It's made from a lightweight silk and cotton blend satin (in her current preferred color: RED!). I interlined the skirt with a plain weave linen to give it more body. The bodice is interlined with cotton twill and lined with the same linen as the skirt. The hem of the skirt is edged with deep red petersham ribbon. I stitched two rows of narrow gold trim around the neckline.
The sash is made from a soft yellow-gold silk. I sewed a length of silk into a tube on the machine, turned and pressed it, then pleated each end and sewed on a tassel. I made the tassels from metallic gold thread and white silk and linen threads.
The bodice closes in back with hand-sewn eyelets and there is a bone on each side of the opening. I offset the eyelets for a spiral lacing.
The sleeves are made of two layers of blue-ish grey linen, trimmed with black petersham ribbon. The sleeves tie into the bodice; two lengths of black twill tape are sewn to the sleeve and a small brass ring is sewn to the bodice lining at the shoulder point.
Both the gown and the sleeves were patterned from diagrams in The Tudor Child, a super awesome book I highly recommend. Since my little one is a bit small for her age/height, I knew the 6-yo size pattern would be large on her, so didn't scale the pattern up exactly, but instead used the pictures as a guide to draw my own pattern to her measurements.
I have to confess I made the skirt a little skimpy because I was being cheap. It is gored smoothly in front and pleated in back.
I made everything mostly by machine, partly by hand, following the "no visible machine sewing" rule. So the main construction was done by machine and edges, linings, and eyelets were sewn by hand.
There is a petticoat of the same grey linen as the sleeves, trimmed with wider black petersham. The petticoat is just a rectangle, pleated all around, with a strip of wool batting in the pleats in the sides and back, to give a rounded shape. The petticoat is held up with two lengths of wide twill tape, sewn on like suspenders.
The shift details can be seen in this post. The cap is from her last costume. I made it when she was 3 and I am amazed it still sorta fit!
She loved her dress and enjoyed wearing it all day at the festival!
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