The 1520's court gown is done (almost)

  With the guard on the neckline and the sleeves tied on, the gown is now finished. I still need to hem it, but I'm waiting for fabric that I can use as a hemguard. I also haven't finalized the length of the ties on the arms, I will have to do that when I wear the gown with the proper shift under it, so that I see that the shifts shows through, but not too much or too little. I have also ordered some gold cord caps to put on the end of the ties. The Cranach painting that I'm using for inspiration has round gold beads, but that was hard to find so I will settle for more oblong caps and be on the lookout for round beads of the right size.

The guard around the neckline was made in two parts, the rounded parts around the neck and the straight part down the center front. This is something you see on quite a lot of painting, where there is a visible line between the neck and center front pieces. 

The center front guards are simple rectangles. I pressed all the sides down, but I didn't hem them. I simply caught both the hem and the main guard when I sewed them on. They are sewed on with black silk, in fact a thin yarn since I didn't have silk thread in black.

The neckline guard is made of two strips of the same fabric that I sewed together at the top. I then pressed the bottom of the guard up and sewed it on, like you would sew on a bias tape.

It was fiddly to get the neckline border in the right spot, this was due to me wanting to raise the neckline. If I had just wanted it to be edge to edge with the main bodice I would probably just have made the guard in one layer of fabric, and it would have been easier to align it. Now I pinned it one while it was on my dressform to get it right.

Now it's on to the rest of the outfit. I am waiting for supplies for the gold embroidered hood, and lining for the cape that will go over it all. While I'm waiting I couldn't help myself but I have started to embroider a border that I want to use for a new shift as well. I have a deadline though in that I want to have everything finished by the end of October, since there is a possibility that I can make a photoshoot with it.