Holly Jo Alford

Holly Jo created this kirtle and loose gown as a homage to the outfit worn by Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan in this Hans Holbein painting. You can see a picture of her kirtle here, and she also sent a back view of the gown as well. I love the fact that she made most of this outfit with free fabric, and I think she did a really fantastic job of recreating the look of the original portrait. You can read more about Holly Jo's sewing adventures below the picture, and you can contact her at Grubnerref(at)aol(dot)com.

Here's how it all started - I was trying to decide what picture to do for a portrait copying project when I was given an ucky old bedspread and a kinda kidding comment of "Here, we thought you could make something spectacular out of this."  (snicker, tee-hee) I took this tone to mean a sort of gauntlet had been thrown down, "O.K., I'll try." and betook myself off with packrat glee!  I washed the thing and had to dye it back to its original chocolate brown (oops, don't use bleach!) the label only says "Queen" - go figure.  After preparing(yikes!) my mystery fabric I made a loose gown with lots of pleats and added big mutton chop looking sleeves.  I tried using a four piece collar configuration but couldn't make it work and had to go back to the one piece version, I did add a dip in the back of the collar for head/hair-do movement room.  I added faux-fur trim to the collar and front, but didn't like the color (too yellow) - I thrashed around with this for days, I used a marker and tried to make the fur "blend" more, I tried to dye the fur "redder", but decided I didn't want the coat to "bleed" (red dye, arrgh!) in the rain, so finally took all the fur off and went hunting for "redder" fur.  (In June! - incorporate duh factor!?! - and have to wait till October!)(And thank goodness my grandmother's mink wasn't the right color - or Nonee's mink  would have bit the dust.....!)

Next I started working on the dress - pretty straight forward loose gown/kirtle with high collar, and tiny ruff at neck, and a little longer ruff at the wrists.  I made the dress out of China twill (I think) and the upper sleeves are out of grey corduroy 'cause I ran out of the black! (This was a free project remember)  I made the ruffs out of white muslin and tacked them into the dress collar and sleeves.

I got back to the coat when the fall faux fur came back to the fabric stores (and it got less hot out!) I edged the front of the coat to make it look like its lined in fur and used tiny thin strips to stick out of the cuffs.  For the coat tie I braided two black silk(look) cords and one brown leather thong together.

Finally, on to the Hat - the "What the Hell is that thing on your head honey?" hat.  (My sister really hates the hat!)(Me too bud!)  I bought a hat at one of the marts (100% wool, can't be bad) - it was close - but looked like an English bobbie hat, needed poof or something!? I cut out a circle of felt (cheap acrylic felt, none of this expensive nice (matching/period) wool stuff for us!) gathered and stuffed it - poof! (Its still not right but it looks O.K., I guess....)