Saxon Mk1

So Atlantia November Crown (2011) has come and gone. Since I'd managed to kill all of my good dresses while teaching medieval history or scorched the good under-dresses doing who knows what, I was stuck with the typical girlie problem - I had nothing to wear!. Well, that's a lie but I would have frozen in a saree and I thought wearing my slopping-around-the-campsite-viking garb wasn't respectful of a crown event. So I pulled out one of my UFO's and decided to complete it.

I've been working on this Cranach dress (after the dresses depicted by Lucas Cranach the Elder) for about 5 years. I'll admit, when I started this I didn't do much research. I found some images and fixed them in my head rather than actually studying the construction methods. With some help from Ms Dawn (Montjoy) I managed to get the chest section in mostly right and I finished the sleeves with some scrap I received from Bryces mother way back when.

It was in a wearable state for crown but now I've done some actual research, some things need to be done to finish / fix this outfit.

 

• The key to any good outfit is accessories. I need to create some headwear, make myself some jewelery and work out a pouch or token storage option (sometimes the boyfriend doesn't have pockets either).
• I need to actually put some puffs in the puff and slash sleeve sections (I had the fabric ready to go for crown but ran out of time).
• I need to exchange half the clips holding the breast band in for pants clips. The pants clips sit flatter and have a little lump helping them lock into place. They seem more secure
• I need to make the skirt fastening more secure as this system only works when there is tension on the band and doesn't like it when I slouch as I have a tendency to do. I got stabbed alot my the pin I used to ensure my dress didn't gape
• The breast band sits too low (top is just above nipple line). I need to raise it by about an inch. This will have the added benefit of pulling in the shoulders of the gown so they don't slip.
• Once the chest is raised I'll then need to extend the lacing section of the gown.

Things learnt so far:

• I'm not very good at sleeves (but that's nothing new)
• Fully make the bodice before attaching the skirt as tightening the lacing pulls the bodice and skirt up higher on the hips.
• Temporarily lace up dress then set the breast band.
• Overlapping knife pleats are a pain to sew (cartridge will work better given my waist-hip ratio)