Medieval reenactment has a bit of a barrier to full participation if you’re not a big sewist. A lovely newbie to our group needed garb. She really needed garb, the loaner garb that she was given was the fugliest thing I’ve ever seen.
So she and I blitzed this dress and chemise over one day so she could have something lovely to wear for the next event.
Holy wow! What a lucky newbie to have such a generous and talented sewist help her out!!! It’s truly beautiful and barely believe able that you did it in a day!
It was about 8 hours, we had the bodice cut out a previous day. I made the chemise in about an hour before she arrived (all squares and ripping fabric)
I boned the bodice (cable ties make excellent boning) while she pinned the pleats of the skirt, I attached the skirt, while she made tea.
Then we cheated and used metal eyelets, rather than hand sewn ones for the lacing at the sides. And I made sleeves, which are also rectangles, with fake puffs added. A few ribbons and aiglets for the ends of the ribbons and it was done.
And cheat number two, we used the selvage edge for the bottom of the skirt, so no hem needed.