Deborah Murray

Deb generously sent me several pictures of her amazing costumes, and I had a torturous time trying to decide which one to post--they were all so beautiful! But I finally decided to feature this gown inspired by Bronzino's portrait of Eleonora of Toledo, mainly because it was so impressive in the side-by-side picture that Deb sent showing the two gowns together! I think she did a marvelous of reconstructing this style of dress, and beneath the picture, you can read her nice commentary on the construction techniques. If you would like to see more work by this fabulous costumer (otherwise known as Lady Oonagh O'Neill), be sure to stop by her new website, Oonagh's Own.

The Toledo Frock only has boning at the back where the rings were sew in for the lacing, so it didn't collapse. (and yes it is spiral laced) The entire bodice is lined in a very heavy cotton drill and mounted on a heavy cotton canvas. This gives it all the body I needed as I did wear a corset underneath it. The outer fabric is a heavy (that word is appearing a lot) upholstery fabric. The fastenings are not eyelets, but rings sewn into openings so that there is no damaging of the fibres. I first made a paper pattern and then a toile of the dress in drill to ensure it all a. fitted and b. draped properly. Three other ladies I know who have also made this dress did however bone the bodice to ensure it held it's shape. They used a much softer combination of fabrics so they had to. Out of the four of us whom have made this frock, I am the only one to have attempted the sleeve tops. They are not perfect as I would like them to be, but the others are all laurels and I am only a mug having a go. The sleeves have 80 buttons and 16 - 17 metres of cording on them. They are not mounted only lined in heavy drill cotton. The sleeves attach to the dress by loops in the shoulder of the dress. These were made by platting some gold cord that is elasticized, (a small cheat but it works really well), and they were sewn into the shoulders of the dress. The partlette is the closest I could find to cloth of gold. It is a gold metallic organza, at the moment still we can not buy this fabric in fabric shops so I bought a table runner that was Christmas stock at Target, and cut it up. (we seem to have a very limited range of fabrics available to us in Australia). All edges were sealed with fray stopper, in period they used gums or wax, and then it was pinned into the dress and fitted while I had it on to get it to sit just right. The neck edgings were hand rolled hemmed and then trimmed with fresh water pearls and yellow carnelians, (the fresh water pearls were later removed and replaced with bloodstone). The skirt only has lining in the train, which I had to shorten from the one in Janet Arnold. The front at the "point" went in like a dream, where as all the other ladies apparently had quite some troubles with it.