1580s Pink Italian Working Class Gown

Completely hand-sewn gown based on the pink gown in Vincenzo Campi’s “Kitchen”

me in a pink 1580s Italian dress in a classroom

1580s Italian working class pink gown

woman standing in a field wearing a white chemise with large sleeves and a sleeveless square-necked pink linen dress, laced up the front

The “wearable” stage

front opening of a pink dress with 9 hand-sewn eyelets on each side of the opening

Eyelets

top of a pink dress with the neckline bound in a narrow hem tape and the center front opening bound in a wider hem tape

Bound hems

photo of pink linen fabric pinned for ironing into double-fold hem tape

Making hem tape

Two pieces of white fabric, shaped for a bodice, are pinned onto pink linen, waiting to be cut

Cutting bodice fabric

a rectangle of paper with folds taken out to narrow the lower edge and extra paper added to the top to create shoulder straps, mimicking the fabric to cover the side of a body

Paper mockup for pattern drafting