I have seen many loose overgowns or coats, both in portraiture and on costumers. They made me think that it might be nice someday to make a loose gown to wear around camp as lazy garb when I am just not quite in the mood to lace up yet. But it wasn’t until I saw this image that I ramped up to “OMG, I MUST HAVE THIS!”. It didn’t hurt that I was in the middle of the 4th IRCC, which served as a nice motivator to get up and go make one now. So I got up and went to the fabric store.
A Venetian Villa, 1620. Found at the bottom of the Anea Files Venetian image gallery.
Unfortunately, the fabric store disappointed me. I really love this rich dark blue color, but they didn’t have any that was quite right. Instead, I walked out with some fairly pale blue, (silver with a hint of blue according to my husband) and a lovely orangey-red coral color for the lining, both of light and slightly stiff silk. I had some black ‘silk’ on hand to turn into narrow bias trim. I considered the gold color like the woman above, but I don’t think it would have worked as well against the light blue, not enough contrast. So I went for black instead. Armed with fabric, I started considering pattern.
Lucky for me, there’s Juan Alcega’s famous Tailoring book from 1589! Now of course that’s a Spanish author, mostly writing for the benefit of other tailors making Spanish style garments, but many of the garment shapes are fairly applicable to Italy, including the many loose gowns. I took pictures of most of the loose gown patterns and compared them digitally by making each pattern slightly transparent and laying them on top of each other. Lots of consistent things like how the center back seam tapers in a bit from neck to mid-back, the angle of the side seams, and the general shape of the sleeves. Minor differences on length and sleeve size, but not much.
My own pattern layout most closely resembles ‘Silk gown for a woman.’ I had bought fabric in several small lengths (yay clearance!) so I had to do a bit of extra piecing across the bottom of the back pieces. 
I didn’t quite get the angle across the bottom correct, it should have curved up a bit more as it approached the side seam. I didn’t realize that until it was all sewn up and turned inside out: I tried it on and noted that the center front and back were good, but the sides drooped and touched the floor, too long by about 1.5 inches. Good thing I noticed it when it was still easy to flip it back! Since I am on a time crunch, most of the unseen inside seams were machine sewn, and ironed flat. The four body pieces were bag lined. I don’t think that one of the silks will stretch significantly more than the other, since they feel like they are the same weight, weave, and content. Bag lining is always a bit of a risk because of one side stretching or shrinking, but I don’t think I’ll be tossing this in a washing machine any time soon, so it should be fine. I considered interfacing the collar, but impatience won and I set it into the neck without any stiffening element.
I love the way it looks so far! (And there’s the too-long side seams, before I fixed them.)
Lots of the swoopy Alcega style sleeves are split in the middle horizontally, but some are vertical, which I preferred for this project. I sewed the split first, then sewed the red and blue fabric second/third. I wasn’t sure if I would encounter the dreaded mobius sleeve, but it was just fine, and everything turned with all the seams facing the right direction. Exciting!
As I often do, I checked out lots of images to pick out a trim layout I liked. I decided to stick with the dark blue and gold Villa image up top, except with a bit more on the sleeves since hers are a little plain.
Many have trimmed tabs on the wrists, I decided to do trim that looks as if it’s tabs.
With the sleeves and body mostly trimmed, it’s time to work on putting them together. I want the shoulder wings to be made up of tabs, which is a fairly common shoulder treatment mentioned in Alcega’s tailoring book.
I made the tabs by creating a long tube of fabric, applying trim to both edges, and then cutting it up into the lengths I needed.
They are so flappy! I am thinking of sewing them together a bit at the edges on the underside, I think that might give them a nice consistent look. Now the sleeves are ready to be sewn in.
Oh noes! It’s doing a funny gaping thing and I don’t like it. :( It only looks sort of weird on the mannequin, but it’s definitely not right on me.
Boo! I fixed this by picking out the stitches for the top of the sleeve, and bringing it in by about an inch. 
This smoothed out the bump!
I finished the last of the unstitched bits of trim, and added a few more to the neck/collar area (not visible in the next couple pictures, but they are there on the final pictures).
Happy sleeves!
I am considering adding a black line down that center back seam, it’s looking a little empty right now. I really like the shoulder wings though!
I sort of wish I had made the sleeves a little longer, I think it might have hung a little nicer, both when the sleeves are being worn, and when they are left to hang down. Maybe next time!
I love how the ruffle and collar are playing so well together! Which is great, since I really didn’t do anything special to make that happen. Yay for lucky measurements!
Woosh! Since it’s made of light silk, it flaps about nicely as I walk.
For a bit more on the red underdress, check out the diary here.
When I first thought about making this, I considered making the front pieces narrow, so that it always falls open nicely. Some portraits almost look like that, but just as many are clearly full fronts, capable of closing in the front over the underdress. The major upside to this version is that I will be able to shrug this on over my shift on lazy camping mornings. I need to find more of those black frog closures though, so I can close it all the way when I want.
Someone on facebook asked me about yardage, and wouldn’t you know, I had no idea! So I went backwards, measuring the finished coat and drawing out the approximate layout I used. So as it turns out, I must have used about 3.5 yards/120 inches of fabric to make this. If I had used a pattern with a clear nap or directional pattern, I would have had to lay it out a good bit differently, otherwise have the pieces would have the pattern upside down :p
