This was my second attempt at a 12th-century bliaut. This time I wanted a silhouette more similar to the high court dresses depicted on the statues at the Cathedral of Chartres. In that case, the statues were carved to create the look of a horizontal rippled effect on the torso; this effect would be created by cutting the torso of the garment significantly longer than a person’s measurements allowing the extra fabric between the bust line and the hips to pool into “gathers”. The statues show laced closures on the sides of the torso using eyelets and a significant amount of fabric in the skirt. The sleeves were cut in a triangular shape that allowed for a draping effect.
I decided to use a purple rayon fabric that I had on hand for this dress. While the fabric is not appropriate to the time period, it has a wonderful weight and drape that I felt would meld nicely with the design. I used my original pattern draft for this dress as well and then fitted it more closely to my body after basting it together. My original intent was to close the sides of the dress using lacing and hand-stitched eyelets but time became a factor in finishing the dress and I opted to sew the torso sections together entirely. The dress is fitted tightly enough that the gathers in the torso are still quite evident.
The dress is currently finished with a commercially made trim at the neckline and arm seams; however, my plan is to embroider pieces to replace the trim at some point. The sleeves were lined in cotton quilting fabric with a print appropriate to the time. The dress was machine sewn; however, all of the seams were flat-felled by hand. The neck and hem were also all stitched by hand.
