Tudor Hiproll

My 'Mary Boleyn dress' needs a moderately sized hiproll to give it the correct silhouette. After a bit of research I decided to aim for the size commonly seen around the 1560s. I cut my pattern for this by first drawing a circle with a circumference measuring the same as my waist. From here I drafted in the shape of the hiproll, it's 3.5 inches wide narrowing to 2 inches at the ends. I also flattened the circle to an oval shape to better fit my figure.



Then I traced off a copy of the pattern and added seam allowance. Once cut out it's ready to lay on fabric.



This is how it's looking so far, i've bagged out the edges leaving one end open for stuffing.

The Gold Mary Boleyn dress in more detail.

I have been looking closely at the embellishment down the front of the dress. The intricate design looks as though it may have been appliqued on and then stitched around with gold thread. Then there are the sequins which are mostly a deep, blackish gold or mother of pearl worked over the design with the same gold thread. What's bugging me is that there also appear to be the occasional red, blue or green coloured sequins and i'm wondering if thats just because the camera flash is causing the mother of pearl to catch the light and throw out a vibrant colour.

After much deliberation I decided to have a go recreating the design using reverse applique. I sketched out the central motif and used tracing paper to ensure symmetry. My version is not identical but it's close enough so that i'm happy with it.




Luckily I had some gold fabric to hand which should suffice for the purpose of testing this out. I layered up my fabrics; gold fabric on top, my darker colour fabric underneath plus a layer of scrap cotton on the back for extra stability. Then I pinned a photocopy of the design to the front and its ready to sew.



I managed to stitch about half the design today and I will have another crack at it tomorrow.