Avoiding heat stroke dress pt 1

One of the reasons I’m excited about moving to Scotland is that, these days, summer does not treat me well. I’m poorly insulated and on anti-depressants, so I overheat easily. I get sunburnt at the drop of a hat and occasionally actually have an allergic reaction to sunlight.

…..I swear I’m not a vampire, just really pale.

The next SCA event I’m going to is in Napa in June, so I needed something to wear that’ll breath better than my red dress.

I also wanted something that didn’t lace up the back so it would be easier for me to get it on by myself. A quick flip through Hispanic Costume found the following woodcut:

And my doodle! I’m actually keeping up with my costuming journal.

A few weeks back at Stone Mountain and Daughter I saw a really lovely lilac linen. No way I was buying it at $20/yd but I liked the idea of the color.

I found a similar silvery lavender lilac from fabrics-store and lined it with white linen left over from my stays. There’s a stomacher panel mimicking an underdress in natural linen left over from the strength layer of my fencing doublet. I’m always happy to dig into my scraps bag!

I threw the bodice together in an evening. It fits me better than the mannequin as the silhouette of this time period involves a compressed bosom and the hard foam doesn’t exactly…. Do that.

The woodcut looked like the skirt was knife pleated, so I decided to be good and actually do that, instead of easier cartridge pleats or gathers.

The top of the skirt was 2.6 times longer than the bottom of the bodice, so I did 1.5″ knife pleats offset by .25″ starting at the center back and that actually, kinda worked? I had to throw in two small 1″ pleats at the front edges so there wouldn’t be too much overlap. The bodice wraps so the skirt can’t go all the way to the edge.

Hand sewn eyelets for the bodice lacing are done, and I’m currently attaching the lower sleeves to the upper using #3 cordonnet. The sleeves will “tie” together with short bars of the same 11mm embroidery ribbon I used on the red dress.

Because this wouldn’t be me without questionable embroidery plans…. Here’s what I have in mind to be worked on ONLY AFTER CROWN because I have too much to do already.

This is a PDF of an article from 1909 that includes the entire text of a book of German embroidery patterns from 1534, reprinted 1545.

This is some antique silver purl from Tinsel Trading that’s beautiful and subtle and would look really nice on my stomacher.

I am behaving though….. Mostly because I already have way too much to do.