I made this dress for Brigitte because the striped fabric reminded me of period paintings I’d seen. The smocking was an early attempt and I made an awful mistake with it, which I’ll talk about below. (I also made a very nice brustfleck to go with it, but that has gone missing, so I will have to make another one.)

I also made her a proper wulsthaube, the padded hat with the long wrapped veil. In period, it would have been “padded” with wrapped braids, but Brigitte has short hair, and it wasn’t unknown in period for women to use faux braids attached to the inside of the hat in order to augment their natural hair or lack thereof. The veil, which is wrapped over the padded hat, either hangs over the shoulder to show off fancy trim, or if it’s an ordinary day it gets wrapped around entirely and tucked in. Brigitte has lovely lace and tassels on hers, so it is showing.

As for the shift: I found some “rustic” fabric in a discount fabric store which was artificial, but linen-look at passed very well for that. I decided to make a shift with rows of smocking in the same red, green, and gold as the dress fabric, and I did, over the course of a couple of weeks. The original smocking came out very pretty, with a pattern making lines and triangles/diamonds. I smocked the cuffs with a honeycomb stitch, which stretches slightly.

However, I made one big mistake, which I’m reporting here so that you don’t make the same one! I had cut and sewn and smocked the dress pieces without pre-washing the fabric. When I washed it (because it was a little scratchy in places, and I wanted to make sure it would be completely soft for Brigitte, so I washed it with a fair amount of softener), it relaxed hugely. Like, I had never seen a piece of fabric go so loose so suddenly. It was certainly much softer, but it came out of the washer significantly larger in every direction (no, I didn’t put it in the dryer) and the smocking, which had been tight, was now very, very loose. The smocked neckline, which I’d thought I’d stitched quite tightly, was now enormously wide.

I salvaged the situation by sewing a band of tight cotton behind the neck smocking, gathering it up as I went. The nice pattern was rather ruined, but at least it worked as a shift again. The honeycomb smocking on the cuffs, whilst not looking nearly as neat, still functioned as it was supposed to, so I left it as it was. So yeah, wash the stuff. Even if you’re eager to dive into the good part. You never know what a fabric is going to do when it’s put into soap and water, especially weird artificial fabrics which could be made of anything.