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/

Sideless Surcote and Gothic Fitted Gown in Progress

I have several projects in progress right now. Since I have photos of these, I thought I'd share! These are both 14th/15th c. I have a couple of late 16th c. projects going too, but I need to photograph them before I can share!

The first one is a wool gothic fitted gown, lined in linen. I already had both fabrics at home, and I thought it would be nice for cold weather. It gets much colder in CA than where I grew up, so now I'm always bundling up in lots of layers that may or may not match, and this will really help!

The second one is a sideless surcote to accompany a late 15th century transition gown - also made, just not pictured. I used non-bias binding since I really only have evidence for non-bias and I wanted to try it out. I've worked with tons of bias binding in my life, and I was a bit worried about going around all these curves without bias, but it worked out really nicely! It's still pinned down on the backside in the photo, hence all those little pinned spots.

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!

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/

16th Century Venetian Man Garb

I finally have nice photos to share of our late 16th c. Venetian garb! We rarely wear this stuff because my boyfriend and I both prefer running-around / working - friendly garb at SCA events. This post is dedicated to his ensemble, and I shall post mine next.

This is based on fashion from late 16th century Venice, ~1570s. (I mixed and matched inspiration images, as one of my very favorite things about making clothing is the whole design aspect.)
The undershirt is made of white linen and was actually already in his wardrobe.
The doublet is made of red silk with detachable tie-on brocade sleeves.
The hat is black velvet with ostrich feathers.
The pants are black linen, made in the Venetian style.
The coat, or loose gown, is made of silk/rayon blend velvet and lined in black. The slashes in the sleeves show a blue brocade underlayer.

You can see more images here: http://www.faerie-queen.com/venetian-male-ensemble/

Purple Velvet Cotehardie

This is a dress I made last year. I realized it was before I started this blog, and I wanted to share anyway. Plus, I only recently took fancy photos for my website. I wear it occasionally to court-like events, but I am choosing to share the fancy photos rather than the plain old event photos.
This is a cotehardie, late 14th century French style. It is made of velvet and fully lined in silk with matching silk sleeves, belt, and tressour crispinette (the hat). The buttons and button holes were all done by hand, and all the beading and trim was also applied by hand. I made the necklace too. Lots of work, totally worth it!

More images are here on my site: http://www.faerie-queen.com/purple-velvet-cotehardie/