Little Black Dress from 16th Century Rome

While most of 16th century Italy loved to dress in bold colors, there were some groups of people who wore the ancestor of our little black dress. Frequently this dress was prescribed based on social customs and laws in the different cities over time. My primary inspiration for this dress was focused on Roman women in the later 16th century. The history I found while making this dress deserves its own video, so today we are going to focus on how I made this 16th century little black dress called a sottona.

Materials I used for this dress are listed below. All Amazon links are affiliate links: Black Cotton Damask Linen Canvas Cotton Quilters Batting https://amzn.to/3rWsRvR Black Medium Weight Linen Black Cotton Thread https://amzn.to/44P8wat Wool Hem Braid Black Velvet Remnant Lacing Rings Embroidery Floss for Eyelets https://amzn.to/47clbFV Scissors https://amzn.to/3rYWlZP Play list for 16th Century Costuming projects and techniques: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-n8YRaQqPMGi4mqIndRcmugWRkVtlLno Pad Stitching Tutorial https://youtu.be/Cb2iYvyU9rM Eyelet Tutorial https://youtu.be/Nkr1aJ4ubFc 16th Century Belle https://youtu.be/D4bZPA_AisA I hope this sewing vlog is helpful and entertaining for you and to see you again! Social Media and other Places to Find me: Instagram: @maridith.smith Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tudorrevolution/ Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/maridithsmith All Music was Provided by the YouTube creator studio. Video edited with DaVinci Resolve 17. Filmed with Cannon M50

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Pockets in the 16th Century?

So if you are new to my blog, Hello! I took July off to focus on work and realities of covid life. Thanks for hanging in there. This week we are doing to cover 16th Soccocia and their role toward the origin of pockets. People need a place to carry and keep their small items as they walk around. In the middle ages you might have a pilgrim satchel or a belt pouch. Some women in the middle ages had the brilliant idea to stop wearing their money purses outside of their over gowns and instead would wear them between their kirtle/sottona layer and over gowns. This arrangement still gave you access to the purse, but made it harder for thieves to cut your purse strings and run. Fast forward to the 16th century and we find the heirs to this practice in socaccia. We have some visual evidence of these in mid to late 16th century art out of Italy. This is a detail of Alessandro Allori's, Woman at her toilet, ca 1575-78. Currently in Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Gaddi Chapel. J

Two Tone Lucet Cording

Hello Beautiful Humans! Today I have a brief tutorial for you on how I made the lucet lacings for my most recent renaissance dress. It is a craft that is hard to document in the 16th century, where I do most of my work, but I love how quickly this technique works up into fairly strong cording. This two tone technique is much stronger than a typical single strand lucet braid because of the extra cord running through the entire cord. I also love the possibilities for coordinating your laces to your outfits. My laces were made much longer than I needed them for this dress. Looking back I could have cut my lacing in half and been fine, but now I have all this extra if I should ever need it. Long laces also mean I can pre-lace myself into this dress with a spiral lace and then tighten it until I feel comfortable. For this particular style of lucet I used a hardwood lucet fork I purchased from an 18th century reenactor, a skein of DMC 6-strand embroidery floss, and a ball of size 10 cr

Voided Velvet Sleeves from a Thrift Store Scarf

Detachable sleeves are one of my favorite things to make for renaissance dresses, and always seem to be the last thing I think to make when I'm planning my outfits. These sleeves are made from thrift store fabric to mimic one possible way that "cut work sleeves" were made in the period. There are several theories, and my research has made me think that they all may have been in use at different points in time for different specific motifs. To make these sleeves I used a voided velvet scarf I found at my local thrift store and remnants of rayon velvet, silk shantung, and linen. Techniques I cover in the video include basting, hemming stitches, and how to easily sew with velvet. I completed the project using a mix of hand sewing and a modern sewing machine. I love wearing these Italian renaissance dresses at reenactment events or when I attend events for the Society of Creative Anachronism. Groups like this have helped me learn more about how period techniques and mate

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