Inspired by the 2011 television show The Borgias, I made a pink silk taffeta gown with gold silk dupioni and gold lace trim. The pink silk has some slubs to it and was a clearance find from Fabric Mart back in 2018. I loved the color and the slight texture in the fabric. I wanted a historically inspired 1490's outfit and I especially based the gown on the costumes worn by Lucrezia and designed by famed costume designer Gabriella Pescucci.
The costumes feature lush silks and vibrant patterned trim. Jewel tones were often used with a sheer camicia peeking out of the low neckline. I particularly liked the full upper sleeves that could feature one or two puffs. Pescucci was inspired by actual 15th century portraits and it shows in the overall silhouette. She definitely liked very wide hems for the skirts!
I actually did start with the McCalls 7763 pattern because I wasn't sure how I wanted to construct the bodice and the time period is new to me. I did not want to do a historically accurate costume so I was not very concerned with the pattern pieces being accurate. The pattern is fine if you really do not know where to start however I found it to not give me the shape I wanted. Even after I dropped the neckline when cutting it still did not fit anywhere. The front gaped horribly and the shoulders were ridiculously big.
Way too big, too long, neckline and straps are not wide enough.
So, I started again. I took a basic bodice pattern I made a long time ago and just ignored the darts when tracing the pattern. I chopped the bottom to a couple inches above my natural waist. I cut two bodices out of canvas fabric. I pinned them together and machine sewed boning channels just in the front. I used my trusty plastic heavy duty zip ties for boning. I opted for a side zipper opening (more on that later). Once I was satisfied with the try on I cut cotton flannel and the silk slightly bigger than the pattern and basted them together. I did this so that the cotton flannel would help hide the boning from being seen through the silk. I put the silk on the bodice in the 18th century fashion, laying it on and hand sewing it down first on front bodice then back. I then folded the excess over on neckline and armholes and whipstitched to the inside canvas.
As you can see the boning channels are literally only on the front and stop 2 inches from the side seam. They do not extend into the straps.
Cotton and flannel layer on top and basted at neckline to check for that desired smooth front.
Once the silk was on I turned my attention to the fastening. Historically the closures would lace on either side. On one side I hand sewed eyelets and laced silk ribbon through. This was a faux opening as it actually was sewn shut underneath. On the other side I put in a zipper and put a placket over it with eyelets to lace silk ribbon through (to hide the zipper). I am writing this blog post long after I actually made the garment ( I finished it October 2021) so I have some thoughts now that I can look back. I think when I was figuring out construction I wanted the ease of the zipper but the look of the eyelets. I am not very good at hand sewing eyelets and do not trust them to be sturdy enough on their own. I definitely did not want to use grommets because the metal would look very not historical at all. And wrapping thread over the grommets felt like too much work. I absolutely over complicated the entire thing. An added fun bonus was zipping myself in on a side seam in a very fitted boned bodice. I caught my skin on more than one occasion (ouch!). I still recommend zippers but NOT when you are using a bodice that will compress you.
Working on the eyelets and zipper construction. I had to shorten the bodice twice (the pins marked the waistline I wanted).
Once that was done I turned to the skirt, which is a whopping 5 yard width. I wanted to do cartridge pleats at first but changed my mind halfway through. Instead I ended up pleating the skirts by sectioning the front and back in quarters and then again and again and again until it was all pleated into teeny tiny knife pleats. I pinned it all to twill tape and then hand sewed it down. I did this so I could place the skirt on the waistline exactly where I wanted before securing the twill tape to the bodice by hand. I hemmed the skirt with a very wide strip of light buckram fabric hand sewn to the inside to give the skirt more body.
First try on with skirt to bodice before hemming. As usual I made it far too long and so it had a nice deep hem.
The sleeves were next. I took my regular sleeve pattern and cut two out of regular white cotton. These were the under sleeve and somewhat fitted. The silk sleeve was far far wider and I gathered it up at the top and then attached it to the cotton undersleeve. I gathered the sleeve halfway down to create a double puff and gathered it again at the bottom and attached that to the bottom of the white cotton undersleeve. As you can see in the photos below, the cotton undersleeve is noticeably shorter in length. I did this on purpose so that the silk would puff out more. I love that the sleeves tie on because it gives you endless options. I still have some silk left to make more sleeves in the future.
The white undersleeve is shown with the silk under. I sandwiched the right sides together with ribbon straps in it then flipped the silk out to create a nice clean finished hem on top. The sleeves attach to the bodice with ribbon ties.
I dug out some old gold silk dupioni to use for the bands at both the center gather and bottom. I then machine sewed it down with narrow gold braided trim I found at Joanns.
For the lower half of the sleeves I created a tube and fitted it to my lower arm right under my elbow. I scalloped the sides and attached ribbon ties. This would created an opening for the camicia sleeves to puff out. I did a white cotton lining and once again placed right sides together (with ribbon ties sandwiched in) and sewed up on either side. I turned right side out then just folded down the top and bottom inward.
Before trim, hand sewing the top and bottom for a clean hem.
Random picture of me trying on the lower sleeve with the upper before I finished gathering the bottom edge.
I was almost done and on to the fun part! I always enjoy trimming and for this gown I wanted a lot of beads. I found a great almost lace like looking gold trim and added pearl and gold beads. I added the neckline, waist seam, and sleeve gold trim.
I did not follow the general rule of working from the inside out. Usually this is very important when fitting but I already knew that I wanted to create a camicia differently. I took a ribbed camisole tank top, flipped the back to the front (for lower neckline) and attached wide gathered sleeves of silk chiffon, because Lucrezia's costumes all appear to be sheer silk. I then cut out a wide strip and gathered then attached to the neckline of the camisole. I thought I was being very clever in not having to use a ton of silk chiffon and make a full camicia. If I did it again I'd suck it up and make a regular one however it works great and saved me money.
Finally it was time to take it all out for a spin! When I first planned on making the costume I had no event to attend. I simply just wanted to make it. However it turned out the Sistine Chapel Experience was coming to town and Vivien of Fresh Frippery and I decided to attend in costume. She made a fantastic Loki Borgia (you can read the making of it here) and off we went! I'm glad we took a little time to take photos.
Inside the exhibit they had a little area to pose and we couldn't resist!
We took photos after so I am a wee bit wrinkled but I think this photo does a nice job of showing the silhouette I wanted and achieved.
Vivien and I outside the exhibit. Vivien had a fabulous wig and Loki headpiece. I made a faux gold juilet cap with fake hair that I then pinned on top of my own. I wrapped my own hair around the juliet cap and just left it. I was very tired that morning and didn't have the energy to curl it. It happens.
Some close ups to see the details. The silk really changes color in different light. I do not love the pink silk ribbon ties. I think I may replace with gold at some point.
Afterwards we went to a fabulous tea with lots of wonderful pastries!
