Tutorial Medieval Gown Tutorial

raewhitewolf submitted a new tutorial:

Medieval Gown Tutorial Easy Clear step by step instructions & lots of pictures

Read more about this tutorial here...

 

Firstly please excuse my fuzzy photo's here, I'm having a bit of trouble standing still with my broken ankle.
Lay your doll out on the fabric, you want to have the fabric folded in half with the fold running down the centre of her back. This is because we are going to cut 2 identical pieces for the back of the overcoat, and this will make it quicker and easier to get them the same size.



Draw your outline from the inside of the shoulder by the neck, with a curve for the armhole, and then down along the side to the waist. leave 3/4 of an inch from the edge of your doll to your outline, as you see below. The skirt is going to flare out from the waist, so it will go sharply outward from here.....



like this........



as you see the hem of the skirt is not a straight line, it is going to hang down so you must cut it on an upward curve as you see above, just keep in mind you want the outward point to be the same length from the waist as it is to her foot, if you are unsure you can just check it with a tape measure before you cut. Now cut out along you outline....



Fold the skirt part over toward the centre, and again to check if it is all the right length, as you can see in my picture there are a few parts where it's slightly longer, so I will trim it



Trim so it's all the same length.....



now carefully cut along the fold of the fabric to separate the two back pieces.... it helps if you hold the fabric down with one hand and cut with the other to stop it from moving.



Now, again with the fabric folded in half (you don't have to do it this way, you can cut each piece one at a time, this just makes it quicker) You use one of the back pieces you have cut as a template and trace around it, with the straight edge to the fold, to create our front parts for the over coat....



The only difference here is we are going to add a dart to give it shape around the bust, so you trace to the armpit point, then mark a dart (that little inward triangle) you need to keep in mind as always if your doll has a big bust, your dart should be a bit bigger..........



Now cut around your outline, and along the fold to separate the two parts. At this point it's a good idea to lay one of the front pieces on the doll and check the size, you will then be able to see if your darts are in the right place, and if you have left enough allowance for the fabric to reach halfway around the doll's side where front and back pieces should meet. Also at this point I cut a curve for my neckline, and lay the piece on the doll again to see if the neckline will sit where I want it, or if I need to trim it again. Once I am happy with the neckline, I lay that piece on the other front piece to make sure I get the curve of the neckline matching on both front pieces, and trim the other one too.

 

Now we are going to cut the back gusset, this pattern calls for an extra piece in the middle of the back, To get an idea of the width this piece needs to be you can use one of you back side pieces as a bit of a template. I have drawn how the top of this piece should look, it's going to be behind the neck, so there needs to be a bit of a curve for the neck.



The bottom of the back gusset piece should be as long as the side pieces, but since it is not as wide, and joins between the 2 back side pieces, it doesn't need to have a big wide curved bottom, you can just mark the bottom in a straight line as you see here.....



This is how the top end of your back gusset should look, the sides are pretty much straight down, as indicated by the dotted line.



I tend to follow the sides of one of the side parts so I will know where the waist is, then from there it's a slight outward taper, you don't need to make the skirt of this piece very wide, but it's really up to you. I just go out a little and then almost straight down to the hem.



Then cut out across the top and down one side, you can see in the picture below how I just went out a little bit around the hip.



Now fold it in half and cut out the other side, this will make sure you get a symmetrical piece.






Now for the HOOD. I like a big full hood, and for the style of this outfit a big hood works best. You can see from the picture below how big the size of your hood pieces need to be in relation to your doll's head. You will need 2 hood pieces, so you can mark and cut with the fabric folded in half again if you like, or do them one at a time. Where the markings disappear behind the doll, you would just mark a straight line between the shoulders.



The arm on the front of the hood. I just wanted to explain this bit, it looks a bit odd, but this part we need to wrap the hood around the front and fold this bit in under the trim on the front of the over coat.



I just wanted to show you this is going to be the front of the hood, the way the doll is facing.






Now we need to mark out our trim for the front of the over coat. If you have some nice wide ribbon, you can use that instead and skip this part. lay the front piece of your over coat onto your contrasting fabric, you want to line it up with the straight edge of the front piece about 1" or 2.5cm in from the straight edge of the fabric.




