Made By A Fabricista | The Sonatta

For the past seven-ish years, I have done one court gown a year focusing on the 1540s Florentine era for the sole purpose of learning how to make these garments and everything I can about the Noble Ladies wardrobe. But in this mad dash refinery, I neglected one important piece of what a wardrobe includes and that is the home clothes.

So this is going to be part of a project where I am trying to rectify that and I'm looking for the clothes that you wear when you curl up with a good book in the rain, or the clothes that you wear when you are having a busy morning running all of your errands before you put on your finery and the gowns later that evening. What did the average everyday woman wear regardless of social class?

When you look through the inventories in Moda a Firenze, it doesn't reference a lot of sonatas and embustos, which are petticoats and stiffened bouse, sometimes they're mentioned together. Sometimes they're mentioned separate, which leads to the idea that they could be either attached or detached depending on what style of garment and what you want the garment to be used for.

There was also a note on one of the listings that said in the guise of a gown, which I think would be interesting to explore later, but with the idea that we needed some sort of foundational garment that could also work as everyday house clothes, I then went to the modern maker. In this book, we have all sorts of patterns that use the proportional pattern drafting method that was popular in the 1600’s called the bar method, and it is my go-to for clothing of this time period. You can get basic shapes, you can adjust from there.

The pattern that intrigued me the most was this half circle wrap skirt, mostly because I thought circle skirts were too wasteful for to be period.

But I shouldn't be surprised because like copious consumption—Is that the word? I think that's the word.

Ostentatious. Copious consumption.

Anyway, I wanted to know how a circle skirt and a wrap skirt would work as not only a foundation layer, but within the parameters of historical sewing and construction techniques.

I'm going to make a skirt that is going to wrap around me one and a half times. It's going to be cut as a half circle because the fabric's not going to be wide enough. I'm going to need to piece it together, which is going to be an interesting adventure. Let it all hang like a good circle skirt does. And even out the hem.

I want this to be floor length and to just barely kiss the floor. Because why flaunt Victorian virtues two centuries before they existed?

I am then going to put on decorative guards and we're going to finish everything with bias tapes. So that way it's nice and clean and I think it's going to be the easiest way to sew this just in general.

Oh, and the last and most important bit I'm going to hand sew the entire thing because if I am going to upgrade my historical wardrobe, I need to do it in a more historical way. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I'm probably going to hate this decision later.

When we think of sewing this together, we need to think of treating it almost like quilting. The main focal point of the skirt because the construction is so simple, is to get that padded hem, which is going to give us the structure and eventually the support that we need underneath our gowns.

So with each layer of fabric that we put over the base lid in and each line of stitching, we're basically quilting it together.

I did put the wool facing on both of the side openings as well as all the way around the hem. I'm going to have to wear this garment a little bit more to decide if I truly like that or if I will just put the wool facing along the bottom next time.

I mean time will tell, I'm still in the experimental phase. I don't quite know what I'm doing.

Once I had all of the wool pinned onto the linen, I did start with a whip stitch along the top edge of the wool. But then I got worried that I wasn't catching enough fabric and that the wool was going too fray and a whole bunch of other things. It also wasn't going very quickly. So I transitioned over to a running stitch that I could have and eat them an inch away from the edge. And that worked beautifully.

Once the wool was attached, it was almost magical to see how it went from what I consider a loose floaty circle skirt to something a little more rigid. And I noticed that with each layer that I put on as well. And I'll show you the photos as we go through.

Before moving on, I did want to make sure that the linen was going to lay smoothly over the wool because I really tried hard to prevent any sort of puckering or stress lines in the fabric that would just make the thing look sloppy later on.

Once all of that was prepped, it was time to go upstairs to the big studio where they have the nice ironing set up.

I cut the silk into two different widths of bias tape. I knew I wanted about five inch guards to go around and be the decorative portion because I wanted to leave room for embroidery later if I chose to do that. And then I wanted to finish the edge with the silk bias tape as well. And that needed to be two inches for a good half inch finish.

And I went for the half inch because I didn't want to stress about folding everything and making everything look nicely. Half inch is just the easiest for me to work with.

I did a lot of ironing while I was up there.

