A Valentines Day Massacre

One of the premier fighting and shopping events of the Midrealm is St. Valentine's Day Massacre, or Val Day as it is commonly known. I've traveled to the wilds of Kalamazoo once before for the event and it was grand, but I haven't made it the last four years. This is the year of a historic Baronial investiture, a pairing of mother and daughter to lead the Barony, and one of them is a member of our Sisterhood. To support them during this time, the Team has made preparations to head north for the investiture... and to look dapper while doing it.

Ginevra has been documenting the steps of creating her dress for Val Day and it sort of guilted inspired me to do a little sewing of my own. The stash fabric on the right has been languishing in my closet for at least five years; it was a Pennsic purchase that I didn't have anything particularly in mind for. It doesn't exactly scream Italian, but it's pretty and Italy did enough trade with the Turks/Persians, that I figured it was OK.

The whole project started off well enough. I had just enough fabric for three rectangle skirt panels at 47 inches long, plus enough material for a bodice and sleeves. Success! I wanted to try using the gamurra block pattern since it is flexible, custom, and worked well when I made all my easy wear items for Pennsic. The skirt construction was easy, three straight seams, so I moved quickly on to the bodice where I used two layers of linen/cotton fustian heavy weight fabric and a medium weight white linen as lining. I felt I had some time, so I added channels and hemp boning, just like my other Italian gowns. A bit more sewing and the bodice was done.

It was a piece of cake.

And then I tried on the bodice. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson about cake when watching Labyrinth a thousand times. The bodice was a bitter piece of marble cake and a bit of a hot mess. It didn't fit quite as well as I would have liked and the neckline was just that - at my neck. The nuns called and said I was pious enough for the convent it was so high and modest. Not exactly what I was going for, so back to the cutting board.

It was Wednesday night, meeting night, and already after work. I threw the section of material I had set aside for sleeves down and very quickly cut out a new bodice with proper pieces from Period Pattern, Italian renaissance, view VII. It went together more quickly than expected (without boning, alas.) And on Thursday, I was hand sewing towards the end of the business day so I could attach the skirt and sew down the lining by the end of night. I was able to throw a hail Mary pass and get it into enough shape to wear it, but the fit still leaves a little to be desired. It will still need to be taken in a little to make it worth wearing again.