Medieval Dress Makeover

This was a panne velvet dress I made for Miss H 3 or 4 years ago. She has grown upwards...and even shrunk a little in the middle since then.I used McCalls pattern M4490.

We were headed to the Renaissance Faire but needed an update since it was too short, and had a stain on the front of the skirt.

Here's the finished piece.

The fabric store didn't carry the same color of purple panne. Fortunately, I had an extra piece of the purple fabric that had been a makeshift headpiece. I used it to make a front panel for the dress. I found a wide, bright, gold weave trim for the waist. The original dress has a blackened gold trim on the sleeve.The new trim was too shiny, so I went over it with a black sharpie marker. It turned out great. You wouldn't know the two different trims weren't from a coordinating collection.

The purple panel is stitched to the trim and dress, but the trim is left unstitched in the back for ease of getting into the gown. It can be tied in a knot in the back.

I didn't have enough of the purple fabric to add to the hem, and the dye lot on the cream panne wasn't right, so I chose a gold panne. I think it was the right choice. It pulls the gold color from the trims down to the hem and balances the look of the dress. Here are the three musketeers at the faire. Miss G, Master G,and Miss H. A jolly good time was had by all!