I used a bias tape maker to prep the two inch strips of bias tape. And then I use a heat resistant ruler to fold under the edges of the six inch strip to be five inches finished. The bio tape was the easiest to sew on because I did have that nice crisp iron line to use as a guide and I just lined it up with the bottom of the wool and ran a running stitch. On the other side I used a fell stitch to just fell that down and make it look all nice and beautiful.

I'm really happy with the finish of this. I think it looks really clean and professional and I am impressed with how even my hand stitching is. I did not think I was capable of that.

Once that was done, I did lay the skirt down on the floor to make it as even as possible so that way I could take my large ruler measure three inches up from the hem and pin that five inch guard in place. This took probably an entire evening because I was so picky about it, but the results are undeniable.

This project was also perfect for this string of low energy days that I just happened to have at the same time. So I got to curl up in my favorite corner of the couch, which is why I probably did not get the best angles and shots of this entire project.

I did stitch the bottom edge of the guard down with a fell stitch and I made sure to go through not only that light linen layer, that's my fashion fabric, but also the wool because the more stitching and stiffness and rigidity that I could add into this project, the better that this garment was going to drape further down the road and the more structure it would have as well.

But once that bottom edge was on, I was then left with the decision of how do I sew at the top edge because I didn't want to completely gather up all of the fabric into my hand. Again, I was very focused on making sure that everything was laying as smooth and flat as possible. So because of this, I transitioned over to the table and I used that to help keep everything nice and smooth and then used a felling stitch to put down the top edge as well.

This proved to be highly productive and honestly, I might make another one of these completely on top of a work table next time just because of how easy it was and I could keep track of everything and it just, it flowed, it worked. I don't know if I can like describe it better than that, but at this point the skirt is basically done. We just need to finish the top edge of the skirt and add the ties.

I chose to do this by cutting out a two-inch strip on the grain out of the linen. So that way it would blend into the rest of the skirt and not create a harsh distracting waistline. I also made this these ties very long so that way they could be sure to go around me and tie securely.

I cut this on the grain of the fabric instead of the bias tape because while I am sewing this onto a curve, it is going to lay on the body flat. And I wanted to make sure that I was taking advantage of the anatomy of the fabric.

I did apply the waistband very similar to how you apply bias tape. And I used an iron to press those creases in ahead of time. That way I could make sure that all of my stitching was nice and clean and even, and honestly ironing this was a dream.

I don't think I would've been as happy if I did not iron ahead of time.

But with the last bit of stitching on the ties, this skirt is done. I was really impressed with how quickly this project worked out, especially considering that it really only took a few days hand sewing.

I think if I was doing it on a machine, I could easily do this in an afternoon, which is beyond impressive compared to a lot of my other historical projects.

But the really true like MVP impressiveness of this comes down to that padded hem.

I was amazed at the weight and the structure and the feel that it gave this skirt. It went from being something lightweight and airy to something airy and structural, which I don't think I've ever experienced with fabric before.

The way that that hem now just moves out of the way when I walk and doesn't seem to exist or tangle up in my feet like I would expect a modern skirt to do was just magical. I've also since made another version of this skirt out of a heavy wool and it was boggling to me how it felt like I was wearing a farthingale or a set of hoops when it was just how the fabric was structured.

The portraiture of Eleanor to Toledo, when she's sitting down all of her skirts look like they have nice soft folds and you don't get that when you're wearing hoops. But you would get that if you were wearing something like these wrap skirts underneath. And I can see how these skirts would fully support a gown. I have not put on the full setup yet, but I am very interested to see how it all works together and to see if it actually makes my gowns more comfortable in the future.

Just for fun, while taking the worn footage, I also did put my knitted jacket with this project. I don't think it goes well over the shift that I chose because it is a heavy linen, but the way that it looks incredibly modern, but I know it is very historical, is just mind-boggling to me. And it gives a very classic, elegant silhouette that truly transcends time.

This skirt will probably eventually make it into my everyday wardrobe and or versions of it. 'cause I could see making more tea length versions for everyday wear.

I am beyond excited with how it turned out and I'm very happy with the progress. if you want to see more historical home clothes stick around. I definitely have a full thing planned out. But that's all for now.

MARTY | @scrappypatterns