Monday, 27 June 2022

A 14th century overgown a.k.a the 2m challenge

Yes, 2m is just enough to make a gown like this (with the caveat that the fabric is 60" wide and you're very conservative with gore size). I made this to go over my long-sleeve kirtle.








The process...

 After finishing my 2 kirtles I still felt like I wasn't really done with the 14th century. I also had some more wool I wanted to buy, a lovely blue doeskin wool from the same fabric shop where I'd got the orange. Oh boy, were they vastly different from each other despite both being marketed as "doeskin". Thankfully the blue was thicker, equally soft, which made for a great overgown.

But there was a problem. The shop only had 2m left. It was 60" wide fabric and I'd managed to get 2 kirtles out of 6m. I could maths; this would be fine...

I used the same pattern as for my kirtles, but made it a lot larger so it'd go over the top. I also made it have a side closure rather than a CF. I mainly based it off of these images.





The wool wasn't as drapey in the sleeves as the above images, so I kind of have 18th century winged cuffs going on, but oh well, nothing I can change about the drape of the fabric.

2m proved to be just enough and I made mine more on the shorter side or I'd have never managed it. I kind of regret doing the front gore, but my kirtle is quite wide and I thought not putting in a CF and CB gore in the overgown would make it too narrow, even with the side slit.

I also had an issue with the neckline. It's not supposed to have an opening there but because I'd added more seam allowance to make it big enough to slip over my kirtle, I'd stupidly added to the neckline, making it too wide. I had to make the slit down the CF neckline and take away the excess, hence the opening. Again, another whoops.

Overall I think it's friggin' cute.