Cranach gown
Because these dresses are just beautiful. I wouldn't object to making one one day. Have to work out construction details and find lots of pictures first though...
Links to other people's dress diaries
Links to paintings/images
I particularly like this painting, need to work out what sort of gold layout the skirt should have, and whether it should be brocade or embroidery.
This one is also very pretty - maybe use a skirt layout like this? It appears to have no choker/collar band, which possibly means no partlet/visible smock?
Don't like this dress so much, but it shows the white fabric of the smock (or partlet) pleating up into the choker/collar
And a pretty black, pearled dress
Green! Slightly different style though.
Much gold decoration on this skirt
Another green one, with nice pearling
I really quite like the skirt on this one, I don't think it's common though. The bodice also appears to be a different shape.
More pretty dresses. I quite like the middle one...
Different style, but yet more pleated smocks.
Will have to hunt down more pictures sometime
Clothing items
For now this is simply a list of what I've picked out of the paintings so far
- Smock
In quite a few paintings this is high necked, very fine, gathered into what looks like a choker. In other paintings the choker is there, but the white fabric is either absent, or so fine as to not show up. It could also be something like a partlet - may be easier in terms of care of the collar. In the occasional painting there is no collar band - maybe because there is no partlet, or maybe because the only one I've noticed so far is allegorical.
- Breastband
Appears to be often gold, sometimes another colour. Usually embroidered or beaded (or both). Not sure how it attaches, or what it is attached to.
- Sleeves
Fair amount of variety here. The ones with the white fabric puffing out have a much heavier fabric than appears in the neckline, so either the neckline is a partlet and the chemise is much heavier, or the puffs are decorative, and not part of another layer.
- Bodice
Possibly fits to slightly below the waistline? Could just be that the stripes of colour are curved to give that impression. Have to look more closely to determine which.
There is a band of decorative colour (normally gold) around the neckline and front opening, may or may not be embroidered/beaded. If not then probably a brocade or similar. Breastband fills across the front at bra level, white fabric below, with lacing across it (often black, either spiral or ladder).
- Skirt
The dress quite clearly appears to be velvet, normally red. Not sure quite how to do the skirt. I'm assuming the gold bands should be appliqued rather than stitched in as a panel (splitting the velvet beneath). There seems to be a fair amount of fabric, somehow pleated to the waistline - rolled pleats? box pleats? cartridge pleats? I'm tempted to try a combination of these, so maybe cartridge pleated box pleats or something. I should be able to come up with an approximation of how many pleats the skirt should have around it to work with.
Shopping list
List of things that I need to acquire to make this dress:
Red velvet/velveteen
Probably velveteen unless I'm lucky enough to find a good cotton velvet Red cotton velvet found. Has stretch, but will be fine once backed with something firm.
Red silk
To match the velvet - at least for the breastband, maybe for sleeve linings also (at least the puffed and slashed bits). I'll keep my hopes up for a taffeta or similar, but anything lighter can be backed easily enough anyway, so shouldn't be a problem Flatmate has some red silk I can use some of
Sheer linen
For the partlet and/or smock. I don't have high hopes of finding a suitably sheer linen, so I may end up using a sheer silk for the partlet, I know I can find suitably sheer silks. I have some fine linen, have yet to see how fine it looks in use - I suspect I may still want some silk organza or similar
Gold fabric
Ideally a suitable brocade. Since I don't have high hopes for this, I'll also keep my eyes open for a nice gold taffeta or similar that I can embroider patterns onto - stem stitching brocade-like patterns shouldn't be too slow. I'm pretty sure the paintings show brocade though, given the way the pattern is cut. There are a few where the trim on the bodice is at least pearled/beaded, and the one where the decorative bands on the skirt appear to be directly embroidered onto the velvet. Bought some white silk satin to attempt to dye. Will try a sample before embroidering...
- Headwear supplies...
I haven't even really looked into the headwear yet. Probably a large red velvet hat, and some sort of embroidered caul (maybe from the organza or whatever from the partlet?)
- Shoe supplies...
