Felgacarb
Sr Member
Here's a project from a couple of years ago. I was intent on dragging someone to a local Ren Faire, and (as everyone here knows) it's always more fun to attend (pretty much anything!) in costume, so I needed to make an outfit for her. For a standard peasant/lower middle class dress the shift, skirts and hat are fairly simple, but I documented the construction of the bodice.
It's critical the the bodice fit right, so you need to start with an exact pattern. A simple way to generate one is to place the person in a sacrificial tee shirt and wrap them in masking tape. At this stage you can draw in where you'll want the seams to go in felt pen, and then carefully cut them out of it.
Once you have the pattern, you can cut it into the the individual pieces and use them to cut your material. You want to go with something pretty sturdy fabric wise, as this is a support garment as well.
Since this was a pretty simple version, I chose to make reversible. It's more fun that way...
You'll need eyelets and boning to close the bodice- as this is a lower class version, the closure is straight up the front. If you're going for accuracy, you'll chose actual whale boning and hand sewed eyelets- but if you're aiming for robustness, you could chose the compromise I favor- I use plumber's tape with the holes drilled out slightly larger instead of boning. This is both easy to get and allows me to put the laces through it without needing multiple pieces of boning on each side. I then use common grommets, the one modern give-away (aside from the machine stitching!)
And here's what it looks like all put together- once again, the faces have been obscured to protect the shy...
And for the record, the goblet is not optional...
Thanks for looking!
It's critical the the bodice fit right, so you need to start with an exact pattern. A simple way to generate one is to place the person in a sacrificial tee shirt and wrap them in masking tape. At this stage you can draw in where you'll want the seams to go in felt pen, and then carefully cut them out of it.
Once you have the pattern, you can cut it into the the individual pieces and use them to cut your material. You want to go with something pretty sturdy fabric wise, as this is a support garment as well.
Since this was a pretty simple version, I chose to make reversible. It's more fun that way...
You'll need eyelets and boning to close the bodice- as this is a lower class version, the closure is straight up the front. If you're going for accuracy, you'll chose actual whale boning and hand sewed eyelets- but if you're aiming for robustness, you could chose the compromise I favor- I use plumber's tape with the holes drilled out slightly larger instead of boning. This is both easy to get and allows me to put the laces through it without needing multiple pieces of boning on each side. I then use common grommets, the one modern give-away (aside from the machine stitching!)
And here's what it looks like all put together- once again, the faces have been obscured to protect the shy...
And for the record, the goblet is not optional...
Thanks for looking!