Mark out as shown, the strip for the trim should be about 2" or 5cm wide and you want it to follow the curve of the neckline as shown. In this picture I mark the trim with the edge of the front piece in the centre of the piece I am marking out, then I mark the width I want at the top and bottom, and mark around the curve as shown, then I take the black piece away and freehand the line from the top following the curve around, and down to the bottom. The reason this piece is longer at the top is to give an allowance for across the back/ behind the neck, just make sure to leave some extra length at the top like this, and you can check it against the back parts once you have them sewn together, and adjust the length to fit at that stage.



Cut out your strip for trim.

 

Lay the strip you cut out on the fabric, you can pin it in place if you need to.



Now cut out your second trim piece for the front of the over coat.







THE SLEEVES Lay the doll on the main fabric with the arm straight out. Now draw a straight line at the shoulder, this will be the width of the sleeve where it attaches to the over coat. Draw down parallel with the arm to the elbow, then mark out a wide sweeping lower sleeve, it should look like the picture below.




Cut along the line at the shoulder, and cut out the one side you have marked, then fold it in half, and use it to cut the outline for the other side of the sleeve.



This is what you should get, one sleeve piece, now use it as a template to cut out the other sleeve.




When you have both your sleeves cut out, use the wide end of the sleeve to give you the length for the trim. Keep in mind you should cut the trim just a little bit longer than the sleeve each side to allow for joining the trim.




Now We will cut out the Under Dress. Lay the doll out on the fabric and mark out as you see in the picture below. The dotted line through the doll shows the curve you need to mark out to go over the bust of the doll.





Mark out around the side of the doll down to the waist, then widen it out to create another wide flared skirt. as we cut out one half and then fold it to cut the other half, it may be a good idea to make a mark on the other side of the doll so you know where to fold it to.




Cut out the one side, then fold it over, you don't have to worry about cutting the darts out yet.



Because my pictures make it a bit hard to see where the edge of the fabric is, I have marked it out.



This is what you should get.....



Once again, lay it on the doll and check that it is big enough, and that the front is high enough to cover the dolls boobies.

 

Once you are happy with the size and shape of the dress front, You can use it as a template to cut the back piece for the dress. Once that is done, take the front piece, fold it in half and cut out the darts like so.....




Now take the back piece, fold it in half and trim the top so that it is straight, the back piece does not have the outward curve in it that the front has, or darts. once the top is straight, with the piece still folded, cut a slit down the middle to just below the waist. You will need to keep in mind that if your doll has quite wide hips, you may need to make this opening a little longer.





Now the sleeves.... Again with the fabric folded, lay your doll out on the fabric with it's arm straight out. You will need to mark out a piece wide enough to wrap around the arm with a little extra width for the seam, and the length should be from the shoulder to just past the elbow.



Like this......




For the bottom half of the sleeve it should start at just above the elbow and go to midway up the hand. I am making the ends of my sleeve tapered, so they will sit with a slight point over the back of the hand, so I have angled the sides of that end like this......




Now I think we should go through all the parts for the outfit you should have them all cut out by now. These pictures show all the components for this outfit, and they should give you a good idea of how they should look. 2 Back pieces for the overcoat....



1 Back Gusset piece for the over coat......



2 overcoat front pieces, and the 2 strips for trim.....



The front and back pieces for the under dress.......



The front and back of the under dress again, with a strip for the trim, you don't have to cut a strip for the trim around the top of the under dress at this point, you can wait until you sew the front and back of the dress together, and that will give you a better idea of the length you will need, but if you want to cut all your pieces at once, you can just cut a longer strip, and fold the end in when you sew it in place. Remember all the strips for the trim are about 2" or 5cm wide.




2 sides of the over coat hood, with a strip for the hood trim, and 2 shorter strips for trim on the sleeves of the under dress, again you don't have to cut these strips for trim now, I just want you to understand all the bits you will need, and how they should look.



2 sleeves for the over coat, and 2 strips for the trim on the cuffs of the sleeves.....

 

2 Upper sleeves (black) and 2 lower sleeves for the under dress.



I've lost a picture I wanted to put here...sorry,

so I'll just have to explain it as well as I can.
Pin the back pieces of the overcoat to the back gusset piece, with the right sides together.

Remember we generally sew things inside out, so you must remember to keep the right side of the fabric to the inside.

