The Green Knight

I wanted to challenge myself with this project; so I drafted my own patterns, and did hand embroidery for the first time for both garments. The underdress I drafted used an existing dress from my closet, but I flared the skirt, lengthened it, added pockets, and moved the shoulder seam to my actual shoulder. I drafted the sleeves by watching tutorials on YouTube, and then modified them to be bishop sleeves. It was a simple dress to put together, and all interior seams were finished with pinking shears. I embroidered green roses – symbolizing masculine energy for the original character – and vines, then added gold beaded berries on the neckline.
To create the overdress I used YouTube to create a bodice block, then used mockups to make sure that it fit. I cut it to the shape I wanted on the mockup, then used that as pattern pieces to cut out the final fabric versions. The final bodice was bag-lined, but the armscye was finished by hand. The skirt was one folded piece of fabric cut in two and sewn together on either side with pockets inserted flat with ribbon supports connected to the waistline. Then the skirt was gathered by hand using two lines of parallel gathering stitches and sewn to the inside of the finished bodice. The spiral lacing eyelets were finished by hand. The embroidered flowers are: Stinking Hellbore for Chivalry, Sweet Fennel for Deceit, English Willow for Enchantment, and Hippomane Manciella for Falsehood.