The Renaissance Era Part 4

Hi Everyone! Welcome to Sewing A Renaissance Wardrobe Part 4 ~ Smocking the sleeves, discussing undergarments, and a sneak peek at an upcoming gown! 

 

 

With the collar finished and the gussets and side seams sewn up, we can
now turn our attention to the sleeves. Normally, a long sleeved smock would be finished with a neat little cuff that was often trimmed with a ruffle.

Ruffles were a practical addition to smocks that just happened to be decorative as well. They were designed to extended past the end of the garments sleeve and this soft puff of fabric not only protected the edge of the sleeve from wear and tear, but it also protected the skin from chaffing.

At this time in history, many of the fabric dyes and other fabric treatments were very caustic. As beautiful as these Renaissance era gowns were to look at they were horrendous to touch. Oh the things we do to ourselves for fashion! 

In this German Smocked Hemd, the sleeve is smocked at the wrist instead of being gathered into a cuff. The smocking cinched up the sleeve, much like a modern knit cuff, eliminating the need for buttons and a separate ruffle.

As with the collar, the first thing we need to do is prepare the bottom edge of the sleeve to make the grid for smocking.

It is easiest to do this before sewing up the side seams. In this case, turn the hem under along the bottom edge of the sleeve and press to crease. Don't hem it yet, that should be done after the seams are sewn. 

Mark the first row of dots 1/2” from the folded edge of each sleeve cuff at 1/4” intervals just as we did with the collar. 

Mark three more rows of dots 1/4” apart 1/4” above each successive
row. Because the sleeves are cut at an angle, take extra care to align the rows of dots to form a grid of squares.

Once the smock is sewn up, hem your sleeves.

If you didn't mark your grids before hemming you sleeves, you can mark them now. Start at the seamline and work your way around the bottom edge of the sleeve marking the four rows of grid as before. Because the sleeve can't lay flat, you will just need to do this in shorter intervals.

Starting at a dot just off the side of the seam on the first row of the grid, work an uneven running stitch around the sleeve. The last stitch should come out at the first stitch to close the circle.

Repeat this for each row on the grid.

Draw up the running stitches evenly around your finger to form a series of pleats. Gathering around your finger will give you room to work. Tie off the ends of the threads to secure.

Working from the bottom up, work the Honeycomb stitch* between the first two
rows of running stitches following the instructions in the second video from this series.

*If you need a refresher on the Honeycomb stitch, refer to Part 2 and the handouts.

Finish the row so that the last stitch comes out at the first stitch to close the circle.

Work the second and third rows of honeycomb stitches the same way, taking care to align each row of stitches to support the pattern.

The honeycomb works great for places where elasticity is needed because it creates a lot of stretch. 

Now, just hem the bottom edge and your 16th century smocked hemd is finished! 

It seems a shame to end our Renaissance Era historical series without touching on the fashionable clothing of the time. This was, after all, the beginning of high fashion. I have no intention of leaving you hanging and am working on some brand
new Renaissance Era gown designs for our upcoming Fairy Tale series.

I have been thinking long and hard about our fairy tale series and have enjoyed reading through some long forgotten versions of some of the more familiar fairy tales. The origins of any one fairy tale are difficult to trace because most of them were passed along orally, traveling from culture to culture, and evolving with each story teller. Many fairy tales date back thousands of years and variations of the stories can be found around the world.

Did you know there are over 340 known versions of Cinderella?

Besides the hundreds of variations throughout Europe, the oldest known version, Rhodopis, was an ancient Egyptian tale first written down by the Greek historian Strabo in the first century B.C. and another version, Ye Xian, was told in China as far back as 860 AD.

While researching this topic, I was reminded of a Cinderella movie that I
had watched as a young girl in the 1970s. It was quite different from the Disney version that we have become so familiar with.

Instead of a Fairy Godmother, the Cinderella in this story was given three magic nuts that hatched a beautiful outfits for her to wear on three different occasions she had to meet the prince. That was all I could remember about it, but I was still able to find it online and thoroughly enjoyed watching it again nearly 50 years later.

This movie was adapted from an old Czechoslavakian version of Cinderella and this is the fairy tale I have decided to base our first fairy tale princess series on. Because there are no set time periods for this fairy tale, I am going to set my version in the early 1500s so that we can carry our Renaissance topic over.

I'll be working hard on this over the next several weeks, in the meantime, I hope you take a little time to wander down memory lane with me and watch Three Nuts for Cinderella. See you then!

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