Black dress with belled sleeves

This is a dress based on Practical Worksheet for Tunic Construction by Cynthia Virtue aka Cynthia du Pré Argent and The Bliaut Files for the sleeves.

It is made in black lightweigh linen, machine-sewed because such a lined wouldn't probably have been used anyway in those historical times I'm mostly interested into (linen with a dark color so fast looks Very Artificial Dye to me and my limited knowdlege of natural dyes).

I'm expecially satisfied of the sleeves, as the gusset starting from the [gomito] gives them enought lenght to be "cool", while being confortable enough to do some activity like eating, writing, etc. Also the extra heavy border improve their falling.

I've probably cut the front and back piece a little too short and thus the gores start above the waistline; some attempts with a pillow suggest that a dress like this will probably fit also during pregnancy, should I ever need an evening dress while in that state, while the proper use of a belt will allowed it to be fitting even afterwards.

Gallery

Pictures will be available soon.

Pattern

I've used the patterns linked above, except for the gores, where I've adapted it as seen in the picture, as it allows for side and front gores of the same lenght, when considering a sewing allowance of 2cm.

front gore starts 2cm from both sides 
of the rectangle, instead of from the edges Cutting pattern for gores.

Last update: 2004-11-28 22:13 +0100

This page by Elena of Valhalla