Katla’s Ärmelrock (sleeved dress)

Kolskegg and Katla at their stepping-down.

Work began August 2014.
Outfits first worn November 22, 2014.

Summary

Kolskegg and Katla, the current Prince and Princess of the Mists, asked me to do their stepping down outfits. My work for her outfit consists of an Ärmelrock (sleeved dress).

The dress will be green wool with black wool slashed guards with white linen showing in the slashes. The bodice will be lined in black linen.

Inspirational Pictures

Portrait of Dorothea Meyer, née Kannengiesser 1516, by Hans Holbein the younger.

Anna Barth? from the Lamberger Portrait Book, 1575-ish.

Portrait of a Man and His Wife. Ulrich Apt the Elder. 1512.

Coloman Helmschmid and Agnes Breu, ca. 1505 (Jorg Breu the Elder) (1475-1537)

Hans Holbein the Elder. Portrait of 34-year-old Woman. 1516-17.

Portrait of a Woman, Bernhard Strigel, 1510-1515 Zoomy picture

Mascarade, unknown artist, 1515 Zoomy picture

Notes

– I’ve used the term Ärmelrock which translates as “sleeved dress”. I’m not 100% certain that this term would have been used in our period of study to refer to this specific type of dress, but I liked the term and I’m taunted by the convenience of having an exact name to refer to a style of dress.
– I’ve tried in my inspiration pictures to avoid the sin of mixing dress styles and locations. That is, I did not include pictures of the Saxony style dress or square necked closed front dress in these inspirations since this style is distinctly different from those. Although those may be contemporaries to this style of dress I don’t feel comfortable using them as a source of inspiration.
– To conserve fabric and because I don’t see a lot of pleats at the waist I’m going to use a gored skirt. This does lead to the interesting side effect of needing to fit the guards to a curve. I guess I’ll just have to figure that out.
– Katla would like a “strappy” sleeve. Although these dresses look like they usually have solid sleeves I did find one example (“Mascarade” watercolor in Inspirational Pictures) that shows a strappy sleeve.
– The sleeves are decorated with “hedgehogs”. “Hedgehog” is a term which I learned from Mari. I don’t think it’s an “official” term and I doubt it was used in our period of study. These cuts on the hedgehogs are unfinished. I tried finishing a test piece and it took a VERY long time to do it and I didn’t like how it looked so I decided to leave them unfinshed. As much as possible I’m keeping the cuts on grain. The wool is fairly fulled so it shouldn’t ravel much.
– After I’d made the bodice, the sleeves, and all the guards for his outfit I used all of the remaining fabric for the skirt. I took all of the remaining fabric, cut it into 4 equal width panels and then followed the cutting plan below to make the skirt panels. The panels are sewn together with french seams(1/4″ SA and then 1/2″ SA) with straight edge to straight edge on the center front seam, bias to bias on the center back seam and bias to straight on every other seam.
– At final fitting (a week before step down) we noticed that the outfits were a bit loose. Katla and Kolskegg admited that they had lost some weight. This meant her dress was not supportive and she did end up having to wear a bra under the dress. On the day of her stepping down Katla confided that she had lost a total of 40 lbs from the time of our first fitting to step down. Luckily although the outfit looks loose it doesn’t look bad.

Progress pictures

The guarding around the neck is cut to match the curve of the neck (rather than trying to stretch on-grain wool to fit the curve). This is the collar of the dress traced on the guarding material with 1/2″ seam allowance added. The bottom part of the guarding is straight so I used fabric on the straight grain.

Bodice all sewn together. Now using pins to mark the placement of the slashes. They end up being about 3 inches apart.

The guard is slashed in a straight line then the slashes are folded back to make the “eye” shape. This is pinned and then sewn down to the backing fabric (white linen) with a slip stitch.

The back side of a finished “eye”. This will be trimmed to about 1/2 inch around the “eye” to prevent bulk in the guarding.

Progress on the bodice guarding. Still need to add “eyes” at the bevel and stitch the whole thing down.

Rings sewn on the inside of the bodice to hold the lace. The rings are offset to facilitate spiral lacing.

Added a hidden fixative stitch right next to the edge of the guard to keep the fabric from rolling up in the guard. Also added the last “eye” and sewed down the miter.

Creating the “hedgehogs”. Each cut is 3/4 inches apart and unfinished.

Demonstrating the flare of the hedgehog which should occur when the sleeve is attached to the garment and wrapped around an arm.

Sleeve detail. Picture by Sandra Linehan.

Todo List:

– (done) Drape the body portion to make a pattern.
– (done) Drape a fitted sleeve pattern.

– (done) Wash wool and linen.
– (done) Cut out wool outer fabric and linen lining for body of garment.
– (done) Sew together body portion along sides and sleeve cap with 1/2″ seam allowance. All seams are enclosed between the fashion fabric and the lining fabric.
– (done) Sew 1/4″ around the armseye, neck opening and front opening (flatlining) (makes the linen and the outer fabric act as one piece of fabric).
– (done) Cut out and slash guards.
– (done) Add backing to slashed guards.
– (done) Trim backing to slashed guards.
– (done) Attach the guards to the body of the garment.
– (done) Add lacing rings.

– (done) Figure out pattern for sleeve.
– (done) Cut out sleeves.
– (done) Sew sleeves together.
– (done) Attach the sleeve to the body of the garment.
– (done) Finish inside of sleeves.

– (done) Cut out skirt.
– (done) Sew skirt together.
– (done) Attach skirt to body of garment.
– (done) Finish skirt closure.
– (done) Hem skirt.