This dress was my rough draft for the
orange courtesan, since its fabric was precious and limited.
I started out making a side back laced bodice, and later altered it to be front ladder lacing in the more prominent venetian style.
From the bottom up:
The camica is cotton decorators gauze chosen for its lightweightness, sheerness and breathability. Lighter than hanky weight linen, most definitely. Of course, now I yearn for a linen camica. hehe. Its made from the pattern on the
Realm of Venus, with a few modifications. the wrists and neckline are edges in gold thread, and the bands are hand-done redwork in rust embroidery thread. Here you can see my camica and its inspiration:
The corded petticoat is pink cotton shirting with a spiral of grossgrain ribbon. The ribbon channel encases a double row of cotton clothesline rope. This petticoat holds the skirts of the overdress out a bit, and more importantly keeps the skirts from twisting round my legs on warm days.
The corset is a double layer of white denim with a mix of poly, spring, and spiral boning sewn into the channels. Its made from the
Custom Corset Generator on the elizabethan costuming page. The outer decorative layer is cut from some curtains
Niter insisted I buy from goodwill. Thank you niter.
The dress is a green rayon thing, with one plain side and one checkered side. The checkered side is, of course, hidden on the underside. This was to be a purely for practice dress, afterall. Except now I like it for wearing. The plan is to not expose the under side of my unlined skirts (lining made it too heavy/hot, so I cut it out). The bodice is trimmed with some red-curtainy-material-guards. The ladder lacing was a huge cheat for me, since I just sewed some eyelet tape onto the inner edge of the bodice.
The sleeves are trimmed with black grossgrain ribbon in a criss-cross pattern. I liberally beaded each cross with a pearl, simply cuz it pleased me (i'm still in teh process of finishing this, actually). The sleeves tie onto lacing rings sewn to the underside of the shoulder straps.
Accesories:
The girdle is made from platic white pearls, platic amber beads, glass silver pearls and red czech glass beads. Its attached at key points around the bodice so that it conforms to front and back points.
The bag is the same as for the
orange courtesan, a fanciful striped bag of wool and pretty swatches i had on hand.
The fan is also the same as for the orange courtesan, a hand embroidered fabric swatch over timtex interfacing and cardboard trimmed in velvet ribbon and lace, and attached to a dowel rod that i painted gold.
My mug is a wooden diddy that I got at MD ren fest last year. I simply adore it!
Things to learn/fix/finish:
1) Super angular back seams and a very non-subtle back points create unseemly
buttpuckers.
2) Yes, like the orange courtesan, a partlet would be a nice addition.
3) I need to finish pearling the sleeves at the ribbon intersections.
4) It probably wouldn't hurt to shorten the hem a bit, as its a little too long. But then, it works well with my leather clogs, which are the closest things to chopines that I have.
5) Next time I do a practice dress, pick a completely solid fabric, its not worht the few bucks saved to have the underside of the fabric being checkered! ;-)
6) If I do ladder lacing again, I'll not cheat with the eyelet tape for the lacing. it doesn't hold the bodice completely flush to the body.
7) The armscythes (sp?) are a bit too tight on the front of my armpit. I might have to fix this. Later.
8) I regret not doing a center front seam with the skirt panels. Instead I had to split and placket in the middle of the front panel to make enough room for me to get in and out of the bodice, and this refuses to close completely.
Definitely a learning experience. But overall, I like the dress, and I learned a lot from it. Especially considering my super un-authentic previous attempts at ren costuming.
