So back in 2015, the first time I volunteered at the Great Plains Ren Fest I helped serve punch at the Queen's Tea. It was the traditional red color/flavor of Hawaiian Punch, served in little cups.

Of course, I tripped over a tent line and spilled several cups all down my dress.  Everyone was horrified, but some sewing minded saint up above must have been looking out for me because it rinsed off my dress right away.

​Since then there is a running joke about keeping me away from the punch served at the Queen's Tea. I'm not even allowed to serve the white grape juice we have now!

The stain repellent properties probably have to do with the fabric that was used, which was all upholstery grade and most likely had stain repellent built in. The skirt fabric was supposed to be drapery lining stuff, and it took forever to dye it properly. Even then the color turned out different in the daylight than in my kitchen.

These were Kate and I's first matching dresses, and we did actually get several uses out of them. (You can see a photo gallery here.) After three dusty, hot, day long events that I can remember. I thought it was probably time to carefully wash the dress. In the tub, with cold water and Woolite detergent.

I was fairly certain this would be a safe bet.  I was very wrong. I chronicled the horror story in stages on Snapchat as it was happening. The instant I put the dress in the cold Woolite water the color from the skirt started leaching out into the tub.

It. Just. Wouldn't. Stop. So, I hung the dress to dry and hoped for the best. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe the color just got lifted, but then by some miracle redeposited on the fabric. Maybe Kate's skirt had faded to nearly the same color??? Sigh. Nope. 

I tried taking a picture in natural light to show the worst of it, but my beagle, Polly decided she loooooved the new cover to "her footstool" in the living room. It took tempting her with a treat do get her to move.

Anyway, I found an angle in my basement florescent light that shows the worst of it. No getting around it, these skirts no longer matched in color.

I knew I wanted to use silk on these skirts, since it would go from very heavy drapery fabric to easier to wear and lightweight, breathable silk. The green dresses I made for the spring have spoiled me forever more on ever wearing heavy fabrics again. 

It actually took 3 orders before I found two coordinating silk saris that would match the colors in the original bodices (which we were re-using). I would call the color I was looking for taupe, but the Indian sellers online disagree in their item descriptions. I'm not mad at having extra silk for future projects though!

I finally settled on two coordinating and beautifully woven silks. 

Both were a little thin.  As in, you could see the stripes on the hoop skirt fabric right through those silks. 

I was in no mood to buy YET MORE fabric to correct my mistake, but fortunately the chemises we originally made for these dresses were full length, and had already been split once to allow for the fullness of the hoop skirts. (The hoop skirts had been made after the dresses.)

On to chopping and re-forming the chemises!

There was some discussion on how to use the silk saris. I wanted to use the decorated pallu if at all possible, and keep the front split. So, we talked about separate skirts, a fake front panel, or coordinating, but different skirts.

In the end to keep some fullness we went with identical double skirts. This took some math and geometry on my part to create the fullest skirts with not quite enough material.

Here are my notes for posterity (and because I'll likely loose them in my cluttered sewing room).

I find literally cutting and pasting in these situations immensely helpful. It was even to scale enough that I was able to take miniature measurements and scale them up to the fabric width!

The underskirts only had to flare out enough to not pull tight over the hoop skirts, but for the overskirts I wanted the front split to fall away starting from the top. That the back formed a little train is just a coincidence. (But Kate's backside looked cute when she was walking in it!)

I had hats planned for this too... So to see how the dresses PLUS hats turned out stay tuned for another post!

The spring Renaissance Festival came and went in April, and we got LOTS of compliments on our costumes! As promised, here is a picture of us all in our finery: 

And did I mention that Kate and I had matching outfits? We were busy that day! Part of the time was spent handing out prizes from the musketeer's treasury. We were also in charge of reading the story during the Queen's Tea.  The kids were enthralled! We read "The Knight and the Dragon" by Tomie DePaola.

My dearest hubs was also busy pulling triple duty as both Hearald for the Court and Executioner later in the afternoon, plus a Prince of dubious origin when the rest of the Royal Court was at the joust. He loved it all! We have found that elusive thing all couples desire: an activity we like doing together for fun.

And, lest I forget! L looked great in her purple gown.  So good, in fact, that I'm doing an Anne Boleyn style dress for her this fall out of green silk. More blog posts to come on that for sure!

And you should see LOTS more from me in the future too. In October Kate and I have a bachelorette TEA party to host. I've already made a miniature music box for that. I just need to get the photos uploaded.... In addition Kate is doing our fall Ren Faire dresses, I have a skeleton of a plan of some pirate/steampunk/renaissance inspired costumes to wear to the KC Ren Fest, new skirt material to make over the Italian dresses from several years ago, a Renaissance princess teddy bear to make for some friends who just had a baby, brown pants to make for the hubby's new fall outfit, plus his black and brown doublets to re-line. Instead of making them reversible I'm just lining each with something more lightweight. I'd say that's enough to keep me busy!

