12th Night Dress

When Caid 12th Night approached I remember saying that I was not going to make a new court dress for the event. I already had a good amount of court gowns I built in the past and I only wore them a few times.

Of course I say one thing and completely do another.

Here's my dress I wore to Caid 12th Night.

Pardon the wrinkles. 12th Night was at the beginning of the month and I just now managed to pull the dress back out from the garb laundry pile to take photos. Its made out of a lovely brown linen I bought up in the LA Fashion district. There was a linen sale. An SCA gal can never have enough linen.  The plus for using linen is this dress is now washable!

I used a different style of pattern than the one I drafted for my orange silk Italian Ren. I was trying to have a more 1520's Venetian silhouette so I changed the neckline and put the closure in the front.

This portrait was my main inspiration:

Palma Vecchio, 1520s: Woman In Blue

 I was completely taken with this portrait and wanted to create the same feel as it. I ended up only having a week to put the dress together (I caught the plague the week before) so there are parts that need refining. Overall, I think I did a decent job.

 Once again, Trim from a impulse by at war.  I KNEW it would come in handy! Do to the shape of the neckline I had to put it all on by hand. That.. was an adventure Alas, you can catch some scorch marks on the trim there. My iron was WAY too hot *facepalm*. The ties are made of simple grosgrain ribbon. the gold balls on the end are leftover buttons from some other project long forgotten. I thought they finished up the bodice nicely.

Ah yes, my "Special" moment. The trim was a bit of a nightmare to put on and I ended up with bizarre gap at the back of the neckline. So I added this little loopy bow detail on the back  I thought it was kinda a cute detail for the time I had. But I might change it out later on.

I really loved the red brocade I used for the sleeves. I lucked into a yard of it when a friend of mine was getting rid of his fabric stash. The diamonds are really pretty. 

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of me in the dress except one:

And the jazz hands in it are epic.