My new grey/black 12th century dress is finally finished! :D

And surprise, surprise – I just managed to finish another 12th century dress! 🙂

Well, I admit it, I didn’t post much about my new 12th century dress project till now – only one short posting and that was all. But well, it was also just one of my “small” side projects which I took up or abandoned whenever I felt like it. “Just” some hand sewing in order to relax and to keep my hands busy…

I think it’s quite important to have small side projects like this. Projects which have no time frame or real importance and might not even work out. But projects like these can help to take one’s mind off things or provide some ease to eyes which just can’t make out any difference between the gold thread and the silk thread you are working with…

I admit it, I was not sure if this new 12th century dress project would actually work out or not. I never made such big maunches before and the basic dress looked quite sad and poor at first. But you know me, once I set my mind on something, I try to go the whole way. Well, I think I had still some hope at this point that the dress might work out somehow – not much hope but enough to keep me going…

Then I started to apply the black linen around the neckline and it was like the dress started to change before my eyes. It felt like the project was finally coming together. And the more embellishment I added, the more my initial dislike changed into excitement. I can’t tell you how great it felt when I finally put my new 12th century dress on and really liked what I saw in the mirror…

And thanks to a helpful husband, I also have some lovely pictures of my new 12th century dress which I can share with you:

And now let’s take a closer look at the dress – enjoy! 😀

As you can see on the picture above, I made again a slightly overlong dress. Though this fact won’t be very convenient for walking, as the front part of the dress has to be slightly lifted whenever I want to take a step, it provides the lovely waterfall like effect at the bottom which I love. And well, over the years I kinda got used to long dresses and it doesn’t bother me anymore… 🙂

The dress is also cut quite wide which makes the dress very comfortable. It is rather easy to get into the dress and out of it again. But as you can see on the picture above – the dress doesn’t actually appear that big. It seems like the body part is pulled down by the weight of the fabric at the bottom, which stretches the top and gives the dress a far more fitted appearance.

And now let’s take a look at a picture which reveals how long and big my maunches actually are:

…yeah, it can definitely be said that I used a lot of fabric for my new maunches…

…but I really like the effect all this extra fabric creates
whenever I pull the maunches up to my forearms…

…and best of all – all this extra fabric creates a very lovely effect on the backside:

…and well, I couldn’t help myself – I had to release my silly side… 😉

…and I wanted to see how the sleeves react when I start turning around…

Well, I really liked how the sleeves behaved in the air. 😀

And last but not least a picture of my back side with my arms up:

I think that the picture above gives a good idea of how wide I actually cut this dress. Normally I like my dresses very tightly fitted – tight but still wide enough so that I can work myself into the dress and out again without any lacing. Therefore it always takes some time when I dress or undress.

However, now, that I am getting older, I seem to embrace personal comfort more and more. Therefore I decided to give a more wide cut a chance and as you could see on the pictures above, I am quite pleased with the result. 🙂 

I hope yo enjoyed the pictures of my new grey/black 12th century dress. I have just one more posting about another side project which I want to show you and then I will continue my postings about how I created the rose embroidery for the hood project for my friend Elisenda. Stay tuned my friends… 🙂