Isabella's Project Diary

So I was upstairs looking for the bridesmaid gowns when I found my very first ever Renaissance gown. I had been sewing for over a year (probably more like 2) prior to making this gown but everything prior to this had been sewing 50's style dresses to wear. I hadn't attempted Renaissance before.
The reason I did was very simple: I didn't want to pay $1000 for a pretty outfit at the MD Renaissance Festival. I knew how much fabric cost. I knew there had to be patterns for such things...and so, I decided to sew one myself. I bought the blue brocade on Ebay (big surprise there, huh?), the silver silk organza for the sleeves at G-street, and the zipper (oh yes, there is a zipper up the back) came with the blue brocade.
Believe it or not, this dress was decent enough to wear at SCA events at first(I hid the zipper beneath a really nice navy blue twill coat I made I guess back in 2001~2002. You couldn't see the major issues with the coat on.) In 2006, I accidentally washed the poor thing with a strawberry pink silk skirt and the sleeves have never recovered. My plan is to, someday, take the freakin' sleeves off (hmmm...silk organza burns...bonfire!) and remake the bodice so the dress is, once again, worthy of SCA events. (Yeah, I'll take the zipper off too. Sheesh. Ye of little faith) So here are the pictures of my very first Reniassance dress...darts and all...feel free to point, laugh, and snark to your hearts content.

( Isabella's first gown )
As a side note, if you go to my flickr account, you can see the bridesmaids gowns as well. They really weren't that bad. Kat's gown is a lot darker than Ro's gown but they are from the same "family" of color if that makes sense. I'm going to use the skirt from Kat's gown as an under skirt, sew it to the underside of Ro's gown, and cut the front of Ro's gown and "petal" it to make it look more flow-y. I might make some sleeves for the new gown because with Ro's gown I had a very nice plain shawl with the dress.... Have no idea what to do with the beaded bodice yet....