Haven't thought about shoes either
- Belt?
Appears to be optional
- Any other layers...
Need to look into what these should be, and what I'll need for them. I'm suspecting a kirtle (or similar), hose, plain smock (if the visible white is partlet), maybe a petticoat. I think the flare at the hips should be achievable without any padding - after all, that's what hips (and springy pleats) are for...
- Decorative elements
I guess I will need large quantities of embroidery supplies, particularly pearls... I can work those details out later.
22/11/07
Bought some red velvet today. It's actually got a bit of lycra in it, but if I back it it should be fine. It's a fairly short pile cotton velvet, with a reasonably nice sheen. It's a little lighter than I was wanting, but it's not too pinkish, and I may consider giving it a bit of brown dye or something.
21/02/08
Thought about this again. Looks like there may be a German themed event around the middle of the year, so I may as well try and get it done for that. I will try a few bridal fabric shops in hope of gold taffeta for embroidering, and maybe red taffeta. Will attempt to pattern up a kirtle bodice tonight, and go linen and silk shopping on Saturday morning. Planning to do some dyeing on Saturday afternoon, so shall try to remember to try for some yellow silk for couching.
Did some calculations on the quantity of pearls required for the brustfleck that I really like (red with diamonds of pearls, triple rows), worked out that it's about 3000 pearls. Not sure if I'll go with this or find another one I like.
24/02/08
Bought fabric yesterday. Found green linen for a kirtle (wanted pink, but there wasn't anything I liked enough). The kirtle is now cut out and bodice side seams stitched (outer and lining). Bought some white silk duchess satin in the hopes of dyeing it (probably post-embroidery, to avoid patchy fading).
Made up a compilation of all the detail I could find of brocade patterns in the hope of making a pattern sometime soon. In the process I found another brustfleck that I like the look of, which uses a lot less pearls. It has a gold background with black flowers, white diagonal lines and pearls in the centre of the flowers. If I do this one I will probably still do it on the red, since my flatmate has some red silk I can use, and I won't be able to redye gold if it fades because there is white embroidery on it.
25/02/08
Looking at the close-up paintings of the gold, many paintings appear to have faint lines following the lines of gold fabric. I had a suspicion that this may have been cloth of gold, which this seems to support. This link shows some older cloth-of-gold with a similar styled pattern. This is definitely out of my league, but it makes me feel a little better about using embroidered silk instead of a brocade, since I will be able to get a closer pattern. This may also mean that the draping of the skirt may be encouraged by the weight of the gold fabric, so weighting the hem will be a plausible option if my skirt doesn't drape as I would like.
28/02/08
Bodice is now mostly put together (neck and armhole edges just tacked). Six of the 30 eyelets are done, I hope to have the rest done by the end of the week.
Made the first attempt at dyeing the white silk, it turned out a lovely bright yellow, rather than the deep gold that I'd managed on wool. I'm not particularly surprised about the colour difference, it would have been nice if it had worked though.
Embroidery design for the gold is mostly plotted now. The basic layout is based on the cloth of gold linked above. There are 20 cm circles containing an artichoke design, surrounded by a 5 cm border of leaves and flowers. The gaps between circles I haven't designed yet, but will probably just be more leaves and flowers. I will post pictures once the bits are finalised and I can scan them.
03/03/08
Got the embroidery partially drawn onto the fabric over the weekend. After deciding to hunt for more fabric and buying some gold polyester taffeta (it was shiny and a lovely colour) I ended up deciding to go with the silk after all, mostly because it was just nicer to handle.
Started the embroidery on Saturday afternoon. After working out how much I could do in an hour I worked out that I could in fact finish it in time, even without taking it to work where it would be guaranteed to get dirty very quickly. But it would mean spending most of my free time at home doing embroidery or other Cranach related things, and there are too many other things I want to get done this winter to lock myself solidly into one project. The plan now is to get it done by next winter, or whenever an appropriate seeming event occurs. This also means I can concentrate on the 15th C Italian that has been in planning for longer, and which I have more desire to finish before the appropriate event (probably September sometime)
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