Overdress:

Portrait of Maria di Cosimo 1555-57 by Alessandro Allori.

I favour the one-piece over dress rather than a two piece. (THE THINKING BEHIND THIS) Other examples of a one piece overdress can be found. I will be using a doublet pattern, from Alcega and attatching a skirt. I will need to make a toile, as I have not got an up-to-date doublet pattern.

closeup of dress material

I have a 'man-made' material with a very similar colour and texture to the silk in the portrait. I am hoping I have enough. I bought 5 m on sale ($4/m). I wish now I had bought more! I cannot afford silk at the moment. With 5m, I can probably just get the doublet bodice, skirt and small sleeves out of it, especially as I intend on using Alcega's pattern layouts as I did for my 1516 dress. This saved me 1.5 m on my usual material layout!

As there is no design on this material, there will be no problems with the modernity of pattern matching.

Sleeves for the over-dress: This is similar to the sleeves I made for my interpretation of the Valois dress, with two 'tiers of puffs' and much less padded. The overdress has a short sleeve, with the longer sleeve being an 'undersleeve' attatched to the kirtle. See the overdress diary for more details on how this was done. Problem: The braid. do I try to recreate this exactly per the portrait or find a 'bought braid' doing an interpretation of this outfit. A bought braid will reduce the creation time by - oh - months and months....

I have some braid (5m) of that on the top right, but I do not think it is suitable (or enough!). Other braid, in my stash, possibly more suitable in style can be seen on the lower right. I cannot remember how much I have of this one though. This dress really needs some form of braid. Argh! Ah! Neither of the two above trim are long enough for my preferred placing of the trim. I have one other that has almost all I need. I may have to use some of the very top trim for the sleeves though... I wish I had time, money and the available shops to get a more appropriate trim! Well, problem is solved. Mistress Oonagh has sent me a roll of over 8m of a braid that will do quite nicely for this project (thanks Oonagh!)

Getting down to it with the Pattern:

I draped a toile, as seen above, based on Eleanor d' Toledo's extant burial dress and patterns in Alcega's pattern book. This can be seen to the right where the pattern pieces are pinned to the overdress material. At the very top (centrally) is the back collar. To the left and right top, are the main pieces of the doublet-style dress. Next, are 5 of the six panes (the other is between the armholes of the doublet pieces) for the sleeves. Further down is the undersleeve to support the panes and fake chemise puffs. Finally, at the bottom, is the sleeve cuff. Skirt: The skirt pieces were made, as in Eleanor d' Toledo's dress, based on her extant burial dress and Alcega's patterns. This overdress is a culmination of what I have learnt making a 1516 Florentine, 1525 Italian dress research and Eleanor of Toledo.

The main difference between the pattern left and the final pattern for this overdress is the front opening and the added portion at the fronts to give more 'bulk' and extra pleats near the front. (below right)

This can also be seen in Bartolomeo Veneto's Portrait of a Young Lady, 1520-1530 (left) show seam lines that would appear to be similar to the front skirt pattern of Eleanor de Toledo. (above left) Right is the final version of my skirt, with deep knife pleats, showing the seam where the added panel is .

Putting it all together:
The pattern was made, so now to the actual sewing. Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion shows that the following stitches were used in extant items of clothing in 1562. These include clothing worn by Eleanor d' Toledo, Cosimo d'Medici. They are: stab stitch (used on my collar edge), running stitch, overcast stitch (adding linen lining to the body of my gown), patching with oversewing (used to add bits to the under hem), eyelet overcast stitch (handsewn eyelets on my kirtle). Others used in the extant clothing was cartridge pleats, cord whip-stitched onto the edge, dart tucks, gathering stitch, hem stitch, upright hem stitch. A good summary of this, and other medieval and renaissance examples of stitches can be found at http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/stitches.htm

Following are photos from the construction stage of the overdress:

	The lining (seen here in checking the toile sizing) was handstitched with blindstitching to the body of the dress.
I used sissal cord for the 'boning' of the collar as I wanted it too be softer. I will investigate padding of collars next time. (I had only one week before Midwinter at this stage	I did not use bagging for this. Evidence in POF shows the lining is stitched onto the outer material.	and the final body of the dress coming together.(with the kirtle seen under here).
The sleeve is made up, on the base, with fake puffs of camicia and panes over it. The braid was sewn (overcast stitch). The sleeves were sewn to the doublet body.

The skirt pieces were sewn together and lined with linen to give added bulk. The blue-purple shot material was very thin and definately needed to be lined so it was sit, pleat and move more like a thicker period material. I used large knift pleats, pointing forward. I thought about cartridge pleating, which was common at the time, but looking at the original portrait, I personally feel it was not cartridge pleating. (above).

The seams were sewn, then flat-felled with running handsewn running stitch overstitching.

Preparing to hem, with a slight train. (above) The collar was stab-stitched along the edge to hold the thickness. (top right) Finally, making the girdle and checking the length. (bottom right).

The final outfit... on the way to the ball... well, Midwinter actually.

Bibliography

• Ricci, Elisa. Old Italian Lace Volume 1. William Heinemann, London. 1913 available on line: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html
• Kovesi Killerby, Catherine, Sumptuary Law in Italy 1200-1500, Oxford University Press. NY. 2002. ISBN:0-19-924793-5
• Piponnier, Francoise & Mane, Perrine Dress in the Middle Ages, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997. ISBN: 0-300-08691-1
• Crowfoot E, Pritchard F & Staniland K, Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450, Boydell Press, Woodridge, 2001 (ed) ISBN: 0-85115-840-4
• Arnold, Janet Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, Maney, Leeds, 1988, ISBN:0-901286-20-6
• Arnold, Janet Patterns of Fashion, MacMillan, London, 1985. ISBN: 0-333-38284-6
• Frick, Carole Collier. Dressing Renaissance Florence.: Families Fortunes & Clothing. John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore. 2002. ISBN: 0-8018-6939-0
• Jones, Ann Rosalind & Stallybrass, Peter. Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory. Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN: 0-521-78663-0
• Marc Carlson's site: for archeological stitches: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/stitches.htm
• Oonagh's Own: http://oonagh.actewagl.net.au/
• goldsword.com
• elizabethgeek.com