To make up for an illness earlier in the year, I decided to take this week off from work to catch up on a few things. Mostly this has involved catching up on sleep so far, but today I got re-started on my day garb. 

I say restarted because I'd already gotten my sleeve cut and the sewing on them started. It's slower, but I'd decided to do this day garb outfit completely handsewn, just to set myself the challenge.

The sleeve are cut from a small piece of red wool I had in my stash, and are lined with a red taffeta to enhance the colour. This wool will also form the trim on the bodice of the dress, and I'm hoping I'll just have enough for that purpose.


For the main dress, I have a beautiful, soft, steel grey wool I purchased from a friend in the SCA. The picture on the right shows front and back bodice pieces cutout, with their linen lining. I don't want to make this bodice as stiff as my court gown bodice, but I'm unsure yet how I'll give it a little more body. Another layer of linen perhaps?


The design itself is based on a number of working women portraits from Italy in the late 16th century. In these portraits, the ladder laced front was still popular, though the bodice was squared rather than pointed.