Completed Wonderland! + Italian Renaissance Picture Fest

It's been more than a month, but here at last is some stitching progress!


I finished it a few days ago, but for the sparkly thread over some stitches in the snow. And I've got that done today! Though I cannot for anything get it to show up in any picture I have yet taken. For the year and initials I usually put on my pieces, I am unsure. I can't get them to look right. I spend the early afternoon on doing and re-doing them, but I haven't come up with the right combination yet. Perhaps I should look more into different fonts for numbers!

I've had a lot of schoolwork to keep up with, as well as losing interest in stitching for a while, but I seemed to have got the bug back: I've also made a "gathered sleeves" top to go under the Italian Renaissance (~1490) dress that I'm making!

Kitty says hi!

This was created from two skirts. The sleeves and the straps that the sleeves are attached to (around the 'collar') were made from one skirt. It was already flared out, and divided in half seemed to have enough material for my project. So I cut the elastic waistband off, removed the underskirt, and cut the skirt into two equal halves lengthwise. The underskirt was made of a very flimsy fabric that had already torn, and was really the reason I'd stopped wearing this skirt, so it was no loss for me to repurpose it!



After seaming up the sides to make a tube, I gathered the wider hem (what used to be the bottom edge of the skirt) for the wrists.

I left the on rickrack from the original skirt
This will mean (hopefully) enough fabric to use for the dress style I'm attempting:

Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet (2013)

Nowhere near as grand as that of course, but something more rustic. XD Probably only two or three openings at most to puff the undershirt out through, and likely not as noticeably far as this - but that's a party dress, and mine's for home wear (or so I reassure myself).

Next I cut the waistband in half, removed the elastic, and sewed the sleeves onto the strips, gathering up what little I needed to fit.

The shirt itself is made of the underskirt of another, yellow, skirt, much longer in length than the one I used for the sleeves. As an underskirt, it's already a tube of fabric, so I didn't need to do anything else there.


I decided on a six-inch gap for the front, and gathered accordingly. I then attached the sleeve straps where there would be enough room for comfortable arm movement. I left a gap at the top of the sleeve when sewing it into a tube where I did not sew up completely - I think it was 11 inches? - which I then sewed down to the top/bodice.

The back is the only part that needs help. I think I need longer straps for the sleeves. I attached a panel of fabric in the back top to help hold the sleeves up on my shoulders, and, given their propensity to slide off, I probably should have made this section shorter. I'm thinking about going back in and taking off an inch or two and reattaching it so it'll stay on properly.

This is pinned on the form to fit, not gathered as it appears

And that's it done! It's all very comfortable, the fabric very soft. All seams were sewn by hand but for the hems at the ends of the sleeves and those forming the sides and bottom hem of the bodice-part. The other hems and gathers were all done over the course of two days (!!) and I was finished.

I'm actually really proud of this piece of clothing. It's rare that I'm really happy with what I've created. ^.^

Now I'll go use what's left of my weekend for some more stitching!

~x~

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