This Is Good?

I was fully expecting this to be as time consuming, if not moreso than my coif, which is still in the works. Instead, my slips are being up quite fast, and I'm not sure what to do with myself.

The two slips thus far:

 And a detail:

I am in no mood to go back and rip out stitches, even if many of them are on the big side (by my standards, most are four to two threads wide.) My idea for now is to just keep going back and adding to the design, and hopefully this will end up being the leisurely time consuming project I intended it to be.

Something Slightly Different

I marked out and started embroidering one of the slips I planned. The design is inspired by the top pattern on Elenora of Toldeo's burial stockings.

I simplified the design a bit so I would get worked into a tizzy trying to get it just right.

My Italian Debut, part 3

I was working on my outfit at a leisurely pace until one day I realized "Crap, I only have a month left!" Nose, meet grindstone. Multiple layers were squared away, and what hand sewn portions I could easily transport, I did.

The overgown is where I departed from by stash dipping. I did not have enough fabric to make a pretty gown, so I bought some online from Fashion Fabrics Club. It's cotton damask in white and light blue, and it took me ages to decide what side to use. I eventually chose blue with white motifs in the hope it would be slightly less stain catching, and it looked prettier with the red. When I started sewing, I noticed a bit of stretch in the material, but I've mostly ignored it.

Drafting the bodice was easy. I traced the pattern pieces of the kirtle on paper, added seam allowance around the sides, and altered the front so it had a pretty V, and the back so it had four pieces like in The Tudor Tailor. I used some of the old kirtle skirt lining for both mockup and lining for the bodice.

I ran construction seams through the sewing machine and flat felled the entire thing by hand. I had some homemade piping leftover from a previous project, and there was enough for the neckline and armscythes. I justify my dubious use of piping in that it is pretty and Gozzoli's 1491 Birth of Mary features a woman with similar edging on her gown.

My Italian Debut, part 2

There's not much to say about the camica. I followed Jen Thompson's instructions and machine sewed the whole thing.The only place where one would see the machine stitching is at the neckline, and I doubted many people would complain about this modern touch. it is made from voile and is very sheer, so I'm not putting up any pictures of me wearing it and nothing on top.

I have chronic bed head, and the caps I've seen in contemporary portraits are small. There are far too many chances for my hair to break free and make a mess. Fortunately, there is Botticelli's Portrait of a Plainly Dressed Lady.  A documentable extra cloth to keep my hair in check, yay!

The cap was less exciting. It is an oblong semicircle, hand hemmed and stitched into a three dimensional shape. The edges are very wonky, and I folded pinned it down on the sides to look tidier on the day I wore it. As I am making a much prettier coif, the first one will be taken apart and used for more exciting projects.