Diary of a Purple Florentine Gown...

10/05/05 - In the Fall of 2005 I (Bess) found myself in desperate need for some new clothes.  After having a panic attack in my Elizabethan corset earlier in the year.  I decided that I needed to find a new style of garb that would look nice, flatter my shape, and be comfortable without major corsetry.  I have had two  "hand me down" Italian Ren gowns that I adore for their function and comfort.  In addition I get compliments every time I wear them, so I thought that Italian was the way to go. 

When I'm in need of a new dress it's always a challenge because I don't sew myself, so after I figuring out when I need a dress by I turn to my Guru Goddess of Garb, Lady Rebekah ferch Anna to see if she can help out for trade.  Bekah's Order of the Willow Scroll had an unfortunate encounter with some crayons a while back, so I asked if we could barter a new gown for a new Willow scroll.  The tricky part being that I needed the dress done in a months time, and... being so broke that I can barely pay attention right now I also wanted to work by redesigning two gowns that I already have.  Always up for a challenge she accepted the trade and our clock started ticking. 

She and I started to talk design. I already knew that I wanted Italian, but that still covers a lot of ground.  What period Italian?  What region of Italy?   Venetian is beautiful and elegant, Mistress Oonagh in Lochac has an amazing site that shows this style, but it was certainly out because of the conical shape forced by the corset.  I went in search of a softer Italian line and found it in the Florentine style.  I found it at " A Festive Attyre" which my dear friend Bekah turned me onto.  It was (as always) an amazing resource for ideas and images for me get an idea of what I wanted.  

Bekah called a couple of days after we first talked and said that they had just opened a "Super JoAnn's" fabric store near her and she just had to stop in.  While she was there she found the "perfect fabric" a heavy purple cotton for the skirt, and a purple and gold-ish cotton brocade for the bodice.  Since it was on sale for an amazing price she scooped it up and said I could pay her back later.  Whoo hoo!  We have new fabric!  At this point I haven't seen it yet, but Becks is an artist with clothes and I put my full trust in her skill and taste. 

A chat on the phone reveled a portrait that she had in her head for my dress "Lady with a Basket of Spindles" by Jacopo Pontormo1516. (above left)    This was brilliant because it wasn't that far from the picture that I had in my head.  I'm not sure what the date on it is but I found it on Mistress Leona Khadine d'Este's website on Italian Ren Costuming.   Plans right now are for Bekah and her family to make it out to Rockford this weekend.  Well suss out the sleeves, make a mock up (I think she called it a sloper) and hopefully go apple picking!

10/09/05 -  Yay!  Lady Bekah came up today!  The fabric is lovely and there's a ton of it to work with.  The main body is this beautiful rich jewel purple, and the sleeve fabric is a muted gold with a purple accent pattern.  It's really lovely and I'm *so* excited to have it.  After some talking we're going to go with her original design for the sleeves, so it will be like the spindle portrait.  I forgot to ask her if the sleeves are attached or not.  The portrait gown looks attached to me.

I love working with Bekah, she tosses some fabric out and cuts, then fits it to me, cuts some more, fits again, before you know the sloper is starting to look like the base of a bodice.  Unfortunately my camera is currently broken and I forgot to toss a swatch on the scanner to show you the color!  She's coming back next weekend to work on it again and I'll make sure that she brings her camera.  Next week I should be able to try on the actual bodice and we'll fit it some more.  She's going to add some cording to the dress to give it a little extra support for me and help give me a nicer line.  There's nothing worse than looking bumpy and she took extra care to smooth out the back line for me.

10/09/05 - Bekah sent a scan of my fabric today so that I could share it with you (below left).  The majority of the gown will be the lovely deep purple, with the lower sleeves being the gold with purple acanthus.  She said that thinks she found crepe back satin that will work pretty nicely as guarding on the bodice.  It's not exactly like the purple, perhaps a shade or so darker, but still pretty close. It's also not too shiny, so it's not screamingly modern. She  made up a test strip of that and also of some purple brocade from a dress of hers, just to see what I like better (below right). You can see on the test strips how much the scanner washed out the color, I enhances the picture on the left just a bit to better show the purple color.  As for the guarding test strips I think that I like the darker solid best.  I told Bekah to go with the one that she thinks looks more period appropriate.  I don't mind subtle these days, I think I'm very much past wanting to stand way out in the crowd.   With a beautiful gown carefully fitted and attention paid to period elements the dress will still stand on it's own.

