Made By A Fabricista: Work of Arte

When perusing Fabric Mart's website for my next project, I knew I wanted to make something for the Arizona Renaissance Festival, but as a cosplayer, I couldn't resist making something something from an anime, and where those two worlds collide is with the show Arte, a girl doing all she can to pursue a career as an artist in Italian Renaissance.

And when I found this green apple 100% linen, I knew I had to go for it! While I wanted to give a nod to the anime, I wanted something a little different from the animes design or something “historically accurate” and settled on “historically adequate” and drafted my own bodice pattern, originally intending for it to be laced at the side seams. And since I wasn't aiming for accuracy, I also added modern pockets to the side seams!

The bodice changed when a friend reminded me that lacing side seams are a little more difficult on your own, so at the finish line of sewing, I sewed the side seams shut, and grabbed a piece of scrap to make a facing for what would become my new center front closure.

Using the pulled thread method on the linen scrap to get a perfectly straight line for cutting, I pinned it to my drawn line on the bodice, basted down that line, and sewed a quarter inch away all the way around the line.

Once that was sewn, I snipped down the center line through all layers (facing, main fabric, inner lining, and lining layers), flipped the facing in towards the lining, added a piece of boning to either side, and stitched the facing to the lining by hand to avoid visible top stitching.

Lastly was a bit of decoration to bring a bit more of the characters design back in, I used some velvet ribbon from my stash to hide the machine sewn rolled hem line and to add some visual interest on the bodice. Then using some dark green satin ribbon, I laced up the center front as well as the sleeves seam (I made detachable sleeves, but it was too warm to wear them) to better accommodate the puffy sleeves of my existing chemise.

When wearing for faire I paired the linen dress with a linen chemise from my closet and a indigo blue petticoat skirt I made years ago from the leftover fabric from my second Sophie Hatter cosplay made from a cotton/rayon jacquard I bought from Fabric Mart back in 2021! The blue was a nice nod to Artes blue shoes in the anime. I'm so excited to have something new to wear for faires and happy to have another project avoiding my nemesis; zippers.

MINA  | @cosplaytology