4/1/06: Starting without an idea There is so little info on children's clothing in the renaissance that most people seem to go with the sort of "Irish dress" approach; a strip of fabric around the chest with straps sewn on and an open skirt attached, over a chemise. There is nothing wrong with this, but I wanted something a little more, well, me. The general scholarship says that kids wore essentially grown-up clothes in miniature. It's not exactly accurate but close enough... What I ended up with was: The Over-dress I don't really go for "matching" mother-daughter dresses so I wanted an English style dress and I wanted to use materials I had on hand for a dress she'll outgrown in a hot minute. I started with the leftover pink linen from the Augsburg dress (she'd love the pink), and threw in the ball of black silk velvet ribbon I got for $5. I also had a bag of gold heart shaped metal clasps I found on sale a while back, and then I dug through my stash for linen. Once I started draping the pattern (draping on a 3 year old is quite an experience) I came up with a front-closing, French curved bodice, and I made the straps angle off the back like the Effigy corset. This way I could fit them to her and attach them wherever they needed to go, and the angle would keep them from slipping off her little shoulders. I also decided on having a closed split skirt cartridge pleated to the bodice, I could edge the whole thing in a black velvet ribbon design, and put the gold metal clasps all the way down the front. Dear readers, you should know by now that nothing I start with in my head is the way it ends up. Well, as soon as I started putting the dress together it started telling me it wanted to look a little different. Firstly, the velvet ribbon did not want to curve at all. It is VERY tightly woven and I had to go buy size 8 needles to even be able to sew it on without tearing it apart. So the ribbon design became one straight ribbon edge. It still looks nice and rather sophisticated with the high contrast of the pink and black. Next I attached the skirt and wish I had a wee bit more fabric to play with. It looks good but you can see the threads between the pleats in the back. It's just not as tight as I would have liked. I added the gold clasps to the bodice front and it was coming together. I did not add the clasps all the way down the skirt. When I laid them out it just looked like too much. Then came the shoulder treatment, and again the dress wanted to look different than I wanted it to. I spent a whole evening making strips of pink linen with two black velvet stripes, and two shoulder rolls in linen with a gathered white silk cover to puff between the strips. Claire's shoulders just aren't big enough to support that kind of stuff - I was only able to get three strips on the roll and it looked wrong. I ended up cutting up the strips and making two rows of loops, and that looks much better. So, now I had a little black-edged pink dress. Where to go now? The Under-dress I dug through my entire stash looking for the right fabric for a forepart and sleeves. At this point I hadn't decided to make a chemise and skirt or a kirtle with attached sleeves or what. That all depended on what I could find in the stash. Nothing. Seriously, nothing. Well, ok, not nothing, but the only thing that really lit my fire was a small piece of black-on-crème crewel work I was saving for another project. I just couldn't let myself give that up for this dress that would be worn once. But it did make me want black fabric for this project. Finally, I acquiesced and bought 1/2 yard of a black linen with white embroidery on it. It's just stunning! I also picked up 1/2 yard of a shot silk taffeta in bright red and white, that comes out kind of watermelon pink. I figured I could use it for lining or edging or whatever and I am SO glad I bought it! That silk really glows from the flash in the pics - it's a much better match in real life. One thing I know from experience is that skirts do not stay on little girls evenly. It's one of those things that annoys me, to be out in the world and see a little girl with her skirt brushing the toes of her shoes in front and the backs of her knees in back. This means I had to make a kirtle, but comfort and simplicity were more important to me than authenticity of layers. The bottom half was easy. I made a plain white linen skirt, then tacked the black forepart on it, and edged it with the watermelon pink silk. For growth factors, I also put a 3" border of pink silk along the bottom of the whole underskirt. I figured that if she didn't grow too much between this year and next, I could add a little silk edging to the over dress as well and make it fit one more year. Yeah, I know, I know... The top half was a real pain, but after much trial and error, I ended up with a back-closing linen top with cotton lawn sleeves. I didn't want to put 3 layers on her. The Sleeves I don't know what my problem is with sleeves but I always have to make a pair that's too small before I can make the right pair that fits. It was no different with Claire. Once the too-small pair proved they wouldn't work there was barely enough fabric left to get a bigger pair out of. I did manage, however, when I ironed the so-called 100% linen before sewing it the white embroidery started to melt. Good thing I caught it early and was able to fray-check the thread ends and hide most of the damage in the seam. ggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr These became simple late-period style sleeves, cartridge pleated at the top, with a little edge of the pink silk. So cute! and they fit nicely under the looped shoulder tabs. The Hat I've been wanting to try making an Italian bonnet test before trying to make on for the PDSvN dress, and this was a perfect chance. I used the watermelon silk, lined with white silk, and an interlining layer of some Sunbrella canvas I had around. It was the perfect stiffness. I started with Tammie's instructions for a flat cap from The Renaissance Tailor, but I cut down the crown circumference so I would get a nice, fairly shallow pleated bonnet rather than a flat cap. This took two attempts, as the first crown was much too large and could have made a nice high-crowned pleated hat. I kept the measurements so I could make one in the future - the proportions came out so nice! But I didn't have enough material to keep the high-crowned hat for me and make a new one for Claire, so apart it came, cut down the crown circumference, and re-pleated it to the brim. I added a simple hat band of the black velvet ribbon and a black, fuzzy feather in a gold filigree pin. Viola! She looks at it like it might bite her but she'll wear it when she's in the dress... Accessories I don't think I will make any other accessories. Her comfort is my foremost concern so I think she'll wear whatever shoes fit her best for walking, and not carry anything extraneous. I'll probably bring her small umbrella to keep the sun off, and let that be it. | 
