The Magdalena, By Lucas Cranach the Elder This was the main inspiration for the dress. Sorry I couldn't find a better color image. The body style is close to almost all other "Cranach" gowns but the sleeves have a lot of variation, and I liked these.	Three Saxon Ladies, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c1530 This is where I got the hat design from and you can see better deatil of the bodice structure. I also like the jeweled collars and bare décolleté.	Portrait of Duchess Katharine of Mecklenburg, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1514 From this picture, I like the very wide deorative fabric banding on the skirt and the hanging fabric belt.	A full shot I just got this pic and it shows the dress girded up a bit in front because I made it about 6" longer than floor length hem. It also shows just a peek at the gold underskirt.	Another new full length shot. I must have been tired by this time of day because I'm still slouching and getting those annoying wrinkles. Now I see the wisdom of boning or a corset. You can't get lazy and ruin the line!
Me with our Good Queen Bess	A good shot of the hat	Parading for the judges	A shot of the back and sleeve head details	The last parade during the judging
Boy, that sun is bright!! It was over 100 degrees this day. ugh. but this is a pretty clear shot of the main dress, even if I'm slouching a bit.	Sewing myself into it... thus satifying the 4th rule of a "real" costume!

The Dress:

Ok, I draped my muslin over my Victorian rather than a bra since I wanted the period curviness to the dress and was hoping to not need any kind of corset underneath. My Victorian-corset would have worked under this dress if I had needed the extra support but it turned out I didn’t. It took several drafts to get it just right and I made further adjustments on the actual dress in process. I think it fits and hangs right through tension. Julie suggested basting the bodice to the skirt waistband and the weight of the skirt is what keeps everything in place. I’ll elaborate more below, probably in way more detail than you want, but here goes…

I took many construction cues from Julie & Katharine on this list (thank you, ladies) but approached it basically like a separate bodice and skirt. The bodice was cut with a cotton velveteen outer layer, a thin matching red cotton lining, and 2 layers of cotton duck flat-lining the inner and outer layers, for 4 layers total. The cotton duck was pinned to the outer fabric and inner lining and the whole thing was treated from there on out as only 2 layers.

After sewing the shoulder seams on the inner and outer layers, I laid the bodice out flat so I could cut the guard in all one piece, to avoid having too many layers at that shoulder seam. The guard fabric was very thick and didn’t turn into a seam very smoothly, so I then used a bias strip of gold silk to bind the edge of the guard (not the edge where it laces but the outer edge) and sewed it down to the outer layer. At this point I sewed the eye half of hook & eye tape in 2 strips to either side of the front opening on the inner layer. Then I sewed my side seams up on both and sewed my inner and outer layers to each-other along the bottom edge only (because of the thick guard fabric). Lastly, I took another silk bias strip and bound all the layers of the bodice edge (inner, outer & guard) along the lacing opening and up around the neck. The sleeves are set-in, sewn to the outer layer, turned, then the inner layer tacked down by hand.

The plastron was a trapezoid shape (wider at the top) of 2 layers of cotton duck, with 14 channels stitched vertically and filled with plain old plastic boning. Then I used a layer of the same white silk I used for the sleeve puffs – stitched right-sides-together at the bottom edge so nothing but silk shows there, then turned up and bound with cotton bias tape on both sides. The raw top edge is roughly tacked down. The brustfleck is gold bullion embroidery on velvet over very light buckram. It’s not stiff enough stuff like millinery stuff… more the weight of good canvas. So it still curves around my bust without any diagonal bias stretch that might pop the embroidery. This was a straight rectangle, finished on all 4 sides and tacked by hand to the top of the plastron along the top edge only. So, when finished, the whole plastron looks like a white silk “envelope” with the top flap being the brustfleck. Make sense?

The skirt is a big embellished rectangle, roll pleated to a waistband, with a 2”-3” underlap, closed with hook & eye. The one thing I would have changed about my dress is to use more fabric in the skirt than I did. I’m a size 4 now with a 27” waist and I think the skirt is ~140” around. I would have liked to have used at least 190”, or about 7” per 1” roll pleat. My pleats are currently 5” to 1” roll pleat, and because the guard fabric is so thick it doesn’t give me that nice pipe pleated look.

