August 2020:
To start this dress, I began with the bodice. I started by fitting and adjusting the bodice
pattern for the sottana, and then I got the bodice cut out of the silk brocade for the fashion fabric that was purchased for this project along with a layer of linen canvas from my stash for the inner lining and a layer of white linen left over from the camicia for the lining. I will be honest here, I have used lots of expensive fabrics over the last several years but I have never used a silk brocade before. I had to stop and take a few deep breaths before I could cut into it. All of the pieces were serged to help prevent fraying. After the bodice was serged, I stitched the shoulder pieces together on the outer layer and flat lined the inner lining to the lining. After flatlining, I did channel stitching on the lining layers to simulate pad stitching the two pieces together.
After channel stitching was done on both the front and back bodice pieces, the shoulder seams were stitched together. At this point I decided to start working on the trim. I decided to utilize two portraits for the trim inspiration, the first being “An Unknown Man and Woman” (once called Vasari and his Wife) by Sophonisba Anguissola which is shown above and the second being “Two Sisters and a Brother” also by Sophonisba Anguissola.
I chose these portraits because they both showed very simple trim on the sottana and the first showed the trim in a color that matches the veste rather than being a shade different than the sottana or a neutral color. I made bias tape trim out of the silk that I dyed in July in 1 inch width. After I made the bias tape, I proceeded with putting it on to the brocade layer bodice neckline with Japanese gold thread from DMC. I am using a twisted chain
stitch to apply the trim as this looks very similar to a couched cord. After the trim was stitched on in two lines to the neckline, I machine stitched the bodice brocade layer to the lining layers and got it turned, leaving the neckline and waistline to be hand finished. I stitched some of the leftover linen bias tape from the camicia to the waist line on the brocade layer and then turned it under and hand finished the waistline with a whip stitch. I then hand finished the neckline with a slip stitch to hide the stitching and turn under the serged edge.
After the bodice was finished I began the process of hand working eyelets along both the back and front back edges for lacing adding in the brass lacing rings for strength.
At this point, I was having issues with the bobbins for my kumihimo braid not staying wound and was fighting with them every time I sat down to work on the lacing cord which made this process become unbearably slow. So I decided to use some poly decorator cord that was in my stash in an ecru color and matched the bodice well. I stitched the cord into the inside of the bias tape at the waist line and then glued brass aiglets onto the cord after they were squeezed down with jewelers pliers to fit through the hand worked eyelets. Bodice needs to have lacing rings added to the shoulder straps and it will be finished.
Sleeves - I patterned the sleeves from my favorite Margo pattern and then resized them down to be more slim fitted for this gown as they will be under another set of sleeves for the veste.
Following the embroidery, I cut strips of the brocade and strips of the purple silk to create looped baragoni for the tops of the sleeves, the strips were stitched together then serged, then the purple silk was stitched to the brocade into a long tube. I have cut the tube into three inch sections and turned it, then embroidered along the seam edges in a twisted chain stitch in the japanese gold to mimic the trim at the cuffs and the neckline. There are 16 loops on each of the sleeves. After looking at the looped baragoni, I decided that they needed poofed fabric to help them stay in the position that I wanted. I tore two 4 inch strips of the white cotton silk blend that is for my partlet and serged them and stitched them into tubes. I then threaded the tubes through the baragaoni loops and puffed it up. To secure I slip stitched the ends of the tubes together on each sleeve and then did a few tacking stitches on the inside at the base of the baragoni.
In September, I strung pearls and bead caps onto Silk Ribbon for the sleeve points, the pearls and bead caps for the aiglets, matching the ones used to make the buttons. I then stitched the points into the baragoni. I also stitched the buttons and brass lacing rings into the armscye of the bodice to attach the points to the bodice. The buttons are decorative as I had previously planned to run button holes at the top of the sleeves but the sleeves ended up a little too fitted for that to be an option.
Also in September, I started working on the skirt.
Three panels had been cut for the sottana to do a rectangular construction skirt with the weft edges serged to prevent fraying prior to September. After looking at the three panels for the skirt and working with the fabric for the sleeves and the bodice, I made the decision to flat line the skirt panels to protect the floats of the brocade. I decided to use a light weight white cotton muslin from my stash for the skirt lining in part because it was the exact same width as the brocade and also because I wanted to keep the additional weight of the lining to a minimum. I cut three panels of the muslin and serged the weft edges. After the muslin panels were prepped, I stitched the bias edges of the muslin to the back of the brocade to flat line each panel.
After the panels were flat lined, I stitched the long seams together leaving the tops of the seams open for the first 10 inches on both sides of the back panel. I cut the front top of the skirt to shape the waistline where the skirt would attach to the bodice. After the waistline was shaped, I flat felled the construction seams for the three panels of the skirt by hand. Then four strips of 2 inch wide wool felt was cut and stitched together to create a long strip and then was stitched to the outside edge of the top of the skirt at the waist. This was turned over and pinned to prep the waist line for marking the cartridge pleating, the wool felt was to pad the cartridge pleats on the skirt. I marked the pleats at ½ inch intervals and ran the gathering stitches for the cartridge pleats. I left approximately 4 inches at each side of the center front waist to minimize skirt bulk on the tummy area.
I then cut 3 strips of the velvet that I will be using for the outer dress in 7 inch wide strips, and serged and stitched them into one long strip. I also cut 4 strips of wool felt at 3 inches wide. I stitched the wool felt to the outside edge of the velvet on the front side to be turned under and then stitched down on the underside of the skirt to pad the hem line, the other long edge of the velvet was flipped and stitched down to the skirt approximately 3 inches above the hem to create a guard for the brocade. I had originally planned to do the guard in the same silk as the trim rather than the velvet but after looking at a couple of my other gowns with silk on the bottom hemline and the damage of wear and tear on them I decided to go with the velvet for something that would stand up to more wear and tear on the hem than silk. After the machine stitching was completed on the guard I turned it under and hand stitched it down inside the hemline encasing the wool felt that was turned to the inside .After the guard was completed, I used the same gold thread in the same twisted chain stitch along the top seam edge of the guard to make it match the trim on the bodice and sleeves.
Once I was completed with the embroidery, I drew up the cartridge pleats and started attaching the skirt to the bodice. I used a double whip stitch on the inside of the pleats and attached the top of the cartridge pleats with a slip stitch. The moment of truth was here, I tried on the dress and was getting some odd pulling from around the openings of the skirts on the back side as I had pulled the gathering threads too tight when I drew them up. The weight of the skirt was also too much for the slip stitch and was pulling the skirts down. Take the dress off and reinforce the top edge of the skirt with a double whip stitch in upholstery thread and remove the bottom two strands of gathering stitches from the cartridge pleats.
I made buttons out of jewelry findings based on a tutorial from my friend, Maridith Smith. If your interested in watching her video, you can find it here:
I used glass pearls, decorative eye pins and flat eye pins along
with bead caps. For the sottana, I used 8 mm champagne colored glass pearls, brass bead caps, and flat eye pins. These will be for attaching the sleeves to the bodice and buttons for the sleeve cuffs so they could be fitted. For the veste, I used dark purple 12 mm glass pearls, brass decorative bead caps, and decorative head pins. The method for creating these, bends the headpin into a shank and wraps some of the extra around the shank to hold the bead and bead cap tight to the underside of the headpin. I made 16 buttons for the sottana and 23 for the veste.
The finalized dress pics (Yes, I know it looks long on me, I plan to wear chopines with it since I am not a tall girl) :D
