Organ pleats

Okay, so I haven't really sewn much of anything since about 9th grade.  A few pillows, a quilt block, some minor patching.  So why have I got it in my head to make a dress?  Not just any dress, no, but a full-on renaissance outfit.  Not one of the "looks like a 16th century dress" things, but the three actual layers, at that.

Given that I pick up and abandon craft projects all the time, I guess it's not that surprising, but I dropped way too much money on fabric last night (at least talking myself out of the $26/yard velvet), so the damned thing better get done.

I'm looking at early 16th century German styles for the dress (particularly the 1500s-1520s), which really means a chemise plus a kirtle plus a gown, and should really include a collar of some sort, but we'll see how far I get on the dress before I go out and spring for a yard of black velvet for that.

So far I have washed the linen and figured out how to make organ pleats with one of my various remnant purchases.

I stitched 3" to see how they'd look - for the actual skirt for the dress I'll probably just do 1" to fold over and make into the waistband to attach to the bodice.

Basically I made marks alternating 1" and 2 1/4" along the top of the fabric; this is what the math tells me will work for the about 3 yards of fabric going into the skirt to pull it down to about 32" for the waist of the dress.  I pulled the 2 1/4" apart marks together and just stitched a couple inches.  Rinse & repeat gets you this:

From the back:

From the top:

From the front:

Of course, that would be really hard to get to lay smoothly for a waistband, so I pinned down the left edge of each pleat at the point I wanted it to smoosh so I could sew down the edge:

Which ends up looking like this:

From the front:

From the back:

And it drapes like this:

Husband's reaction: "Curtains!"  Yeah, yeah.  No accounting for 16th century taste.  While I had the sewing machine out, I made him a case for his bluetooth headset.

Velcro loop on the back to attach it to himself:

The flap Velcros shut:

Once the linen is dry (and the house is prepped for people to come over Monday) I can start working on the chemise.  I think I've got all the measurements I need, but we'll find out.

(We're not even going to think about what I would need to do for shoes and the associated pattens.)