centuriessewing

Nicolas_de_Neufchâtel – Susanna Stefan (died 1594), wife of Wolff Furter (1538? – 1594) of Nuremberg, National Gallery London

I have a confession to make, I am not a huge fan of pink. It is a fine color and I can wear it without looking ill but in my day-to-day life it is rather absent.

Yet a great deal of my costumes and historical clothing however are pink. I didn’t really notice it at first, until someone suggested that I should make the pink gown in the Neufchatel painting.

Then I noticed, I did have at least 3 or 4 gowns that were pink. Be it by fate, or accident, of the by-product of digging through the clearance rack and looking for something useable.

I’ve found silk on sale, it was pink, I found a linen blend that was pink. I also managed to some how color match the linen to wool bought half a year later from a different store. I’ve tossed tables cloths and tan fabric into a scarlet and wine dye bath and they too all ended up some shade of pink.

Rose, Salmon, Cranberry, Azalea, Raspberry. Or more Elizabethan names, Maiden’s Blush, Carnation, Lusty Gallant.

The color is haunting me or hunting me with every project I make.

I resisted at first, maybe I could make it in a different color? Yet most of the fabric in my stash is already set aside for other projects, and I realized I picked up the perfect scrap of velvet for the gown trim a week ago.

I found a damaged silk blend sari for cheap, it should get here in a few weeks. Until then I have time to plan and plot. This is not my usual area of sewing, I usually stick to England and Spain. I’ve read a ton of dress diaries over the years so I know a few bits of terminology but I may get something things mixed up. I have a black velvet purse I could use for the bust band (brustfleck?) that has bullion embroidery on it, or I have a few other ideas on how to make something similar.

A few details from the painting: