Tudor Musing

I have decided to get back into my wonderful wonderful obsession with Tudor history. With reading another one of Philippa Gregory's fantastic novels, I realized that I wanted to make a new gown, because the old one is not fit for wear in public, unless public = a photographer. While the last one was made with equally intricate research, the sewing was done on a whim, with fabric I could afford, and while watching (on a loop) the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, which no doubt had an effect on the appearance of my gown. Often I've gotten comments on its likeness to Elizabeth Swan's wedding gown, which is way forward in history, but I digress.

Given my current conditions: being broke, lack of space, upcoming lack of time, and rarely being by myself in any given room, I will have to compensate by taking forever to make it. Hopefully this time I won't fail to document the making of it, as I have wanted to before (before I realized that it would be an embarrassing documentation indeed. Also, hopefully, unlike last time, this gown will come out spectacular and crowd-worthy.

Word for the wise: It is not going to be entirely historically accurate. I am cheating in many ways, such as Velcro and sewing machines and all that jazz, because I am aiming for looks more so than technical historical accuracy.

What have I so far? A fair idea of what I want my gown to look like, am engineered design in mind, and a few cut-outs from muslin which will serve as part of the bodice. When I have a better idea of what I'm actually doing as well as some photos, I will update. When I have concrete research I will also update.

Here is a photo of the old gown for starters. The french hood is photoshopped, but is another part of the costume that I am hopefully going to get around making this time around. Because I am namesakes with Anne Boleyn, I added her signature for fun.

Ta