Starting on Veronica Gambara

Portrait of a lady by Pierfrancesco di Jacopo Foschi, 1535 (image source: Web Gallery of Art)

There’s not much to show for it, but really,  I’ve started and am, in fact, well on the way with my gown to portray Veronica Gambara at the Collegium class “A Feast in 1530s Correggio.” The gown is a loose interpretation of the portrait shown on the right. Except I’m using burgundy velveteen from The Stash (I love the pink, really I do, but when you already *have* appropriate fabric, sometimes you actually should try to use it ;-).

I started with the giganto sleeves of d00m. I loves me some big crazy sleeves, and these are the biggest ones I’ve made yet. First, I enlarged the pattern I had drafted for the similarly shaped sleeves from my French gown (note: always keep patterns you’ve drafted for yourself! but try to write down when you made them, so you know what the size might be, and it helps if you mark whether or not seam allowances are already included). I needed to enlarge the top part of the sleeve twice to get it suitably enormous. They still might not be as freakishly large as in the portrait, but I also didn’t want them to overwhelm petite me — the lady in this portrait appears taller and with a very long neck, whereas I’m much shorter and stubbier. No need to make me look dumpy!

Then I cut the final sleeves out with an interlining of twill for body, along with a linen lining and the velvet outer layer. These got sewn up, with the bottom edge of the top section gathered into the snug lower portion of the sleeve. I’ll cartridge-pleat the sleeve head into the armscye.

Sleeves, ready to be sewn into the gown

Next up was the bodice, and I used the same side-lacing bodice pattern I’d used for the French gown and the grey kirtle. But when I wore that kirtle the previous week at Mists Coronet, it felt a little snug, so I altered the pattern a smidge, which necessitated a fit-check with Sarah’s help. Once done, I sewed that up, also with a twill interlining, then put a narrow strip of boning down each lacing side and made eyelets, since my fancy new machine can do that. These eyelets weren’t perfect due to the thickness of the material (twill + velvet), but neither would my handmade eyelets. They’re functional, and that’s what counts. I bound the bottom of the bodice with linen so it’s tidy when I cartridge-pleat the skirt to it.

Bodice in progress, doesn’t look like much, but it’s getting there!

Trying to get a closeup of the machine-made eyelets

Lastly, I cut out the skirt — I only had enough fabric for three panels, so I hope it won’t look skimpy. It’ll be about 130″ around in width, which is just barely reasonable IMNSHO. Now I have to assemble the parts of the gown together, then buy and apply some black ribbon for trim. I’m not doing the fur sleeves (way too hot for California!), but I would like to figure out the belt and have some gold cord that would be a nice, rich look. And, oh yeah, a blingy balzo to top off the outfit.