So for all historical clothing, you need to work from the inside out. The support layer of this outfit will be a black wool kirtle.

I actually started patterning this 2 months ago, but since I don’t like making patterns, it took me until now to get something I like.

Similar to my Venetian dress, I put my Elizabethan bodies on my dress form, and got to draping. (No, the dress form still isn’t really me-shaped). Unlike most draping, instead of putting the straight grain on the bust and smoothing it out to the sides, I put the straight grain on the side, and smoothed out to the front, which creates a slight curve over the bust. All credit for this idea goes to Kimiko’s dress diaries.

As usual, when I took it off the dress form, it was not good. The front was too low, my bosom was not supported, and I always have issues with straps falling off. Over the course of several mockups I raised the top, pinched in the front, raised the back V, and tried to move the straps in.

I finally ended up with something that I think fits:

I cut out my fashion fabric, interlining (2 layers of heavy linen), and lining.

And progress so far – I’ve basted the front interlinings together, and whipped the fashion fabric to the interlinings so they don’t shift around. All hand sewn.

(Can you see the mistake here? I wanted extra wool on the inside where I planned to sew eyelets. Except this is supposed to be a side lacing kirtle, and the extra wool is on the front. And I didn’t cut any extra wool for the back pieces. I decided not to recut the wool, and hope for the best).