Purple Silk Venetian Gown

A while ago, I posted some progress on a purple silk Venetian gown. It's done now! I wore this to Coronation recently and got some photos. The silk is actually hot pink shot with blue, so it appears purple.

The bodice is fully supported with canvas interlining and steel boning. The gown is also worn over a corset and camicia, as well as a taffeta underskirt. The front insert is made from a small piece of silk brocade - a scrap - that I inherited. The bodice is hand beaded, and I also made a new girdle / belt and a linen partlet. The sleeves are re-used from my last Venetian gown because I love them and they match!

I made this one regular height - no chopines for me! I love my chopines, but man, I'm too clutzy to stand around in them all day!

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-silk-venetian-gown/

Venetian Gown Progress

I've been working on a new Venetian gown! How did this come to be, you may ask? Well, a while back, I came upon this fabulous dupioni silk. It's hot pink shot with blue, so it appears different shades of purple-ish depending on the light and angle. I got a deal on the remainder from the bolt and set it aside, wondering what should I make it into. A wonderful fantasy gown for my collection, perhaps? A fabulous fanciful historical gown for myself? Finally, fanciful Venetian gown won! I don't have a portrait of anyone wearing this color, but it makes me really happy. I have seen mention of shot fabrics in period, and they did have pinks and blues. And, yes, various qualities of silk did exist, not only smooth silk. Smooth silk, however, would have been preferred, as it was (and is!) more costly and higher class ish.

Enough of my rambling. The gown is a basic bodice pattern with an open V in front. The ladder lacing goes through some lacing rings I stitched to the inside. I wear a corset underneath, but I still added boning to the bodice to maintain the shape. The skirt is cartridge pleated, which I did in the library one day! I reinforce my cartridge pleats, when the fabric is so thin, with a satin ribbon. I did some hand beading on the bodice, and the insert is silk lined in linen with an interlining, the same as the bodice itself. The insert will be pinned to my camicia when worn.

It's almost done! I actually just need to make a petticoat! I'm going to wear my old cutwork sleeves for now - or go sleeveless when it's warm.

Teal Kampfrau Dress

I don't believe I shared this dress on my blog yet. This is a 16th century German style, also seen amongst the Swiss. These ladies are now known as kampfrau or trossfrau, and they followed the Landsknecht soldiers.

This dress began as an underskirt for my other kampfrau dress, my first year in the SCA. I later made the bodice and turned it into a new dress. I mean, when you have such fun colors, it's hard to just hide them!
The hat, known as a wulsthaube, was a pretty recent project. It's made from a sort of padded roll structure sewn to a thick headband piece, and the veil is tied on top.

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/teal-german-kampfrau/

Realm of Venus Showcase

I'm really honored to be this month's featured costumer on Realm of Venus! For anyone who doesn't know, Realm of Venus is a really cool website dedicated to Italian Renaissance costume research. They do periodical showcases for costumers who have created lovely Italian Renaissance outfits, and I'm really excited to be a part of it!

You can see the showcase here:
http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/yourgarb/2013/DaisyV.htm

The gown I have featured is my 1490s Italian Renaissance dress made of red velvet and brocade, in the Venetian style. This is my favorite Italian Renaissance style! I included a few pictures below, but please check out the showcase (link above) for all of the photos and the information!

1490s Italian Renaissance Dress

I love the Italian Renaissance, especially 1490s fashion, but I'm sad to say I haven't done much costuming from that era. Well, let me just fix that! I was particularly inspired by the Girl With Cherries painting by Ambrogio di Predis from c.1491-5. As per my usual methods, I was not interested in making a direct copy of the dress in the painting but rather using it as my primary inspiration, with supporting evidence from other various period sources and other similar dresses.

I purchased nothing new for this dress! It was meant to be a quick fun project to use up some of my materials on hand and give me a new dress I can wear on an everyday basis that's not another gothic fitted gown. The outer gown is made of rough dupioni silk and lined in hemp. The under gown is actually a false gown! It's just a bodice and sleeves. It's a clever solution to many layers when you live in a hot climate. The under gown is made of green cotton velveteen and lined in linen. I already had a camicia! All of the eyelet holes were done by hand. I grumble about all the time it takes, but really, I just do them while catching up on tv shows at night, so it's not such a big deal!

More images are here on my website: http://www.faerie-queen.com/silk-and-velvet-italian-renaissance-dress/

16th Century Venetian Lady Garb

I got some nice photos of my gown at 12th Night! I've been meaning to take good photos of this, but I rarely wear it since I am normally pretty active at SCA events. I do really love it though, and 12th Night was the perfect event for it!

This is the late 16th c. Venetian gown I made for myself. The chemise, or cam­i­cia, is made of white linen. The corset is white silk and fully boned with reed, com­plete with hand-stitched bon­ing chan­nels. The part­let is white lace in a Venet­ian style pat­tern with a stand-up col­lar around the back. The gown itself is made of bur­gundy silk/rayon blend vel­vet with sleeves and con­trast­ing hem made of blue silk dupi­oni. I did all of the cut­work pat­terns in the silk by hand. The skirt is car­tridge pleated onto the bodice, which laces with Venet­ian style lad­der lac­ing. The gown is accented with jew­elry and a flag fan, also all made by me. In addi­tion, I cre­ated chopines, tall plat­form shoes. My chopines are made from cork with fab­ric dec­o­ra­tion.

More photos here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/burgundy-velvet-venetian-gown/

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/

Queen's Champion

For our recent Queen's Champion tournament, I wore my 1495 Venetian gown. The dress has three layers: the camicia, gamurra, and giornea. My camicia is white linen, my gamurra is brocade, and my giornea is cotton velvet with hand-beaded details.

With Arianna! 

Coloring some scrolls.