You want the straight sides of the back pieces pinned to either side of the gusset piece. Now take some ribbon, I'm using 3mm wide satin ribbon, and cut 10 pieces about 1" or 2 1/2cm long, these are going to be our tabs for the lacing in the back of the over coat. The 10 pieces will give us 5 tabs each side, you can have more, or less tabs if you like, but you should always have an odd number on each side for it to lace up nicely.




Carefully melt the ends of your ribbon tabs, this will keep them from fraying, I always seal the ends of all my ribbon this way.




Now mark out on the inside of the overcoat where you want your tabs to go, they should start just below the level of the doll's shoulders, so you can check it on your doll to get it right. When you have your marks, take the pins out, and fold each little tab in half, and pin it in place.




The marks will help you keep an even spacing, this bit is a little fiddly, but it's really not very difficult.



One side done.......




Now sew up that side of the overcoat back with a blanket stitch to edge it, then a running stitch in between your blanket stitches, this gives you a good strong fray resistant seam.....




Mark out, and pin in the tabs on the other side, but before you sew them in place, open up the overcoat and check that the tabs are in line with the first ones on the other side, and straight, you can adjust them if you need to.



Sew up the second side.
Now pin the shoulders , the side part should overlap the shoulder of the gusset part as shown........




Now sew the shoulders, and you have the back of your over coat.




Pin the front pieces to the back at the sides, and pin the shoulders. Now sew them together.




And you should have something looking like this......



Now you can lace up the back with some more of your ribbon.





Doesn't that look nice!

 

Now take the 2 trim strips for the front of the over coat and sew them together at the curved end, like this....Sorry I can't find the picture that goes here, if I find it I will update it.



Pin the trim to the front edge of the over coat, with the right sides together, like this.....




If you have trouble getting it even, you can start pinning it from the centre by putting the join of the trim in the centre of the back, and pinning outward from there. Now sew the trim on with a blanket stitch, and then go around again with a running stitch in between the blanket stitches, this will make the edges resistant to fraying.



Now carefully edge the rest of the trim piece with a blanket stitch. I am using a very delicate silk for my trims which frays like crazy, but a careful blanket stitch solves this problem. Now you should have something like this......




Now fold the trim over to the inside of the garment, there will now be a seam where you joined it to the over coat, pin the trim to the inside of that seam. If your trim is very thin and delicate, you can cut a strip of a thicker fabric for reinforcing, and fold the trim over that so it will be sewn inside the trim and make it stronger.




I have decided to embroider my trim with a simple design. For those who would like to do the same I will add a short section to this tutorial at the end for this. Because my trim is thin and delicate, I have added the strip of white fabric to the inside as you see in the picture, this has reinforced my trim fabric, and given me something stronger to embroider on, as the silk would have been damaged if I had tried to embroider on that alone. If your trim fabric is strong, you won't need that extra strip in there, but for those of you who want to embroider, you will need to do that at this stage for every trim. In the picture below you can also see the inside of the seam that we are pinning the trim to, along where the red bit is joined to the over coat. If you have enough width on your trim, you can also fold the finished edge of the trim in under when you pin it so it won't be seen.




We're not going to sew the trim inside yet though, as we need to attach the hood before we do that.

The little arms at the front of the hood sit in under the trim strip as you can see on the picture below. So just pin the trim in place and set it aside while you work on the hood....




Pin the 2 sides of the hood together as you see in the picture below, and sew.




Now turn the hood right sides out and pin on the trim for the hood as you see below, as always with the right sides together. Sew the trim on, and then edge the rest of the trim strip with your blanket stitch.




Now fold the trim over to the inside of the hood, I fold the little finished edge in under on the hood to make it neater.
If you need you can add reinforcing, or embroidery at this stage.

Pin the trim to the seam on the inside of the hood, the same as you did for the over coat trim.




The inside seam we pin to.......




With reinforcing inside.......

 

Now, this is the trickiest part of the outfit (but it's not too bad so don't be worried) Take your finished hood, and the over coat. Un-pin the top part of the overcoat, around the collar area, and slip the bottom edge of the hood up under the over coat trim. You need to have the inside of the hood, and the inside of the overcoat facing inwards. Now pin the hood in place as you see in the picture below. If your hood is very large, you might want to make a couple of gathers in the hood as you pin, so it doesn't go too far down the front of the overcoat.




Now while the hood is pinned in place, you can try it on your doll to make sure the hood is sitting level on each side of the collar, and that it is not going to come too far down each side. You can adjust if you need to.




