I finally got off my tush and started on the Collegium gown.
I went through a moment last night of "X told me that I have to start building my reputation all over again, since Noelle did 13-14th C English and French, and nobody knows that the Serafina who does Italian is the same person". But meh - I get bored, and want to learn MOAR STUFF. On that same note, I have kind of forgotten how hard it was in the beginning of the Italian Experiment. I didn't know what websites to frequent, what books to reference, what people to bug for info.....it's all coming back to me now. It's exhilarating and a bit frustrating all at the same time to start over from scratch!
But anyway, back to the gown. I decided that my turquoise linen had marinated and aged in the stash long enough that it'd be the perfect candidate for a German gown. I took an existing bodice pattern I had drafted for Holly and squidged it around to move the seams to the sides, lengthen the body, and move the shoulder straps around.
Bertha does not at all showcase how well it fits on me, but you'll get the idea (I hope). The neckline looks way high on Bertha, but since I have a crazy long waist and a crazy short ribcage, it hits just a bout right (when taking into account the seam allowances. (I'll post piccies of me in it once the side seams are put in.)
(The linen IRL is a smoodge brighter and a bit more green than shows in this pic.)
I got all the bodice pieces cut out and realized that I had no interlining. D'OH! I was really frustrated for a minute, until I realized that I still had the little problem of headgear to deal with. I've been surfing around the 'net, and haven't really found anything that makes a whole lot of sense to someone who has never done anything like this before. I found what appeared to be a very basic head dress, but the more I read it, the more confused I got. (It's over here.) Because I'm a wuss, I haven't emailed the author yet for clarification. I should, tho. I'm most confused about:
1. the football and half football shapes. Is there two half footballs? Are the two differently-shaped pieces sewn together, or are there two separate entities?
2. How does the cap stay on? Is it the unterhaube the only thing keeping it on the head?
3. the linen unterhaube......what's up with the pleats? To what am I pleating to fit to, size-wise? I'm pretty sure the pleats are in the back, but I don't at all get how it all stays on the head and gets the end result she has in her pictures.
I figured I could forge ahead and make the 'bump' with relatively little problem. (Even if it's not following the instructions above) I made a tapered tube (looking a lot like the shape on the right side of the instructions above), but instead of cutting notches, I stuffed it first, shaped it, and tacked darts into the underside to shape it since I didn't know how much to take out for the notches. I'm torn as to whether it turned out too small, or too big. It feels wrong on my head somehow, yet on the foam head, it looks pretty good. (Maybe it's just my face. There are certain hairstyles/headwear that don't look good on me no matter what I do.
(Note, the head is seriously about 10% smaller than the size of my head, so proportions *are* off, which may be why it doesn't look so good on me. Hm. Maybe.)
