HSM24: new clothes from old - the pink gown

 Back in 2022 I made a post proudly claiming that I would finally finished my pink trossfrau gown.  Well that never ended well. I got it into a wearable state, but I never finished the closure, instead I just pinned it together and I was so dissatisfied with it that I can't find a single photo of myself in it. It went into a bag to saved sometimes in the future.

With my weight loss journey the last year I decided that it was time to see if I could salvage it. I started with simply ripping off the bodice and the skirt. The bodice had always been a finished piece and the skirt were two lengths of fabric gathered together and whip stitched to the bodice. I also decided to see if I could change the cut of the skirt. I have more and more come to the conclusion that even if it's easier to just gather square pieces of fabric together, the more historically accurate way of making 16th century skirts is to make them as circle skirts. The two old pieces were enough to piece together an almost full circle, made up from gores. The end result is a skirt that is quite slim at the waist, but with a larger circumference at the hem compared to the first version. If I made a new skirt I would do gores, but I would like to make the skirt something like a 1,5 circle skirt and pleat in the excess at the waist. With the gores I had to cut the skirt shorter to fit them, so I haven't hemmed the skirt, just relying on the wool to not unravel to save a few cm in length.

The bodice was taken in quite a lot at the sides. For the sleeves I had to redo the upper part of the sleeve, thankfully the old parts were so big that I could cut the new part from them. They were to short though, but I added an extra strip of fabric to lenghten it, and then I added a decorative border over the seam to hide it. The lower parts could probably have been saved from the original, but I had lost one of them while they were in the stash, and there were enough fabric left from the recut skirt that I could make two new ones.

I also recut the neckline of the bodice, that was gaping on several places, but making it lower it fit much better. Finally the original gown had never gotten a finished closure so I made lacing holes to be able to close it at the front, and then I added more guards in a darker fabric at the neckline and sleeves. 

I wore the gown like this at Leksands medieval fair in May, and realised it was still way to big and bunching up a lot in the bodice.

So last week before leaving for medieval week in Visby I once again ripped off the skirt. I decided not to take in the width, that would have taken too much time to redo all the side and back seams. I big problem was that it was too long in the bodice though, so  I simply resewed the skirt on, but now 3 cm higher up to the bodice.

The new version worn without the lower sleeves.

I wore it like this in Visby. It is once again too big, I have lost more weight since May, but with the yellow kirtle under it it still looks nice. The bodice doesn't give any support, so when it was too warm to wear a kirtle, basically all the days, I wore it with my modern bra to get support for my breasts. I usually stay away from modern underwear to avoid a modern silhouette, but it was needed. I will probably take it apart and take it in again, and I need to make an underkirtle that isn't as warm as my yellow one.

What the item is: a pink trossfrau gown from 1510-1530
How it fits the challenge: The bodice was taken in and altered, the sleeves and skirt are totally recut from an older version of this gown that doesn't fit any more.
Material: and old pink wool gown
Pattern: my own
Year: 1510-1530
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? I actually think the cut of this version is more accurate, with a gored skirt instead of just gathered rectangles of fabric. I had to put some decorative bands on it to hide seams where I had pieced the sleeves together and that I haven't seen in sources, but somewhere around 75%. 
Hours to complete: it's been on and off during the last few months but probably around 20
First worn: Visby medieval week
Total cost: everything was made from the original gown, which probably cost around $150 for the fabrics originally