Check it with the hood up too, so you can see if it is going to sit right. (Mika has a big poofy wig on so it makes the hood look a bit tight) Once you are happy with the position of the hood, sew right the way around the overcoat trim, sewing the hood in place.





Now I stitch the top edge of the over coat trim to the hood around the collar. If you don't do this it will make the hood look funny, and it just gives the garment a much nicer finish. If you are making this on a sewing machine, you will still need to do this part by hand. If you carefully stitch along the very top edge of the trim, the stitches will be invisible.




Because I have a different coloured trim, I stitched the sides, where it was red on red fabric with red thread, and around the back of the hood with black thread, and you can't even see the stitching.




See, it just makes it look much nicer, and way more professional.




Take the trim strips for the sleeves of the over coat and pin the ends together. Sew the ends together, and finish the edge on one side with a blanket stitch.





Now pin the sleeves, right sides in and sew the sleeves like so....




Turn the sleeve right side out, and pull through the armhole in the over coat from the outside of the overcoat, toward the inside. pin the end of the sleeve around the inside of the armhole like so......




You want to line up the seam at the bottom of the sleeve, with the seam on the side of the overcoat in the armpit, as you see below.... Sometimes it helps if you keep your fingers in there when you pin and sew it.




Now sew the sleeve in place, and this is what you should have.....




Now do the other sleeve, again lining up the bottom seam of the sleeve with the armpit seam of the overcoat.

 

Okay so when you've got the seams lined up....






Pin the sleeve in place, and sew it in.




Now take your piece of trim, and pin it to the sleeve, right sides together, like so.....





Sew the trims on the sleeves. Below is a picture of the sleeves with the trim sewn on, and the reinforcing in place before I embroider and fold the trim in.




When you're ready fold the trim in to the inside, and pin like so......





if you like you can fold the finished edges under. Now sew the inside of the trim in place. Now your Overcoat is finished! Yay you!







Now for the Under Dress....


Take the front piece of the under dress, and pin and sew the darts. If you are doing this on a sewing machine, it's still best to do the darts by hand.




Now I want a bit of a heart shaped neckline for the under dress, so I fold the front piece in half and trim like so....





I trim a little bit of an angle on it, if you want a gentle curve to the neckline trim a little, if you want a more dramatic neckline, trim a more steep angle.




Unfolded, now you can see the shape of the neckline. The neckline is very low at this point, because we're going to add trim to it which will give it some more height.




Now pin the front and back pieces of the under dress together, with the right sides facing in, and sew up the sides.




Now turn the under dress right side out, and pin the trim to the top, with the right sides together.

 

From the inside. I have folded the ends in as I had some extra length. Now sew your trim on.




Now fold the trim to the inside and pin. When you are happy with it, sew it down.






THE SLEEVES!

take your upper and lower sleeve pieces and pin them together with the right sides in. Now sew them.






Now pin the sleeves down the side with the right side in like this.....




Because I have 2 different colours of fabric on my sleeve, I sew each half separately with the right colour thread.




So sew down the side of the lower half and then edge around the cuff carefully with a blanket stitch.




Now before you sew the whole sleeve there are a couple of things to consider. Firstly, if you have a doll with quite large hands, and you can't take the hands off to dress it, you might want to consider how you will get the sleeves on. One way is to cut your sleeves wider so the hands will go through. The other way is to cut the upper half of the sleeve wider, or with a stretch fabric, and to just leave the side seam on the rest of the sleeve open. If you leave it open you can always just bind the sleeve to the arm with a ribbon like this.....






Or with a contrasting ribbon like the one in the picture below. It looks nice, and you won't be able to see that the sleeve is not all sewn closed.




But for me I'm going to sew the whole side of the sleeve closed. So I'm sewing up the side of the black part on both sleeves.




Sorry I'm jumping back and forth a bit.
Take the under dress, put it on the doll, and check the fit at the back. We need to work out where the 2 sides should meet in the back, and fold the edges of the back opening inside, and pin them so the 2 sides just touch, as you see in the picture below.






Now I cut 2 pieces of leather to go inside those back folds, they will probably be a triangle shape, but you will need to cut them to whatever the shape of the bit you folded inside is. Now I sew the leather piece to the edge of the opening, on the inside of course.






Both of the leather pieces sewn in the back, one on each side of the opening.