After all my planning and careful cutting there was actually a lot more to do on the bodice than I had remembered.  I made this pattern once before, but without the black bands.  Planning the project I knew putting the black bands in the skirt would be time consuming, but so was using heat activated fabric adhesive for other parts, not to mention boning, blah, blah.  

​At this point I wasn't taking so many pictures.

It took most of an evening to mark out the boning casing and decide what weight interfacing to use.  Seriously!  In the end I went with a few more pieces of boning than I was originally planning on and less interfacing.  

Historically, Germans used reeds built into their bodices, so this is pretty close to accurate but with modern materials.  

Also, behind the white interlining in the photo above is blue corduroy, which is what will actually be the lining.

You may be wondering where I got the bodice pattern.  Well...there is a fabulous website for Elizabethan corset pattern generator linked here.  They have everything from Tudor to Flemish pattern resources, which is fantastic!  However, I didn't want the corset to be separate from the bodice.  Additionally, I have used that corset generator.  Elizabethans wanted to look like columns.  Decidedly NOT comfortable for this squishy gal. 

I'm not sure where I stumbled on it, but in looking for a different Renaissance pattern generator several years ago I found instructions for an Italian bodice pattern generator.  This is what I used on the previous matching Italian inspired gowns, and my purple silk gown that everyone else insists is French.  Not sure quite why - that wasn't my intent in making it!  But I'll take the compliments.

Anyway - back to the generator.  In the time between when I first found the website and now it has been taken down. Internet Archive to the rescue!  The site was simple enough when built that the generator still works!  Here is the archived link, long may it live! I've since used it on the Katie Bing dress with luck as well.  It seems to work on plus-sized women better, which makes sense as Italian women of the period seem to be the most curvaceous in paintings. 

The skirt did take a looooooong time as I suspected.  I was chatting on the phone for part of the time and had to take out and redo about half of one stripe.  They came up a little farther onto the skirt than in my sketch, but I was okay with this.  I ended up using a bastardized version of box pleats on the waistline since that was the easiest to pin evenly.  Believe me, I tried twice with the traditional pleats used on the underskirt before giving up.  I will say, having a dress dummy to do pleats on is an absolute God-send.  And, for the size it's surprisingly lightweight!

The last major, necessary piece to add were the sleeves.  I needed fitted sleeves, but I didn't want to use a modern sleeve pattern with the seam in the underarm.  My design had slashed sleeves from the elbow to wrist, and the chemise pattern I chose earlier had extra length to puff out.  

After a Pinterest search I found a link to a lady who makes her own patterns for a medieval dress, including a back-seam close fitted sleeve that still fits when you bend your elbow! The pattern I first drafted on my measurements was about an inch too big all around, but I was comfortable with it for cutting out the fabric.  

I decided to put an extra layer of interfacing at the top, make a button tab to affix it to the bodice at the shoulder, and I used the suggestion on that previously linked Italian gown construction website for the slashes in the lower sleeve. I didn't actually use the pattern there since it still had the underarm seam.

The whole sleeve was lined in white fabric.  Ahem, excuse me: an old sheet. I created a simple bell-shaped cuff that is designed to go down over the top of the hand.  

​So, did my Franken-sleeve work?

The last addition was the belt and bag.  I was super-relieved to see I had enough fabric for a small bag when I was done with everything else.  However, I didn't like the bulbous looking traditional German Renaissance handbags, so I went with a very simplified version of a leather bag I had seen elsewhere.  The bottom of my bag and the black closure is reinforced with 1/8 thick interfacing, and it has a loop to string it on the belt.  Even if I use it for decoration only I'm happy with it!

And the belt... Originally I wanted a long leather loop closure belt.  I even found some on Amazon, but at over $25 per belt I was feeling the budget finally kick me in the backside.  Through some compromises I found two men's black leather belts at Walmart for around $10 each that would work.  They wouldn't be as long as I wanted, but the look is still ok and it functions, so I'm happy.

I *was* congratulating myself on getting everything done, but then I remembered the hair covering, called the wulsthaube, and the over-veil called the steuchlein.  Kate and I planned on making at least the wulsthaube out of whatever fabric is left over from making the chemise for the gowns she is working on.  She's not so far along, so I have an excuse to not worry about this yet!

Instead I have started on her chemise that matches this dress.  Since the fabric and style are the same up to the green silk I probably won't post any updates until hers is done. This weekend is state wrestling, and I hope to have a chemise to do the honeycomb smocking on while waiting in the stadium seats.