Red Wool Gothic Fitted Dress

It took two years, but I finally got around to making a red wool gothic fitted dress. I purchased a beautiful red wool twill from Burnley and Trowbridge (my first time using a twill for a GFD) because I was interested in the way the twill would lay and stretch. It was so dang hard to find this fabric in a red I liked, I sat on it for almost 2 years, too afraid to cut it. After barely sewing at all this plague year, I finally had a stroke of inspiration and using the pattern I tested on my Fates GFD, I took the plunge and made this dress.

Because twill tends to stretch, this GFD can't be supportive. I also intend to close it with buttons and not lace (not recommended for supportive GFDs). So I needed to ease out the seams to leave room for a supportive underlayer and not put too much stress on the button closure. Using my supportive GFD pattern, I added a 1/4" to all seams and a 1/2" to the front. I probably should have made a new mockup, but I was feeling impatient.

I was a smart cookie with a couple of cutting choices this go round. I was able to cut 3 of my 4 gores without a center seam, saving 120" of hand sewing in one fell swoop! The front gore got the seam since the front opening needs to go into the gore to get the dress on.

On an exciting personal note, we recently moved and now have an entire basement for crafting! It's a pretty sweet (mostly unpacked) setup and red fabric makes a great contrast with all the grey.

I painstakingly draped an arm pattern for the Fates GFD even though it ended up being short sleeved. I'm glad I did because I ended up using it for this dress. I chose to add a little bit of a bell to the end of the sleeve (a later 14th C style) and give a bit more ease in the seams because I intend to eventually wear this over a supportive GFD. The mockup came out well and I went ahead and cut the sleeves.

As usual, to save my hands, I chose to machine construct and hand finish this garment. Armscyes are the most fun on machine. So fun.

The next challenge was figuring out the neckline. I wanted a wider shallower cut to this neck again to better mimic the late 14th century silhouette. You can see in the close up photo above that the neck is about an inch wider on each side than the Fates GFD.

With the neckline decided, I sewed on the button facings and the neckline facing. The neck facing is a 3/4" straight grain cut strip of silk. It's narrow enough to make it around the curve of the neckline. I learned on the Fate GFD that it's damn near impossible to make a 2" straight cut strip of silk lay nicely for the front facing so I cut a facing shaped to the curve of the bust. I then marked, basted, cut, and sewed the button holes. Although I had originally planned for fabric buttons, my hands protested the abuse and I ended up using faux pearl shank buttons that I had in my stash. I finished the wrists and hem last.

As an experiment, this was the first time I tracked the hours I put into making a GFD. It took approximately 42 hours to complete (excluding patterning).

I think the dress came out pretty well overall. The silhouette and drape look really nice and the hand finishes are some of the best I've ever done. The fit, however, leaves just a little to be desired. I cut the neck much wider than I usually do to more closely emulate late 14th century styles but I find it more difficult to move in and less comfortable. I also didn't add enough ease in the seams to my usual supportive dress pattern so there's more tension on the bust buttons than I'd really like. I may have to develop an entirely separate pattern for buttoned and laced dresses in the future.

I recently submitted this garment for 1350-1500 c. Tempore Atlantia (an Arts & Sciences competition in the Kingdom of Atlantia). The documentation can be found here. A gallery of images can be found here.