Upcoming project nr 1; the German 16th century Ärmelrock

Portrait of Dorothea Meyer, née Kannengiesser
1516, by Hans Holbein the younger.

My version of this dress will be without the embroidery, but it will be red! This is the dress I plan to enter the Arts and Science-competition on Drachenwald Kingdom University in November, I am still in the process of doing more research (thanks again Katheryn , I highly recommend reading her documentation of a very similar dress), gathering materials and musing over how to make the bodice (one seam in the back, whole back-piece?).

As with most of my garb, I will sew it together on the sewingmachine and the finish it by hand. I am also planning to make my own hooks and eyes (with some help from my dear husband), and I'm quite excited about that! I know its silly, but as I stated before, I love learning new things and I do aspire for a more period look in this dress.

The red wool is laying there waiting, and really soon I will begin this project. I am a bit miffed that I couldn't afford more 100% wool for the black parts and had to settle for wool with some polyester, but on the otherhand it looks good enough and since its not the main fabric it wont be sweaty either. I wanted to line the bodice with grey linen, couldn't find any I liked so I went for black instead. The choice of a dark colour is just practical, unbleached or white linen tend to look really yucky after a while!

Another Holbein-painting, which I seem to have forgotten to write down when its painted, but you can see more of the cuffs.

The Knight, the girl and Death by Hans Baldung. One of few paintings where you get too see the backside of an Ärmelrock.

I plan to at least make the headwear to go with the dress, even if only the dress will be entered in the competition, I would love to make the chemise too, but then I need to get hold of the right fabric and learn both embroidery and smocking. Oh well, there is a time for that too!