Color Swatches

10/17/05 - "R&B" is what Conchobar and I call the Pierce family when we're being too lazy to say all of their names.  Anyway, R&B came out for dinner and sewing last night as Bekah and I worked on my purple gown.  Okay, Bekah worked, I stood there and played dress dummy while she fitted the gown on me.  I think we're going to work on making me a duct tape double in the coming months.  The good news is that the inner structure of the dress is finished and the fit is perfect.  Bekah sewed together an inner bodice for the gown that is two layers of linen with some hemp cord "boning" for added structure and support.  You can get all the details on hemp cord support at the "Festive Attyre" website.  The cording as support instead of plastic or metal boning makes for a beautiful round Florentine silhouette, that's very comfortable and still supports a larger figure like mine. I hung out in it for about  half hour or so to be sure that I was comfortable with the fit, I'm really getting excited about having this new gown.  Since we achieved such a beautiful line with me pinned into the support bodice we made the decision to make the gown lace up the back instead of on the sides.  It'll just keep everything in place that much better with the back lacing.  Then Bekah cut the outer layer of the gown and attached it to the inner structure.  Things didn't quite match up the first time but I know that Beks will get it worked out because she's amazing.  By that time it was getting late so she took a skirt measurement and we wrapped up for the evening.   I think we may make these Sunday afternoons with the Pierce family a regular thing.  Chatting talking, laughing sewing, the guys racked some beer they've been brewing and Ryan helped Tori varnish a custom pair of drum sticks that I painted for her.  It's a wonderful time and I'm looking forward to seeing this dress!!  We'll continue on next week with the purple Florentine gown and hopefully get some pictures of the dress' progress.

10/18/05 - Today I turned my attention to stressing out about some type of head covering for this gown.  I'm not sure what I'll eventually end up with to cover my hair but for now I'm experimenting with wrapping a turban like those seen in several 16th Century Florentine Paintings.  

 10/25/05 - Bekah drove out today for a final fitting on my bodice and it looks WONDERFUL!  It's kinda hard to tell from this picture how well it fits me, but it's really comfortable and still has a lovely structure.  I will reiterate now as I have done a million times over the past couple weeks that I *HATE* this chemise, it'll be fine for the upcoming event but it's going to have to get replaced.  I may just have to break down and do it myself, that will be a laugh!  

After we decided that the bodice is perfect Bekah sketched out a sleeve for me and whipped up a pattern for it.  As always working with her is simply amazing.  She's a skilled professional and I have nothing but total and complete confidence in her art.  We talked about some design points for the sleeves such as length, guarding and comfort.  She the sketched it out, took some measurements cut it from some scrap fabric and whola! there was my sleeve draft.  They're going to be just fabulous.  I was also able to check out my sash fabric against the purple and it's magnificent.  This dress is going to look great!  Come Sunday I should have a complete dress. 

I bought some false hair a few days ago and made myself a braid.  I'll probably end up just pulling my hair up into a bun and wrapping the braid around it.  Simply and still lovely, period. Eventually I'll make myself a more elaborate "hair hat" but for now the single braid will work just fine.

10/30/05 - Well, I'm told that my dress is finished all but the hem and Bekah's car has gone kaputski.   That's okay though I have 100% confidence in her and her skills.  I know I'll have a dress by Saturday... we just don't know when at this point.

11/05/05 - Oh my gods this is an amazing dress!  I wore it to the event today and got compliments ALL day long.  It's strong and comfortable, perfect perfect perfect!  I'll get pictures up just as soon as I have a chance.   Bekah *IS* a goddess.

Sleeve Pattern