The attic is a place dedicate to share my passion :costuming and sewing.I'm not a professional or expert seamstress,only the mother of young kids who love sewing.You won't find 100% historical costume,museum replica, perfection or extreme thing here.

I believe everyone who bring some goodwill can sew and enjoy it.The attic is an unpretentious place .I show my work, information and hope it could somehow inspired you.Feel free to leave comment or share idea.Be welcome and visit as much as you want.
















lundi 14 mars 2011

A medieval princess

What is a medieval princess? I ask myself a long time before I start making this costume.The fact is , I wasn't sure of what I shall do .There is so many costume I wish I could try to make but not enough occassion to wear them so I finally decided to partially create my own pattern for this dress.

Of course a princess is a rich character , that's why I use a shiny fabric .My inspiration mostly came from a description I read in a book talking of a dress call " robe à pièche" .The "pièche " is a triangle piece of fabric pin on the undersdress to cover the part the dress does not because it is wide open in the front.For me it does looks like a houppelande but with a less bigger skirt.

For the pattern , I did found something that could do the job in the book The medieval tailor's assistant by Sarah Thursfield.I didn't have the time to reproduce the exact pattern in book .I choose to use differents pieces of differents patterns to modify and transform them to  get what I want.

The dress is open in the front and is put on just like a coat.The major fabric is a shiny unknow fiber found in the discount section of Fabricville.The collar , belt and sleeves cuffs are made from leftover of wool flannel I use for the normand costume.I shall use fur but too expensive for this project.The hat is a small version of a henin . The veil attached to it came from an old dress you may recognise if you have look on previous picture.Inside the hat , I glue a piece of leftover fabric to be sure the weight of the veil will not make the hat fall down and keep it's shape.

The final costume.The butterfly pins you can see on the dress are there because I always make final adjustment on the student when I bring the costume at the school.


My first idea of an hat.It's a simple veil attached in the front on a band of fabric.It was fast and easy which make it my first choice. When I finish the dress it just doesn't fit with the style .The dress is base on a historical model of the 15 century and this veil more close of the 11century.The henin was more appropriate and I think the final result represent more the image of a princess people may have in mind.

Coming next: a women from 1690 years

1 commentaire:

  1. Looks good! No one will doubt this is a "Medieval"(Fantasy) Princess. But I don't recognize the veil fabric at first glance. What was dress is it from?

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