Flemish inspired peasant dress

 

I use to look around a lot at internet. Then I take a piece here and a piece there, put them together, into something that looks medieval, but I make a personal composition with color choice of my own. Sometimes I get inspired from a piece of cloth, a painting, a picture , or something else. I do not tell anyone that this is the way to do it, but this is the way I did it.

Inspiration links

 

 

 

Heathers flemish gown

Flemish dress collection of links

Head wear

Strawhat

Partlet

 

As I told you I look around very much at the internet, pictures, how to pages, photos, books, paintings and such.

This is the first drawing. That I am supposed to make the pattern from.

I make this dress inspired from a Brügel painting, with V formation of the back bodice.

 

A floor, is the best place to make a pattern on. You need a lot of space.
This is a photo of the wool fabric with the different pattern pieces for the outer wooldress.

The grey middle dress made of linen is almost ready.

Curious, curious! I just pinned it on my dummie named Lovisa II.

At the middle of the back I sewed a long piece of fabric at one of the sides. The MB side lays folded over the piece of cloth.

So the extra piece is loose under the folded Mb side.

What you get is a dress that is an adjustable dress.

The lining sort of hanged out, under the shoulder straps. Not nice, so I cut it of and tucked it in, by hand at the backside.
Here you can see the extra piece of cloth at the backside opening. And the handmade string as well, for the hand made holes, in the lacing

 

The outer gown is made of two different fabrics. The outer in darkblue wool, and the inner gown in lightblue linen.

Ssew them as two gowns, put them together right side by right and then sew them together.

NOT THE HOLES FOR THE ARMS. and not the hem.

Turn it over.

The tricky thing is to get them together at the hem, Let the dress hang and the fabric will hang/fall down very nicely, so that you can pin the 2 fabrics together and hemstich.

 

 

 

 

Now the the arms. Start by pinning the fabric together a little bit in from the holes. That way the fabric can not move while you measure,pin and sew the edges.

(If you wonder why it looks like there are an extra piece for the vaist it is simply because I made the pattern for the bodice to short and had to sew an extra piece of cloth at the vaist.)

Make small cuts by the scissor, but only very small cuts, at the allowance.

Why?

Well the hole for the arm is round, the fabric needs space at the allowance, to move alittle bit, and now it gets space for it to do so.

Fold the edges and hemstich, by hand.

 

The chemise.

 

The chemise was made from the dress pattern, but broader/larger at MB and MF.

The reason why is because the chemise has to follow the neckhole for the grey gown.

The chemise was made from an old sheet, and partly from an old very beateful petticoat, with handmade laces and, the petticoat is stiched by hand.

Impressing work!!!!

 

At MF i thought that a piece of lace could hold all pledges together. The decolletage is supposed to be a little like a square hole.

The most importtant mark at the sleeve is, the mark for the top middle.

Pin the sleeve to the armhole, and if the sleeve are a little to big just do a pledge at the top.

My sleeve were a little to broad, so I made 2 pledges at the top. It doesn´t look awkward at all.

After have tried the chemise on I wasn´t satisfied. It looked like it was falling of me. And I could see my stomach, when bending forward. I decided to sew an elastic band, round the decolletage.

Do not to forget to hold out the elastic band meanwhile you sew, otherwise it won´t be elastic.

 

 

Once again I was curious. What would it look like

My dummie LovisaII and some pins.

The string for the lace at the front I decided to "påta" ( I do not know the english word for it but I will try to explain later on how to do it) Now only a partlet and sleeves and something for the head misses, and then the dress is finished.

Partlet and sleeves

The partlet is inspired by Brügel

The partlet is made out of black wool, with dark red lining, just as the sleeves.

This partlet is not made the same way as an ordinary partlet. It has straight edges at the front, and at the back it is made like a V formation.The back of the partlet is hooked to the gown, and the front is pinned to the gown, a little bit above the vaist.

My friend Petronilla of Ausås, made my medieval pins out of pure silver. If you want to contact her the easiest way to do it is by the websight www.orehus.com

 

 

Look at the lady in the right corner!

 

I used the pattern for the bodice from the gown. The backside is made a little broader, because it is supposed to cover te V seam at the gown. It is also cut out in folded cloth, because I didn´t want a seam MB.

The pieces was sewed together at the shoulders.

If the partlet doesn`t lay plain to the back, wich it probly doesn`t because there are no seam att the MB do like this. Pull the back up a little bit.

This means that you will sew the shoulder seam at the marks for the front seam, but a little bit below the marks for the seam at the back.

Sew the lining parts together. Put them right side to right side and sew all around, but leave one side open. at the front.

 

Make small cuts at the allowance, and cut of the corners diagonally. Turn, and iron the edges.

The sleeves, are pinned to the gown at the shoulders. The partlet is pinned to the front, and the back is pinned to the vaist at the back.

In some pictures there are a special hook, some uses pins or a piece of string. Well you can probably use what you want!

The headwear

a Kerchief

As I couldn´t find a strawhat, no matter what I did. I decided to make a kerchief. It is made of linen and is very easy done, and looks wonderful at the head, and feels very comfortable.

Firts take the measure from one ear to the other, over the head. In my case it is 42 cm.

 

( 1 inch=2,46 cm. 42 cm ca 17,5 inches)

The front part has a lining, to make it a little bit steady.

Don`t forget to cut the allowance, and cut of the corners on the bias.

Fold the edges and hemstich by hand.

Start to pin the back of the kerchief together. The kerchief is supposed to feel steady, when put on your head.

Get a steady hold at the sides of the kerchief, that is hanging down on your back, put the sides together at the top of your head and pin it together at the top, into the kerchef that is allready layd on the head.

The fabric willnow hang down in a very nicely way all by itself.

Spool knitted string

The string for the front of the gown I made by spool knitting. Any way it is very simple!!! It will do with an old tree spool that has 4 nails in one end. The string you make will look like it has been roundknitted. What you do is that you lift the loose yarn over the nail/metall pin, with the loop, and a new lopp will appear. That´s it!

Well this is what you need. Something that hold the loops, with an hole straight through it, yarn, and a hooked needle.
On each pin there are a loop. Let the loose yarn go around the pins. Lift over the old loop, into the middle. And you have a new loop.
The string goes thru eyelets in metall.
A closeup of the string.

My sewing and idea room.

A very small room, and almost always very untidy.

Just in case you wonder. I have never been able to do what they do in the commercials. Sew at the same time as the room look so neat and tidy. In fact I do not know how that is done!" I have never managed to do it that way.