I think it fits Laura better than it fits me now!

I wore one of my newest dresses, my green and purple/pink/whatever-that-color-is-called cotehardie/kirtle, and my boyfriend wore his newest cotehardie. My frilled veil is also new, and I the coif he is wearing is fairly new as well, all made within the last year. (I just haven't edited my photos of these garments yet because I am lazy! Okay, because I am busy...)

I do wish there weren't cars and modern things in the background. I am so jealous of European SCAdians and other reenactors who live in Europe and get to go to events at real historical locations!

Blue Renaissance Dress

I made this dress for my friend, Lady Cecilia. She wore it for the first time to Great Western War, so yay, pictures! This is a pretty versatile 16th century Renaissance dress, or kirtle, worn throughout Europe. It is a single (lined) layer, worn over a chemise that she made and embroidered herself. The single layer helps the dress to be climate-appropriate for southern California summers - and springs and falls. In addition, I built some support into the bodice so Cecilia does not need to wear her corset, once again cutting down on layers and making it easy to get dressed!

You can see more on my website: http://www.faerie-queen.com/blue-renaissance-dress/

16th Century Kirtle

This is my first non-corseted 16th century kirtle. It's probably pretty obvious by now that I make a lot of 14th and 15th c. kirtles. While I've done some 16th c in the past, this is normally the century I skip in reenacting. Well, I've recently found some 16th c. dresses I really like, so I wanted to start by making a versatile kirtle. I made it lace on the sides so it will never pose an issue with the various styles I want to do.

It's blue linen, lined in natural linen.
Please forgive my t-shirt. I just really wanted to put on the kirtle as soon as I finished sewing it! I have a couple of chemises in my closet.

Red Linen Kirtle

This will eventually be an underdress for a couple of other gowns, but it also works as a single layer dress! This is a red linen kirtle, early 15th century. I'm also wearing velvet tippets here and a white linen veil.

More photos on my site: http://www.faerie-queen.com/red-linen-kirtle/