Clarice Gown Finished!

For the IRCC I have been making two coordinating gowns that I can mix and match with.  One of the gowns is based on a portrait of Clarice Ridolfi Altoviti painted by Cristofano dell'Altissimo in 1550-1555 at the Galleria Palatina in Florence.

Since the portrait is from slightly above the waist, I had to imagine what the skirt would have looked like.  I chose to make a split front skirt based on the pattern of Eleonora de Toledo's burial clothes and have a strip of the slashing/pinked design down either side of the center front.  Here is my interpretation of the gown:

getting help with side back lacing

Front view

Back View

The most challenging part was designing the layout of the pinking/slashing design because on the sleeve and the bodice it tapers from top to bottom.  As far as the most time consuming part - it is a toss-up between the following:

• making the petal-shaped cuts larger by folding the fabric twice and cutting with scissors
• sealing all the cut edges with a fray guard
• stitching the beads on the bodice and sleeves

Completing the Compass Cloak

In previous posts, I have shown how the right side and the lining of the compass cloak were made....  Now to put it all together!

The bottom border is a 5" wide bias strip of taffeta.  I laid it on my cutting mat, placed one ruler 1.25" in from one long edge and cut perpendicularly into the strip at 2" intervals using the other ruler as a stop so I ended up with something that looked like an exaggerated fringe.  On the right side of the cloak, I placed the border strip with the cut side facing the center and the uncut side hanging about 1" over the bottom hem.  I pinned it all down at the hem, then I took each cut section and twisted it twice and pinned it down.  Then I ran a row of basting stitches a the bottom and the top of the slashes through the right side of the cloak.  I stitched down a gold trim over the top of the twisted trim.

The collar is made from one layer of pin-tucked taffeta (right side), wool interlining, and plain taffeta for the lining.  The next step was to sandwich the collar between the right side of the cloak and the lining (add a ribbon loop at the center back for hanging), stitch up the center front opening, around the neck edge, back down the other center front, trim, turn, and press.
I laid the cloak lining side up on the floor, did a little trimming at the hem to make the pieces match, pinned them together, stitched the bottom row of trim though the front and lining to anchor the sections together, turned under the edge of the 5" bias edge trim to the lining side, pinned down and hand stitched to finish.



The final touch was to stitch down two metal clasps for closure at the center front.  And since no outfit is complete without cat hair....  as you can see in the detail below, my cat helped out also!

 Finally a photo with one front section turned back to see the pinked lining and the pocket.

Lining for Compass Cloak

Since I can't seem to do anything the simple way.......  I decided the lining for the cloak needed some embellishment - pinking to be precise.  I cut the lining out of the taffeta and white cotton for the peek through fabric.  I sewed the shoulder seams on the taffeta, pinned the shoulder seams together,  then basted through all four layers (right front the back folded in half and the left front).  Using an exacto knife I cut out the pinking pattern through all four layers at once.  I turned my cutting mat upside down for the pinking step.  After finishing with the cutting, I removed the basting threads.  Next step was to sew the shoulder seams on the white cotton.  Then I layered the white cotton with seams down with the burgundy taffeta on top and carefully lined up the neckline, center front, and hem.  I pinned all over then used a double needle to stitch parallel rows between the cuts.  The stitching at the center front and center back is vertical.  Since the cloak is not a full circle, the stitching changes angle at the shoulder seams.

To continue with the I can't keep it simple theme... I decided I needed pockets.  Patch pockets would have been too easy!  First I made a pattern about 11 inches wide with the top fold on the diagonal and the bottom edges angled to match the corner of the center front and bottom hem.  I cut it out to pink flannel  - because that is what I had in the fabric stash and stitched a piece of  the taffeta over the area that would be visible through the pocket opening.  Then I made two welts and marked a 1" wide box in the center of each.  I placed the welts on the right side of the lining and stitched around the box.  Then the pocket was laid out flat right side to right side of lining over welt.  From the wrong side of the lining, I stitched through all layers following the stitching lines of the box in the center of the welt.  I carefully cut down the center of the box and towards each corner, pulled the pocket to the inside and pressed.  I lifted the edges of the welt and topstitched the opened pocket to the lining in an area that would be hidden when the welt was topstiched down.  With the pocket still flat, I topstiched around the bottom and sides of the welt.  Turning to the wrong side, I pinned the edges of the pocket together and stitched the pocket closed.  Turning back to the right side, I topstitched the top of the welt down. 

Embellished lining was finished - next step was to attach to the cloak.

