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Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge – April report

A change of plans

When I entered IRCC 9 I had no idea that I would be spending most of the month of May in Italy! Specifically, on my sister’s farm in Piedmonte, near Cisterna d’Asti. I’m delighted & looking forward eagerly to the trip – and scrambling to finish non-IRCC work scheduled for May before I leave.

This has also reshuffled my sewing plans; initially I had planned to make the gown, based on the Pisa half-gown, first, then the camicia based on the one worn by Laura Battiferri in the Bronzino portrait (the images above), followed by the underskirt, while working on the lace and jewellery when not sewing.

So, as I’m going to be in Italy instead of my studio, I’m focusing instead on what I can take along in a carry-on suitcase. This includes the materials/components for

  • the camicia
  • the lace (or lace-edged) cap
  • the pearl necklace
  • the belt

All of these involve a lot of handwork and minimal volumes of materials – even the camicia which, though it’s lots of yardage, is fine cotton & folds up small

So far,

Camicia smock pleating & collar hem

  • I made progress with the preliminary steps for cutting & fitting the bodice of the gown before the trip to Italy came up
  • completed the assembly of the camicia components, hemming & pleating its collar & cuffs preparatory to smocking
    Pearls, chain and tools for jewellery & belt for IRCC 9 submission
  • assembled the materials & tools for the other items I’m planning to take along

 

 

 

 

April working notes

1 April 2019

Muslin for gown bodice:

The bara system pattern pieces

  • drafted a basic doublet pattern using the Modern Maker[1] bara technique

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 April 2019

Trying on the first cut of the bodice made with the Modern Maker bara system

  • made a muslin from the Modern Maker pattern draft & found some issues with the fit:
    • too tight – needs at least 2cm added to the girth – actual amount tbd, depending on the thickness of the fabrics
    • the armhole is too high
    • the upper chest has a peculiar outward curve as if designed for a pigeon chest. Not sure where that came from – it’s over the sternum, too high to be intended to accommodate the fashionable 16th century flatten-the-girls-upward look. I’ll need to take out 2 or 3cm.

3 April 2019

  • tried the muslin on again & made the adjustments
  • drafted a new version of the pattern with the adjustments, a square neckline and side back lacing opening. (Side lacing makes dressing without help possible!)
  • cut new muslin

5 April 2019

  • sewed & fitted new muslin

10 – 18 April 2019

Canvas underling for bodice prior to final fitting

    • tweaked the bodice fit
    • lowered the armhole
    • raised the front neck 2cm; the extant garment is described as having a “scollo molto alto” (a very high neckline). This may account for why there is a centre front seam. Without the shaping this seam makes possible the front would stand out from the upper chest unless I took a deep dart or two at the top & one in each armscye, which solution does not appear to be supported by evidence from surviving garments or pattern books.
    • made the straps a separate piece as on the extant garment
  • drafted new pattern from adjusted muslin
  • cut the canvas for bodice interlining ready for final fitting

 

 

 

 

19-24 April 2019

Smocked camicia:

  • made a second smocking test swatch
  • calculated width of fabric needed to gather to a neck circumference of 33cm (~ 13 inches). It needs to be 304 cm (~ 120 inches) wide
  • cut out camicia pieces (front, back, 2 sleeves, 2 square gussets) by pulled-thread method to ensure all pieces are on the straight of grain. Cut a 30cm (~ 12 inches) neckline opening at the centre front.
  • narrow-hemmed 30cm of the top edges of the front, back & sleeves sewed them together. I’ve left the bulk of the sewing until the collar embroidery/smocking is complete because it’s hard to tell beforehand how deep/shallow the armholes will need to be.
  • did a fine rolled hem around the top edge, then narrow-hemmed the neckline opening and the edges of where the cuffs will be

25 – 28 April 2019

  • discovered that, in spite of being thin & fine, the full width of the camicia is too big to fit in my smocking pleater. Unpicked the seams far enough down to handle each panel separately.
  • pleated the collar & cuffs of the camicia
  • re-stitched the seams & bits of the rolled hem where I’d had to open them for pleating.

30 April 2019

  • photographed & packed handwork items

[1] Mathew Gnagy, The Modern Maker Vol. 2: Pattern Manual 1580 – 1640, self-published

By | April 30th, 2019|costume, embroidery, IRCC, Italy, jewellery, smocking, tools|Comments Off on Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge – April report
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Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge – Day 1

This year I’ve entered the Realm of Venus’s Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge (IRCC). The start date is the first of April – today.

The rules: the IRCC is a four-month long challenge to create a complete man’s, woman’s or child’s late Italian Renaissance outfit, from the skin out, of a style circa 1480 to 1600. The outfit can be of any social class and needs to include at least one accessory, with a maximum of four accessories allowed.

What I’ve proposed to make is:

  • a camicia
  • an underskirt
  • a gown based on the extant diamond twill half-gown held in Pisa
  • a headdress or cap

Depending on how things go, I may add one or two of the following

  • an apron
  • a belt
  • a pearl necklace with matching earrings
  • a vest or short cape

Entries started a month ago. That first month was to be dedicated to deciding on what to make and gathering materials.

