Elizabethan Gown
June 2008
Well, it's about time I started this diary. I've been planning to go back to the PA Ren Faire since ... well since I left last October. And I've been planning this gown long before then ... I've had this fabric for over 2 years now!

General idea is an upper middle class dress, sketches should be at the top. I'm leaning closer to the design on the left.

First thing to is to work on the undergarments, so that's where I'm headed for now




8.08.08
Progress at last?
I hope so. I ended up making new undergarments for this dress entirely. I tried on my pair of 18th C stays and decided that they just werent right. I also tried on my old pair or horribly made 16/17th C stays and decided that for the amount of work that I'd have to put into them to make them workable, I just might as well make myself an entire new pair. So I did. Now everything will match ;)

Not many pics of my stay/corset construction. I merged the Corset Pattern generator along with these other directions (of COURSE I can't find them now) and ended up with what I have. Still a little work - I have to make eyelets for the shoulder straps and bind off the shoulder edge, and I have to put more boning along the front where it laces up. (I recycled boning from the other horrible corset - turns out that I didnt have any long enough for the front edge - and I was too cheap to order some. But I have some pieces left over from the hoop boning, and so I'll just put some leftover pieces at the top front edge.)

The Farthingale.  Or not.
Though it finally came together, I'm still not really crazy about it. I think it looks fine on my dressfrom, but when I have it on it feels waaaaay too full. So, I think I'm going to have to go back and play with each hoop to make it smaller. Grr. The final circumference at the bottom is about 125 iches, which I thought is small considering it's supposed to be 2/3 of my height (closer to 150").
One other problem which I think is easy to fix ... I couldn't help but pin some of the dress fabric on as I was finishing it up. Looks absolutlely lovely, but the weight of the skirts pushes the whole thing forward. So it looks like I'm going to be adding weights to the front of the farthingale to hold it down.
Aside from that, I love it :)

Bumroll.
Pretty straight forward. Didn't take me long at all to do, and I have plently of stuffing (old fabric scraps). I think I might make another one, a smaller one, especially since I think I'm going to be playing with the farthingale.

As far as a shift/chemise/parlet is concerned, I'm still deciding on how to go about this. The silk I have that I was going to use is thin, and won't keep me very warm in October. But it looks soo nice against the dark blue! And I only have enough to make something along the lines of a waist - length shift/chemise/shirt, with full sleeves. So I think that's what I'm planning on right now - I can always make a closer fitting, longer shift/smock later on with plain cotton. So I haven't started anything yet, since I'm still not too sure what I'm doing. ;)


That's all for now ........