Third time's the charm? - another green Venetian 16th century gown

 So the 16th century Venetian that I made this spring is too large. Not by itself, it has taken some effort to lose some of that weight.

And the one that I made in spring 2019 is (still) too small.

So here we go: another green Venetian gown. This time from second hand cotton velvet curtains. The inspiration is this fresco by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, from c. 1560-65

Since I have white cinquefoils (five petaled flowers) on green in my heraldic arms (for the SCA) I tend to be drawn to anything with white flowers, especially on green. 

The fresco isn't detailed enough to show how the flowers were made. It appears to be the same fabric as the gown, just with added decoration; so I think we can exclude woven pattern. That leaves embroidery/applique, and cut out patterns. Both are known techniques from the periodm but I have decided to go for the cut out patterns, which is very common in portraits.

This is my trial, on scraps of red cotton velvet.

Yesterday, when I really needed a break from reading up on the Cold War for a lecture that I am holding on Friday, I constructed a sleeve pattern and cut out the sleeves. First in white silk dupion (of the even kind), and then from the green cotton velvet.

And today, having another break from the Cold War, I started marking where to cut the flowers. With the help of a gingerbread cutter.

Now I will return to the Cold War, but this will be an excellent hand sewing project while I watch costume films with my neighbour, as we do every New Year's Eve.

Finally good photos of one of 12th century gowns

I made this dress from slk shantung back in 2014.  But I never managed to get a good photo of it, just very dark ones from Double Wars 2015

Or sitting down, at Double Wars 2014

But I wore it to Gotvik's Christmas party today, and my friend Mattias took a couple of photos.

I will make a page about it too, maybe even this year.

Buttonholes and buttons

 So now the very old dress that never got finished, that I wrote about in my previous post, is hemmed and has got hand made buttonholes, and brass buttons.

I made the armscyes bigger, which may have been a mistake - but I like being able to move my arms ;)

I have made a toile for sleeves, but haven't tried it on yet. It won't be finished for Gotvik's yule party this Sunday. Mostly because I have taken up knitting again, and that tends to consume me.