Pamela Papo

Pamela can be found wearing this lovely Spanish gown at the Silver Leaf Renaissance Festival and the Michigan Renaissance Festival where she plays the part of Lady Lucrezia Alvarez-Borja, Duchess of Valencia, Spain. She sent along a wonderful description of how she made her gown, which you can find below the picture. (I love it when we get all the gory construction details!) You can also check out addition pictures of this outfit in her photo album, and there are more pics of her other costumes and miscellaneous faire photos here. If you would like to contact Pamela, you can reach her at mizu_chan2000 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

In 2002, my best friend Laura, my mother, and I worked together on a court dress for me. I had found some gorgeous red-gold satin brocade, acanthus patterned fabric on eBay and just had to have it for garb (about 6 yards of fabric was used). Now, at this point, I didn't know much at all about sewing, my mother knew a bit more than I, and my friend had only sewn a few things (but was quite good at it!). I had bought pattern #8881 Simplicity (aka the "Shakespeare in Love" gown pattern) and wanted to make that, but resembling a Spanish Renaissance court gown.

Well, the gown followed the pattern when we cut out the pieces...but after that, we altered the heck out of it, making it more accurate than the pattern. We didn't use the bumroll pattern nor the one for the hoopskirt (already had both). In the pattern, it wanted the underskirt and overskirt to be pieced together, which we did not do. The underskirt has a 1/2 inch gathered elastic waistband. The overskirt has a 1 inch standing waistband with the skirt fabric gathered and sewn into it, and it laces closed with 2 small red grommets on each side. The overskirt is made of the red-gold acanthus fabric, and has 4 long rectangular panels (about 4-5 yards of fabric used). The underskirt has a forepart of red silk velvet, and the rest is cream baroque satin.

The bodice had the be the most difficult part to make. We followed the pattern except we did not include invisible snaps along the neckline for the partlet (didn't make the partlet), and we altered the back of the bodice so it laced up with small gold-toned grommets instead of using hook and eyes.

We did not use the sleeve pattern at all, and until last year it was sleeveless. Since the gown was finished, it has had some handbeading, trim on the overskirt, and two pairs of sleeves that tie onto the shoulders with grommets. All grommets on the entire outfit have been sewn over by hand in red thread. I am currently adding some trim to the underskirt forepart, and should have it done before Faire season begins again.