Deciding what to make was easy; ever since I found out about the wool/linen diamond twill half dress that’s in Pisa, I’ve wanted to make a gown based on it, using the diamond twill I found when King Textiles – one of our local fabric shops – had to move when their building was sold to a condo developer.

I’ve also wanted to try needle lace, so, if all goes well, the “headdress” will be a needle lace cap.

And my current White Wolf Fian challenge is a carved busk. So far all I’ve done on it is taking a carving class at Lee Valley and assembling the tools & materials, so, since I haven’t started on the actual busk, it works with the timing rules. Though, since it’s woodwork rather than textile, I’m not sure it fits in the criteria – I’ll have to check before adding it to the entry.

As for gathering materials, that’s pretty much done:


The materials for my IRCC 9 entry

The fabrics:

The right stack:

  • white lightweight cotton for the camicia
  • blue wool/linen diamond twill for the gown
  • black wool twill for the gown’s guards

The left stack:

  • red lightweight wool for the petticote
  • lightweight yellow linen for the linings (lightweight linen is usually expensive, so when I found this one cheap at Pennsic*, I bought lots of it even though it’s not a colour I’d usually choose for linings)
  • cotton canvas, heavy linen & various interfacings for the bodice

The odds & ends:

  • 50/3 linen thread for my super-ambitious lace cap plus the images & plastic to cover them (it might wind up as a lace-edged cap)
  • Mathew Gnagy’s Modern Maker volumes and the bara tapes I made following his instructions
  • a sample of the smocking for the camicia
  • my faithful roll of butcher paper that’s seen me through many patterning adventures
  • a piece of basswood and some carving tools for the busk
  • and, of course, the obligatory furry assistant.

I’m not sure I’ll use all of this, and will probably find I’m missing some odds & ends.

Today’s project: drafting the basic bodice pattern:

Pattern draft for 16th century woman's bodice

…to be continued

 

  • Pennsic is an annual Society for Creative Anachronism event that’s held in Pennsylvania and usually draws 10,000 or more attendees. One of its features is a market with lots of merchants who specialize in reenactment-related stuff.
By | April 1st, 2019|cat, costume, IRCC, Italy, Renaissance, SCA, smocking|Comments Off on Italian Renaissance Costume Challenge – Day 1
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The Apron and the Scoggers – an unexpected project

I’m going to be taking a potentially messy pigments class at Fruits of our Labours (better known as FOOL) a Society for Creative Anachronism event on the May long weekend.

As I’ll be wearing 16th century garb, it struck me that I’ll seriously want to protect my clothes. Which raised the question of aprons.

Almost all the many aprons in 16th century art – and earlier, for that matter – start at the waist and cover the front of the skirt. That’s always puzzled me. I’ve never noticed that splatters and splashes conscientiously restrain themselves to landing below the waist. Surely “women’s work” was just as messy in the middle ages & renaissance as it is now, so where are the full frontal coverage aprons?

I had a faint tickle of memory that I had seen at least one image of such an apron, but I couldn’t pin it down, so I sent out a plea on themedieval washerwoman wearing apron marvelous Elizabethan Costume facebook page. The membership came to my rescue with a number of images, including this one.

Then one of the members had the brilliant suggestion that a pair of scoggers (sleeve protectors) might be a good idea as well. A good idea indeed! Thank you, Tracie!

The construction of the apron is guesswork. From the images, it looks like the aprons were made from two rectangles, and the necklines range from a simple casing with a strap threaded through it to many fine gathers anchored down somehow, with a separate strip sewn on as a casing. I suspect the gathers are the back side of smocking. Even using a very sturdy thread, unsupported gathering lines would eventually break, which would make for a truly annoying mending job.

With the width of fabric needed to cover my skirt & leave enough room to walk freely, the simple-casing design Detail of reverse-smocked yokewould have been ridiculously bunchy & ugly, so I went with the reverse side of smocking. It’s still a serious volume of fabric, but at least it behaves itself!

The scoggers are just sewn & hemmed tubes, with a pair of eyelets at each end for a drawstring.scoggers - eyelets & drawstring

I did cheat a little with the drawstrings – the visible parts are linen tape, but I spliced a piece of elastic into each one blue "this way up" stitchesso that I could get the scoggers on & off by myself. With just the linen tape, I’d have to have had someone tie me into them each time!

I also added a few stitches in blue linen embroidery floss on the inside top so that I wouldn’t have to figure out which way is up each time I put them on!

The is is probably the shortest garb project I’ve ever made. Even with doing everything but the long seams by hand – including felling down the apron seam allowances – I got it done in the few odd corners of time available in two very busy weeks!

Yay rectangles, straight seams and one-size-fits-most!

 

By | May 10th, 2017|costume, linen, smocking|2 Comments
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