Over the last 18-20 months, I have lost about 50 lbs. This has led my previous 1490s underdresses to not fit properly. I took in both the magenta silk dress and teal wool underdresses. In both instances, took them in close to 6-8 inches in the bodice. This resize did allow them to still be worn, but the strap placement was less than ideal and any further adjustments would need to come out of the center front or back instead of at the sides. That type of adjustment is not possible without reconstructing the bodices and redoing trim work.
In addition to previous dresses not fitting well, I also found that I could achieve a more period silhouette and neckline if I narrowed my straps and moved them further out on my shoulders, opening up the neckline into a wider oval. With the help of Magistra Vittoria di Carduci, we did another duct tape bodice and subsequent revisions of the pattern. The duct tape pattern was compared to the resized dresses as well to help ensure the pattern was sized appropriately. As suspected, the difference in size came out at center front and back and not just the sides.
The materials for this dress were sourced from a mix of stash, Silk Baron, and Etsy. The bodice structural layers were made from a heavy cotton canvas from my stash. The lining was quilting cotton from my stash. The main dress fabric was an earlier purchased silk from Silk Baron called Framboise. The bodice trim was a 5/8 inch Velvet Ribbon from the Etsy store AnastasiaMarieShop. The hem trim was a sari border trim from the Etsy store MaryNotMartha.
The construction of the underdress began with the bodice structural layers. The internal structure of the bodice was 3 layers of heavy cotton canvas. The top and bottom layers were straight of grain and the middle layer was a bias cut. I started with rectangles slightly larger than my entire pattern piece. On the top layer, I traced my pattern piece. I then stitched along the traced line of the bottom edge of the pattern. Then stitched a perpendicular line of stitches at the center fold line for the front and back pieces. I then quilted parallel lines of stitches, an eighth of an inch apart, from the center fold line to the outer edge of the pattern piece. I started each parallel line of stitching at the bottom of the pattern where I had sewn along the traced pattern. This minimized shifting of the layers as I sewed. Once fully quilted, I cut the piece out, following the traced line from earlier.
The quilted structural pieces were then flat-lined with the quilting cotton lining. On the straps, 3 flat buttons were stitched to the inside– one close to where the strap would attach to the bodice front, one close to where the strap would attach to the bodice back, and one at the apex of the shoulder. These will be used later to attach sleeves to using loops on the sleeves instead of lacing loops. This greatly eases putting on the sleeves.
The structural pieces were then wrapped with the silk. The silk was hand stitched to the lining and structural layers from the inside.
Once all the bodice pieces were wrapped in the silk, the straps were whip-stitched to the front and back from the inside.
The velvet trim was then box-pleated and clipped to the bodice neckline. The trim was hand-stitched down to the silk. The first pass was at the neckline and the second pass was the lower/outer edge of the trim.
Once the bodice was completed, the skirt needed to be cut and assembled. I first started by cutting 3 full-width panels of my silk that were as long as my skirt needed to be (underbust to the floor) plus seam allowances. One panel would be my center back, one my center front, and the third would be my walking gores; side fronts, and side backs. That third width was then cut into two 5-inch widths, and two 10-inch widths, with the remaining 30 inches cut into 4 half gores.
The seams were then machine sewn and hand flat-felled. The seams joining the half gores were felled to each side instead of a standard flat fell to one side. The center of the gore was also left open at the top for 5 inches to ease dressing and undressing.
The top edge of the skirt was finished with bias tape. I machine sewed the bias tape to the outside and folded to the inside and hand stitched down.
The bottom edge of the skirt was a bit more complex. I started by machine sewing bias tape to the inside of the bottom edge. I folded to the outside and inserted 2 layers of synthetic horsehair braid between the silk and the folded over bias tape. I machine sewed this down. I then machine sewed the bottom edge of my embroidered net trim down on top of the bias tape and horse hair braid. I machine sewed the top edge on the front and back panels. Before sewing down the top edge of the trim over the side gores, I ran a basting stitch and eased the trim to compensate for the curve of the gores and then machine sewed it down.
With the skirt now finished, I pleated the skirt and clipped it to the bodice. I started at the center front with a box pleat and then knife pleats falling away to each side. I algined the gaps at the tops of the gores with the edges of the bodice peices. At the center back, was an inverted box pleat. Once pleated, I whip stitched the skirt to the bodice.
At the sides, I used loops made of perl cotton that was button hole stitched over as lacing loops. My lacing cord was a 7 strand kumihimo braid from DMC floss in 2 colors.