Putting it all together. I’ll try to describe it in the order of what’s closest to the skin. I should also confess now that I never made any chemise for this since it wouldn’t show and the plastron & sleeve puffs give the impression of one. Not accurate but one less layer to sweat out. BTW, all the hook & eyes I used in the following description are the flat metal kind you use on slacks, not the silk covered ones. Flat is good.

Once I had all my pieces made (skirt, plastron, bodice) I lined up the straight opening of the waistband with the left lacing edge of the bodice, so the underlap would lay further left of that left lacing bodice edge, and tacked the skirt waistband by hand to the inner layer of the bodice only along the back from side seam to side seam. This is so hard to explain without a diagram. Then I attached the plastron with 3 hooks & eyes to the center front waistband of the skirt, and added 3 more hooks & eyes to each side of the brustfleck and the edges of the bodice above where the lacing ends. Even though the brustfleck is rectangular, the bodice edge is curved so the hooks & eyes were places in a wide “C” shape. These were easy to mark the placement once the dress was all put together, on me and laced up completely. So, the skirt tacked to the bodice keeps the bodice in place, the 2 layers of cotton duck keep the bodice firm and smooth, and the boning in the plastron keeps the lacing from puckering. I used no boning in the bodice at the lacing edge and no supporting undergarment.

I've tried to describe how to make these sleeves before and I can't get it down on paper so it makes sense. If you're really interested, I highly recommend contacting Saragrace and asking for her instructional on it. It's not exactly how I did it but it makes more sense. HA! Most methods seem to involve a base layer, a "puff" layer to mimic the puffing chemise, and the slashed layer. Beyond that, you can make it as complicated as you want, which I did. My base layer is natural cotton muslin with the fake chemise layer being white silk that was thin but had a fairly stiff hand - stiffer than dupioni. My slashed layer was made in bands - the snug areas were the plain velveteen with a bias edging in the same gold silk edging the brocade and the underskirt. The slashed bands were backed with the gold silk using fusible interfacing, then slashed with an Exacto knife. I also added some metallic gold braid between the slashed rows, which curved really nicely and added some pizzazz, but doesn't really show up in the pics as distinct from the silk piping.

The Hat:

The hat was troublesome and I've been asked about it a lot. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to describe how to make it. LOL! I've sketched a diagram that will help my explanation. Also, I made mine of cotton velveteen; I don't know how well this will work with a lighter weight fabric. For a heavier fabric, I imagine you won't need to line the brim pieces like I do in step 2.

It all makes sense in my head but not necessarily written out so please feel free to email questions. This is how I made my read hat but I can't make any specific claims on authenticity. I could find no specific reference nor specific historical advice on how these were made so I just looked at a truck load of portraits and did what I thought looked best. In my opinion, it came out looking more like the hats in the 3 Saxon Ladies painting than any others I've seen so it makes a good effect, but again, I can't claim it as historically accurate. I based my construction decisions on looking at earlier portraits and it seems to me that this smaller "starfish" hat developed from the beret through the man's red hat style in many portraits like this. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! On to the instructions...

1. I started with a circle about 14" (I think) across as a crown so I could pleat it to a band like you'd make a biggins. But the "band" was the weird part.
2. For that I cut two hexagon shapes, like in the diagram, the two more 1/2" smaller on each edge. I used some iron-on fusing (I know, I know...) to fuse each smaller hexagon to a larger one, wrong sides together. This is to stiffen the brims enough to not need any buckram or wire, and when you slash the brim later and it shifts open, you won't see the backside of any fabric, just more velvet.
3. Fold the hexagons over and sew along the short edges. Tip: don't sew the lining into the seam or they'll be too bulky to turn cleanly. Tip2: stop your stitching 1/2" from the raw edge - it's easier to attach to the crown. These are the front and back hat bands.
4. Clearly mark the edge of your crown circle at center front, center back and exact sides. Since you cut your hatbands so the raw edge is 4" larger than 1/2 your head measurement, and we've used up 1" of that in seam allowance, each flap should overlap 1-1/2" past the exact side mark on your crown. Pin the side mark and center mark and start pleating to the first flap like you would pleat a biggins to a plain band. UGH, this is so hard to describe!
5. Anyway, after you pleat half the crown into the first flap, turn and finish the under edge of the flap to the inside of the hat.
6. Do the same to the second flap, but only pleat in as much crown as there is left. Since the first flap should pass the exact side points by 1-1/2" on each side this should leave ~3" of the second flap that you can't pleat the crown to on each side.
7. Turn under the raw edges of the free areas. Hand finish and stitch down over the first flap. Your front and back flaps should now make a "brim all the way around your hat that stands up kind of like this man's hat.
8. Now make one slash in the center of each flap to get the spread to the brim. Pin or stitch the overlapped points of the flaps to each other. This adds a lot of stability to the hat and keeps it's shape exactly like the portraits. Add your plethora of curled ostrich plumes, and a little gold caul underneath, and you're the epitome of the best dressed woman...