Spiral Sleeve Disaster Averted

For my IRCC project, I wanted a set of sleeves slashed and trimmed in a spiral.  Originally I had intended to make the woolen pinked Clarice sleeves reverse to this planned spiral slashed sleeve.  But now I am re-considering that concept.  Here is a woodcut showing a spiral sleeve:

I re-traced the Clarice sleeve pattern onto blank paper and then drew a series of parallel lines 4" from each other starting at the wrists.  Then I sketched in the 5/8" side seam allowance and drew sloped lines from one parallel line to the line two beneath it through where the parallel lines and seam allowance lines intersected.  I went back and forth on trim ideas and finally settled on cutting strips of the pin-tucked burgundy taffeta and pressing under the raw edges - basting that to the sleeve and basting down.  I cut the sleeve out of the plain burgundy taffeta, placed one over the pattern showing the trim layout, placed the trim and hand basted.  Then I placed the sleeve without trim on the bottom, sleeve with trim on top and eyeballed a slashing pattern similar to the sleeve of the Neoplitan woman above cut.

Since the June Taylor fray block worked so well on the woolen Clarice sleeves, I used it without doing a test on the taffeta - BIG MISTAKE!  The taffeta wicked up the liquid and it looked like puddles around each slash.  That looks odd I thought, but surely it will dry unnoticeable. But just in case, I stopped after doing one row of slashes closest to the shoulder.  Well it was a DISASTER - it dried just as it looked wet - like puddles around each slash.

That row of slashes had to go but I didn't want to have to cut a new sleeve.  Inspiration struck.  I took out the basting stitches for the trim below the fray guard disaster and added another piece of fabric using two rows of straight stitching that will be hidden by the trim.  Then I re-cut the slashes through the damaged part and into the patched piece and cut the shape of the sleeve top before cutting away the damaged section with pinking shears.  In this photo, I slid pattern paper between the damaged and patched section to show the layers before I cut the sleeve top shape.

The trim is shown folded back and the patch stitching lines are now safely hidden under the trim.  First disaster averted!  Now how was I going to seal the edges of the cuts?  I remembered that synthetic fabrics melt when exposed to heat - ruined a bodice back lining with an iron that was too hot.  This time I tried the technique on a scrap of fabric before trying it on the sleeve.  I folded the cut edges together and quickly passed them by the side of a candle flame.  It worked wonderfully - disaster #2 also averted.

After sealing the raw edges of each slash with the candle flame, I placed the white cotton peek-through fabric under the sleeve and machine basted the pin-tucked bands through all layers. I had picked up a braid with gold edges and a burgundy center for next to nothing at Ledford Fabrics and decided to stitch that down on either side of the pin-tucked strips.  I also decided that if the strips did not quite meet properly at the seam this defect could be lessened by applying the braid in the round after the sleeve seam was stitched.  It was a good idea that was hard to execute.  Because of the spiral, I had to start at the sleeve head on one sleeve and sew towards the wrist on one sleeve and stitch in the opposite direction on the other sleeve.  Thank goodness the free arm on my machine is not any larger.  As it is, I had to perform sewing machine gymnastics to get the braid on.  For the sleeve where I started at the wrist I had to slide the entire sleeve onto the free arm before starting and unwind it off of the free arm as I stitched the trim down.  I'm glad applying the braid is done!

  Sleeves one with the braid attached and the other before applying the braid.

To prepare my sleeves for lining, I run a row of basting stitches at the wrist stitching line and press under at the stitching.  When I sew the side seam I put basting stitches in the 4" at the wrist opening and press the whole seam open.  I fold the intersecting press marks together at both corners of each sleeve opening and miter that corner.  The lining is treated in the same way.  Then, I turn the lining inside out, put right sides together with the sleeve and stitch together at the armhole seam, grade the seam with pinking shears, turn the lining into the sleeve, press well,  and hand stitch the lining to the sleeve at the wrist edge and opening.  I prefer hand sewing on straight the straight edges of the wrist rather than at the curved shoulder of the sleeve.

Adventures in Pinking - Renaissance Style

Clarice Ridolfi Altoviti 1550-1555 by Cristofano dell'Altissimo in the Galleria Palatina in Florence.  Her bodice and sleeves are pinked in an interesting pattern that I am trying to re-create.  After fitting myself for a bodice, I traced a cutting design on my pattern piece.  For the first draft, I made each column of cuts shown between the trim the same size.  It just did not look right!  So the second time around I made the columns taper from the top of the bodice towards the waist.  After zooming in on the portrait, I concluded that the small group of 4 cuts were made like a plus sign (+) a horizontal and a vertical and the fabric curled out.  On my sample, my fabric did not curl at all!  So, to approximate the look, I cut a square shape on the diagonal.  I used several different sizes of exacto knives though my paper pattern, the fabric, onto the back of my cutting mat.

I discovered that to make the long diagonal cuts look more like the portrait, I needed to do a little hand cutting.  First I folded the cut edges of long slashes together lengthwise, then folded it again so all cut edges met and starting at the center trimmed a little off starting at the center tapering to nothing at the ends of the slash.

The composite shows steps to cutting the slashes into "football" shapes - fold, fold, cut.  there are two rows shown - one with only the slashing and the bottom most with the additional hand cutting.  Every cut is then treated with a fray guard.