In case you came here looking for the fabric that you can see on the skirt in the portrait: I have made a reproduction of that fabric available here on Spoonflower. And in case you’re generally interested in Tudor / Elizabethan reproduction fabrics, browse my Medieval / Renaissance / Tudor / Elizabethan design collection on Spoonflower. Then […]
Elizabethan
Hardwick portrait gown
In case you came here looking for the fabric that you can see on the skirt in the portrait: I have made a reproduction of that fabric available here on Spoonflower. And in case you’re generally interested in Tudor / Elizabethan reproduction fabrics, browse my Medieval / Renaissance / Tudor / Elizabethan design collection on […]
Mary Stuart
Mary Stuart’s cream gown This life size portrait of Mary Stuart, painted by an unknown and probably German artist and dated to the early 17th century, is hanging in Hamburg’s Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe; the photo was – together with several detail shots – taken by me. I fell in love with the gown […]
Planning
Embroidery The planning on this gown started with the programming of the embroidery. This is how the embroidery looked in the preview of my embroidery programming software compared to the embroidery on the original bodice. Here’s a close-up of the bodice without any markings: I am planning on doing the embroidery with ivory and silver […]
Analysis
In case you came here looking for the fabric that you can see on the skirt in the portrait: I have made a reproduction of that fabric available here on Spoonflower. And in case you’re generally interested in Tudor / Elizabethan reproduction fabrics, browse my Medieval / Renaissance / Tudor / Elizabethan design collection on […]
Bodice
The bodice I have written the following when planning this gown: …There is one thing about this bodice that disturbs me a little: The fact that the front seems to be ‚just‘ standing open without being laced; yet there are horizontal folds which are usually a clear indication for the bodice being pulled somehow. I […]
Chemise
The chemise (See the bodice page why it just *can’t* look like this when it’s worn – the ladder lacing is missing) The chemise seems to be made of a soft, well draping fabric – look how nicely it pulls along the gathered pleats around the neckline. However, the sleeves have to get a little […]
Planning
My planning started – as usual – by carefully observing the painting. I came to the conclusion that I would have to make six different items for this gown: The chemise The chemise is slightly ruched in the picture and is closed by threads at the front. The sleeves of that chemise are wide and […]
Skirt
The skirt Looking at the picture I can see that the double box pleating is very deep: This image clearly shows (hopefully!) that the skirt is double box pleated; meaning instead of one pleat, there are two pleats over one another. This means that I can use a straight strip of fabric, length must be […]
Mary Tudor
The story of an old, abandoned sofa that stood dripping wet in the rain and asked to become Mary Tudor Sometimes something weird happens. Something you never expected. Something like, well, a sofa that would become a gown, you know. It’s something you would least expect. That’s how I started on this gown, and it […]