 

Now fold the leather piece over, so it looks completely covered, and sew it down.
Do the same for the other side.

These pieces will create a very strong base to run the ribbon lacing through to close the back of the dress.




Now with a couple of big needles, sew the ribbon through the leather on either side of the opening, to create the lacing for the back of the dress. You should always make sure that you finish with the ribbons coming to the outside as you see below.




Now your dress is just about finished!




And should be fitting nicely!
Now if you like you can finish the bottom edges of the dress and overcoat with a blanket stitch.




Now if you haven't already cut your trim pieces for the tops of the sleeves you can do this now.
The trim piece should be a little longer than the circumference of the shoulder end of the sleeve, this will allow for the seam.




Pin the ends together, and sew.




Finish the edges on both sides with a blanket stitch.




Pin the trim to the sleeve, about half an inch from the top of the sleeve. When you pin the trim, just tuck the finished edge in under so it can't be seen.

Now sew the trim on from the edge, put it on the dolls arm or over your finger while you sew it.




like this......




I folded the other side of the trim inside the sleeve, and then embroidered my trim which held it in place, but if you're not embroidering, just fold the trim inside and carefully sew it in. You should either sew it on the dolls arm, or with your finger shoved in there to stop it from being drawn in tighter at that end.




Now put the sleeves on your doll, and done!

If you want to you can join the sleeves to the dress, but it's much easier to dress the doll in an outfit with separate sleeves, and it looks like the sleeves are part of the dress anyway, doesn't it?




If you want lacing on the front of your overcoat, you can add some little tabs to the inside of the trim, but I didn't want them for my outfit.

 

Finished Gown!











I'll add some more pictures for the blanket stitch and embroidery soon. If you have any Questions, or suggestions for new tutorials, just let me know.

 

Barmy Bunny - You can thank Lanilu for that, she requested this tutorial, so it was her idea, I just make stuff and take pictures.
And you're welcome. Plus I love the quote in your signature

ate-your-kangaroo - I hope you will try it, and if you have any questions when you do I will be happy to help.

 

Lanilu - I would suggest when you sew to try and help your back, if you can sit at a table that's quite high, so you feel like a little kid sitting at a big table, that position helps me when my back is giving me grief.

Rosslyn - I actually wanted to make it in cotton or linen, in fact I suggest making it in natural fibre fabric, but I was in a bit of a hurry to get it under way for Lanilu, so I used what I had. Also I know it's not strictly Medieval, I do research most period outfits I make, but this was a request based on a full size human costume, which also was not strictly true to period, my aim with these tutorials really is to help people be able to make outfits as easily as possible which will not be too complicated for beginners, and reward them with something that looks really good, and is a versatile garment, i'm not trying to be puritanical, or perfectly historically accurate here. I will try and add some pictures over the next week or so, to show how I do this very basic embroidery for those who are brave enough to try that too.

elliedra - Thank you! it is actually quite a lot of work organizing a tutorial this detailed, so I'm glad you appreciate it
please feel free to share pictures of your outfit when you finish it too, I'd love to see it!

 

Yay nyxias, I hope you give it a try, But when you do don't use a stretch fabric like I did, it was a pain in the butt!
I know what you mean about all the started projects mocking you, I do that a lot too

 

Great! I am I check back frequently so if you need advice or help I am happy to answer questions.

 

Wow Catzilerella thank you, I put quite a lot of thought and time into these tutorials, but I'm afraid I can't take credit for this idea, it was a request.

 

Thank you I hope it will help people be able to learn to sew for their dolls without having to fork out more of their hard earned cash for patterns. I am hoping to try and make some new tutorials soon so if anyone has any ideas of something they'd like to see both for hand sewing or machine sewing, feel free to PM me and I'll try and get some tutorials put together for you guys.

 

Awwww thank you *hugs*

 

I have fixed the broken Image links, I apologize it took so long.

 

You guys are welcome^^
It just takes me ages to put these tutorials together, as there are so many step by step pictures.....I don't get as many done as I would like, but I'm glad you guys are finding them useful

 

Sorry guys I fixed the image links, it should be all good now

 

Sorry I have had to try and rescue all my pictures from photobucket and then upload them elsewhere so I can manually replace the images. Unfortunately this takes a great deal of time and my real life commitments mean it is taking me awhile to get all my tutorials repaired. I promise I will do my best to get this fixed as soon as possible.