Renaissance Faire Dress

• 

  pattern pieces

• 

  toile/mockup

• 

  hemming measurement

• 

  hemming measurement

• 

  neckline

Inspiration

We were inspired by both historical and fantasy fashion, especially those modeled from 15th century heraldic dresses. We wanted to combine elements from both genres to create a unique piece.

What it does

The piece is a beautiful, flowy gown that can be worn on various occasions, including cosplay and Renaissance Faires.

How I built it

We used a thin ivory cotton woven voile as the dress' fabric. To begin, we sketched out ideas and established what kind of look we wanted. Next, we made a toile, a mockup, to get the correct proportions of the pattern pieces. The process involved pinning and sewing the toile and continuously made minor adjustments to ensure the dress fitted the body. Finally, we cut the toile apart into the corresponding pattern pieces. The pattern was then laid out on the final fabric, cut out, then sewn together with a Brother ST371HD sewing machine.

Challenges I ran into

The serger proved to be a major obstacle. Because the particular machine had several technical issues, it took us many attempts to configure the tensions, stitch lengths, and stitch widths. We tested the settings on many pieces of scrap fabric until it was finally to our liking.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We're proud how we drafted the pattern ourselves and the speed we made the dress at.

What I learned

We learned a lot about serger machines through reading the manual thoroughly while trying to fix the machine. Doing so allowed us to understand the complexity and inner workings of the machine.

What's next for Renaissance Faire Dress

We plan to use this dress alongside the corset and shirt we made for Horizons to wear as one ensemble to the Georgia Renaissance Faire. Link to our Horizons project page with the top and corset: https://devpost.com/software/renaissance-fair-dress

Built With

• brother
• deadstock
• fabric
• scissors
• serger
• sewingmachine