I really wanted to make a knotted caul but my first attempt was so lame I didn't have the time to figure it out. So I used a metallic gold netting over the same gold silk of the underskirt and the contrast piping on the dress. I made it the same way you make a basic Elizabethan muffin cap, but with a much smaller diameter of fabric, and pleated not gathered into the band. For the band I used a really lovely ribbon that was woven with real metal on an organza ground. It was very stiff and slightly transparent, but since the gold's were all of the same color way you couldn't see any of the raw edges through it. The little metal ornaments I tacked on it were brass and from a bracelet I took apart. The centers were originally clear crystals which I touched with a dab of red nail polish. This made them look like red enamel, but it also made them look a bit like cockroaches from a few feet away. I hate the idea of roaches on my head, so I took off the red and dabbed on some pearl-ized white nail polish. A nice big blob of it made them look like pearled ornaments and lost the roach connection. Much better.

A note on curling feathers: I have hand curled feathers with steam and a knife before and the results are outstanding. Due to time constraints, I hand curled the stems of these and used a curling iron on the fronds, which had been successful for others. By the next morning the fronds had uncurled but the stems were still curled. I plan on going back and hand curling these feathers before I wear this again. I just don't think you can beat it!

Back of the coif	Coif from the side You can see the metal woven trim I used to gather the coif into.	Looks better on the glass head than it does on me!	Lost a feather during the day...

Other items:

With this outfit, I also wore linen drawers, cotton socks, red leather shoes, and an antique gold colored silk underskirt. The shoes and socks are the same as worn with the Venetian gown, the drawers are similar but a different pair. The underskirt was knife pleated to a waist band, closed with a flat bar hook & eye, hemmed at floor length and guarded with a woven black & red trim. It's very pretty on it's own, too bad no one can see it when I wear this!

Things I'd do differently next time:

Hmmmmm, I made this dress to wear only once since my regular group is not German. Because of this, I made a chemise for it but didn't wear it on the day. It doesn't show and just added more clothes in that heat.

• If I were going to be wearing this regularly, I'd definitely wear the chemise to add longevity to the dress. Or I'd make a new one that attaches to the decorative collar to give me some more protection from the sun.
• I'd hem it at floor length so I wouldn't have to hold it to walk.
• I'd either make a hemp corded corset for more support, or add some boning in the bodice edge. (Check out Jen Thompson's great article on boning with hemp cord) Because of the way the dress is all attached together, it really doesn't need a corset, nor do I think they wore them in period; but, I found that as the day wore on my 20th century body got lazy and slouched a lot without the gentle reminder or a corset to keep my posture up. This caused some wrinkling in the bodice that is not due at all to poor fit or construction. I don't really want to cause myself the headache of trying to make a corset to fit UNDER a dress that is already made, so for this dress I'd probably add some boning to the actual bodice. If I were to make another, I'd probably start with a hemp corset.
• I'd line the cuffs with the gold silk instead of the velveteen. The velveteen was thick and tended to grab hold of my skin and inch up my arms making the sleeves look shorter than they were if I didn't pull them back into place.
• As with most of my dresses, I plan on making a slit in the skirt to be able to reach a pocket but didn't get to it. It just doesn't work trying to make it through the day with no place to put my wallet - a great shopping hindrance! The off centre opening skirt really lends itself to this, I just need to make the pocket inside.
• I'd re-curl the feathers on the hat by hand.

Well, that's all I can think of. This dress was a lot of fun to make because it was so different than my usual silhouette and construction. It was also a HOOT to wear and the Germans were all very sweet to me in it. I really hope to be able to wear it again and someday I wouldn't mind making one for a client.

6/23/05: Someday came!

 I was able to wear this again! It fits me a little different now that I'm a little smaller again but I reaffirm that this is one of the most fun dresses to wear IF you don't mind being stopped every few feet for a question or a picture!