Things You'll Need:
- Newsprint or pattern tracing paper
- Pencil
- Bodice and sleeve pattern
- Heavyweight twill, velvet or damask, 4 to 6 yards
- Lining fabric, 3 to 4 yards
- Interfacing, 1 to 1 1/2 yards
- Boning, if desired
- Seam tape
- Sewing machine and coordinating thread
- Hand sewing needle
- Grommet or eyelet tool
- Grommets or eyelets
- Ribbon, braid or embroidery floss
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Step 1
Make a simple Italian Renaissance style gown with a fitted bodice and pleated skirt for your next Renaissance fair or event. Use richer fabrics and additional embellishment and trim if you want to create a more luxurious dress with this simple pattern. Save more complex Renaissance gowns, including those with corsets or cartridge pleating, for when you are more experienced.
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Step 2
Draft your pattern starting with a basic bodice pattern. Trace this pattern onto pattern tracing paper, tissue paper or newsprint. If you have a bodice sloper, this will work nicely. If not, any tightly fitted bodice pattern will work as the basis for your dress pattern. For a basic early Renaissance dress, draw a moderate scoop neck onto your bodice pattern and include a back opening if there is not one. To do this, split your pattern at the center back and add a 5/8 inch seam allowance to each side of the center back on your pattern.
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Step 3
Cut out your bodice pattern from both the lining and outer fabrics. Interface the outer fabric with fusible interfacing. Sew seam tape into place on the bodice to form channels for boning as desired and insert boning along the front of the bodice. Stitch together the shoulder and side seams on both the outer fabric and the lining. Pin the outer and lining fabrics together right sides together and sew along each side of the back and the neck opening. Turn right side out. Press and pin the armhole openings to create a neat finished edge and hand stitch.
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Step 4
Cut skirt panels to the desired length. Panels should be the full width of the fabric. Allow several panels to create a very full skirt. Seam panels together, allowing a 4 or 5-inch gap at the top for the back opening on one seam. Pleat your skirt onto the bodice, pinning carefully before sewing.
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Step 5
Trace a tightly fitted sleeve pattern. Remove approximately 1 inch along the seam line to create a flat sleeve that will lace together along the underside. Cut your sleeves out of both lining and outer fabrics. Pin right sides together and sew, leaving an opening for turning. Turn right side out and stitch the opening closed by hand. These sleeves are not sewn on, but rather finished and laced onto the dress with grommets and ribbons.
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Step 6
Use an eyelet or grommet tool to set eyelets along the back of the dress, around each of the armholes and along the shoulder cap and underarm of each sleeve, as well as down the length of the sleeve. Lace with ribbon to finish your Renaissance costume.
