16th century German Gown                           page  1   2   3  
     I had been wanting to do something different then Elizabethan but still keeping in the same time era of my persona. Then I came upon something in QEWU. Arnold wrote how Queen Elizabeth would purchase (or be given) gowns from foreign lands. These gowns would then be duplicated by the English tailors who would usually put an "English" slant on the overall design. I decided to do a German style gown. I had problems finding a "pattern" for the bodice so I decided to do exactly what my persona would have done. I took a pattern from one of my regular gowns and altered it to look "German".
     I had an older Elizabethan gown that I had made when I really did not know what I was doing. The dark green velvet was too yummy to hang in the closet and never worn. I dismantled the old gown. added some new brocade and created an entirely new gown.  This is another thing that a lady living in Elizabeth's time would have done since fabrics were expensive. Arnold wrote in QEWU about Elizabeth sending her older gowns to get refurbished and reworked since the Queen did have a good sense of economy. 
     One of the household felines, Zert, decided that she *had* to be in the pictures.
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