This project came about during a small session of retail therapy and the joy of finding wool in Florida, in the summer for 5 bucks a yard.

That was the good news. The bad news, there was only 3 yards of it.

I decided to get it anyways thinking I could at least make a doublet and sleeves.

But once I got to the cutting table a plan had come to mind. The kirtle and low-cut bodice of cloth rash from Juan de Alcega’s pattern book was haunting me. Something about the diagram hadn’t added up when I tried to use it before, and that bothered me.

So I decided I would take another crack at it, and this is the result.

Dress Diary of the project can be found here.

This is 99% hand sewn with silk thread, (machine stitching is on the inner interlining layer) with no boning in the bodice. I am still experimenting with the use of fit rather then boning to achieve a more period look. The bodice and sleeves are lined with a fine black linen, while the skirt is unlined but sewn with the “Elizabethan Seam Method” found on Laura Mellin’s page